Christmas Part 4-Christmas In Vermont

 

The girls woke up so super excited Christmas morning.  It was great to have both of my brothers and their wives there, and my sister Melissa, who had stayed with us for a little while.  A bunch of us sat at the top of the stairs with the girls while everyone else made sure things were ready downstairs.  Once we headed down though all you could hear were a bunch of excited squeals.  Here's a few pictures from that morning.

 

Genni with her gifts from both of her Great Grandparents on my side.

Genni with her gifts from Santa-a bunch of new books.

Georgia and her Santa gift-a Monster High Frankie Stein doll.

Georgia and her Magic School Bus Science Kit that my Dad's parents gave her.

My Mom's parents made the girls a ton of puppets and a puppet theater.  Gracie is playing with one of the puppets in this picture.

 

Gracie's Santa gift-a Monster High Draculara doll.

Gwen playing with another one of the puppets the my Mom's parents gave the girls.  You can also see her science kit there on the floor that my Dad's parents gave her (Gracie got one too).



 Gwen's Santa gift-a Monster High Clawdeen doll.

We once again read a part of the Christmas story from the scriptures to the girls every day as we counted down to Christmas, and between that and the happy looks on my girl's faces each time they opened a new present, we ended Christmas day with my heart filling full and blessed, and looking forward to the new year!

Christmas Part 3-Christmas Sunday & Christmas Eve

 

The Sunday before Christmas we got the girls all dressed up in their matching dresses, curled the older three's hair, and took pictures of them right after church.

 

Genesis

 

Georgia

 

Grace

 

Gwenyth

 

After which we just relaxed, had fun with my family, and prepared for Christmas Eve and Christmas.  My sister in law Jamie and I had a massive Christmas cookie making marathon one of the days, and we helped my mom make pies and food for Christmas Eve.  It was a lot of fun.

 

We did a lot that night.  We had a yummy dinner, cut out Christmas cookies from sugar cookie dough, played Christmas Bingo, read The Night Before Christmas, and decorated the cookies.  Yummy!!

 

Through it all Genni just kind of watched and acted like a normal 4 month old...eat, sleep, poop, repeat.  She was rather curious about things going on though.

 After all the fun was over, the girls opened their traditional Christmas Eve present-Christmas PJ's-then put on the PJ's and went to bed.  We had a lot of fun filled days, and we were ready for more!!

Christmas Part 2-Christmas In Texas

 

We knew that with going to Vermont for Christmas that we wouldn't be able to take all the presents with us.  It would just have cost too much.  So we did the same thing as last year and had our own little Christmas the Monday before we left.  That way the girls had a couple of days to play with their new things.

 

Genni and her bear blanket.

 

A new dress for Genni...she tried to eat it.

 

Georgia and her first ever Wii game.

 

Georgia's big gift from Rob and I was BIG.  She is so into Barbies and Princess dolls, and wanted this cruise ship so badly, and thanks to a lovely little sale, it cost the same as the other girls big gifts.

 Each of the girls got a new outfit...Gracie was really pleased with hers.

 

Gracie's big gift.  It was one of the few things she asked for.

 

Gwen was really excited to get an actual video game to play.  Smarty pants has already beat it.

Gwen's big gift.  This was the only thing Gwen asked to get for Christmas.  She asked so many times I lost count.  So she was pretty happy when she saw it.

We had a great time having our own little Christmas, and I am glad the girls had the chance to play with their new toys before leaving for 2 1/2 weeks.  It made coming back to them that much more exciting!

Christmas Part 1-Getting Ready For Christmas

 

We had planned early in the year to spend our Christmas vacation in Vermont with our families, but we still wanted our home to feel festive.  When I think about Christmas and all the good memories I have of it, I think of snow and cold.  So it was really hard for me, and Robbie too, to get really festive and excited this year about Christmas because it just didn't feel like Christmas here.  This is the first year we have had to adjust to having warm weather in December instead of cold weather-it was nice and chilly in Oklahoma so this was pretty new to us.

 

We decorated the house the first day of December not only to help us feel festive, but so the girls could enjoy it all before we left for vacation.

 

Their favorite part every year?  Decorating the tree!!

 

 

 

Later that night was our ward Christmas party.  We decided to go, and it was pretty fun.  The girls certainly enjoyed it, especially when Santa showed up.  We were only able to get Gracie and Gwen to sit on Santa's lap though.  The baby was grumpy and Georgia would not get anywhere near him.

 

 Gwen's art skills have really developed over the past year, and she surprised us that following Sunday when she came out of her class with this:

 

She did such a good job drawing the Nativity, and we proudly hung it up as part of our decorations!!  The excitement had begun!!

Snow Fun

 

I think one of the things the girls looked forward to the most when we went back to Vermont for Christmas was snow.  They didn't have any when we first got back there, but shortly before Christmas it snowed one night around dinner time.  Gwen was so thrilled!!  She and my dad had been spending some one on one time together, so when they saw the snow, he got her some snow gear, turned on the outside light, and let her go outside.  He came and got me to show me what Gwen was doing.

 

I found Gwen running around in a giant circle in the snow, laughing and grinning like crazy and throwing snow in the air.  The only way I can really describe how she was acting is to say that she was throwing a celebration in the snow, for the snow.  You could tell that she was just filled with joy for finally getting to see and play in some snow.  It is one of my favorite parts of our vacation, and a memory that I will forever cherish.

 

The next day they all went out to play in the snow and had a blast.  They made snow angels...

 

 

 

...and went sledding.  They had such a great time and I'm glad that they had the opportunity to experience snow once again since we don't get it here.

 

A few days after we went to Rob's parents to visit them, we got a really big snow storm, so while I stayed inside to watch Genni and my niece, my mother in law and sister in law went outside with my kids and my other niece and they all played in the snow.  They had such a blast playing in the front yard, and running around in the snow.  Robbie took them sledding down a big hill in front of the local elementary school a couple times while we were there too, and the girls just loved it.  All the snow play is something that the girls still talk about.

 

 

I am so grateful they had the chance to play in the snow again!!

Gwens Christmas Program

 

Right before Christmas I had the opportunity (because I am the assistant class mom) to go into the girls school one day and help Gwen's teacher and the other classroom mom make Christmas shirts for the whole class.  Two kids came into a spare room we were set up in at a time, and we painted one of their feet with dark brown fabric paint, then both of their hands with light brown fabric paint, and made them look like reindeer heads.  We also glued on sparkles for the nose, drew on eyes with a fabric pen, and glued on a bowtie for the boys shirts, and a bow for the girls shirts.  It was a lot of fun meeting all the kids and seeing all their personalities.

 

The reason they did these shirts, and not just with Gwen's class but with the whole first grade, is that the kids were scheduled to go sing Christmas songs at one of the hospitals here in town.  The parents were invited to come and watch the kids sing, so I headed over with the younger two.

 

It was hard to see Gwen at first, because they were on the main stairs, and with the way they built the hospital, the ceiling of the front entry and information center blocks the view of the main stairs until you get up close.  I was able to find a spot to watch Gwen (who is standing right below the view of the ceiling on the left right next to the railing).  She did such a good job and was so tickled that I was there to see her.  I love my little peanut!!

 

I don't know if these are the titles of the songs, but I tried my best to name them close to the title if it's not the actual title.

 

Christmas Makes Me

 

Little Lord Jesus

 

We Wish You A Merry Christmas

Genesis At 4 Months Old

 

A few photos of my little fluffy baby from when she was 4 months old!!

 

In Robbie's favorite outfit.

A brand new winter hat...that's a wee bit too big.

What a cutie pie!!