Christmas Craziness

We started a new tradition this year for Christmas. Normally we go to my parents house for a few days surrounding Christmas, but with three little hooligans, we decided it was to the best interest to all parties involved that we spend Christmas Eve at our house.  It's hard to break traditions...it's hard to not spend the holidays surrounded by family...so whats the next best thing to do?!! Surround yourself with friends! That's right, since we couldn't celebrate at my parents, we invited 22 friends to join us for hor'dourves on Christmas Eve. We had the best time! I truly love entertaining, so this was a great excuse to bake and spend time with wonderful friends. I sadly didn't take any pictures (story of my life these days!), but I did capture a picture of the food table...I mean, the food was important, right?;) Actually, I took a picture of it so I can remember next year what I did for this year...yes, my memory is that bad...

Here's our yummy food table...

a view from the other corner...I'm beginning to drool again...

After our guests left, we all scooted off to church to celebrate the coming of the greatest gift given to us. We then decided to keep one of our family's Christmas Eve tradition...we went to dinner at McDonald's. Yes, we sure did;) Some traditions just can't be broken...mom...;)

After bathing the girls and trying to calm them down enough to get to sleep, I realized we hadn't taken a family picture...tomorrow, right? With all the kids finally snuggled under their covers and fast asleep, we were able to start setting up for Christmas.

Here's Andy working on the dollhouse for the girls. Oh man we couldn't wait until Alley and Kendall saw this! Alley wrote a letter a day to santa telling him she really wanted a doll house:)

The girls left santa some cookies, chocolate milk and the reindeer got puppy chow...which we decided should be called reindeer chow;)

this is the view Christmas morning before the girls got up

the moment the girls first saw their dollhouse...I love Alley's face:) and yes, we all got dressed before we came down...to my defense, we did it because we were going to be leaving pretty soon afterwards so we could get to Mimi and Papa's house. We have to travel over little Miss MC's nap time since she is not to fond of the carseat.

okay, sadly, this is the best picture I got...but, we had Jesus' birthday party before we started with the presents and santa...I mean, Jesus IS the reason we have Christmas....so we partied hard for Him:) And yes, the girls were super excited to have cake first thing in the morning! I won't lie, I was too;)

playing with their doll house while breakfast is being served

Kendall checking out her stocking...she still is a little confused about this whole Christmas thing...

We headed over to Mimi and Papa's house about midmorning and were able to see our relatives from New York (who we miss seeing thorough the year). It was different traveling on Christmas day, but I wouldn't trade time with family for anything!!

Alley just enthralled with her gift

chilling on her chair with her panda:)

Kendall "sitting" on her new chair...that's about how her sitting always looks. You won't catch her down for more than a second or two...she wears me out...

sweet, tired MC...sitting so pretty in her chair

MC telling John all about her day

what mom? Why are you looking at me??

The girls in their Christmas jammies...I think this is the best one we got...oh, the life of a mom with three little ones...

playing doctor on MC...I have no clue what they were doing...apparently when you tell them to smile and look at me, this is what happens...

I just realized, we didn't get a family photo at all...the whole Christmas...I am going to have to work on that one next year!!
I hope everyone had a wonderful and merry Christmas!!

Getting ready for Christmas

This week was Alley's last week of preschool before her Christmas break started. On their last day, the parents were invited to a Gingerbread house making party. All the kids got to wear their jammies to school (which thrilled Alley to death!) and then decorate their house.

Alley is super serious about putting the frosting on. 

the twins...soooo cute:)

little miss just hanging out on the floor. She's been rolling like crazy recently, but the hilarious part is that when she goes to roll over, she has to scream while she's doing it! Not like a cry scream, like a yell scream...it's too funny.

hello sweet thing:)

Okay, so my dining room has been a work in progress for about, oh, um, say 5 years....I know, I know...I've just had plenty of other things going on. This summer I finally found fabric I liked for the curtains and once that decision was made, everything started to fall into place and get done. I made the curtain panels this summer and just last week I started making slip covers for the chairs. See, our 2 seater kitchen table just isn't cutting it for a family of 5....Anyway, Here are the slip covers...I think they turned out pretty nice:) Please overlook the clutter on the table. I am preparing to have 22 people over to our house for a Christmas Eve party...so I've got everything laid out on the table.

I know, you're thinking, "What?!! Why would she make them white?! Is she crazy?!"...the answer is, Yes....and no. We all know that I am crazy, but that's another issue for another time;) And No, the slip-covers are made out of cheap sheets and white matched the decor. So there. If one of my incredibly neat children (note the dripping sarcasm here) spill and I can't seem to get the stain out...then I just toss it and make another. They literally took less than an hour to make...

