Christmas Morning

Awww Christmas morning.  I've always loved Christmas.  The visiting family, presents, food, and the magic that is always there.  I never thought that it could get better when I was a kid.  Man I was wrong!  There is nothing better then seeing that same magic that you experienced as a kid in the eyes of your kids.  It seriously is the best thing!  I LOVE Christmas!  Brantley was so excited and couldn't stop talking about how excited he was that Santa was coming and he got Lilley really excited about it too.  It was awesome!

I was so mad that I forgot my camera on Christmas Eve!  But, the kids got their PJ's and we all have a great time and had amazing food like always.  That night Brantley was so amped that I thought for sure that it was going to be a while tell he fell asleep but he kept telling himself that if he doesn't fall asleep Santa can't come.  So when he hit his pillow he was out!  We had everything wrapped so all we had to do is haul it all in and set it up and we were in bed by 11:30.  To bad the kids kept waking up all night!  Lilley woke up at 1 and 5 and Brantley woke up at 5:30 but we told him that he had to go back to bed cause Santa hadn't come yet.   Brantley finally came into our room for the last time at 6:30 and we kept him there trying to hold him back tell Lilley woke up but we ended up giving up and waking Lilley up at 7:00.  I just loved watching them.  Just amazing.  I am bummed though that for some reason my pictures didn't turn out the best.  I don't know why but a lot were kinda blurry.  Such a bummer!  But I did a few good ones. 

Santa Came!!

These were my project this year.  I made these little art desks! 

Right before heading out to see if Santa came

The haul all opened up.  Man they got spoiled!!!!

Lilley's stash

And Brantley's

Next will be Christmas morning at the Grandma and Grandpa's houses.....Coming soon.  :-)

Family Fun

The other night we built a ginger bread house.  The kids worked really well together and did a great job at building it.  It's so much fun doing all of these different activities with the kids now that they are both old enough to really do them and enjoy it.  All I had to do is the icing but they told me where and how.  Such a great night!

Cheesing for the camera in the middle of decorating

Working together...LOVE IT!

The finished product

Goofs!!!  :-)

Buddy

Meet Buddy our family elf.  Isn't he cute?  I was planning on starting the elf on the shelf tradition this year and was about to order the book and elf when I ran into this little guy at Real Deals and fell in love.  I just thought that he was so cute!!  So we got this elf on the shelf instead of the more traditional one.  The kids have had sooo much fun with this!  The have had a blast waking up trying to find him every morning and I've had some fun with finding some where to hid him.  He's sat in the tree, "admired" the Lego advent calendar, Hung on for dear life on Brantley's book bag (he really wanted to go to school with him for what Brantley says), rocked in Lilley's rocking chair, hung out on the stocking holders, had a marshmallow fight and made a BIG mess that Lilley had a blast cleaning up by eating them all, took a spin in Brantley's remote control Jeep and some other things.  Besides the waking up early EVERY morning he has been a joy to have.  We love him! 

Entry Way

So I finally got all of our family pictures hung up in our entry way.  I got to say I LOVE it!  Every time I walk by it makes me smile.  The canvas pictures I did!  I'm pretty proud of myself but I've got to say it was pretty easy to do.  I would have never thought that you could do it if it wasn't for pintrest.  Such a great web site.  And it only cost me $15 for all three and if I were to order them it would have been $25 each.  Saving money just makes me love it even more.  :-)

Close up of one of the canvas's. 



Decking the Halls!

So can I just tell you how much I LOVE Christmas time?  I love everything about it!  From the decorating, the total excitement of crazy kids, giving and lots of family time. I never decorate for any other holiday but Christmas and I go all out for it.  I thought that I would document what my house looks like during Christmas.  The kids had so much time decorating with me and I've got to say they did a great job.   

I just love my village! It's by far my favorite decoration. I was sooo sad when Mervyns was closed cause they were the only ones that carried my village. So I can't add to it every year but it is good size so it will do.

 

This is our advent calendar this year!  I didn't want to do the typical candy one again so I found this Lego's one and I'm hoping they will like it more.  So far so good!!

So we don't have a fireplace to hang the stockings up on so I came up with this idea of sticking the hangers on the wall a few years ago and I just love it!! 



This is Santa's plate that gets cookies and milk Christmas Eve