Avery's Babies

I would see little girls carry around their baby dolls and be such sweet little mothers to them, but neither Natalie or Ella really took to the doll thing. But Avery is a different story. She LOVES her babies. I think it started when our neighbor gave her this really small one (not pictured below). She carried that thing everywhere. She started to gather all the babies in the house, the ones that had been given to her sisters and then cast aside, and switch off carrying different ones. Santa wasn't sure what to get her for Christmas. I am sure he wasn't thinking about another baby since we seemed set in that department. Then a few days before Christmas Avery and I were walking the aisles of Costco. There she saw a baby packaged outside of the box with a crib and rocking horse inside. After increasingly loud shouts of "Baby! Baby!" I passed her the box. After that she wouldn't let go.
She loves to hold her babies, cover them up, feed them, rock and sing to them and kiss them. Its pretty sweet.

Santa's Gifts

In keeping with tradition started when I was growing up, the kids had to wait at the top of the stairs while parents "checked to see if Santa came". We were lined up youngest to oldest, but there is too good of a chance for peeking on our stairs and a lot fewer kids.

Cameron was excited to find a new razor scooter so he could keep up with the girls, as well as an exciting Cars sticker book.

And of course Santa brought Avery a new baby complete with crib and push-a-long horse.

Santa brought Natalie the Squinkie Zoo that she "needed" to have.

And for Ella, a Hello Kitty Mega Blocks house. Although I think he could have gotten away with just the orange by the look on her face.

We managed to make it though the Santa gifts (with no tears), get a quick breakfast and be on time for 9:00 church. Yay for us!

Christmas Best

Since we had 9am church I was a bit worried about Christmas morning and the presents, and getting ready for church and getting there on time. Amazingly we did it! I told the kids we would see what Santa brought and then do the presents under the tree after church. I think they were pretty ok with it, especially since I told them there would only be sacrament meeting. On the way home Cameron declared that we should always just have sacrament meeting!

Trying to get a picture with all four of them is always a challenge. First Cameron didn't want to be a part of it. And then he was in the picture but clearly not happy about it. Fast forward two seconds...happy!

Christmas Prep and Christmas Eve

The two weeks of Christmas break seemed to fly by. I usually feel like I have a handle on things, but the few days before Christmas always end up being crazy. We were able to do some fun things together and had some relaxing days too. Especially since Eric's back went out, again.

We decorated the tree, of course, but I forgot to take pictures so here is one of Avery re-decorating.We had two rounds of gingerbread house decorating. First our neighbor gave us a kit and the kids each got two sides to decorate themselves. They each had their own methods.Cameron put on the candy he liked in a pretty orderly fashion.Natalie piled on as much candy as she could. I think she was hoping they would get to eat whatever candy was on their sides.Ella did her best to make her sides look like the picture on the box.

A few days later we made graham cracker houses with the left over supplies for a YW activity. Unfortunately there are no pictures of these because Eric and I were both helping to build. Ella had a whole vision for hers, Cameron kept saying Ella's was better and he wanted his exactly like Ella's and Natalie was teamed up with Eric so hers was built the strongest with the most architectural features. They had a lot of fun and ate way to much candy in the process.

Since my parents are on a mission and I felt like I had just cooked Thanksgiving dinner, I wasn't up for making a big dinner for just our family and my sister. So, we decided that we would go out to dinner for Christmas Eve. It was so nice and the kids behaved really well. Eric and I were both nervous since it is very rare that we all go out to dinner. After dinner we went home and attempted to act out the nativity. I think everyone was getting tired so there were tears about who got to be who, what they got to wear, people not doing what they were "supposed" to so finally we gave up and hoped it would be better next year.

The kids all got their pjs on and ready for bed and then we exchanged presents. We each drew and name and were given a $5 limit for the gift. The kids were excited to pick something out for each other and almost everyone was happy about what they got.

Natalie got a magic set,
Ella got a nail polish set,Avery got some food for her babiesand Cameron got a Lego set, which he was not happy about.
And then Natalie, Ella and Cameron got to open the surprise that I had been secretly working on. Since none of them needed pjs I didn't buy them any for Christmas, but instead made them bathrobes. Natalie and Ella were very excitedCameron, not so much. He didn't want one with basketballs, and footballs and soccer balls on it. One last shot before bed with everyone showing how they really felt about the night. Before bed I gave them a quick talk about being grateful for what we are given and that if they cry or complain about a gift then I would be giving it to Goodwill so a child who would appreciate it could have it. Maybe that's mean of me, but I was getting tired of the tears and complaining at every holiday and thought they needed a little lesson in gratitude. :)