A Sunbeam!

With the new year, comes new primary classes and Emmitt is now a Sunbeam.  Its hard to believe and I dont feel like he's ready at all but off he goes.  Best of Luck to his teachers.

And heres pics of the other kids too just before heading to church in the new year!

Christmas Day 2013

We had a very Merry Christmas this year.  The kids slept until the very reasonable hour of 6:30 and then had to wait until 7 when Emmitt woke up (and for Emmitt that is really sleeping in).  We went downstairs youngest to oldest and started with the stockings...

 

 And then we took turns opening presents.  Emmitt was most interested in eating the chocolate from his stocking and then he was interested in constantly opening presents whether they belonged to him or not. 

And luckily since Emmitt has such a sweet tooth (and already has a cavity) Santa brought him a toothbrush.  That to him was a pretty exciting gift.

Here's Kevin and I in our "just woke up" glory, with our Christmas gifts.

 The girls both got Furby booms from Santa, which were a huge hit.  They played with them for hours.

 And here are the kids with their presents.  They raked it in- those spoiled little sweethearts!

Then we ended the day with dinner at the Thomases.  Another wonderful Christmas which could have only been made better with our families.... oh well, maybe next year.

Christmas Eve

This year on Christmas Eve, Kevin worked in the morning and then in the afternoon our family went roller skating, at the kids request.  We were surprised by how much fun that was.  Even mom skated.  

Then we came home and the Thomases and Owens joined us for a busy night of Christmas Eve festivities.  We had crepes for dinner then we decorating cookies, made masks for the nativity reenactment, had 2 white elephant exchanges (kids and adults), and of course acted out the nativity.  It was a good night.

Real Reindeer

We went to a local garden center with the Thomases to see some actual real reindeer.  Nothing gets you in the Christmas mood like real reindeer ;)

And here they are getting into the true meaning of Christmas...

Seeing Santa at the Durham Museum

This year we went to see Santa at the Durham Museum just like we did last year.  Emmitt was scared of him but cooperated as long as he didnt actually have to get close to Santa.  Afterwards we saw the trains, and toured the museum and then had lunch at Culvers.  Good times!

Gingerman Houses... yep thats what I meant to say

 While the kids were on Winter break, we made our traditional gingerbread houses out of Graham Crackers.  Carson joined us as he often does and the kids worked on their houses for a good two hours.  I was impressed.  Emmitt called the houses "gingerman" houses which was just too cute to correct.  He was obsessed with them and could often be found just staring at them when we put them on the dining room table for display. 

Freddy Returns

The kids were excited to see Freddy come back for another round of his hilarious antics.  I was a little less diligent in the photo taking this time around but needless to say our Elf was a busy guy every night in December.  It was fun this year to see Emmitt understand and be excited to find the elf every morning.