Surprise Visit

Last week we had a surprise visit from Josh, Alexis, and their three adorable kids.  Kelsey and Ethan were so excited to see their cousins.   Matt took the day off of work on Friday so he could spend time with his brother and here are a few pictures...

This is a picture of our attemp to let the kids all sleep together.  This lasted only about 20 minutes and then they had to be separated so that they would go to sleep.  Although it didn't last, it was really cute to see all their little bodies inside of those huge sleeping bags.

The funnest thing we did while Josh and Alexis were here was go to the beach.  I am glad it was a beautiful day because the weather here is so off and on right now.  You never can be sure if it is going to be hot or cold that day.

I did not get in the water but I went for a nice walk/jog on the beach.  It was fabulous.

They didn't get to stay long (1 1/2 days) but we really enjoyed our time while they were here.  Thanks for coming out guys!

Today Ethan said...

Today Ethan said, "Don't kill the mosquito, it's just a happy mosquito."

I love this picture so I thought I would share it.  They were watching a football game together.

Pre Christmas Preparations

  I decided to post what pictures I have of our chritmas preparations.

As most of you know, I am pregnant.  For those who didn't know that, I am 13 weeks now.  I have been so tired and this is how I spent most of December.  I think I slept as much as the cat.  Needless to say, most of the christmas preparations were a little behind schedule this year.

We started getting packages of gifts from grandparents in the mail pretty early and every day Kelsey would ask if they could open the presents yet.  So we made the traditional paper chains so she could know when it was time to open the presents.  The paper chains were a huge succuess.  They each had their own and they loved ripping off a paper every morning.

We also got new stockings this year.  I ironed on the letters for their names.  I think they turned out cute.

Our tree was red, black and silver.  It is kind of hard to see all the ornaments in a picture.

One day I made sugar cookies and the kids decorated them. 

This may have been their very favorite activity all month.

This last picture is of Kelsey all dressed up when I took her to see the Nutcracker Ballet.  She wore her fancy gloves, a pretty dress, fancy hair, and fancy jewelry.  We had a grand time.

The Christmas Post

This year we started all new traditions for Christmas since it is the first year we have not been with family for the holidays.  Christmas Eve we had a big dinner, Matt cooked a turkey, and we had the missionaries over to eat it with us.  Later in the evening we went to the Asbury Methodist Church down the street because they had a free puppet show about christmas.  It was fun because it was a worship service for the children.  Kelsey's favorite part was when we all held lit candles and sang christmas songs.  It was nice. 

When we got home we opened the gifts that we had gotten in the mail from all the grandparents.

We let them play for a few minutes then they went off to bed so that Santa could come.

Here is the tree after Santa's visit.

Christmas morning was magical.  Matt and I woke to the excited exclamations from Kelsey that "Santa came, wake up, Santa came."

The kids have had fun with all of their presents.

Here is Ethan getting creative with his new colored pencils.

And here we all played Kelsey's new game. 

Daddy won and became the most beautiful princess at the Ball.

Happy Holidays everyone.