Christmas Re-Cap

As much as I wanted to be in bed before the New Yorkers rang in the new year, I wanted to do one more 2012 blog update more! 

This year, with our Christmas season promising to be a busy one, we decided to skip going to the Christmas tree farm and just get one at Home Depot.  I took the kids after school one day and they picked out a great tree (I think it's the best one we've ever had, actually.  I just put it out on the curb and it's still totally green and gorgeous.) and named it Fred.  We paid for Fred and I pulled the van up to the curb while the Home Depot man trimmed the bottom and netted our tree.  He brought the tree out to me and handed me a bunch of string, stating that he was not allowed to put it on the car for me.  Awesome.  The next half hour was a little on the stressful side.  I was trying to get Fred tied securely to the roof of Nermous (that's our mini-van's name) but was fairly constantly interrupted by the three fighting children inside the mini-van!  Plus, every time I would open one of the doors to help settle a fight, the dog would try and jump out.  I was sweating like crazy and trying not to yell and scream and my precious children, keeping in mind what a fun special thing getting a Christmas tree is supposed to be.  I just about broke down and cried right there on the curb of Home Depot when Seth told me he needed to poop.  I couldn't take him into the bathroom of the store, since my van was illegally parked.  I couldn't move the van, since the tree was not tied on top.  Now, if you know me very well, you are probably wondering why I didn't just have him use the "car potty".  Well, it was sitting on the front porch at home.  I ended up having him poop in one of the sand toys (which I recycled when we got home) that was in the back of Nermous.  When I finally pulled into the driveway of our house, with Fred still securely attached, I felt like I had accomplished a major feat!  A couple nights later we decorated Fred and he looked lovely for the rest of the Christmas season!

Haley was such a good helper getting Fred secured in his base.

Seth put the star on top...and was very serious about it!

The happy decorators, sitting back and admiring their work!

 One of the first weeks of December we went to The Streets Of Bethlehem, which is a big living nativity that a church over in Salinas puts on every year.  When I told the kids that we were going to go Seth said "Oh, is that the golden street?".  He was thinking of heaven!  Anyway, it turned out to be a really confusing concept that there really is a real place called Bethlehem, but what we were going to was a place that was supposed to be like the real Bethlehem when Mary and Joseph went there and had baby Jesus.  We looked at a lot of maps!  Our friends, the Hughes, went with us and we had a great time.  At the very end they have Jesus risen from the grave, and, even though it's really weird, we took it as a photo op! 

Abby and Haley with Aubrey and Micah and fake Jesus!  I know, it's really weird (and so not what real Jesus probably looked like)

We also took the kids to see the Christmas lights at Vasona Park this year.  Other than Auntie Laura, none of us had ever been.  We got a little bit of a late start, so Seth was already asleep by the time we got there.  I woke him up, though, and we all had a lot of fun going through the park and seeing all the super random Christmas light figures (dancing tooth, dinosaurs, fisherman, asparagus...random).  Oh, and while we were in the line to get into the event, we heard our new favorite Christmas song; Dominick the Italian Christmas Donkey!

Thanks to our wonderful friend who gave us tickets, I got to take the girls to see the Nutcracker for the first time.  My mom got to come with us and we had a great time.  Seth was really disappointed that he didn't get to go.  I showed him some on tv, thinking it would convince him that he didn't even want to go, but he loved it.  Maybe next year, Seth! 

On Christmas eve morning we spent time celebrating with Carey's family.  We had a great time with Grandpa Steve, Grandma Jackie, Auntie Danielle, Auntie Kelly, Uncle Rick and Brannon.  We had a delicious breakfast and opened lots of presents!  For some reason, I took zero pictures!

That evening we went to the Christmas Eve party that my family has been going to since I was an infant.  We haven't been able to go in a few years, and were really excited to be able to make it this year.  We got to see friends we haven't seen in a long time, eat yummy food and exchange white elephant gifts.  Also, we went Christmas caroling, which is a long time tradition of the evening.  This time, though, Abby and Haley would run up and knock on the door, and then announce to the person that answered the door that we were caroling.  Then Abby would stand in front of the group of us and wave her arms around like a conductor.  What a perfect job for her...getting to be in control of a big group of people!

Cutie cuties ready to go caroling!

Christmas morning we got up and opened stockings.  I love that Seth reminded his sissies that before they opened them they all needed to sit and let mommy take a picture!  At least they are finally learning that the sooner they all look at me at the same time, the sooner they get to open them!

