DreamWeaver

"And Mom & Dad can hardly wait for school to start again................."  I do not agree with that line in the song, I LOVE having the kids home.  They clean bathrooms and vacuum, we play Battleship and Uno, eat lazy pancake breakfasts while watching Little House on the Prairie (Season 4) and go through insane amounts of Hot Chocolate.

There has been so much Christmas fun but I am going to dedicate this post to what Santa brought.  As much as we are to focus on our Savior & His selfless sacrifice, there's of course still room to indulge in SANTA!!!

Ethan's main gifts were a light up skateboard and a razor scooter (found at a garage sale for $5, thank goodness it was blue).  He also got a soccer ball, a few Garfield and Calvin & Hobbs books (used bookstore) , candy and 2 Lego boards (not used, what gives Lego?  I love you but I can barely afford you!)

 Emry got a crazy contraption called a Go-Pro.  It's a sports camera that you can mount on a surfboard, skateboard and goes underwater.  Emry was hoping against hope this would be hers on Christmas day.

 That was her only Santa gift as it was a big one, although she did get candy and some books in her stocking.  My parents also gave her a (hand me down) Kindle.  She was shocked to say the least.....

And now we're at Lila.  Lila had the best gifts in the world.  I LOVE her gifts.  Lila's gifts were a labor of love.  I planned it all, and then made Glenn and my mom do all the hard work of course.

Glenn is an excellent carpenter and can pretty much make anything I think up or show him in a picture.  After he made the bed I took it to my mom's house and a day later we had this.

My mom has a stash of material in her garage so luckily I was able to pull all the material from there.  I also got an adorable armoire from Target for all of Caroline's clothes.  I also found a styling chair half off at a thrift store so put it all together and Lila's Christmas was just as sweet as can be.

Glenn & I didn't give each other gifts as he just got a truck and recently bought me a stairmaster and a fridge for our garage. But really, seeing the kids light up Christmas morning is the best fun of all.

Christmas Spirit

This.  Is.  Awesomeness!!!!!  I know I go on & on ad nauseum about how horribly shy I was growing up, but the fact is I was.  Add a whole bunch of insecurity in the mix and you pretty much get a disaster waiting to happen.  That is why it thrills me to no end that my kids are nothing like me (or how I used to be anyway).

This getup, it kills me.  It's spirit week at Emry's Junior High and today is dress as your favorite Christmas character.  Emry picked a Christmas Tree.  As I was pinning her costume on it was really itching her but she said "It's worth it for the fame".  Hahahahahahaha, Oh, I guess she'll be famous after today :)

Her first class is P.E. and I tried to explain how she could take her outfit off but she said she'll just put her P.E. clothes on over it.  Um, okay.  That will be a sight to see.

The point is she's having fun and no one is going to get in the way of that.  Bravo Emry.  Bravo.

Here's some random Christmas spirit-y pics.  Obviously Glenn and Lila haven't had the Christmas spirit.  Either that or I've been lazy with the camera.

Also a fun tradition we've started this year is Elf on the Shelf.  I thought it was lame but Glenn came home with one and it's actually so much fun!  The kids can't wait to wake up every morning and find Tiny Buddy Ron.  That's his name.  The kids couldn't agree on a name so we used all their suggestions.  It works.

Emry and I made the hat above for Monday's spirit day.  As with the Christmas tree outfit everything was purchased at the thrift store.  The snowman on top of her hat actually bounced all around.   Good times.

Didn't take any pics of the mountains of caramel corn I made, probably too busy eating it.  We woke up one morning to find that Tiny Buddy Ron ruined my puzzle.  But that's okay because I need to get this house in order as my sister and her family arrive in 3 days!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

I am so ready for the BEST Christmas ever.  I will be surrounded by my kids, Glenn, my 2 sisters, parents, brother in law, nieces, nephews, possibly 2 of my brothers and Brutus.  Nothing Better.