first time pretzels

keeping our day of fun going, we made the soft pretzels we have planned on making every day. we just keep forgetting until it is too late to have enough time for the dough to rise. manning was more than just a little thrilled to be able to take a try and rolling out the dough.

and everyone enjoyed helping to eat them. love.

it gets even better

as if yesterday wasn't dreamy enough for the kids, today i took them to chuck e. cheese! we were there when it opened. and we weren't alone. i do find that the floor manager is extremely generous when they first open. i think he gave us at least 12 tokens and over 50 tickets - the kids were very grateful. we didn't stay for lunch, we just did the $25 for 125 tokens coupon and brought their 'free refill' cups for some lemonade.

waiting to go in...

i have posted this pose frequently, but it is their most favorite game. manning even went back to play with another family. :) they were kind enough to let him join them.

when it was time to follow chuck e. cheese, madelyn and mason anxiously waited at the front of the store for him to get there, manning and maddux were not quite as excited. maddux did go when the tickets were tossed though.

manning loves the 'ticket muncher' and every time he would get some off a machine, he would try to stuff them back inside.

two hours later i left with some tired, hungry and very happy kids!  love.

a perfect morning

well, the kids' idea of a "perfect morning"...  we stopped by the grocery store for a few items. now you might think that a trip to the grocery store wouldn't be on most kids "perfect morning" list, but our kids like going to the grocery store.  it helps that there is a child care area with crafts.  we were not going to be there long enough for that today (it was too early for it to be open anyway). as a 'treat' i let manning walk for the first time and madelyn carried a basket - they were both delighted. we were in and out in 15 minutes.  and then on to our prime destination - toys-r-us!

the kids had each received $25 for christmas from papa and nana and had a little more money from birthdays. we were there when it opened (as were several other families) and left over an hour later! the kids were relatively patient while taking turns shopping. i was having some trouble keeping track of all of their totals as they kept changing their minds and bringing me something new.  thank goodness for those pricing checker scanners throughout the store!

it was a really good lesson.  madelyn learned about tax (as she ended up $2 over the amount of money she had). i had explained about tax maddux wanted a toy that was $3 more than he had so i suggested he ask mason to loan him some money since the toy mason selected was less money than he had. mason, as always, was very generous and agreed to help maddux out. somehow it all worked out perfectly and they were able to pay for everything they selected.

then we picked up a quick snack from sonic (because toys-r-us took way longer than i anticipated) - corn dogs and tater tots - and headed over to playland!  we haven't been in a long time and the boys have been asking to go.  today was our last chance before madelyn went back to school. i was also hoping to wear manning out so that he might nap easily today.  he is the first one to ever blatantly laugh at me for trying to put him to bed.  he doesn't fight going to bed - that is the game.  he comes to open the door, when i come, he turns, laughing hysterical, and runs back into bed pulling the covers up over him. little stinker. and it worked. he went right to bed.

and the bigs and i spent the rest of the day playing with their new toys.  love.

maddux and legos

i am trying to take more videos because i seem to have stopped. here is maddux playing with mason's new lego set. he was the only one who thought that the guy needed a 'ride'. love.

family walk

after all these days of temperatures in the 30s or lower, today was going to reach 50. and sunny! (sun is super rare in this part of the country - especially in december.) we thought it was a great day for a walk.  we have not gotten to take many this year.  unfortunately.  so we were all pretty excited.  well, except for manning who screamed for about a mile of our walk.  he walked at first but much too slowly.  we were taking the walk to get lunch so we needed to pick up the pace a little - he did not want to.

after a yummy lunch we splurged on some hot chocolate and apple cider (and a coffee for daddy) from starbucks to warm us on our walk back.  it was a little cold on our way there but the sun was shining and it was warm enough to remove our coats.  but we still enjoyed our hot beverages throughly. madelyn and mason both agreed that madelyn was missing out by opting for hot chocolate instead of apple cider. we had ordered two venti sized orders to share.  we dumped the big boys' water out and filled their sippy cups with their beverage of choice. madelyn was allowed to drink her hot chocolate from the starbucks cup. i wish i had brought my camera. she was quite the sight in her puffy jacket with the 'fur' lined hood, sparkle headband, large pink sunglasses and venti starbucks cup. we passed another family and one of the kids were telling their father in disbelief that "she was really drinking a coffee!"

