Christmas and New Year's

It's always magical to experience this time of year through Oliver's and Madelyn's eyes. 

Funny stories: 

One day I asked Maddie, "Whose birth do we celebrate on Christmas?" She said, "Baby Jesus, but am I getting presents?" I said, "Yes, that's something fun that we do, but the real meaning of Christmas is to remember Jesus's birth."  To which she said, "Yes, but I'm getting presents, right?" That's Maddie!

A friend of Oli's told him the Santa at the mall was not the real Santa, he was just Santa's helper. Oliver spoke to Santa at the Mall and asked him where his reindeer were. Santa told him they were on the roof. When we left the Mall Oli said, "Mom, I don't think that was the real Santa because he didn't say Ho, Ho, Ho." A few days later Oli asked if he could go visit Santa at the Mall again because he had a few more things he wanted to ask for. Then, two days before Christmas Oli asked if we knew Santa's telephone number because he wanted us to text Santa to ask for one more thing.  Hilarious!

Oliver's first letter to Santa. 

Oliver's classroom party.

Making a necklace for Maddie. 

 

Making and decorating stockings.

"Ice Skating" (with wax paper)

Maddie's Christmas event at Preschool. 

She is in the front row. 

( I forgot to take a photo of her and Santa, oops!)

This year we spent Christmas at home and we loved it!
The kids played all day and we relaxed all day.

 girly stuff...

Boys and their gadgets.

Trying out their scooters.

New Year's Eve at Madeira Beach (about 4 hours away) with family.

It wasn't 80 degree weather but we were happy to be at a beach!

We also celebrated my cousin's birthday.

Happy New Year!

A cold afternoon!

This year I waited too long to schedule a family photo session but I really wanted one good photo of the kids for our Christmas card. So on this cold afternoon I told them to go outside and play and as usual, I went a little crazy with my camera :)

Oliver found this leaf.

This was the winner!

Tae Kwon Do - Orange belt

Oliver moved up from a yellow belt to orange belt in Tae Kwon Do. 

This was right before he went in for testing.

A few days later... Ceremony

Little moments at home...

Although some little moments don't seem important, I know I will look back months and years from now and remember all the random things they were doing at home.

Pizza Night

Pretending they're Italian with the hand gestures...

A favorite hang out spot - 
Grandpa Hayden's old desk which is now Brian's desk.

See the foot?

Pretend Camping

I love it when they're busy for hours doing creative things. 

They set this up in our backyard. Notice the welcome mat.

Bugs in our backyard

Cute caterpillar...

A snail...
Unfortunately Oli stepped on it by mistake and asked,
"Mom what's that slimy stuff on the bottom of my foot?", Poor little snail.

Cool spider web...

Last week we watched the movie "Charlotte's Web" with the kids. It's one of my favorite movies. Last night a very busy spider worked all night to make a web that started on the roof of the house continued on to our car parked outside and across reaching the basketball hoop at the end of the yard. I wish I had a photo to show the entire length of the web. It was pretty amazing!