Christmas

Coming down Christmas morning in the jammies they opened on Christmas Eve.  The girls had a Peanuts them and the boys had a Star Wars them.  I bought them online and didn't realize Thad's jammies were actually Halloween until they arrived.  I was too lazy to return them.  Welcome to my crazy pregnant life.

Santa came!!!!

I can't believe how happy the kids were getting their beanie boos and mini beanie boos.  I told Ben the kids probably would have been happy if we would have just given them a bunch of beanie boos for Christmas.

As a kid, my sisters and I would make signs with our names on them so that Santa would know where to leave our presents.  That way we wouldn't confuse our gifts with someone else's.  The kids made their own little signs and Lily added a sweet little note to Santa.

Skyler's starting to question Santa's existence and it's killing me a little bit.  Lily still 100% believes.  It'll be strange if we have to explain things to Skyler before Lily.

It's nice when you've finally gotten to the point in adulthood where you can ask for presents you want and not necessarily things you need.  This year I asked my parents for a specific tea set.  I love it.  Naturally we made my favorite Very Cherry Berry tea during Christmas lunch.  For breakfast we had breakfast casserole with fruit.  Someone in the family who happens to be pregnant thought that the idea of breakfast casserole on a croissant sounded like an ideal breakfast sandwich.  It did not disappoint.  For lunch we had avocado, bacon, and tomato sandwiches on croissants -- one of our favorites.

The kids have been asking for us to throw them a gender reveal party since before I was even pregnant.  They have been on a long journey with us through all these pregnancies and still ask me on an almost daily basis if the baby is still alive in my tummy.  I think all these miscarriages have really made them appreciate the idea of having a baby.  We made them go on a hunt around the house for clues as to where the gender reveal gifts were.  Here is the video of the reveal.

The Nativity

My mom really wanted a special nativity this year and so she made a project out of putting together legit costumes.  

Joseph and Mary

Angel Gabriel, a shepherd, and his lamb.

Gabriel visits Mary

Mary and Joseph get married.

They go to Bethlehem to pay taxes while Mary rides a donkey.  Joseph's not sure how he feels about the whole situation.  He's probably exhausted from never getting a chance to ride the donkey...

Jesus was born and they wrapped him in swaddling clothes and lay him in a manger.

An angel visited the shepherds.

The shepherds visited Jesus and brought him a little pomeranian lamb on a leash as a gift.

Some very bearded wise men in the East saw a new star in the sky and knew that a king was born.

They brought gifts of plastic gold, real frankincense, and imaginary myrrh.  

Visiting Santa

I will never stop being thankful to live in a neighborhood where Santa comes to visit our club house each year.  I love being able to visit him for free, not have to drive far, and not have to brave crowds. Plus they have activities for the kids to do while you're waiting.  We waited for about 30 minutes before it was our turn.   

Thad wanted a his own scooter.

Ella wanted an American Girl trundle bed with doll.

Skyler wanted LEGOs.

Lily also wanted LEGOs and a beanie boo.

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving was a much needed break.  We celebrated a week early because Becca and Preston were going to be in NC that week anyway.  

It was a fun day with family and delicious food!  We have so much to be thankful for!

The Fair

 We hadn't been to the fair since Lily and Skyler were toddlers, so we felt it was time to go back now that all the kids were tall enough to go on the rides.  We had planned out a lot of the food we were going to try in advance and it was a fun day of riding rides and eating junk for 8 hours straight.  Sometimes you just need one of those days.

Lily was just a hair too tall to go on this ride.

Ella and Skyler have grown really close in the last year.  They often have "Ella and Skyler Days" in which they plan out activities that they do by themselves.  I really rubs Lily and Thad the wrong way but I think it's pretty sweet.

All the kids got onto the carousel by themselves but the horse was too tall for Thad to climb up himself.  He tried, failed, and I was starting to get worried.  But that dad behind him came the rescue.  He was even on a phone call and picked Thad up with one arm, got him steady on his horse, and just nodded at us like it was no big deal.  Thanks, random stranger!

Ella did ballet arms through the whole ride because of course she did.  She's Ella.

This is a really accurate picture of how I spent most of my day.  The fair in NC is always in mid-October and I have never been when it was actually warm.  That day it was in the high 70's and heat is one of the things that triggers one of my heart conditions.  So I sat for most of the day so that I wouldn't faint.  But we made it through 8 hours and so that was a huge success.  I had prayed so hard all week that my heart would let me make it a fun day for the kids.  And I had just enough stamina to walk from one ride to another without fainting.  That prayer was definitely answered.

One of our rules that day was that everyone had to try something outside of their comfort zone.  This was Skyler's.  But he handled it like a champ and overcame a lot of fears that day.  I was so proud of all of the kids, but especially Skyler.

The kids had been begging all day to play some of the games, but we kept telling them that it would be the last thing we did before leaving because guess who didn't want to carry all their prizes all day?  This mom.