Traditions

We started a fun one this year that I had found on Pinterest.  The idea was to have a mason jar in the kitchen and when the kids said or did something funny to write it down on a strip of paper and put it in the jar.  I did pretty good for a month or two, but lost steam.  I wish I had kept up with it because we opened up the jar as part of our New Year's celebration.  We got doughnuts for breakfast and opened the jar while we ate.  It was hilarious.  We've got some funny kids y'all.  Here are some of the highlights. 

Quintin (referring to somewhere we were going):
     "That's like that place we went to in Ohio-Marvin Gardens"

While watching a sailboat motor in the channel
     Mama:That sailboat does not have its sail up so how is it moving?
    Thea and Mareea in unison: Slow

While reading a book for school
     Mama: Landon, what do they mean by "game"
     Landon: It's like deer or cantaloupe.

Gideon has a round lithium battery in his mouth
     Daddy:Take that battery out of your mouth!
     Giddy: It's not a battery!
     Daddy: Yes, it is.
     Gideon: No, it's not.  It's a hash brown!

Thea:Only 2 more days till Saturday!!!
Mama: What's on Saturday?
Thea: (Thinks for a second)  I don't know.

Thea wanted to put pink streaks in her hair
     Daddy: I don't want you to have pink streaks in your hair
     Thea: What about blue?

Mama: Landon, your shirt is on backwards.
Landon: No it's not, my head is.

While reading God's Little Boy
     Mama: God's little boy is caring...God's little boy is kind...
     Ashton: God's little boy is buff

Mama: Giddy's skinny so I'm going to do what he does and see if it helps me lose weight.  I'm going to run around, tear stuff up, be over emotional about everything...
Dan: Well, you've got that one down

Mareea: If Quintin dies we're all going to have to do his chores

Out of the blue...
Landon: Do Navy SEALS even know what mini vans are?
Mama: uhhhhh

Mama: Mareea, do you want to go to the beach tomorrow?
(a look of horror crosses her face)
Mareea: What if one of my nails gets unpainted??

Dan smiles
Thea:You need braces.  Did you know that Daddy?  Because one of your teeth sticks out. 

Mareea: I don't want to go to sleep because I always have bad dreams about Mongolians.  (I have no idea where she even heard of Mongolians)

After church
     Ashton: Why are those offering plates so slippery?  I bed they oil them or something. 

After a week of rice and beans
     Mareea: Everyone put your hands in the middle.  Now yell, "pizza!"

Everyone is in the room and Mareea looks right at Q
Mareea: Quintin, do you know where my other heel shoe is??

Christmas Day Part 2

 Vangie learning to unwrap presents. 

 Ashton's "book" present. 

 Everyone with their book present.  

Thea: The Art Lesson and Ed Emberly's Thumb Print Book

Landon: Lego Play idea book and 2 of the Knight's Tales by Gerald Morris

Mareea: Fancy Nancy Mermaid Ballet and Princesses Are Not Quitters

Gideon: Bill and Pete Go Down the Nile and Harry McClary

Ashton: The Changeling Trilogy

Quintin: Bear Grilles something or other

Evaneline: Sheep on a Ship

 Everyone with the clothes present.

Mareea and Thea: Matching nightgowns for them and their dollies

Landon; Shirt "Stand Back, I'm going to try Science"  PERFECT for him

Gideon: PJ pants made by Mama

Evangeline: Nightgown made by mama

Ashton: shirt "It's OK, I'm a Ninja"  Another perfect shirt.  

Quintin: Old enough to want to shop for his own

 In this picture I am trying to capture the total shock and excitement of Q getting a Kindle Fire.  He had NO idea and never thought we would get him one.  He loves the games.  We love the parental controls.  win win

 Evangeline's "fun present" was a baby doll with a dress that matched hers.  I told her to give the baby a kiss and she made this face for me.  So sweet.  She loves this baby.  It may be a hand me down, head drawn on, well loved baby, but she doesn't care. 

 Gideon (and others) checking out the pirate ship.  It was a long wait to open that big box!

 Everyone with their fun present.

Q-Kindle Fire

A- Marble mat and Hobbit legos

L-Starship Enterprise Lego set

T-Ice cream and cupcake sand toy sets

M-dollhouse with people

G-Pirate ship

E-baby doll

 The aftermath

This year we did the ornament in the stocking, a book present, a clothing present and a fun present.  Less was definitely more.  We all had fun without any meltdowns.  Giddy did so good.  He patiently waiting his turn to open each present and sat so nicely instead of trying to run and grab things from under the tree like last year. 

Christmas Day Part 1

 Last year Christmas was crazy.  It was really, really intense so at the end of the day I made notes about how this year could go a little more smoothly.  One of the things I wrote was to put a Cliff Bar in the kids' stockings so they would not be hungry on top of excited.  It was really helpful!  We got up and opened stockings first.  Each child had a personalized ornament and bar inside.  Quintin's was one of my favorite.  It is so well made!  We plan on making the ornament/granola bar stocking a tradition. 