it was such a wonderful walk! there was very little whining other than the 'littles' the whole three miles. such a surprise blessing of warmth this winter and even better on a day where daddy was home too! we can't wait to be able to do more of this next year!  love.

amplification

big pop and grandma were looking for some ideas for the kids this christmas and i suggested that manning might like a microphone toy to carry around. they went one (or more) better with two microphones on a kid-friendly cd player.  

these pictures were before there were even batteries in it.  all four kids played with it for at least an hour and managed to give madelyn a bloody lip - before it was even working!

and then i put some batteries in today.  we learned two things - manning does not like to let the music play and the volume only controls the music, not the microphones.  the microphones only have one volume - loud!

one thing is for sure - everyone around here loves being heard!  thank you, big pop and grandma! love.

room shuffle

all of the kids have already been in a twin bed by the time they were manning's age. (mainly because we needed the crib!) so tonight we moved him into a toddler bed.  and since we were taking the crib apart, we decided to move it into the boys' room. manning has been in madelyn's room because she is gone during the day (for naps) and is a very heavy sleeper (so a newborn up all night wasn't going to bother her in the least - and didn't). but she has been counting down the minutes until she could have a "girl room".

the boys were all pretty excited about the arrangement!  maddux was a little too excited and kept trying to play with manning once we had everyone in bed for the night.  he was throwing toys into manning's bed.  surprisingly, when manning did walk over to our room (about 20 minutes after lights out), it was maddux who was the only one already asleep! 

manning only woke up once in the night.  he had woken up and tried to get out of bed.  but he got tangled up in his blanket and had just laid down on the floor without his lovey, which is why he was crying.  i just untangled him and he got right back into bed and went to sleep.

either just before we moved into the house or right after, we bought some poppy flower wall decals for madelyn's room.  her walls are light blue and her bathroom counter is red (her choice during building) so i thought we would go with a red accent in her bedroom and the flowers were perfect.  but we didn't want to put them on the wall until we had moved manning out and arranged her furniture in a more 'permanent' set up.  i think the flowers have been a large reason for her counting the minutes until manning was out!  it was the first thing she wanted done once the crib was gone.

while she has said that she misses manning in her room, she is pretty excited to have somewhere free of boys.  it will also be nice for her to go into her room for some quiet after school (manning is often still asleep when she gets home).

now we are trying to make plans for bunk beds in the boys' room - maybe this summer...  love.

homemade gifts

now that all of the gifts have been given, i can share some of our projects.

we made nativity candles for the grandparents. these were super easy and i think that they came out really well.  the kids draw with permanent markers on white tissue paper and use wax paper and a blow dryer to affix it to the candle.

for all of the 'specials' teachers (art, gym, school secretary, principal, etc.) we made pretzels and rolo candies.  i hadn't really planned on it but these were extra perfect because madelyn was able to do the whole thing almost by herself (i just put it in and out of the oven).  she was pretty pleased to be able to say that she made them.

for primary teachers we made hot chocolate snowmen.  these were great and the kids loved making them.  they really loved eating apple sauce out of baby food jars in preparation!  we also gave a few gift cards along with these.

i made a fairly simple scarf for my boss.

plain white gift bags turned out really cute with drawings and messages on plain note cards and red ribbon.

we love being able to make so many of our gifts. i hope the recipients liked them!  love.

new nativity set

madelyn was given a wood block painting set for christmas from her cousin, briana.  while manning was napping, i let her paint them.  she counted all of the pieces and decided that they could be a "jesus set".  she even let her brothers help her paint the pieces.  such a sweet little girl.  love.

the rest of christmas day

we spent the entire day in our pajamas and ate breakfast foods for every meal. (we never did a christmas dinner growing up because big pop worked on christmas.  we always had a huge breakfast together so breakfast equals christmas to me.)  we had cinnamon rolls and 'pop-tarts' for breakfast, omelets and hash browns for lunch and chocolate chip pancakes for dinner with jesus' birthday cake for dessert.

mason's dream camera required an sd card - which we had overlooked and will cost more than the camera - so i let him borrow mine so he could take some pictures. but he took all videos.  they are all still because he thought he was taking pictures. but this one is cute because you can see how he is trying to smile and wait for the camera to take a picture.

