Chrismas 2013

Finally close to wrapping up my 2012 posts (it's only March!)  We loved having our first Christmas in our new house!!  It was also a special Christmas because we were joined by my parents, Jordan, & Kassie.  We got home from the Dells on Christmas Eve afternoon.  We made a junk food feast and had fun playing games on Christmas Eve.

The kids each got to open a new Christmas book and they enjoyed putting out cookies and milk for Santa...

 

We started our Christmas morning by reading the story of Jesus' birth and singing "Happy Birthday" to Jesus.  It was special to do this with my parents the last two years because this is a tradition they had for me and my siblings growing up. 

 

Excited to see what Santa brought!

 

Santa Presents:

 

 

This year we did 3 presents for each kid from Marc and I... this symbolizes the 3 gifts that the wisemen brought to baby Jesus.  I have a couple friends who shared this idea with me and I thought it would be a perfect way to help simplify.  I LOVE giving gifts (especially to my children) and I tend to go overboard.  It was nice to have a guideline.

Sadie was especially surprised by this Barbie book.  She begged me to get it from her book order and was so bummed that I wouldn't let her.  She didn't know that I really did order the book and ask her teacher to save it out for me to pick up.  It's really hard to surprise this nosey, smart girl so it was fun to see her so shocked!

3 Months Pregnant!

 

 

New Ornaments for the Kids:

 Kinnick got Batman because he had a superhero party this year and is pretty much obsessed with superheros (still)!

 

 

 Macey got a piece of Candy for her ornament because she's so SWEET (still)!

 

 Sadie got a soccer girl because she tried soccer for the first time this year.

 

We ended our night with brownie sundaes and peppermint ice cream.  We had fun watching Sadie's new Mikenna movie.  It was so fun to spend Christmas day in our P.J.'s and go no where!  We had fun making memories...

Wisconsin Dells Vacation

This year as our Christmas gift, my parents took us on a trip... to Wisconsin Dells!  Our ENTIRE family got to go--that's a total of 10 adults and 5 kids!  We stayed at the Wilderness Lodge.  It was amazing--we literally never had to go outside (if we didn't want to).  We had so much fun--we went to waterparks, putt-putt golfing, laser tag, skyropes course, arcades, HUGE indoor playground, a mirror maze & haunted hotel, bumper boats, a horse drawn carriage ride, shopping at the outlet mall, and out to eat.  We also celebrated Christmas together, played lots of games, watched movies, ate ice cream, made yummy meals, and the kids got to see Mrs. Clause and have a trip to the candy store with grandpa & grandma.  We packed so much fun into our 4-day, 3 night stay.  Not sure who had more fun--us or the kids!  It was so much fun to spend a chunk of time together--we're so excited to make this an annual tradition--can't wait to see where our next trip will be!

Christmas... The cousins exchanged gifts and we got Stockings from my Parents:

 

Water Parks... and MORE Water Parks:

Bumper Boats:

Laser Tag:

3-D Glow in the Dark Mini Golf

 Root Beer Floats

Buffalo Phil's (Train Delivered Food)

 Horse & Buggy Ride 

 Skyropes Course (Hard to tell from the pics, but this really was high off the ground--I was impressed that Kinnick and Jaren did so well. Sadie went across one obstacle--she was terrified, and decided to stop.  The course had two stories.  The kids had to go with an adult.  Kinnick went with Aunt Kassie.)

Arcade Time (Kids each got their own arcade card from g-ma & g-pa and they LOVED this!)

 Hanging out in our Condos:

(This picture of Jaren & Macey is actually from Henry family Christmas, not vacation but I had to include it--Macey was scaread of Santa and Jaren was protecting her!)