Christmas Eve and Christmas morning

This year we decided as a family to make all of our gifts to each other instead of buying them. It was so much fun to see what the kids came up with and to see them get so excited about making and giving their gifts. I even made the kids a homemade tee pee. I was so excited and nervous. I didn't start making it until a couple of days before Christmas and everything that could go wrong did, until finally my machine just stopped sewing. Luckily a friend let me borrow hers and I was able to finish and it turned out great. On Christmas eve we had to put the finishing touches on all of the gifts. This is Makelle with Dad making a coloring book for Zak with tons of animal pictures and fun facts pasted at the bottom. It was a big hit! Zak built this carrying thing all by himself and was so excited to paint it Makelle's favorite colors. He built if for her to carry her makeup in but I'm not so sure she will use it for that!
This is a picture the kids took of John and I. John looks so excited to be with me! Don't look to close at the haircut, John cut it for me again, but this time it was the whole thing start to finish. The front is great and the back is fine, but the sides need a little work. Next time will be perfection. He is way more brave than I am to just start cutting my hair, or am I the brave one letting him go to town on my hair?
Christmas eve we let the kids open a present from Grandma Valynn. She made them Scripture people costumes and they were very excited to do the nativity in their fancy clothes.
Mary holding her baby in swaddling clothes. These kids never get sick of dressing up and I love to take their pictures.
Lantz loves to play in the cupboards and destroy the kitchen.
We had to put our oats and sprinkle reindeer food outside for Santa's reindeer and we left Lantz in the warm house.
We didn't have snow to sprinkle the food on so we decided to put it up on the roof for the reindeer.
And some down below just in case.
The reindeer are spoiled at our house!
We had a great Christmas eve. We didn't do a whole lot but we played tons together and that is what the kids love the most. We ate, had root beer floats, and put the reindeer food out and then we were rushed to bed. This was such a fun year for Zak he was so worried when it got dark and he wanted us to hurry to bed. Oh the excitement of kids is what makes Christmas so fun. We put the kids to bed and John and I got Christmas ready and then I cleaned the house. We went to bed and a few hours later I woke up sick and throwing up but I was feeling lots better a few hours later when the kids woke up and I got to enjoy the rest of Christmas feeling great. Luckily no one else seems to have gotten the bug, knock on wood.

Christmas morning was fantastic. The kids were so excited to get their toy kitchen. Santa brought it for all three of them and all three of them love it. Zak kept saying I didn't even ask for this but Santa knew I wanted one and would love it. They feed us food about twenty times a day now! They were also very excited about the huge tent. Zak was relieved to see that it wasn't pants that I had been sewing for him. He was so worried.

Lantz was a little un sure of what he was supposed to do and what all the fuss was about. Mostly he wanted to get every one's candy.
Lantz got a little toy car from Grandma Joan and Grandpa Bagley. He loves cars and he has started making the vroom vroom sound!

Zak and Makelle both made Lantz homemade shakers. They glued, painted, and wrapped them for him. He sure loved shaking them.
The kids were so excited to give me a wallet holder, since I always loose my wallet. They hand sewed it for me to hang up on the wall. Sooo creative. Luckily John wrote inside the wrapping paper what it was!! They were very pleased with themselves. They made homemade picture frames for their dad and a "secret safe".

One of Zak's favorite things was a picture book of all is aunts, cousins, and grandparents in Springville. He loved looking at everyone he misses. Thanks Grandma Valynn!
Emily sent movies for the kids and Grandma Joan and Grandpa Bagley gave Makelle a new coat and rain boots. She wore the coat for all of her present unwrapping and the rain boots have yet to be taken off.
John had a big yummy breakfast planned but since I was sick we decided to save it for another day. We settled on simple cereal. Lantz though it tasted better on John's lap!
We had a great Christmas and hope you did too! We are so grateful for all of our family and friends. We are so blessed to have so many great people in our lives. Zak said that this was his bestest Christmas ever and he never wanted the day to end. It doesn't get any better than that. Merry Christmas!

Christmas, Christmas, and more Christmas

We have a had a great month with John home and getting ready for Christmas.

Some of our great friends (we call them family) invited several young families over last Sunday to reenact the nativity and eat treats. Zak and Makelle were both shepherds and they had a great time!Makelle is the cutest shepherd I have ever seen.
I thought we were going to get out of haveing our own kid Christmas party because they got invited to so many other kids parties, but we still had to have our own. The kids favorite game was pin the nose on rudolph. They also had fun making their own marshmellow snowmen.

We played the gift exchange game and they had fun getting treats, lip gloss, and glow sticks.

Lantz's first hair cut!

The little guy got his first time with the clippers. He did great most of the time until he got sick of it.
Here's the Big Boy!

It's a good thing she is cute because she is a stinker!

Tonight I was doing a Christmas craft with Zak and Makelle was playing with a squirt gun. She was squirting it all over the house so I told her to squirt it in the bathtub. Lantz and Makelle were both in the bathroom playing for a while, and I thought they were just squirting water. Well, Zak got done with his project and went into the bathroom and he started getting mad at them for making a huge mess and saying they were going to get in huge trouble when Mom saw what they did. So I go around the
corner expecting to see a huge water mess when what to my wondering eyes would appear........Lantz and Makelle on the floor with a tub of Vaseline and Makelle rubbing it all around Lantz'a head. It was so thick on his head it looked like soap suds. Ya well that was real fun to clean up after an hour long bath and a gazillion scrubbings they are still grease balls. No picture of that excitement, as I just was trying to contain the grease mess. But here is Makelle in one of her more sweet moments.

