A look back at Christmas

We had a wonderful holiday break that went by so fast and now it's March. Here is a bit of what we did before Christmas. It took us a little longer than usual to get our decorations up but once we did it was beautiful and made the house feel like Christmas.

We had two trees again this year. Our big beautiful real tree with our many many ornaments and a little artificial tree that we decorated with all the handmade decorations the boys have made over the years. I love this tree

Liam, Declan and Grayson were asked to be in Gramma's Christmas children's program. They were so cute and had fun participating. Liam was Harold the Angel, Grayson was a cow an Declan was Joseph.

 Just before break Liam had a holiday program at school. He played the Orff Xylophone for the first time. His music teacher worked hard to get enough of these special xylophones for everyone to learn how to play. They sounded great.

Of course, with seven children (Lindsey and the girls came to visit) and four adults we were bound to have at least one child be sick at some point. Well, on Friday night Grayson's eye was looking a bit weird. He was not happy that I was taking him to urgent care. Tristan begin the awesome big brother that he is came with Grayson and me and helped a lot with keeping Grayson calm.He had an ear infection and pink eye.

Christmas Eve started with a phone call to the doctors office asking for eye drops for Liam who had woken up with pink eye. Then Lindsey and I took off for the Urgent Care again. This time it was with her girls. They both had ear infections and respiratory infections. Poor girls were there for over two hours. 

After the long day at the doctor. Some of us went to the Christmas Eve service at Gramma's church. It is always nice service ending with candles lit and Silent Night.

 After a great dinner Declan, H, and Grayson sat and watched the fire a bit.

Christmas Day
Such a fun, crazy filled day. There is still so much joy excitement and love in our house Christmas morning. I love the anticipation of the Santa surprises. One of my most favorite thing of the season is how much all the boys love to give each other gifts and can't wait to see each other open the gift they picked for each other.

Happy Halloween and Happy Fall

Happy Halloween

Grayson as Death Stroke, Declan the Ghost, Tristan as the Red Hood, Colin as Dead Shot and Liam as Captain Boomerang.

Daddy put a lot of time and work into making the three big boys costumes again this year. I love how excited they all are for the day. They decided on everyone being a bad guy from a super hero series. I'd say Halloween on a Monday makes things a bit crazy but I guess Halloween in general makes the day crazy.

The Red Hood (from Batman) Dead Shot (from Green Arrow)

Declan's costume was made by Gramma and Mommy added a few layers. It was the forever growing Ghost. It was made from cheese cloth and would stretch while he wore it. I think it turned out very cute.  Liam was bit hot as Captain Boomerang.

Mr. Grayson certainly did not want a cute little costume he insisted on Death Stroke a bad guy from Green Arrow. I think he just really liked the fact that it had a sword.

Some pre-Halloween fun included a trunk-or-treat at Gramma's church. Tristan and Colin decorated her trunk. It turned out very cute.

Of course, we had a gooey fun time gutting and carving pumpkins.

We also had a few good days at the pumpkin patches. One day we all spent the afternoon exploring  at a new place. However, they did not have the tasty treat of apple donuts so we had to go check out another place when Liam and Declan had the day off from school. 

The orchard we went to just a few minutes away in Council Bluffs the boys were able to pick apples. They were so excited and had a great time climbing in trees and picking apples. 

We also were able to pick our own pumpkins from the patch. Even though we were there pretty late in the season there were many to chose from and they were all huge!

Declan and Grayson found that rolling the pumpkin down the hill was much easier.

We also went to Skinny Bones Pumpkin Patch with the whole family earlier in the week. They had many fun activities for everyone to do. 

Colin all skin and bones these days.

 The jumping pillow is always a fun time.

 We had some scary encounters.

Daddy had fun in the crooked house.

Declan on an epic bike ride.

Happy Fall