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVE EVE:)

Behind

That's the story of my life right now...behind. I feel as though I am always trying to catch up. Everything is put on hold for when I can give it my attention. Of course, my attention right now is on what is important...my family. Here are a few snap shots of what our family has been up to recently.

the sister twins...man do they look so much alike! Andy and I found some pictures of Alley when she was MC's age and if we didn't know better, we would have thought they were MC.

about a week or two ago, Granny gave the girls a gingerbread house kit. The girls had so much fun decorating it:) Of course Kendall spent more time sneaking the candy then putting it on the house;) as she says it, "I neeky, neeky"

Andy helping out with the decorating

that might have been the only piece of Kendall's to have made it on the house

Alley had so much fun "designing" the decor

caught!!

hilarious, this is the best picture I had of the decorators...nobody looked at the camera or smiled at the same time...but, this is typically what goes on in our household...nobody is on the same page;)

if you walk into our house, you will be asked to read a story...these girls are passionate about reading and it sure makes my heart happy:)

big girl wanted in the camera action

Alley pretending she was Mary

This past weekend we al traveled to Richmond to celebrate my birthday and to have Alley participate in my prints church pageant. Mimi upholding the tradition of painting cookies...Alley was in heaven! She looooves this tradition.

working on the dough to make more cookies:) Day two of cookie making

getting in on the rolling action. She loved doing this special tradition with Mimi, all by herself:)

Kendall enjoying my birthday celebration...this girl sure likes cupcakes;)

the girls trying their hand at piano playing. They loooove music and will stop everything if they hear a song they like and they sing and dance like crazy. So mimi brought the piano out to the porch and the girls had at it:)

what a ham...she is NOT as innocent as she looks..."neeky, neeky"

a quick family photo...minus the youngest...I knew we were missing something;)

Kendall and her pockets. This girl is OBSESSED with pockets! Every morning, when she gets dressed, she asks for pockets. We pretty much have to walk around with a coat on if her outfit doesn't have pockets...what is it with pockets?! She imitating Mimi in this picture:)

I'm working on being more punctual with my posts and actually taking pictures...but I can't promise anything;)

A little late

I don't have much to say about the happenings in our household...a lot has been going on, but it's not really that blog-worthy (kinda mundane stuff). The run down, quickly....we are busy getting ready for Christmas and preparing our hearts for the arrival of our savior (yeah for advent and how it helps us prepare for Jesus), MC turned 4months and has started baby food...(this is my third, pardon me if I over-look the rice cereal...it's pointless anyway!), Alley and Kendall have really fallen in love with play-dough...we play it at LEAST once a day for over 30minutes, I've been sewing a ton and feel so far behind, and Andy has transitioned from football straight into basketball...I think we can make it until March;) Soooo, in a nutshell, that's what we've been up to. i will leave you with some random pictures from the past week or so...

MC eating applesauce for the first time

she is my first child to act like it's incredibly bitter. She would close her eyes and get a shiver whenever she ate it...of course she kept coming back for more (better yet, she would have a huge grin on her face after she'd take a bite and do her "shiver")

the girls showing off their Christmas dresses...I am in the process of trying to teach the girls how to smile...how in the heck do you do that??!!! this was the best of them all...

 here are our cheese-balls after their bath...aren't baths suppose to calm you down and get you ready for bed?! Not with these two!!

Happy Thanksgiving

Our house has been crazy over the past several weeks. I'm not sure we've even surfaced for air yet, but I know we are trying;) We jokingly call our family the circus (and if you know us well, then you know how true it is!). So, since we are already crazy and wild, why not have 13 people to our house for Thanksgiving?!...I mean, come on, any smart person would do that to themselves...right?!! HA! Actually, it fit our circus perfectly. The food was delicious (we fried our first turkey and we are ALL alive to say that it was fabulous!) and I must say, we were smart enough to decide Thanksgiving was going to be a potluck...whew, that definitely saved this ring master! We are still trying to collect ourselves and we hope we didn't scare anyone off by our antics, but we had a great day. 

HAPPY (belated) THANKSGIVING to everyone!!

our circus performers sitting down for a second

oh my, did I catch a sweet tender moment between all three?? Say it ain't so...

(it totally didn't last long!)

Sing sing sing

Alley absolutely looooves singing ( as does Kendall) and especially loves singing in the children's choir at my parents church. We were a little hesitant at first to let her go due to the fact it would require us to travel to Richmond most weekends...but it's actually worked out quite well for us. We haven't made it to every practice, but Alley has been able to learn the songs and learn all the other things they are teaching the young kids. I am actually really glad that we decided to do this. Alley has made some great new friends and she's learning so much about music, not just singing. This past Sunday, the children's choir had their first "performance" of the year. Alley had been talking about it for weeks and was so excited about it. I was secretly wondering if she'd even make it into the choir robe when she truly realized what they were expecting her to do. Alley is our reserved and shy child. I was pretty sure she wouldn't even go up front, let alone sing during church...boy did she prove me wrong!

HEre's the whole group practicing before church...yes, it was absolutely hilarious watching a bunch of 3-6 year olds singing (or staring at each other)

Alley making up her own words I'm sure;) She kept telling me the words to the song were "please me oh shepherd, please me..." - ooooookay

her best bud, Jack...Alley loves getting to see Jack at choir. Apparently they get a little out of hand sometimes and forget they are suppose to be listening during practice...I think I hear Andy cleaning his gun....

Alley all dressed and ready to perform

My sweet cherub;)

She did wonderful during the performance and sang the whole time. I can't say she got every word, but she did awesome for someone who only went to a few practices. Besides, someone had to blow kisses to Papa during the whole song;) Such a sweet loving little girl! I can't wait to see how it goes next time! Papa, get ready for some more kisses;)