Christmas Tree Pictures

I absolutely love Christmas tree pictures.  They are always my favorite pictures of the year.

Hair Cuts

          The little guys hair was starting to get in his eyes, so we had to do a little trim.  I love his longer hair, so there was no way I was going to cut too much.  He was not too impressed, but did okay once I gave him a sucker.  After I got Isaac's finished, I decided to trim Ev's a little but to even the length up.  Unfortunately to do that I had to cut off like three inches.  No that it is done I am so sad about it.  I absolutely loved her long beautiful curly hair, and it is gone.  I know it will grow back, but that isn't helping right now.  :(

Before

After

Before

After

After

Making Christmas Ornaments

          The kids and I spent the afternoon making some Christmas ornaments.  Evelyn is looking forward to wrapping then up and giving them to some of her favorite people.

Evie's Ornaments

Close up of one of Evie's ornaments

Isaac's Ornaments

Close up of one of Isaac's ornaments

Giving

          Grandma and I decided this year that instead of exchanging names that our family should adopt a family in need for Christmas and buy them gifts instead.  Our family got matched up with a mom and her five kids the youngest of which is due this month.  Grandma & Papa decided to buy for the mom and each of the uncles and I took a child.  We got to buy for the baby girl who is due this month.  Evie, Isaac and I did the shopping.  Evie thought the baby needed everything we saw.  About half way through our trip Evie found a little stuffed doll that she wanted to get.  She asked if she could play with it until the baby came to live with us.  She was sad to hear that we were just giving the gifts to her and that wouldn't actually be joining our family.  Tonight we wrapped the presents so that we could send them with Uncle Bob-Bob tomorrow so he could take them to Grandma who will deliver them.

It's Beginning to Look a lot Like Christmas

          We were going to decorate our Christmas tree this weekend, but after wrapping presents for the family we adopted for Christmas, Ev and I decided we wanted to do it tonight.  The kids were very excited to get to wear their new special Christmas pajamas.  When Ev saw them she said, "Momma, they are just like Ella and Riley's. My Grandma will need a picture."

          We got the tree set up, the stockings hung and the nativity set out, but we will have to finish decorating the tree tomorrow.

          The kids found the book "The Night Before Christmas" that Papa recorded for them last year and have been listening to it over and over.  Isaac's eyes just light up and he gets a big smile on his face every time he hears Papa start reading.

First Snow of the Winter

          The kids were so excited to wake up this morning and see the light dusting of snow we got over night.  They hadn't even changed out of their pajamas yet and they already had found their boots and wanted to go out.  Isaac was liked walking around in it, but did not like how cold it was on his hands.  However, he did enjoy trying to eat some.

Visit to the Children's Museum

          A few months ago the kids and I joined a local mom's group.  They have 2-3 activities planned each week that we can attend.  Sometimes it is only a couple of kids at each event and sometimes there are ten or more.  Today we visited the children's museum with another mom and her two year old son.  The kids had a blast.  The museum is set up in an old school, so each classroom has a different theme.  It works great for keeping track of kids.  Isaac's favorite room was the ball room and Evie's favorite was the baby nursery.  On our way home we stopped for a lunch date at Panera.  Luckily, my children love it as much as I do (because their daddy does not).

Isaac's favorite part.  He went back and forth between this and the huge bucket of golf balls hundreds of times.

Evie was so excited to get to be a nurse just like her Grandma

We built this house ourselves.  It had a roof and everything when we were done.

Mr Isaac had hit his "must be touching mommy" time.

Home for Thanksgiving

          It was so nice to be able to have an extended trip home for Thanksgiving.  We went to Grandma & Papa's on Tuesday evening because Daddy had off Thursday and Friday and could work from home on Wednesday.  Wednesday evening we went to Great Grandma's house to spend the night.  Grandma, Papa, Uncle Kyle, Uncle Matthew, Auntie Maria, Ella and Riley also came up.  Thursday we got together with Grandma's family at the auditorium for Thanksgiving.  The kids had lots of fun running around with their cousins and some of Mommy's cousins.  We came back to Grandma & Papa's on Thursday evening and celebrated with a family game night (played Telestrations).  Maria and Mommy went to Target about 2 am for some Black Friday shopping and returned just in time to wake Daddy up so he and Mommy could go to Menards at 4 am to stand in line to get a few things when they opened at 6 am.  Friday night we all went out for pizza, before going to bed early for the night.  Saturday the kids spent some time with Grandma & Papa while Mommy & Daddy did a little Christmas shopping.  Matthew, Maria and the kids came back over that evening for another family game night (Buzz Word).   We headed back home early Sunday afternoon after mass and breakfast at Hy-Vee.

Thankfulness

My beautiful daughter Evelyn.  She is such an amazing little person.  I love watching her learn and figure things out.  She is such a caring sweet girl, yet completely crazy at the same time.  She makes me laugh like no one else can. 

 My sweet baby Isaac.  This little man has had a strong personality from a very young age.  I absolutely love his blonde hair and blue eyes and his smile melts my heart.  He is very much a Mommy's boy and there are very few things in this world that I love more than getting to rock him to sleep and kiss his little head. 

Learning to Love