Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve morning we spent cleaning up the house and taking baths and showers. Then the kids opened their Christmas jammies. Coleman was hoping they wouldn't be jammies this year. After that we went to my parents' house. 

Jackson didn't put on his pajamas right away this year. He folded them up nicely and brought them to my parent's house. He doesn't like to wear pajamas as much as he used to.

We had Jordan put up the snowflake on top of the tree.

This year the kids like to go to the light switch (that turns on our Christmas tree lights) and say "Is everybody ready?" Then they would flip on lights and say "ooh." I'm pretty sure they did because of Garfield's Christmas :)

The Crabtree's brought everyone's presents with the, so we opened them! They got my dad a saddle for when he plays with the kids. I wish I would have gotten a picture with is on him :) Kenzie got an Target brand American Girl doll.

Jordan got a knot game that he loves! Coleman got a fun dinosaur game that we played several times that afternoon.

Jackson got Minecraft legos.

We had our typical, delicious turkey and mashed potatoes dinner. There were 37 people there this year! 

After dinner we did the pinata.

The circle of chairs seemed really small this year. Jordan, Alli, and Jackson hid behind their chairs.

Alli broke part of it!

And Sam finished the job.

Then we did the Christmas story and sang songs.

Kenzie played Rudolph.

The boys played Frosty the Snowman.

Coleman pretended to play the organ.

Then Grandma wrestled with the kids. 

After that we went home and when to bed. The kids remembered to leave some cookies and water for Santa this year. Jordan also left him a note. It said something like "Dear Santa, Please write me back on the other side. Love Jordan." I thought it was a funny note.

Roller Skating

We went roller skating with the Crabtrees. I  actually skated this time, hoping that would get Coleman to skate too. He skated twice around and then was done. I brought him some magnet shape toys and he spent the rest of the time (about and hour and half) doing that. we also brought a friend for Jackson but he didn't end up liking to skate and played video games most of the time. Sam, Alli, Kenzie, Jackson, and Jordan, and I all won when we played the four corners game. It was pretty exciting!

Cam did so good for her first time skating. She even skated around without holding anyone's hand for awhile. 

Polar Express

Each year we give the kids a polar express ticket and then we go look at lights. Coleman had been really excited for us to this so I knew we couldn't skip it, even though the kids were pretty grumpy and fighting a lot the week before Christmas and I didn't want them staying up late because then they get grouchier. We usually put the tickets on their pillows and they find them as they are getting in bed. The kids all ran downstairs to play after dinner so we decided to put the tickets on the table to find before they had snack. That way we left by 7 and were home not too much later than 8 :)

Coleman was so excited and starting yelling and jumping around when he saw the tickets.

Doug punched holes in the their tickets.

Doug found a house in Maple Valley that has its lights go along with music. It was really cool, way better than I expected. It had a lot of songs and a snowman that sang some of the songs.The kids loved it too. A few of the them were kind of unhappy about "just going to look at Christmas lights" but they all ending loving it! 

Snowflake Lane

We went to Snowflake Lane with my parents and the Crabtrees. The Liechty's (Ashlee's friend and Doug's cousin) were there too. It was so crazy! There were so many people. We went to eat dinner at the mall before, like we always do, and everywhere, even McDonald's had a long line. We made it to where the Crabtree's and my parents were standing on the street just a couple minutes before it started.

We had the kids squeeze through all the people to get up in the front so they could see. My dad is the man with a grey jacket and a hat. You can also see Cam right in front of him, and Sam's friend, Jordan, with blonde hair, to the left of him.

Kenzie was sad because we didn't get any suckers :(

Igloos and Sugar Cookies

The kids made igloos with Ashlee's frosting glue and the sugar cubes. The frosting worked so much better than real glue.

Alli spent the day with us (even going to the dentist for about 2 hours:)) She and Jack worked together to make theirs because they wanted it to be bigger!

Jordan made 2. The tall one that kind of the looks like the Eiffel Tower and the one next to it that looks more like an igloo.

Close up of Jordan's 2nd one.

We also made a decorated cookies that day. I tried a new kind of frosting this time, and while it tasted good it was too light and fluffy for sugar cookies in my opinion.

Ice Skating

We went ice skating with some friends. We had a lot of fun!

We were able to rent a walker for the whole time. Coleman loved it and was happy to skate by himself.

Mikah, Kenzie, Jordan, Jackson, Cassidy, Tucker, Coleman

Animal Control

One morning the kids noticed that there were some police cars outside our house. Jordan was supposed to take out the garbage but didn't want to. I thought it was because of the police 9(that's why Jackson didn't want to take out the recycling), but Jordan said the neighbor's dogs were loose in the front yard. Soon animal control parked in front of our house and put one of the neighbors dogs in their truck. We are thinking he must have bit someone. Animal control spent the next half hour to an hour chasing the other dog. The dog ran out of the neighborhood for awhile. Animal control eventually caught the other dog and put it in the neighbor's backyard. That dog howled for awhile when he was back in the yard. It must have missed its friend :( 

The kids watched as much of it as they could.

They had to run around the house to find the best window to watch from.

The dog ran through other neighbor's yards.

We were sad for the dogs and our neighbors :(