Steve's new hat

Wes knitted Steve a beanie for Christmas. Steve wore it to the hardware store yesterday. Not sure why Wes used the colors he did but Steve wore it nonetheless. Wes said he was embarrassed by his dad, especially when Steve put in his Billy Bob fake teeth. (must be a guy thing)

It was driving me crazy

I might have issues. I hate a cluttered house. And during Christmas time it is extremely cluttered. Not only has our house shrunk this year (remember we went from 5 bedrooms to 3?) but then you add Christmas decorations to it and I have probably had 3-4 panic attacks about my messy house. I can't stand it when the other 4 members of this family just dump their stuff anywhere they want. There is a place for everything..pretty much.

Anyway, Christmas day literally pushed me over the edge. And here's why. Wes decided to clean out his room on Christmas Eve and give Brock his toys/books/etc. that he has outgrown. And fair enough, we had been keeping things there just because it was easier. Then Christmas morning came. A ton of presents now had to be put away. And here is how the house looked:

I can't even look at this picture without my heart racing. That is HORRIBLE!! So, 6 hours or more later, all three kids' rooms have their new presents organized, old toys in trash bags for donation and items to be used later are headed to the storage sheds in the backyard. I did not sit down until 8:00 pm on Christmas Day. But my house is as close to clutter free as I can get it before the Christmas decorations come down. I know, I have issues.

Santa came

Santa came to our house. And ate all the cookies we left out for him. His note says, Dear Wes, Brock & Lynzy, Thank you for the delicious cookies. Be good. Love, Santa. Wasn't that nice of him to leave a note?


Santa took Brock's tricycle back to the North Pole last week and as Wesley says, "Chick Pimped It." Lynzy's new tricycle has streamers, a basket, and LYNZY on the back. Brock's got a new two-wheeled bike with training wheels (Santa told me it only cost $10 at a thrift store...Santa is sure thrifty:)

Lynzy got a lot of Tinkerbell stuff. This blanket and pillow were from Auntie Darlene.

Check out her Diva slippers

Christmas was a lot of fun this year. We actually got bored with unwrapping all the presents. Steve kept saying..how much did you spend?? I just kept repeating, I went to thrift stores for almost all of it so calm down. Plus our family kicked in a ton. Thanks to GGS, Grandma & Grandpa, Granddad & Grandma C, and Auntie Darlene & family! It turned out to be a wonderful Christmas!

Christmas Elf

My mom heard about this on a radio show a couple of years ago and now we have adopted it as our family's tradition. We have been doing this for about 3 years now. The Christmas Elf brings each kid new pajamas on Christmas Eve. They are already washed and ready for wearing after their bath. It has become an exciting part of our Christmas Eve.

We made cookies for Santa

Of course, we made cookies for Santa. Sugar cookies with lots of frosting. Sorry Bourne clan, just couldn't make myself roll out the dough and cut out shaped cookies. Maybe when the kids are older.

Here is Lynzy helping color the frosting - can you tell what color?

Our friend Susie came over to help decorate. I learned this trick from preschool. One cookie per plate and that's what kids work on. Otherwise, it's crazy and everyone touches everyone else's cookies.

Pre-Christmas Visit

Grandma and Grandpa came to visit us the week before Christmas. Grandma got the supreme pleasure of coming with us to Brock's preschool party. Santa came to visit and Brock asked for games. Lynzy screamed her head off and refused to sit on Santa's lap. Just 3 minutes before that, she was waving at Santa and telling me, "Mommy, that's Santa" and laughing. I guess he's more easily taken from afar.



JCPenney Portaits has it's perks but thanks to them, my son feels that he has to pose with his hand up for almost every picture. *sigh*

We won't win any contests

Our first gingerbread house.

We/I learned the following things:

The foam Christmas tree project surrounding the gingerbread house was a lot easier.

Too many hands in a project drives me crazy.

When the instructions say allow 2-3 hours for the icing to dry before attempting to add the roof...that they are correct.

That kids would rather eat all of the house than decorate it.

Out of the mouths of my babes...

These are sayings that originated with the adults in this household but have now migrated to the little people:

"I said..." (either before or after the sentence such as Get me more snacks, I said)
"We share in this family" (pronounced fam-e-lee)
"You are in timeout for 3 minutes."
"We don't sit on tables."
"It's for daddy's business."
"It's from Avon."

It's almost been a month

since I've posted. Sorry, it's been busy and I literally haven't taken many pictures.

But I do have a random story about Brock that does include one picture.

One day after Lynzy was napping, I was laying down on Brock's bottom bunk bed reading my Parents magazine when he climbed up, leaned over and kissed the back cover of my magazine. That was really odd. I had no idea why he did that until I turned it over and this is what I saw.







I guess he likes Drew Barrymore.