Christmas!

Christmas this year was just as I wanted it:  Home alone with the kids!

There is just something about being home on Christmas and having that tradition with my family that I love.  On Christmas Eve we went to the church service and then came home to a roast in the crock pot.

We made sure to leave out milk and cookies before bed for Santa to enjoy.  At which Kyler got upset and began to cry because he didn't want to share the cookies with Santa but instead wanted to eat them himself! :)  Love that little guy.  He quickly got over it and both kids went to bed surprisingly easy.

Then at 3:15 Grace came into our room and came over to my side of the bed and started talking really loudly.  She said she saw Santa had come and the milk and cookies were gone and she saw that when she was going downstairs to see if I was down there typing (transcribing).  I rolled over and told her that it was still the middle of the night and she needed to go back to bed!

Not too long later she came in and started talking to Dustin saying she couldn't sleep.  I think she laid in our bed for awhile before Dustin finally took her back to her room and laid down with her for awhile until she fell back asleep.  She said she couldn't get back to sleep because she was so just excited to open presents!

Finally, around 7:45 on Christmas morning I heard Grace run like an elephant out to the living room.  She saw that Santa brought her a present and it wasn't wrapped!  That woke Kyler up and he sprinted out to the living room as well!  It was so fun to see how incredibly excited they were and just how fun it was for them!  It was exactly what I had envisioned and why I am so adamant that my children get to have Christmas morning at home.  

Here they are with their presents from Santa:

I had made a coffeecake the day before so we just heated it up and had some breakfast.  After that was cleaned up it was time for presents! 





Grace really wanted an iPad but that is just WAY too expensive so we found a kid's tablet on a super sale and she was very happy with that!  Kyler really wanted a Husker helmet and a drum and trumpet and we were able to get him all three of those!  They were both pretty happy and had some fun things in their stockings as well!

We celebrated Christmas with Dustin's family the weekend before Christmas and have yet to celebrate with my family this coming weekend, which is always fun with five little kids running around!

Merry Christmas!

Catch up

Again, I am terrible at this blogging thing!  I guess I shouldn't be too surprised with how busy my day to day life is!

Halloween was a fun time with the kids even though it was COLD this year!  We have been spoiled the last few years and now are remembering what it's like to have a typical Nebraska Halloween.  The kids still had fun and got to go trick or treating!

Here are two of my favorite Halloween pictures from this year:



Thanksgiving was also a good time and we had enough turkey to keep us full for awhile and not want to have turkey for awhile!

Grace has been doing great at school and has learned SO MUCH!  Kyler is still doing well at home with me but says he misses Grace during the day.  We have a pretty good routine down and it seems to work for everyone.