After the kiddos opened their stockings, we got to work making breakfast burritos.  Abby was a big help rolling and wrapping them.  Once we ran out of tortillas and potatoes we all hopped in the car and headed downtown.  We met our friends, the Hughes, and handed out socks, breakfast burritos, cuties and muffins to the homeless people out in the cold Christmas morning.  I heard Abby tell one man that first they were giving Jesus his present, which was giving people socks and burritos, and then they were going to go home and open their presents!  So sweet.  We had a good time sharing with people, shaking their hands, hugging them and praying with them.  The rain even held off until the very second we headed towards our van!

We went home and opened presents, leaving our poor living room looking like this:

 The kids played with new toys and we all just lounged around the house.  At some point in the afternoon we had birthday cake for Jesus.  I made an ice cream cake this year and it was really good!

Christmas evening, Auntie Laura and her wonderful parents, Bob and Julia, came over for dinner.  We had a delicious meal and a really fun night spending time with them:)

The day after Christmas we went to my parents house to celebrate with them!  Auntie Melissa's boyfriend, Uncle Judah, had his family visiting, plus Uncle Noah and Aunt Kellie were there, so it was a full house (we missed Uncle Nate, though).  We were super excited to give them their gifts and had a really fun gift exchange.  Oh, and my mom had wrapped up a jacket for Seth, who currently only wears t-shirts and shorts.  He unwrapped the jacket and she told him it was just in case he ever wanted to wear it.  He threw it behind him saying, "I'm not gonna wear it!"  Seriously, I don't know how that child doesn't freeze!

Gingerbread House Building

For the 4th year in a row we got together with my family for a fun afternoon of gingerbread house building.  Uncle Nate makes the houses from scratch and we have so much fun decorating them (and eating a lot of candy)!  This year all three kids really LOVED it and spent more time decorating than in years past!  The houses all turned out super cute (of course) and now we are looking forward to our new tradition of destroying them on New Years eve.  Last year we smashed them with bats.  This year we have talked about burning them, catapulting them, or maybe making a teeter-totter type contraption and jumping on it to launch them!

Ready to get started..candy in hand and mouth!

Hard at work!

Seth was very focused on picking out only green candies for his church building!

Look at those hands...covered in frosting!

Grammie Lori helping Seth find green ones!

Uncle Noah and Aunt Kellie made an awesome saloon.  This was the first year they were able to join us!

Auntie Laura worked hard on making a Santa Claus for the sleigh.

Auntie Melissa makes such cute things!

The finished barn, complete with rows of crops.

Log cabin that got attacked by native Americans and then red-flagged!

This is the school with hopscotch, a swing set and monkey bars.

The manger scene in the church yard.

Lost Tooth

Well on Christmas eve morning, we had our first lost tooth in the Webber house!  Haley has been working on a wiggly one for a good month now, and it was just barely hanging on.  The night before Christmas eve it was so wiggly, I told her she needed to pull it out before she went to bed. 

 She was working on it, but was nervous about it coming out.  Seth offered to give her $3 if she pulled it out.  Abby was laying on her bed chanting "Pull it.  Pull it."  Haley started crying because she was nervous (and probably tired), so I told her she could go to bed.  It was so lose I really thought it would come out when she was sleeping, but it was still there in the morning.

Christmas eve morning we were all getting in the car to go celebrate with Carey's family.  Haley shrieked "MOM!", and I looked in the van to see her smiling and holding her tooth in her hand!

Apparently she tripped over Abby as she was climbing in and it just fell out!  It had already been so loose that it didn't even bleed!  Auntie Laura and I cheered and cheered, so glad it wasn't dangling in there any more!

 Now, as a side note...teeth are so gross to me.  I feel a little badly just throwing it away, but why on earth would I save it?  What would I do with it?  Is she really going to want it when she's all grown up?  So far, we're pretty sure we're going to give it to Uncle Judah.  Who knows why he wants it, but he offered to buy it from her!

Happy 7th Birthday

On December 2nd, my sweet daughters turned 7.  Yes, SEVEN!  Seven sounds like a whole new age group.  Little kid is behind us and we are well on our way to tweens! 

Anyway, they are the two most wonderful 7 year olds that I know, and we celebrated them with a fun little birthday party.  They each invited just a few friends and had an art party.  The girls all game over, ready to paint and have some fun.  They painted really cute pictures on canvases, and then painted little wooden birds, flowers, and butterflies that we glued on.  We also had a canvas for Haley and one for Abby that each of the girls painted a little something on.  The wonderful and fabulous "auntie Laura" was in charge the canvases that they each added a little something to.

