December Part 3

I had to do a game for Chase's school party and found this idea and it was great. So I brought it to my parents to let the little kids do it. Chase was a tree and they had to decorate him. So silly@

Oh, Christmas Tree!

Buddies

Poor Jessy.

3 sort of happy girls wearing Christmas Tree shirts.

On Christmas Eve we did a talent show and Luke and Ty worked forever down in the basement on a Lego Santa sleigh and North Pole. pretty awesome!

They also did a performance of "Who's on first." cute!

We watched the story of the nativity and then Grandma Joyce handed out their jammies. She made them all BYU snuggy PJ's! Awesome! Not pictured is Eliza who pitched a fit b/c she didn't get dress jammies so we figured she was exhausted and put her to bed!

Christmas morning! Some excited kiddos!

All the grandkids attacking and hugging grandma.

Showing Jessy her new baby Ariel doll.

Chasey checking out his stocking.

Ty Ty.

Jack and Chase comparing Army toys.

Phil opening up our new camera! So excited and afraid of it!

Reagan and Eliza happy w/ their new toys.

Eliza the red-nosed reindeer. This was the gift Chase bought her at the school store. Funny!

Is she happy?!?!?

Ben gets another handgun. So tough.

For some reason my niece Kennedy asked for this horse head. It was hilarious!! 

you are killing me Kenners!

2 peas in a pod.

My mom just found the Birmingham Children's Museum. It was awesome! 

We went into one of those wind tunnels. It went just higher than Hurricane Sandy. This is apparently what I looked like standing outside watching that tree fall. except I was ticked. Just saying'.

Look at all that hair!

This was nuts. You ride this bike on a wire about 30 feet off the ground. Phil went on it and tilted from side to side. Weird!

A simulated tornado that you can stand in. Fun.

zipline-Chase and Ty said grandpa's is way funner. :)

I'd love to have a big water table one day. I love making all the dam's and locks.

This was sweet. You pull up on this ring and it forms a huge sudsy bubble around you. So cool!

life sized lite brite? Yes!

Back on the home front. Phil and I brought this stone angel that was lovingly given to us by a friend who just bought a house and didn't want her. Poor thing. So we drove her all of the way to Bama where she was decorated, hidden in strange places throughout the house and I think after we left my mom said the Mortensen's shot at it w/ the paint guns. 

This is on my parents bed. Luke and Ty helped me and we giggled and giggled.

I went to the bathroom one night and almost died when I found her on the toilet w/ a mullet!!!

I also went to bed one night and found her tucked in bed w/ my daughter. Freaked me out!

I left her in the tub for Dan to find. he he.

Phil ready to make the next move. It was great!

December Part 2

We always make a gingerbread house for Christmas-either a real gingerbread (purchased of course!) or graham cracker. And I have to admit I suck at making a frosting that works. we glue them w/ glue but the frosting is always too runny to keep the candy on. So it's frustrating. Then my friend told me her family tradition growing up of making a candy train out of Halloween leftover bite-sized candies. Brilliance! and my kids looooved it. Especially Chasey!

We went to Phil's moms house for some Christmas festivities. Phil wearing a very manly Clifford apron. Woo Woo! I shouldn't mock-he helped in the kitchen quite a bit!

I believe this is him carving the turkey. What the what?

My 3 cute kiddies!

Chase holding our nephew Brady. It's a toss up who has the biggest cheeks! so cute together!

They sat and snuggled for a long time. Brady is such a chill little guy.

We started Ty in piano lessons w/ a woman who does it as her job full time. It's been really good for Ty and with it came his first piano recital. The kids that take from her are absolutely amazing piano players! Ty had to do a solo piece memorized and then did a duet w/ his buddy Oakley. They played "The Little Drummer Boy" and did such a great job! it was fun to watch, although it was 2 hours long and I think 55 pieces were played! Wow!

Bringing in treats to school parties is becoming more and more difficult so I've been looking for alternatives. I found these cute reindeer for Chase's class and Ty's class could only have packaged kellog's rice kris pies treats so I put a Christmas bow on each and the class loved it! Thanks Pinterest!

Lucy and Eliza at their Holiday sing-a-long at Preschool. 

Christmas this year was with my family so we loaded up the van and drove on down to Alabama for a down-home kinda Christmas. This is about 30 mins. after arrival. The mullet makes an appearance. That's my man!

And then my dear, dear Chase. As soon as we got to my parents he shot out of the van like a rocket and went running up their front steps. He tripped and fell on his face knocking his front tooth out. Luckily it was a baby tooth, and luckily Ben is a dentist. So he got a quarter from the tooth fairy (who didn't come for days b/c she couldn't find him-woops) and coupled w/ the mullet is just too redneck for me!!

The zipline! We finally got Eliza to go on it!

All of the girls coddling her. Pretty cute.

Chase bugging her. Normal.

Happy with Daddy. Normal.

Traditional Dunlop Games done at the church. We had mazes to walk through, donuts to eat-good clean fun!!

Eat faster!!!

walking w/ the donuts was tricky. we were walking through a maze of chairs!

I didn't win. Those were some dense donuts!! Plus I was up to Kennedy's big mouth. :)

The traditional get a cookie off your forehead into your mouth. I suck at it. Luke rocks at it!