My AMAZING husband had woken up super early that morning and made cinnamon rolls and egg casserole and packed it all up.  After we did stockings we headed over to the Pali Lookout and hiked down to a flat area to eat.  It was so windy at first, but as we got further down it was fine.  The food was so good and we read the Christmas story from Luke 2 while seeing God's magnificent handiwork.  If you look way up in the pictures of the green mountains you can see Q and A hiking up.  They love this hike and asked to come back again the next week.  The night before we had told them that we were going to go to the Pali to eat so they would not be expecting to open presents right away.  No one complained and everyone had a great time.  "It's all about managing expectations" says my wise husband. 

Christmas Eve

I wanted so badly to get a good picture of the girls all dressed up for Christmas.  I even looked cute!  However, it was a little stressful once we got to church and we did not get one.  Here are my attempts before we headed out the door.  The service was really nice and the girls sang a beautiful song while doing sign language.  No pics of that...Evangeline was wanted to scream and run around that night for some reason!

 After church we came home and the kids opened up their "secret sibling" gifts.  They had been asking to open one thing on Christmas Eve and I thought this would be a fun tradition to start.  Each child picks another child's name earlier in the month and is responsible for doing jobs to earn $10-$15 to buy their secret sibling a gift.  Evangeline was asleep at this point! 

 Ashton stayed up to help put together Gideon's pirate ship.  When I showed Dan the ship on amazon and asked if he thought Giddy would like it he immediately said, "How hard is it to put together?"  LOL.  Thankfully reviewers had stated it was very easy so we went ahead and got it.  It's so much bigger than I expected though. 

And here is our tree right before we went to bed.  Notice the bare bottom half of the tree!  The presents went under the tree after the littles had gone upstairs.  Giddy has a hard time with not opening presents!  While at the BX food court I suddenly noticed he was missing and turned around in time to see him ripping the wrapping off of a cardboard box purely there for decoration.  I made Q go get him since I was so embarrassed.  I laughed pretty hard about it later though! 

Creating Again

 Here is a Pinterest inspired "read" sign that I now have hanging over out build in bookshelves in the living room.  Next time I would do a solid color underneath. 

 Canvas silhouettes that are now hanging in the girls' room.  I was actually pretty proud of these!  I painted the canvas the green color and let them dry.  After googling "ballet silhouette", I printed off the images on pink paper and cut them out.  Then I modge podged them on.  We're talking about making something similar for above Ashton's bed with a Viking ship. 

Poor Evangeline got her finger slammed in the door and had to go to the ER. They thought she might need stitches, but decided against it as it might cut off too much blood flow.  On the way home she ripped off the pretty bandage the tech had put on her and Mama had to do her best to re bandage and tape it.  After I finished we covered her with socks and taped them on.  It worked.  She was not impressed, however.  Within a few minutes she carried on like it didn't phase her though.  She was able to pick things up and everything.  It's so much better now, but she still favors it a little and will use her left hand to eat.  They say that's good for the brain! 

Working up to Christmas

This December we were blessed to be involved in a lot of special events.  Here are the girls after we went to see the Nutcracker with our very dear friends and neighbors.  Miss Nicole, the girls' ballet teacher, had discount tickets.  We plan on making this a new tradition. 

Gideon had his first Christmas program.  This one was through his preschool.  He ran out of line when he saw me to give me a big hug.  How loved a mama feels when that happens!!

While the other little ones sang he chewed on his jingle bells.  It was so funny.  He finally got into the last 3 lines of Jingle Bells when he saw me in the audience and I motioned to him to ring his bells with a big smile on my face. 

My bible study (PWOC) had a program with the kids' classes.  Ashton had a part in the play (I only have videos unfortunately), but Thea and Mareea sang.  Here's the only picture I got. 

Bible study had a Lady's Christmas Tea that night and each study decorated a table.  A sister in my study has a huge collection of Alvin and the Chipmunks Christmas decorations and she did a great job decorating for us.  I brought a boom box with batteries to play Chipmunk Christmas music under the table!  We won! 

Here are some of the sweet ladies I was privileged to meet and grow closer to the Lord with over the semester.  The woman on the far right was our "Titus 2" woman and I really enjoyed learning from her!  Our leader is the middle with the red shirt.  I just loved her.  Bible study was one of my biggest blessings this past year and I am just so thankful the Holy Spirit laid it on my heart to join since it is way out of my comfort zone personally and I normally don't like to put my kids in childcare.  The kids really liked there classes though!  They did crafts and learned a bible lesson.  PWOC is HUGE.  There were about 12 different studies and classrooms for each kid's age and a homeschool room for 2nd grade and up.  The childrens' teachers were some of the sweetest women and I am so thankful they gave up being in a study to come teach my children about the Lord and keep them safe while I was in worship, listening to testimonies, enjoying "cafe time" with other ladies and having a bible study. 

Before our tea we sang carols.  Isn't it awesome to babywear and play the violin at the same time??  I was impressed!

This is sweet Mareea at her preschool program.  They sang Joy to the World and The Reindeer Boogie. 

After the program we went to their classes for a party. 

Here is Ashton helping Mareea bead her candy cane.  I was watching Evangeline. 

Landon helped with the "tree" and cookie decorating. 

Kama'aina sisters.