Christmas!!!!

Autry find his stocking

Claire find her chocolate first and had to eat that before
opening the rest of her stocking

Seconds after Addie finds her stocking

Autry got a new book and immediatly went to sit down and read it

Claire opening her last present with chocolate all over her mouth

Daddy reading one of the new books

One of Addies new animals

Making gingerbread with Daddy on Christmas Morning, one of our
favorite traditions.

Pretty Claire

The kids with their presents. This was the best one even if Gibs is half covered

This is what Claire did all day yesterday (she played with her new ponies)

Gibson 4 months

Gingerbread cookies

We made gingerbread cookies this week. Even though I made the cookies with very little sugar and whole wheat flour ( I know my kids are going to tell stories when they are older about how they never got to eat white flour when they were kids, just like we do about my mom). I broke down and let them decorate the cookies with real sugar sprinkles. It was so much fun. When we finished there was dough, flour, and sprinkles covering the floor and the table. It was completely worth it. When I was little making sugar cookies was one of my favorite Christmas traditions and I am so excited to start doing it with our kids. Next year I am even going to get the cookie cutters from my mom that I used when I was little.

Pearl's Birthday Party

On Sunday after the Christmas program, after hanging out at the Beans, we headed over to Pearl's birthday party. The decorated gingerbread houses, it was really fun to see the kids personalities come out as they decorated the houses. Autry carefully and meticulously decorated his entire house from top to bottom, without eating a bite of candy. Clarabelle put random candies and marshmellow haphazardly all over the house, while probably eating more sugar than she has eaten in the entire year. Adelaide didn't care at all about making the gingerbread house and just wanted to eat the goldfish crackers. Gibson just laid on the floor or was held by Randy. It was a fun day full of good friends and fellowship.

Christmas Program

Our Church did their Christmas program this last Sunday. Claire and Autry's class did "Away in a Manger", "Psalm 23", and "Joy to the World". It was really cute. Autry is the main one you can hear in Psalm 23 and is wearing a red and white striped shirt. Claire is wandering around in the back. She is wearing a dress with a black shirt and gold skirt. You can't really see her, except in the very end of away in a manger she peaks out her head.

I was so proud of Autry for knowing all of the verse and doing all the motions. Claire was just her normal self looking around and observing the older girls who were dressed as angels.

Its beginning to look a lot like Christmas

We had a really low key Thanksgiving this year, which was fine with me. It was just our family and my  dad. My mom went down to Santa Rosa, CA to spend time with my sister and Andy. Andy and Sarah also had their 20 week ultrasound and they are having 2 little boys. We are so excited for them! I am excited that Gibson is going to have 2 boy cousins around his age.
We spent Thanksgiving eating lots of good food and watching lots of football. I got the cartoon of "The Lion, the Whitch, and the Wardrobe" for this kids to watch this year. They watched it three times! Once again I see how they are a little obsessed. This year I was smart and got a lot of the prep work done ahead of time. This made for a very chill Thanksgiving. I was even able to sit down for an hour while I waited for the Turkey to be done. I enjoyed this because I was able to sit down and look at the black Friday ads. I LOVE shopping on Black Friday! I love it so much I even went by myself this year. I got up at 3:45 and got to target around 4:00. I couldn't find parking until around 4:15 and then going inside was a madhouse. I finally left their around 6:00 and headed over to the GAP. The GAP had everything at 50% off which was so much fun. For Christmas this year Randy gave me money to spend on myself for Black Friday. I was able to buy a shirt and a couple sweaters.
On Saturday we went and got our tree. I found a little Christmas tree farm that had nobles for $30. Every year I think that I can skimp and get a douglas fir, but when it comes down to it, I just love the way Nobles look. After getting our tree we went to Mcmenamins. The kids had a special treat at Mcmenamins and got their very first hot chocolates. Needless to say, the kids were thrilled! Autry said, "Mommy this is the best thing that I have ever tasted." We went home and decorated the tree.  Normally I spend a really long time on the lights, but the kids were so excited to decorate that I decided to put up the lights as fast as I could. They don't look as nice as normal, but the kids got to decorate and that was fun. Looking over our ornaments I realized that we have so many ornaments that have to do with football or baseball. Over half of our ornaments have to do with some sort of sports. We definitely like sports in our family.
Our house is now completely decorated for Christmas and I am looking forward to the holiday season. I love everything about this season. I love Christmas music, Christmas decorations, and Christmas shopping.  I love most of all that we get the privilege of knowing Jesus and knowing the true meaning of Christmas. I am excited to pass on this love for Jesus to my kids.

 It is really safe to let your three year old hold a saw

 We look really tall because the camera was on the ground

 All of a sudden I know how to french braid, I am really proud of 

her hair. Even if Claire's hair is so fine it was falling out almost immediately. 

I am in the process of making an Advent Calender. It should be done in the next couple days, stay tuned...

Gibson 3 months

Here is Gibson at 2 months and

now he is 3 months!

My cute chubby little boy. I don't know for sure how much he weighs, but I am guessing around 16 pounds. He is doing really well. He has started to go to bed around 6:30, and has started to be a very easy baby. I should say he is an easy baby as long as I keep him on his schedule. I wasn't super big on getting the other 3 on a schedule, but Gibson thrives on a schedule. He smiles a lot, and has just started to laugh. I am very much enjoying our little bundle of joy. 

What Prince and Princesses Do

Kids Playing "Prince and Princess"
Autry: "Claire I have 50 days off from battles"
Claire: "I have 50 days off from Weddings"

Zoo Day with Daddy

 The Polar Bear was swimming all over the place, and Adelaide

was wearing her cute new birthday boots (we had to make a

 rule that new birthday dollies stay in the car.) 

 Autry is a scary bear and Clarabelle spots a bird

 The dinosaur exhibit was done, so for some reason the zoo thought it would

be a good idea to have a decapitated taredactyl  hanging out on the zoo path.

You add Gibson and I to this picture and you can imagine the looks

we get from people. Sometimes I want to turn and say, "Yes it is true

I do have four kids 4 and under" 

 The elephant was very exciting for Adelaide

 Three cute kids looking at the elephant

Randy got an iphone a couple of weeks ago and is enjoying all the fun things that it can do. These last four pictures were taken with one of the cool apps on his phone. It is amazing what technology can do these days.