Finally Christmas Afternoon!!!!

We're rockin' now!!! W takes his brand new rocker for a ride!The kiddies are blessed to have grandmothers who each do unique handmade gifts. A's mom spent the last month with a paint brush in her hand every spare moment that she had...the results were worth the effort!
Each rocker was individualized for the grandchild - and the boys were in Oregon Duck green and yellow. Daddy was happy! Carolyn had looked up the meanings of their names, and did the design according to the meanings. Each chair also had a Bible verse for the child, that related to their name meaning as well. A lot of love and time went into each one of these.

The looks of delight were all Gram wanted to see! And the fact that they are getting lots and lots of use!

R's is NOT green and yellow, but a very feminine pink and purple, with a little extra detail and color! Absolutely adorable. And each chair has stuffed animals, and things that they play with in their lives painted on them to help the memories as well. Pretty special....

R is loving to "ock, ock, ock" all around the clock!

Christmas Morning

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care....in hopes that Saint Nicklaus soon would be there.....Stockings were the first order of the day Christmas morning. Mr. W was less then impressed for the first minute. You see, when Daddy and I were packing up stockings the night before, we weren't putting all of them in the same order, even though they all got the same stuff. So, B and R had M&M's at the top of their stocking. Mr. W had SOCKS!!!! He saw the other two pull out their M&M's, looked at the socks in the top of his, and the lower lip stuck out a mile!!!! He wouldn't even touch it!!!! Daddy and I were rolling on the floor! But finally, Daddy took pity on him, dug through and found his M&M's. Order was restored to the world. A smile replaced the pout, and he was ready to see what else was in there! After breakfast came presents. B was really into ripping the paper, one piece at a time!

Books were the order of the day for quite a bit. After all, these are my children! And I am happy to say, they seem to be enjoying all of them!

But what is Christmas without a truck for a little boy?!!!!! B opened his first....

Then W wouldn't rest until Daddy dug HIS truck out!!!! If you notice the boys feet, too. I found Crocs for them at Joann's on clearance. They didn't take them off all morning!


And if the boys get trucks, then R gets her first baby doll. She was thrilled, and kept taking the hat on and off, and it now gets carried all over the house, and must be in bed with her at night. It is so adorable to see her sleeping all curled around her doll!

And what is a baby doll, without a snuggly blanket to wrap her in? I finished this two days before Christmas - and it wasn't on my original "to do" list! Not too bad.

Daddy got a cordless drill for Christmas. Not worth a picture - plus, because of the snow, UPS didn't deliver it until the day after!!! Oops! But, he liked it anyway. What did I get? Well, stay tuned....

So, we still have Christmas afternoon to remember....coming soon!

Christmas Eve Sugar High!!!!

In our family, Christmas is split into three separate sections. Christmas Eve is with my family, Christmas morning for just the five of us, and Christmas Afternoon with A's family. We like it because we get to spend time with all of the family, and enjoy different traditions that we grew up with. This was the first year that the kids were actually "into" Christmas. one of the best traditions is handmade gifts, and Granny made all of her grandkids PJ's for Christmas Eve so that they would be cute opening gifts Christmas morning. Mommy likes that! So, Granny made the gifts, and Grandpa spent most of Christmas Eve sneaking the kids candy! So, by the time we got home, we had three kids that were an hour late for bed time, on a major sugar high! They were ready for Santa!

I'm not sure if Miss R. was more happy with her jammies, or the fact that she had so much candy. Either way, she looked pretty cute!

Mr. B wore off his sugar high exercising in his new pajamas. From the living room, to the kitchen, to the living room. He had quite a treadmill going!
Mr. W is my sleeper. Here he is, just waiting for Mom to pick him up and put him to bed! I was happy to oblige. After all, Santa still had work to do!!!

Stay tuned for Christmas morning and afternoon pics. There were just too many for one post!

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it SNOW!!!!

Here in very green Oregon, we are lucky to get a dusting of white once or twice during the winter. However, this winter is making up for it with a bang! As of this morning, we had 14 inches on the ground, a little ice in the middle, and most everyone is house bound! Yesterday, my SIL came over and took a family picture for us. We don't figure this will happen again until our kids have kids of their own - so we had to get the family pic!
And here, R and I are enjoying the moment! We prayed for a baby girl. We didn't pray that she would be opinionated and stubborn - but, oh boy, we got that in abundance. However, under all of that, she is a very sweet, and cuddly little girl, that I just love to be around! My DH would say that we got a little girl just like her Momma! Run and hide - another one like me on the loose! Of course, I can say with pride, that two of the things that fascinate her the most are books and yarn. I am doing something right!

Cabin Fever!

