Christmas from Seattle

Uncle Kendall and Aunt Angie sent presents for the kids to open even though they were not able to join us for Christmas.  The girls opened theirs and then quickly moved on to "helping" Killian with his and playing with his while he crawled away.  What is it about baby toys that is so fascinating to big sisters?

Art hangers for their rooms.  I LOVE them!  And so do the girls.

Busted!

Killian is getting faster with his crawling.  Because he doesn't take very long naps and it is so hard to get up before the kids do since he still wakes up at 5 for a feeding, I sometimes have him in the bathroom with me when I am getting ready.  Apparently his newly found speed with crawling is not going to allow that for long...

Oh...look what happens...

Fun!

Uh-oh...how mad is Mom?

Totally busted!

Big Boy

I took the kids to the doctor with me today (they got over their colds, mine turned into a sinus infection) and then we had to go get my prescription.  Because it was close to lunch time, I figured I would be more successful if we grabbed the prescription and then ate there instead of trying to get home to eat.  They all did great.  Killian is getting so big.  Here he is sitting at the table eating with his big sisters.

When getting ready to post this picture, I realized it says a lot about his place in our family.  With Keeley, I always had a plastic cover for the table, cleaned her hands, and never let her have puffs this young.  With Kayden I covered the table most of the time and sometimes cleaned her hands.  She ate pretty much whatever Keeley was having.  I didn't even think about cleaning Killian's hands and don't own any of those table cover things....clearly a third child.

He also now has his swing in the backyard.

Clearly he loves it!

And is out of his bath seats and into the tub with the girls!

Trying to escape already.  He has to stick out that tongue when he is working on something....

Protecting Little Brother

Because Killian is trying to pull up more, he is falling more.  This is greatly distressing to the girls.  The other day in the living room they made this "protection" for him to try to prevent his head from falling on the hard floor. Look how many pillows they got!

They made sure he had lots of toys to play with!

Later we went outside and they kept bringing toys out to him.  It looked like our playroom exploded on his green blanket out there!  They were very concerned he stay on the blanket.

Tired!!!

Being sick for so long and all the excitement of the holidays wore this little one out. 

Her feet are in the air!

Later she had at least let her feet fall down.

Kayden plays hard and non-stop until her little body just can't do anymore!

Christmas Day with Family

After I got a nice very long nap thanks to Dad, we all ate lunch and then the kids rested before we started up again with presents.  All of Kelly's family came over and there were presents galore!

Grandad and Grandma with all the grandkids.

Killian practicing his new pulling up skill.  He isn't great at getting all the way to his feet yet, but he is fast getting to his knees.

Opening his own presents.  His face and hand crack me up here.  "I got this, Mom"

Girls distributing gifts to all the family.

And then they set about opening presents wildly.  Not many pictures were taken because it was a bit chaotic with Killian getting the paper and the girls opening so fast!

After the presents were all opened, the girls headed to the playroom for a bit and Uncle Brent joined them in the garden.  They both thought it was pretty hysterical.

Killian hung out with Mom and enjoyed playing peek-a-boo in his new hat!

Christmas Morning

My kids are early risers.  Christmas morning we started even earlier.  Keeley woke up at 5:15 coughing and Kelly went to try to help her get back to sleep while I answered the call of the nursing baby.  After little man was back down and Keeley was settled in again, Kelly and I decided to go ahead and shower.  About 6, Keeley came in our bathroom and told me I was being too loud.  We then heard Killian awake, and Kayden followed shortly there after.  We had opened presents and eaten breakfast by 8:05!

Tree with the presents finally under it.

Stockings and Santa's cookie plate with just the crumbs.

Opening stockings.

Kayden was very preoccupied with her candy.

Killian loved his candy canes too!

No idea what is happening here but I love the stance.  Clearly there is some important explanation occurring!

Excited to attack that pretty paper!

And then his sister's took over...

Eyeing his super cute swing (it looks like a race car!) and his photo blocks.

Until sisters took over with the blocks..

The first presents the girls opened were some books.  They wanted to read all 4 of them before they continued with their present opening.  They received 2 Mo Willems' books, a Fancy Nancy, and a book called "Trouble Gum"

Killian took the opportunity to play with his own toys.

And to go after the tree again.

Trying on her new cape and mask.

In her new cape and mask.

Playing with the playsets for their Calico Critters animals.

Working in the playroom with the watercolor pencils.  Poor Kayden still blowing her nose.  And do you see brother hiding out under the table?

A great Christmas morning, even with the snot and coughs! 

Christmas Eve

Sad sleepy face from a bad night of rest.  At least he has a car to play with!

All the kids and I were sick the week prior to Christmas.  Kayden started the week with croup and the rest of us slowly fell to bad colds.  Christmas Eve, Keeley and Killian woke up snotty with coughs and Kayden was running a fever.  We had to cancel most of our plans because I didn't want anyone else to have the yuck that we had. The kids and I stayed home while Kelly went to brunch at Aunt Alice's and then we skipped the Christmas service at church and just stayed home and decorated cookies with Oma.  

Alice had purchased presents for the kids and sent them home with Kelly.  The girls' presents were in bags and they got to them and opened the presents as soon as they were under the tree...making me glad we had not put any presents out this year.  Killian is still too little to open his by himself very well so I got to help.

I have everyone's attention!  And no one is crying.  That doesn't happen often...

The girls take over but Killian seem okay with it.

Making a break for the tree.  Good thing big sister is there to slow him down.

Checking to see if we are watching...

And off again.  This time Kayden moves over to help out!

Keeley joins him to see what is so interesting.

"What?  I'm so cute.  How could I be trouble"

"Are you watching?  Both my sisters are distracted with my toy.  Maybe I'll make a run for it."

"Yes, I think I will..."

"Busted!"

Here the girls are playing with Killian's toy while he hangs out in his garden (right next to Keeley).

Not sure if he is happy or not, but at least he is getting to play with one of his toys by himself!

This year we had more time to make cookies since we didn't go to the service.  Usually I just make the break apart sugar cookies and the girls frost them.  Because we had more time, the girls made them from scratch with Oma and then decorated them.

Taking turns adding ingredients and turning on the mixer.

So interested in the process!

Scraping the spatula so carefully.

The girls did great as long as there was something for each of them to do.

 

 

While the dough chilled, we did our Christmas exchange with Oma.  The girls obviously needed to help her open her presents!  The girls received charms to add to their charm bracelets but I forgot to take a picture!  The each received a turtle to remind them of my dad (their Poppy) because he really liked turtles.

Then it was time to roll out the dough.  Wolf ears were clearly needed.

There was a little more flour used than Oma intended...

And yet Kayden is adding even more!

They wanted to use their play-doh cookie cutters instead of the Christmas ones.

 And this is the point where I went to nurse baby brother and put him to sleep.  I'm pretty sure the girls took advantage of me being out of the room.  Oma doesn't have quite as many rules as Mom does....

Obviously she needs to taste the icing.

Concentrating on decorating.

There is a cookie underneath all that icing.  The icing is the best part anyway, right?

Oh my.

Finished products.  That is a lot of cookies for Santa!

And the wolf shot :-)

Our plans may have been completely thrown out the window, but we made it through the day with lots of smiles and memories.  All and all a great Christmas Eve!