and they were arranging toys all over for their pictures too, but we just got videos.

i asked to give it a try and discovered the changed setting and showed him how it worked.  here are some pictures from his camera.

maddux thinks it is really funny to keep you from getting the picture you want.  so while he wore the mustaches for a bit, he did not want to have his picture taken - which he thinks is hysterical.

i discovered that the boys really don't have anywhere specific to keep their 'treasures' in their room (we will be working to fix this in the near future) and this is how maddux arranged his gifts at the foot of his bed.

we made some breakfast/snack cake and topped it with chocolate frosting to make it more birthday-y.  the idea was that we would eat it for breakfast but we never got to it until after dinner.  the kids picked a blue, glittery balloon candle for the cake and we sang "happy birthday" before they blew it out. the kids were the only ones to eat any because matt and i were in sweetness overload after chocolate chip pancakes for dinner!

and then we all got comfy for our first ever "family movie night" with our entire family! i was pretty surprised that manning picked a spot laying on the floor with the kids instead of with matt and i on the couch.  we watched "planes" that the kids had gotten for christmas. oddly enough, madelyn was the one who enjoyed it the most.  the boys might have just been too sugared up.

it was a pretty perfect christmas in my book.  love.

christmas morning!

we had a few early birds today.  maddux got up around 5am but went back to sleep in our bed.  i was just falling asleep when madelyn came in to ask if she could color.  sigh.  i guess i am getting up too.  manning was next at 7am and mason joined us around 7:30.  i had a few gifts that were not wrapped, mainly 'recycled' toys for manning that had been in storage.  a few fresh batteries and they were new to him!  i did remove all of the packaging from a lalaloopsie doll for madelyn too. like they say, the early bird gets the worm!

at 8am, once the cinnamon rolls were ready, i decided that it was time for daddy and maddux to get up and join us.  the kids and i read the last page in our veggie tales countdown to christmas book while daddy got his coffee.  and now it was time to get to business!  first were the stockings.

madelyn insisted on this face...

the big boys got puppets on a stick - they loved them in the store and loved them this morning.

matt and i found a duplicate tiara headband for madelyn at an outlet last month.  mason accidentally broke hers a few months ago and i didn't think we would be able to find a replacement.  you might say that she was happy.

her first set of "friends" legos after years of asking.

and then on to the presents.  the kids had so much fun shopping for each other and couldn't wait to give their gifts. there are some great expressions by the onlookers in these pictures too. (madelyn was extra beautiful and photogenic this morning!  i wish i could say the same for myself!)

daniel tiger from mason.

now that madelyn is a reader, we got her a real bible. it was quite an ordeal to figure out which one to buy! i wasn't familiar with most of the translations or they were targeted at teens/tweens. i am very happy with this niv - i think.

manning wrapped these new jammies around him like a scarf and wore them like that for a while.

maddux' dream calculator from manning.

boy lalaloopsies for mason and maddux so that they can play with madelyn.

manning making a 'call' on maddux' calculator/phone.

madelyn got the boys mustaches at her school store.

i thought madelyn hadn't made any christmas items at school and then unwrapped this today.

i took a picture with each kid and what they had bought me, but mason's wasn't great of either of us. mason got me a wristlet wallet/phone carrier and the silver beaded necklace i am wearing. madelyn got me a chocolate candle and a coffee mug she colored. and maddux picked out some fuzzy, knee-high orange socks for me.

manning brought me baby jesus.  thank you for the reminder, manning.

all madelyn wanted.

the local team changed their name and their color - perfect for maddux.

action figures from uncle derek saw a lot of action!

i love the shock on madelyn's face when mason finally got the camera he has been asking for these past two years.

mason had a gift from him to jesus wrapped under the tree.  how sweet (and true) is this?

and we didn't forget a little something for maggie either.

now it was time to move the party downstairs for some serious assembly and play.

we are so blessed this year (like most)! later today we will sing "happy birthday" to jesus and have some chocolate cake with a candle.  what a fun time of year to love on those we care about.  i have posted about some of our small acts this season and will share some more tomorrow (after all the gifts have been given). we want our kids to know the real reason we celebrate and how perfect the gift of Jesus was from God. love.