Here in the Pacific Northwest, cabin fever is catching. Why, you may ask? Well - that would be because of a foot plus of snow on the ground. That may not sound like much to the Midwest. But it is the inch and a half of ice on TOP of the snow that makes it a little dicier. So, the kids and I have been cooped up inside. So, what can we find to do indoors? First of all, R is turning into a little Daddy's girl. Here, they are cuddling!

B got inventive, and figured out how to reach light switches. He LOVES doing it while I am in the kitchen (other side of the wall) trying to do something - and wham! It goes dark on me. Then the giggles start!

And, we can help! The other night, they all got rags, and they cleaned up the floor after their dinner mess! R is so dainty, she had to be careful not to get her clothes dirty!

B found a particularly tough spot, and went over and over and over it!!!

W rolled up his sleeves and went right to work. He is a GREAT little helper. The other night, he started pulling pots and pans out of the dishwasher and put them away in the right cupboard! How cool is that! By the time we finished "helping" wash the floor - he had all three rags, and was still diligently scrubbing!

And here is WHY we have cabin fever. This was last night - before it turned to freezing rain! Notice the wheels of my Tahoe are half buried!


B thought it was absolutely amazing. You have to love the look of wonder and delight!

And W wants us to know where it is coming from!!!! We are going to have a White Christmas we think! Wow!!!! Merry Christmas!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!!!!

When 3 little munchkins arose this morning, there was a big surprise for them. The world had turned white while they slept! There was a lot of excitement at first...
but then their minds turned to more prosaic things - like breakfast!!!!

So, after being fortified with pancakes, we braved the cold (it is only 28degrees out - at 2 in the afternoon!) and headed out to check out the first snow fall of the babies!

W couldn't shake it off of his hands, and was very puzzled. I finally got him to eat it - didn't like that either! Not sure what this white, powdery stuff is!

B was giggling from the second he put BOTH hands in it! He liked the cold, and spent a lot of time running around making footprints in it!

My dainty little girl poked one finger in it, giggled, and stuck it in her mouth! Oh, did I say dainty? There was lots to explore, and explore they did - to the tune of lots of giggles and chuckles...

And then R realized it was COLD outside and wanted to go in. She wasn't shy about making her opinions known, either! So, inside we went. Daddy is feeling better, so we might try it again this afternoon. After all, this is Oregon, and we had better enjoy it while we got it!

And for inquiring minds - you know who you are! - that want to know how we are doing a Christmas tree with three little, adventurous ones running around - I present to you our Christmas tree. Notice the fact that it is only decorated three feet off the floor and up! That is how we are doing it! They are allowed to touch the lights - just not pull on them. So far, so good, knock on wood! From our house to yours - Merry, merry Christmas. And now, three babies are down for naps, so it is a good time to wrap gifts. Wish me luck as I make a list and check it thrice!

Getting there.....

I had five gifts left to make at the beginning of this weekend - I have managed to finish two of them! Like I said, I am getting there! This is a poncho/hat combo for one of my Cubbies - I love the way it turned out - and since her Mom happens to be my SIL and this is one of her favorite colors - I am ahead of the ball game!

Second poncho/hat combo for Cubbies. This little girl has made sure I know every week that purple is her favorite color - all of her pictures are colored in purple! So, I think she will like it.

This set is for one of A's cousins. She and her husband just adopted a little girl from Ethiopia, and I had the other two in process, so I finished this set in two days! The great news - all three sets were stash busters!!!! I didn't have to buy a thing. Yeah me!!!!

The BEST time of the year!!!!

When we woke up from our afternoon nap today, Mom and Dad had a GREAT surprise for us! There was a tree in our living room! And it had colored, blinking lights on it!R couldn't stop giggling and had a great time running around and around the tree, pausing to touch bulbs, admire, and run some more!

W wasn't too sure about it. It surprised us, because he has been the one that most loved the Christmas lights on the house! However, as A said - he was the one that was scared of grass! B just stood and stared, then used one finger to push at a bulb, giggle, and do it again. He was a giggling machine! He had a ball.Once W had spent some time on Daddy's lap, he warmed right up, and had a great time with the lights. Here, he is adjusting them to just the way he thinks they should hang.

Once we had admired the tree and had dinner, then we got to decorate the tree. W's turn....B's turn... Notice the little girl hanging on my leg....she definitely wanted her turn!R helped me with most of the tree - she was loving every second of it! She cried when it was over! I think I have a helper with decorating for holidays from now on! We also got out a few, unbreakable, decorations. R has already figured out how to turn on the Hallmark toy they got from Auntie Donna last year!
Just because she got it to turn on didn't mean that she wanted to share it, however!But once B had a turn, he was a happy boy! This is definitely the best time of the year - or so they think. We shall see what happens when we visit Santa for the first time! Stay tuned! I doubt the faces will be so happy!