I love to give my kids new jammies to wear to bed on Christmas Eve.
The boys received outer space jammies this year.
Gracie has new pink kitty jammies. She tells me all she wants for Christmas is a little pink kitty in her stocking.
We were very fortunate to find purple Dora jammies for Lily!
Here are the sweet little angels we made after dinner last night. The angels' dresses are tracings of the kids' feet together, and the wings are their hands. These angels belong to Jared and Caleb.
Grace and Lily made these.
Jared is still not feeling well, so we moved him into the kitchen where all of the action is. We moved the kitchen table over to the window so we could make a bed for him on the floor.
He misses having his morning computer time, so Phil brought an old computer monitor upstairs from the basement and connected it to our computer upstairs in the kitchen. Now Jared is able to "help" Caleb play games on Club Penguin and Build-A-Bearville.
Meanwhile, the girls had a hot chocolate and Christmas cookie tea party.
Still trying to keep all of the little hands in our home busy. We stayed home from church this morning because of the weather and because Jared is still running a fever. Phil and Caleb put the electric train around the Christmas tree this afternoon.
We baked Christmas cookies last night and decorated a few after lunch today.
In lieu of Sunday School, we worked on a little project here at home.
We made a Nativity scene out of a paper grocery bag.
I say that like we've had an exciting, eventful week. We enjoyed our first day of snow, but then it wouldn't stop snowing. We were snowed in--literally. The city asked all residents to stay put if at all possible. They just couldn't keep the roads clear and over 100 accidents were reported within the first few hours of the storm. We were able to get to the grocery store this morning. We had a small window of time to go out before the next storm. I certainly could not have navigated through the mess out there, so I'm glad Phil is home for Christmas break and able to take us where we need to go. We're supposed to get another 8 or so inches of snow tonight.
Jared had the flu later in the week. Caleb was completely lost without him, restlessly wandering around the house. These boys are best buds!
With one being potty trained, another with the flu, and the added bonus of little ones who weren't able to get out of their snowsuits quickly enough to get to the bathroom in time, I did lots of laundry.
We set up our lighted Christmas village.
Lily got stuck in a box. Yes, I ran and got the camera before I helped her out. You do things like that when you have cabin fever. :)
Phil shoveled a lot of snow!
We enjoyed doing Advent activities every night after dinner.
We watched snow fall from the trees in our backyard, filling the air with what seemed like gusts of white powder. Sometimes we couldn't even see out the window.
This sequence of pictures needs a little explaining, I'm sure. Phil and I found the girls playing peacefully in the living room this morning. It's always cause for concern when it's quiet around here. They made a car out of the couch. Lily is driving (the pillow is her steering wheel). I love how Gracie gets to lounge in the backseat with a good book. I'm sure that was her idea.
Then we found them spreading their blankets all over the living room floor
...to get ready for a little nap.
They're pretending to sleep.
I get a kick out of watching this movie with my kids. Back in 2005, the year our twins were born, Dora's mom had a set of twins, too. Lily just checked this out from the library the other day. I love the last scene when Dora and Boots arrive home after their little adventure in the forest and find her entire family (aunts, uncles and cousins included) in the living room wearing corsages. Mom had the twins while she was out and is now in bed looking great with the bassinet by her side. Dora and Boots peer into the bassinet to find not one, but two babies--one is a girl wearing a pink shirt and a pink bow, the other is a boy wearing blue.
Lily loves this part and always yells out, "We're twins!" But this morning, I had to laugh at Gracie's reply..."That's Gracie the girl, and Lily the boy!"
I love this time of year in Spokane! Everything outside is so clean and bright.
I took this picture from the big picture window in our kitchen/dining room. Such a peaceful scene.
And isn't this peaceful, too? A little boy happy at play.
The boys are on their way to shovel the driveway and the sidewalk in front of our house.
No, those aren't fireflies in the picture, they're a reflection of the Christmas lights in our kitchen. Remember, I'm inside my cozy, warm house taking these pictures.
I think the boys are old enough to learn how to shovel snow, don't you?
Look how well they work together.
Okay...now it's Daddy's turn!
Now they're playing in the middle of the street.
Phil is tossing the snow he's shoveling into the street. Look at the joy on their faces. I, for one, wouldn't be happy if someone shoveled snow on top of me.
Caleb has a thing for sheep. He wants to be a shepherd when he grows up. If we go into a store where there are stuffed animal sheep (I'm not quite sure how to word that), Caleb won't leave the store without crying. It's not because he wants us to buy them (although, he wouldn't mind if we did), but because he thinks they have no shepherd to look after them.
Here he is at the mall lining up the stray sheep in the Christian bookstore.
Corinne found this adorable picture of Phil feeding a baby lamb. Does anyone else see our Gracie in his sweet little face?
We made these candy cane reindeer last night for our Christmas activity.
Every year I try to find new ornaments to give to the kids. I look for things I know they've enjoyed during the year. I went to the Hallmark store with Emily over the weekend and I was able to purchase a couple of their ornaments regularly priced $16 for only $6. I picked out Rocket from The Little Einsteins for Jared. Rocket even plays their theme song!
Caleb still enjoys playing with his cars from the movie Cars, so I bought this one for him. I found it at Target.
Gracie's new favorite is Hello Kitty. She really likes the color pink and has just started to enjoy cats. This little set, also from Target, seemed perfect for her.
I have to admit that this is probably my favorite new ornament! I found this one for Lily at the Hallmark store.
Every night Lily sleeps with a beautiful Very Hungry Caterpillar quilt that my mom made for Jared when he was baby. She loves to "read" the story to her siblings by laying out the quilt and stepping on the different quilt squares as she reads each page.
Here's Caleb's candy cane reindeer from last night. It's Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer!
