New Years Eve 2010

Hannah decorated her hat with hearts and fireworks
Will wrote in bubble letters, drew fireworks and applied gingerbread men stickers

On New Years eve this year, Jack spent the night at Livvy's house, Max, Hannah and Will made "Happy New Year" hats while eating chocolate chip cookie batter, dad went to bed at 9pm and mom stayed up until almost midnight ringing in the new year with a piece of cheesecake by herself! Yes, we are very exciting!

The Night at the Hotel

Hanging out in the hot tub

Grandma Gail won a night's stay at the Embassy Suites in a raffle a couple of months ago and it had to be used by the end of 2010. She asked the grand kids if they would like to spend the night at the hotel and swim in the pool. They were so excited they packed 2 days before and repacked various times the day we left for the hotel. Little Max stayed with Darren while Laurie and I spent the night with the crazy kids. They had a blast. Jack and Will wanted to ride the elevators and stay up all night. They finally were forced to sleep at 11:30. Hannah was could have stayed up all night! Laurie and I talked about making it a yearly tradition on Christmas break. It would be something fun that they would always look forward to.

Gingerbread Houses

The finished village of Gingerbread Houses

The week of Christmas when the kids were out of school, we had Claire and Livvy over to decorate Gingerbread houses. Instead of buying 6 kits, I decided to make them out of graham crackers. I worked out really well, partly because I hot glued them all together instead of using frosting. Next year I think we will make a little village of them , making each a different "shape".

It is funny to see how different each of the kids is when working on their house. Livvy is very serious and took the longest to execute her plan of decoration. Hannah just went with the flow and however it turned out, she was happy with it. Claire wanted to eat the candy as she went and for Jack, the more candy he could put on, the better. Will gets upset if things do not stay exactly how he left them and he will keep redoing it until it goes his way!

It was really fun and next year I am going to decorate my own. I think we will make decorating Gingerbread houses with the cousins a tradition!

Christams Morning 2010

Dad and Will putting together the new legos

Avery and Jack with Avery's new bone

The cousins at Grandma's before opening gifts

Jack excited about his Lizard book

Waiting to come down and open Santa gifts

Will excited about his Lego Racers

Jack with his Lego King's Castle

Will and his Ipod

Jack opening his new blue computer

Hannah and her Ipod

Christmas morning is is always so exciting after we get over the wake-up call at 5:20 am by Will! I told him that he needed to go back to bed until the 1st number on the clock was a 7! Instead of going back to bed quietly, he went and woke up Jack and Hannah and they all huddled in Will's bed for an hour since they are not allowed to go downstairs until we are ready. We could hear them giggling and trying to decide if they should tear through their stockings that were hung on the railing right outside their rooms. Mom and Dad finally woke up about 6:50 and set up all of the cameras. (They hate this part!) After getting a picture of the tree and the kids dying to fly down the steps, they were given the "OK". Paper was flying and names were being yelled out. Max had no idea what was happening!

It is so fun seeing the kids so excited and in disbelief that Santa really brought the gifts they asked for and ate the cookies. This year Jack, Will and Hannah really talked a lot about the real meaning of Christmas and why we celebrate it. Will told us that his "best person" is Jesus and he will always help you. The other day Will also asked what the next Holiday was. I told him Valentines day. He then said "what did Jesus do on Valentines Day?" It was really fun and I told him that Jesus did not do anything on Valentines day, it is just the day you are suppose to kiss your mom a lot!

After Santa came and the kids opened their gifts, we went over to Grandma Gail's house to eat lunch and open presents. Jack went outside to try out his new basketball and Will took pictures with his new camera! It was a special day. The kids are growing so fast and I try to remember all of the details that make Christmas so special.

Christmas Eve 2010

Just before church
Dad with the kids

Mom with the kids

Hannah sprinkling reindeer glitter

Cookies & milk for Santa

Many pictures colored for Santa

Christmas eve day was spent making sugar cookies for Santa, running around the house like wild chickens, tracking Santa's every move on the computer every 5 minutes, eating a lot of sweets, asking hundreds of times when will it be time for bed, wrapping a few presents and begging to sleep in mom and dads bed so Santa would not "scare them".

We went to church in the evening and then Laurie, Olivia, Claire, Grandma Gail, Jeff, Brandy and Noah came over for soup and dessert. Each of the kids opened the gift they bought for each other and then it was time to get ready for bed.

Jack, Will and Hannah threw their reindeer glitter on the front lawn so Rudolph would see it and stop at our house, they prepared Santa's plate of cookies, carrots and milk and unlocked the front door since we don't have a chimney. They placed the pictures they drew by the cookies and then we video taped them talking about how excited they were. They then ran up to bed as fast as they could because Santa does not come if you are awake!! It was a really fun night!

Christmas Card 2010

Merry Christmas!

Brewer Christmas

Steve, Kristi and the kids were in town the weekend before Christmas so we spent the day Sunday celebrating Christmas with everyone. The kids love seeing their cousins Braxton and Bryson. We wished they lived closer! Grandpa made pancakes and breakfast croissant sandwiches for us which were great and then we opened gifts. We all headed out to Woodbine to see the Kelly's like we do every year. There we ate lunch and enjoyed a visit from Santa. The boys played the Wii the entire time. They loved "Dance Party" or something like that. It was hilarious to watch them try to imitate the dance moves they were seeing on the TV. We definitely need to get that game!

Bill and Lana gave everyone a trip to Mexico in June for Christmas. We are really excited to spend time with everyone without so many distractions and watch the kids experience the ocean for the first time. We are so fortunate to be able to make these wonderful memories together. Jack has so many dreams for places he would like to see and Darren and I hope that in the next few years we will be able to allow him to see everything that he has spent so much time reading about.

Hannah's Preschool Christmas Program

Hannah and her best friend Addison

Grandma & Hannah

Hannah with Grandma & Grandpa

Hannah & Mary

Hannah with her cookies

Hannah had her preschool Christmas program last week and she was looking forward to it all month. She sang the songs for weeks and knew all of the actions. She loved the chance to wear her fancy dress again. It is hard to believe this is her last preschool Christmas program. Thinking about her leaving me next year for Kindergarten is really hard to think about. She was lucky to have Grandmas and Grandpa there to watch along with Paul and Mary. We all had cookies after the program and took some pictures. It was a fun morning!

Church Christmas Program

The kids had their church Christmas program a couple of weeks ago and a couple of them sang and one mouthed a few words! All Hannah cared about is being able to wear the "fancy dress" we bought a couple of months back. She has asked to wear it almost daily since October! She loves anything that looks like a wedding dress.

Will had to dress like a donkey (i think) and was less than thrilled about it. Jack was excited for the cookies afterwards! Max enjoyed the music but ate his weight in cookies too! Singing Silent Night at the end with candles is always the best part!