Wednesday, January 5, 2022

ky and kade turn 15!


 When you have to celebrate your birthday during a pandemic, and it's unsafe to have friends over for a party, you have to get creative.  I decided to surprise them with a "The Office" themed birthday.  It's become their favorite show, and I don't want to know how many hours during this pandemic have been spent watching each episode over and over.  I think they liked the surprise and the decorations.



When your birthday is four days after Christmas, you get to put your birthday presents under the spare Christmas tree before you open them.
Their birthday dinner of choice was sushi. Yum!
Everly felt bad for them that their cake was so plain, but they loved the on-them design.



We're so glad that these two awesome young men are in our family and wish that we could have had a celebration as amazing as they are.  Hopefully next year we can!

christmas day 2020

 

I wish there was a way to capture the sounds, smells, and feelings of a magical Christmas morning, but since I can't, these photos will have to do.  Some of my most precious memories with my little family are Christmas mornings.  It seems like every Christmas morning is much the same as the year before.  I guess that's the power of traditions.  The gifts are different, and the kids are a little older each time, but it feels like we get to relive one of our favorite days over and over again, and I love it!








I hope the magic of these Christmas mornings is a memory that my children get to carry with them forever!


Friday, November 12, 2021

christmas eve 2020























christmastime fun

We started getting ready to celebrate the Christmas season the day after Thanksgiving by searching for, selecting, and cutting down the perfect Christmas tree.

Once again, Everly wished we were bringing home one of these colorful trees.


We found the perfect tree! Her name is Vicki and we were excited to bring her home and dress her up.






Doesn't she look gorgeous all decorated?  It was Kade's turn to put the star on top. 
One thing that was great about having the kids home all the time doing virtual school was that there was plenty of time for all the fun Christmas crafts, baking and activities.  Usually December is so busy and the kids are in school clear through the 23rd, and we don't get to all the Christmasy things we want to do.  Not this year.
 
Krew and Everly even planned a fun Christmas party for the family.  It was super fun and so cute.
We drove around looking at lights more this year than in years past.  We found this amazing display that we could hardly believe. This is all one person's yard.  It was completely covered in lights and decorations.  It was so fun to walk around and look at everything.  We will definitely be going back next year!

No December would be complete without gingerbread (graham cracker) houses.  I love that my kids love this tradition.  If I count all the years I did this growing up, I wonder how many times I've made or helped make one of these adorable Christmas houses. 


In keeping with tradition, Krew was the last one to finish. He gets so into it and is so deliberate in his decorating.  I wonder if he will ever outgrow that.


We gave out the BEST neighbor gifts this year.  Ky designed the tag and it turned out perfect.  No other gift could have been more perfect during this pandemic. 

Everly and I had fun taking some Christmasy photos.  Isn't she the sweetest??



Krew and Everly went a little advent calendar crazy this year.  Besides the 3 family ones, the kids each had several.  You can see Krew's three advent calendars just in this photo alone.  Plus, Everly had a few.  Also, they made and advent calendar to the advent calendar in November to count down the days until they could start doing their advent calendars.  I think they were both a little excited for Christmas!
The big kids were excited too!  I caught them looking carefully at the first gifts that were placed under the tree, trying to see who they were for and what they might be.
The kids all wrote letters to Santa,




and mailed them to the North Pole.  We were all a little sad that Santa was social distancing this year and we couldn't sit on his lap, but we're pretty sure he got our letters anyway.


Even Bart gets all festive sometimes.