The holiday's all kicked off with Grandpa John and Grandma Julie coming up for a visit. They wanted to take the boys to get new bikes for Christmas. My only rule was that the bikes needed to be ones that would last them awhile and they weren't allowed to get character themed bikes. Spencer wanted bright orange, Easton went for black and Nolan's is silver and blue. The boys walk past their bikes in the garage every day and point out how excited they are for when they can finally ride them.
The boys did a lot of swimming with Grandma and Grandpa at their hotel. Here Grandpa John is pretending to call the police because the boys were being so loud in the hotel pool
They also spent a lot of time playing floor hockey. Uncle JB was also able to come for a visit. The boys couldn't wait to put him in the net. They even made him wear a helmet!
Do you know what happens at our house when you throw tantrum after tantrum at the dinner table? We send you up to your room. Hopefully we will remember to come and get you again. This night however I forgot Nolan was up there and it had been awhile. I assumed he was with everyone else downstairs. Ryan went up to check on him and found him like this...
Chippy brought our ginger bread making kit...
Grandma and Grandpa were happy to help put them together.
The boys got to open their other presents from them.
We got family packer pjs! Pretty exciting…..
I finally got the email the boys have been waiting for. They were hoping Santa would email to tell them if they had been on the naughty or nice list. Easton was pretty positive he was on the naughty list. I was also sort of tempted to put him on the naughty list but didn't want to traumatize him to much. So he was shocked and talked about it for a solid 2 days about how he was actually on the nice list.
Saying good bye to JB, Grandpa and Grandma is always hard to do. Spencer always takes it the hardest and sobs for awhile after they are gone. Too bad they don't live closer.
The boys love their Packer pjs though.
I always love seeing the hand made gifts the boys make.
Easton has a prayer partner at school. Some how we signed him up for this program but it's someone who says and extra prayer or 10 for Easton and lets him know they are thinking of him. At Halloween his prayer parent gave him a frosty coupon and for Christmas she sent along a football. I need to find out a way to say thank you to this stranger and tell her to pray a little harder for him! :)
We started off Christmas Eve morning by making yummy pretzel rods.
Then it was off to the kid's service at church. The boys all got to be part of the nativity scene.
We came back home to make a few more cookies for Santa.
Our snowmen weren't looking so hot.
We had a candle lit dinner that night.
Since we had gotten the boys skis for Christmas they weren't getting anything else from us. However I did take each of them out shopping so they could pick out a special gift to give to their brother. I only set a price limit otherwise the ideas were all theirs. So on Christmas eve night they all exchanged gifts. They were happy to watch each other open gifts and to see what they got.
They also got their Christmas pjs from us.
We quickly put out the carrots and water for the reindeer…..
The boys were tracking Santa on their iPads and started to get nervous the closer he got. I've never seen them rush off to bed so fast nor fall asleep so quickly! The cookies and milk were out.
While the boys slept Santa came and did his magic.
Spencer was the first awake and was a bit confused about there only being 1 drum set until he realized it was his. He loves the drum set. It has been confirmed though that our neighbors can hear it when he bangs really loud. So we will have to set some limits I think.
Next up was Nolan. He was a bit confused by it all.
But was overly excited when he saw that he got skittles.
Easton was the last one up and finally I had to go and wake him. He was happy to see Santa didn't forget that he wanted a skateboard.
Finally the moment they had been waiting for. It was time to open their presents from Santa.
Paw Patrol pups. Only Easton reminded me that it was him that had asked for them.
Overall the boys were happy with their gifts. Since Christmas morning it's been a constant opening of boxes to try out their new things.
We left our house a complete mess as it was time to head to Grandma and Grandpa's.
We had Christmas lunch and the boys got to drink out of real wine glasses.
We took our traditional Santa hat picture. Only I later found out my camera was taking pretty blurry pictures.
Then it was time to open again. We gave Finley a snowboard.
Hadley got the Glam Camper from us for her barbies.
All 3 boys got a karaoke machine from Grandma. That should fit in perfectly with the drum set!
Nolan sure does love his Grandpa!
One of Ryan's favorite gifts were original seats from County Stadium where the Brewers use to play. Now to figure out where a good place to put them in our house.
We continued with our gag gift exchange. Grandpa is always falling asleep in random places so he got a "Just Resting My Eye Kit."
Heather won't let Patrick hang his Elk head on their wall so he printed a picture of someone she loves even more. Its a picture of Patrick and Scott Walker (only she doesn't love Scott Walker!)
Patrick is always loosing things so this could help him out.
Heather created the many hats of Grandpa…. Vacation planner
Bargin hunter…
Holiday planner….
This one was the best. The sign said "Dog Saver" It's a puppy hat if you can't tell.
Ryan got clips/leashes to keep track of hats and mittens since ours seem to disappear around here under his watch.
Even with the craziness of the holidays they boys still had hockey. Nolan was taking pictures in the lobby.
Little Easton still loves to skate.
The boys got sleeping bags from grandma and insisted on trying them out one night. Imagine the morning breath going back and forth in this picture!
Ryan took the boys to Under Water world while I was busy taking down all the Christmas decorations.
I found out this week that Spencer has attempted kissing some girls on the bus! When I asked him why he told me it was because they are pretty. Ugh! So we had a long talk about how it's not ok to kiss girls on the bus. One of them is actually his friend. We invited her over to play one afternoon in hopes to encourage just a healthy friendship. She fits in great here because she is a tomboy. She loves to play hockey with the boys and put together lego sets.
We also went outside to go sledding and snowboarding.
The boys got a lot of new games this year for Christmas so it's been fun playing new things. They love this game called Spot It.
Today we finished off our weekend by going to the big hill by our house to sled. Spencer is positive he is going to the Olympics for snowboard. I guess we will have to wait and see what the future holds.