At least she is playing with her nail polish on the table on her fingers and toes instead of her brothers head!

It's Beginning To Look Like Christmas!

The kids got to see Santa after their storytime at the library. They were so excited to say the least!Lantz just stared at Santa for a good five minutes and then turned to get off!

Zak telling Santa he has been a good boy and all he wants this year!
Makelle was very excited to talk to Santa and she wanted whatever Zak wanted but she wanted hers pink!

The kids heard about playing Mary and Joseph at church so when we got home we got to dress up and play!




We got our first snow last week. I could barely tell if it was frost or snow because there was hardly anything. The kids noticed it a 7:30am so they ate their breakfast and got all of their snow clothes on and headed outside. They had fun making snowballs to throw at each other!

Crazy kids and lots of family fun!

Lantz has turned into quite the little stinker these days. He loves to stand up in his bed and throw out all of his pacifiers instead of going down for a nap. He also knows when he is about to do something naughty because he looks at me and then he goes for it all while looking at me. He is starting to imitate things that we do like blowing bubbles and making sounds. He loves to chase and play peek-a-bo0. His favorite thing by far is to be in his high chair eating. He is also climbing onto things and he can walk around the furniture. Let's just say my house looks like a tornado came thru because there are Christmas decorations everywhere. Oh, well I wouldn't want it any other way. He is definitely turning in to a mamma's boy. Lately whenever John is home he just wants me to hold him and he won't just play around. Probably because when John comes home I have to leave somewhere. Hopefully he will get over this soon or it will be a long month.

Makelle has this new thing where she puts her hand on her hip for everything while she is talking, sitting, standing, doing anything. What a cutie. She can ride her bike really good now so she wants to go for a bike ride everyday. Now that it is cold she decides to ride her bike. What a stinker. Makelle was saying the prayer the other day and she always prays for Grandma and Grandpa to drive home safe and she prays for Jesus. Well in this prayers she got confused and said please help Grandma and Grandpa to go home safe to Jesus. Really hope that prayer isn't answered in the near future. I never laugh in prayers but it was so cute and I looked at John smiling and it made me laugh. Then I felt so guilty and Zak gave me a ten minute lecture about not laughing or opening our eyes during the prayer. Tonight John and the kids were eating at the table while I was at the sink. I was telling John a story and he wasn't commenting and after a few minutes Makelle said, "Mom who are you talking to, yourself?"

Zak has had his share of doctor appointments this month but he is doing great. The cardiologist was able to verify with an echo that his heart murmur is innocent so that was great, and now we don't ever have to worry about that again. We had a little scare the day after Thanksgiving, when we thought he had a hernia. We took him to see the doctor and they were afraid it was a testicular torsion. We had to get him to the children's hospital in Louisville so they could take an ultrasound to verify the diagnosis and then send him in for surgery. Thanks to a blessing, lots of prayers, and fasting we were able to get a little miracle. After four doctors, 6 hours, many tests and pictures he was diagnosed with an infection and prescribed an antibiotic. Thanks for the prayers and helping that miracle to happen. The medicine is working, his swelling has gone down and it doesn't hurt anymore so life is good. Tonight the kids were roasting marshmallows over the stove and after they were done Zak put his hand on the stove so now he has a huge blister on his hand. Guess he won't do that again!

John has a few days left of school and then next week is finals. It is crazy to think we are almost done with our first semester of dental school. We are so excited to have him him for several weeks. Maybe we'll take a little trip somewhere close by or maybe I'll just get all my honey do's done!!

Life is busy and crazy and then sometimes not but it is great! I love this time of year and I am excited to enjoy the Christmas spirit everyday. I have to remind myself that what my kids want most is a nice and happy mom which is always easier said than done. I did take a day for myself last weekend and went to a Gap and Old Navy clearance store, not an outlet, a clearance store. It was fantastic and worth the two hour drive. The most I paid was fifteen bucks for some huge nice winter coats for my kids. I got some jeans, khaki's, and sweaters for 7-10 bucks. It was amazing!! Thanks to Amanda for introducing me.

It is starting to get cold here. I guess it is December so that should be expected but it was so nice for so long and now it is COLD!!


Zak's latest injury of burning his hand. He wanted me to send this to everyone so they could pray for him!

John and the kids "roasting marshmallows over an open fire".
Buds
Just sharing a drink together in their hut.
Lantz getting ready to eat Zak's boot and John scratching not picking his nose.
The boys made a hut while Makelle and I were out playing in the rain.
Makelle showing you her tonsils!
Makelle begged and begged me to go play in the rain, so of course I did. She loved it and there is the perfect beautiful smile to prove it.


Some of our friends invited us over to make Christmas cookies. We had a great time and love doing things with them and getting to play at their house. I was too slow to get a good picture, especially of Makelle just sticking her hand in the frosting and get a handful of frosting to eat. She had it clear up in her nose.
We made reindeer handbands and taped on noses to be reindeer. The kids loved crawling around and pulling Santa's sleigh. This is all of the reindeer nose kissing.
Here is the littlest reindeer. He was so confused at what was going on.

We were watching Karter and my kids love to babysit and play with him so they wanted a picture.
We made gingerbread houses for FHE and the kids did great on their own mini houses.


Lantz getting Zak's sucker from him after Zak was just giving him a lick. Good luck getting that back Zak! Lantz can stand up in his high chair and grab a hold of Zak during dinner and try to get him and his food. What a stink.

Lantz after he figured out how to climb on to the trampoline.
Still his favorite place.