The kids had a lot of fun painting, then did some running around before present opening time.  I told the kids that last year when Haley and Abby were opening their birthday presents, I almost cried.  It was so crazy and out of control!  This year, they took turns really nicely and I wasn't even close to crying!  Instead of making cakes this year, I just got ice cream and whipped cream, which was a big hit. Sidenote: the day before their birthday, I had run out to Target and grabbed a few things.  When I got home, I threw the Target bag on my bed, and we ran out the door to take dinner to some dear friends and then off to the lighted boat parade in our local harbor.  Almost 5 hours later, as I was putting the kids to bed, I suddenly remembered that I got ice cream at Target.  Yep, it was in the bag I threw on my bed!  It was totally melted, but hadn't come out of the containers, so I just put them in the freezer and served them at the party anyway!

The party was so fun.  Smaller and shorter than we've had in the past, which ended up being great.  Both Haley and Abby had a really good time, as did all of their friends.

My wonderful, talented friend, Nicole, came over and painted Haley and Abby's faces before the party so they could really stand out as the special birthday girls!

Cutie painters!

Abby is always a focused artist!

Abby and her sweet friend, Ilee

Auntie Laura, touching up the group art pieces!

A New Adventure

I have so many blog posts floating around in my head, but am struggling to make the time to actually type them out.  This one, though, is big news.  Starting on Monday I am homeschooling Haley.  The plan is that it will only be through the rest of this school year.

Carey and I started praying about the possibility a couple months ago, and made a decision at the beginning of November.  This year she has really been struggling emotionally.  She is so smart and sweet and wonderful, and we are so hopeful that we are making a good choice.  Well, I'm sure it's a good choice, since we both felt like God led us this direction. 

She's not super sure about it.  Abby is really nervous about going to school without Haley.  I am wondering how it's all really going to work out.  But, we're moving forward with it.  I'll try and give an update after a week or so!

Halloween 2012

Oh boy, another Halloween survived!  Our Halloween was actually really fun, but it's always nice when it's over!  This was the first year that we carved pumpkins with the kids, which was super fun.  We hadn't done it before because I remember being a kid and being super frustrated that my pumpkin didn't look the way I wanted it to!  All three of my kids were less into the "pulling out the guts part" than I thought they would, and both the girls really liked carving their pumpkins.  Abby had daddy help her a little, and Haley did hers completely by herself!

Auntie Laura and Seth made a really cute one

Seth got to go trick-or-treating at preschool on Tuesday, but he didn't want to wear his costume (a farmer).  He wore a pirate hat and his pirate vest from last Halloween!  He had a lot of fun, though, and liked seeing his friends' costumes.

Unlike their brother, Haley and Abby were thrilled to wear their costumes to school on Halloween.  They both had really fun costumes to make this year and they looked so adorable:)  Seth really didn't want to go to school and see the Halloween parade (I think he was nervous), so Grammie Lori came to the rescue and picked him up. 

The ice princess and bumblebee ready for school!

Haley in the parade at school1

Abby loved being in the parade!

When it came time for trick-or-treating, my mom and dad came over to pass out candy at our house, and a bunch of neighborhood friends came over so we could all go out together.  Seth decided he didn't want to trick or treat (the child NEVER put his farmer costume on), so he stayed with Poppa Phil and Grammie Lori to pass out candy.  With Seth at home, the girls and their friends went RACING off from house to house.  They seriously ran so fast.  They had a lot of fun, though, and Carey and Laura and I had fun following them and chatting!

cutest bumblebees around:)

racing down the street!

Our neighbor made the kids line up in a single file line to get their candy!

Abby sure was a cute ice princess.

Haley was so excited to get 15 Reeses!

Seth has some candy from trick-or-treating at preschool!

Banjo was a clown:)

 

Walking To School

Because Haley and Abby's school is only about a mile away, we try and walk to school more often than not.  It means having to get out the door a bit earlier than if we drive, but the time walking is so precious to me.  It takes us about 20 minutes and we just walk and chat and enjoy small details of God's creation that we would miss if we were driving by.  Seth has always ridden in the stroller, but he has started walking lately, which is fun.  And, when I say that they walk, I mean they run, balance, skip, hop, you name it, they do it! 

As we have been walking to school, we have developed all these little rituals.  One of the 4th grade teachers also walks to school most days, and we kind of judge how we are doing, time wise, by where we are when he passes us.  There is a beautiful church with a courtyard that we cut through.  We always stop there and smell roses and compare which colors smell better and if the buds smell better than the open roses.  There is a chain blocking off the church parking lot that the kids always run and jump over.  On the way home from dropping the girls off, Seth and I always stop and say hi to a the llama and goat that live at a house near the school.

Last year we frequently found money when we were walking to school, so this year we decided to collect it all in a jar, and see how much we have by the last day of school.  So far we have 87 cents!  Also, we are tallying how many days we walk and how many we drive, so we can look back over the year and hopefully see that we walked WAY more than we drove.  So far, so good.  We'll see what happens as it starts to get colder:)