Christmas morning was amazing. The kids were all so very excited because each of them got the one big item they really wanted! My mom and Eric’s mom both came over to watch the kids open their gifts!

When they first get up it’s the Santa gift and stockings only until our moms arrive. so here they are checking out what Santa brought them!

Declan was so thrilled to see the Pokemon Battle tower!

And Ziah flipped over her new Dollhouse!

Taejan got a new Thomas set..one that is all his own and not a hand me down from Declan!

Checking out the stockings:

Noah got his PlayStation 2.. but I never got a picture..sorry!

Now on to opening! We have our tree on the unheated sunroom so we make a pile for each person in the living room and one at a time open the gifts. The moms arrived about 30 minutes after all the kids were awake so it was on to the really fun part.

Taejan was a trip..he just fully loved it!

Next was Ziah:

Declan:

Noah:

Noah modeling his new Chef’s jacket:

Declan shaving with the kit Noah got him:

Oh Noah made a few of his gifts this year in the Woodworking class at the Boys n Girls club. I got a Banana hanger and Eric a coat rack:

no pictures of the adults..but guess what Eric got me??? Tickets to This concert!! I am so freaking excited!! Every time she’s been near us we have been unable to go and she’s my FAVE singer and the only one of my top 4 faves I’ve never seen live…so come March 7th we’re off to Torrington to see her!! I am shocked and beyond thrilled!!!

Sunday we went to one of my oldest friends house ( we’ve been friends since 2nd grade). It was a hoot, between us we have 11 kids not to mention there was a few other kids there, and the fact Noah was the oldest boy and he was being tortured ( he loved it though) by all the girls. We had a great time and can’t wait until next years party!

Monday morning we did Christmas with my MIL:

Taejan’s turn:

Next up is Ziah:

Declan’s turn:

Noah:

See how big this tractor is??

Ziah loves the Pony:

After that it was off to my family’s big get together! Here’s the kids all dressed and ready to go!

While there Declan and Taejan and Ziah exchanged gifts with Godparents!

and of course played with their cousins!

When they got home it was in to their new jammies, opening the gifts from my aunts and uncles and off to bed!

Well let’s see..I finally have a few minutes alone ( Taejan is napping and Eric has the other 3 out bowling!)..so I will get a few posts up from the past week!

Thurs/Fri and Saturday was Nutcracker! The shows went well,Noah did a great job as always. I don’t have a picture of him and any of his Clara’s but I am hoping to get one from one of the moms soon. I do have a picture of Laken who is a family friend, a dancer at our studio, one of Noah’s Clara’s and a great kid. Noah gave her a Clara snowglobe..

Here’s Miss Jadziah all ready to go see the show.. she just had to get all dressed up.

After the shows we took the younger 3 down state to Bright Nights. They LOVED it and wanted to go back through!

Well here it is December 23rd… and it’s 61 degree’s and raining..um… We’ve lost a ton of snow and can actually see grass again.. after all the snow we’ve gotten I was sure we were guaranteed a white Christmas ..I’m beginning to think we will have a lovely brown icky christmas.. oh well.. that’s life in the Northeast eh?

Well today I finished up the three Handprint Calendars we made. I won’t share pictures of each month. I took the idea from here and tweaked it to make it more my style. I prefer a more traditional 2 page look to calendars so I made our’s like that.

Each kiddo made all 12 months. I then took the covers and months and put them in order.. Declan,Jadziah, Taejan and started Calendar #1 with Declan for Jan, Ziah for Feb and Taejan for March and kept that pattern, then calendar #2 Started with Ziah then Taejan then Declan etc, #3 started with Taejan then Declan then Ziah etc. Then I laminated all the pictures sides leaving the months alone so they could still be written on. Next I used the 3 hole punch on one side and a single hole on the other so it could be bound and also hung. I used variegated yard to bind them together! I am really pleased with how they came and can only hope they are appreciated!

I’ll show a few pictures from one of the calendars:

The cover:

Some of the months:I wrote which child’s handprint it was next to each image.

the back cover:

We’ve decided we like this project so much we are going to make one more from just Taejan and Declan for their Godparents, I won’t be laminating that one as that does make it costs more than paint and ink.  So tomorrow between Nutcracker stuff we’ll be working n that one!