Before life so rudely interrupted my blogging endeavors????
Such is life with the Lewallens....always something more important going on than my blogging hobby. Guess that explains why I'm always trying to play catch up. But, seriously, what Momma would rather be blogging than throwing birthday parties and visiting with the grandparents?
So we will just do the best we can to document the rest of December. Mostly in pictures, using words only when I seem to deem it necessary to explain the photos.
So here to get us started with wrapping up the holidays are L. Fee and Grandaddy L. Fee showing off the rest of their zany hiding spots....
The boys really did enjoy waking up each morning looking for their elves. We will be happy to see them return next year.
I am certain that we will continue our Random Acts of Christmas Kindness next year as well. We really did have a great time doing those each day. Here are a few more pictures of things we did for that...
Left this pretty poinsettia on a neighbors front porch.
Made a prayer pail for our family to use. Each stick has a name or group written on it and at each meal whomever is praying draws a stick and prays for that person or group of people when they pray for our meal. It has been really cool to hear the boys pray for the people they draw. I think I like it mostly because it makes them think about what they are praying instead just doing the usual "hurry up it's time to eat" prayer.
These crayons and coloring books were fixed up to take to Forza and leave as entertainment for the children who come in to hang out at the coffee shop with their parents.
Kade and Ryne didn't mind making that delivery and having themselves a steamer while they got to be the first to use the coloring books.
My other favorite that we did was taking boxes of cookies to people working on Christmas Eve. It was super cool to see the reactions of people working at hotel front desks and gas stations when we said, "Merry Christmas, this is for you since you are working on Christmas Eve." I think I will try to do even more of those next year.
Oh, and there was more Christmas party with our Life Group that I didn't get to share....
Check out that awesome sweater of Dave's. His pretty girls look proud, don't they?
Kyle had a nice sweater of his own. Getting us started with our annual game of Christmas carol pictionary.
Jonathan was sporting a nice stocking on his shirt. I loved it!
Of course we had to play "face off" again it was so much fun at our first party. Adri gets it started right.
Cindy taking a turn.
Chelo had the best faces for getting that cookie to her mouth. I'm thinking this will become another Christmas party tradition for us.
The kiddos worked hard painting some ornaments.
See that cup of paintbrushes? Well, I found it a couple of days later sitting in an odd spot where I had put it when cleaning up the party...all brushes completely loaded up with globs of dry paint. I tried to save them. No luck...threw them away. I'm sure my boys will enjoy getting new paintbrushes for their next painting project.
We did have one more Christmas Party. It was our Life Church staff party. Did not involve me having to clean the house....nice! Plus it was extra nice because we got to hang out with these people...
So thankful that we get to do Life with these folks. They are amazing! We love you Derek, Alissa, Arin and Kristy!!
Okay, what's next????
How bout some cute babies....
They really are enjoying getting to go to Life Babies at church.
I'm thinking they claim those Bumbos their sitting in as theirs.
This was about the last time they felt good before the week of Christmas.
And since they got sick, sadly, I didn't take very many pictures of them in all the adorable Christmas outfits they had to wear. Guess you will just have trust me on that one.
Oh look, here is Tesa sporing one of her Christmas shirts. I did have a blue bow on her sweet little head to prevent any confusion but guess that bow missed the memo that we were going to be taking a picture.
Party clothes!
Hard to believe that those sweet little babies were sick, huh? Well, they were. And it. was. NO. fun. But thankfully C.G. and Monk Monk showed up to help make things better. We really did have a great Christmas...sick babies and all.
You can see it all in pictures....
Got started a couple of days early by having a Skype Christmas with Paw, Granna, Uncle B, Aunt Kim, Brandon and Taylor.
Tesa was really getting the hang of tearing off that wrapping paper.
Does Tyce not look like he totally knows there is something in that package for him?
"Look what I got!"
Yay for some girl toys in our world!
And Christmas continued with a Christmas Eve Candle light service for church.
We did a community service and had over 200 people there. Wish I had gotten more pictures.
Here are a couple that I have....
My kiddos were all four dressed so cute and I didn't even get a picture of them all together.
I did get a picture of sweet Tesa...
Poor thing, can you tell how bad she was feeling?
Tyce wasn't feeling that bad...maybe it had something to do with his C.G. hanging on to him?
Definitely thankful for the extra hands with C.G. and Monk Monk that night.
And who knows, maybe next year I'll get that picture I wanted.
Oh, speaking of pictures, I almost forgot to show you this picture...
Kyle asked Kade to draw him a nativity picture that he could use as one of his backgrounds for the Christmas Eve service and this is what he did. I was quite proud of that little fella. And he was pretty excited to see his picture show up on the screen at church that night.
Then came Christmas morning....
Just imagine how pretty it would be if all the lights were working on the tree. ha! Something else to add to that "maybe next year" list along with that picture of all four kiddos all dressed up. Who knows, maybe I can take that picture in front of the tree with all the lights working. It's okay to set goals, right?
First things first, we opened our last book. Number 25 was the Bible. Kyle read the real Christmas story to us before the gift opening festivities began. We want to always be sure our children know the most important thing we do at Christmas is celebrate Jesus. My favorite part of the day was hearing them sing "Happy Birthday" to Jesus at the top of their lungs. It was as if they were expecting Him to show up and blow out some candles when they were done.
Kade's 5th Christmas and it hasn't lost any of the excitement for him.
Youngest to oldest for gift opening!
Tyce goes first.
With lots of support from his big brothers. Look, it is all the Lewallen boys!
Tesa was next.
Poor thing really didn't feel good. She seems to be thinking, "Do we really have to do this now?"
Well, maybe it was worth the cute pink seahorse. Now can I take a nap?
Kade and Ryne got to open their first gift together because they were getting the same thing....
HEXBUGS!!!!
If you haven't seen hexbugs you should check them out. Our boys were introduced to them at preschool and think they are the coolest things. Kind of look like little robotic cockroaches. I do have to admit that they are pretty cool.
Okay, if you insist, I will try this again.
Tesa's first baby doll. I might have been more excited about this present than Tesa. Buying a doll was lots of fun.
Ryne got his very own camera!!! Now I don't have to keep taking mine away from him.
Just look at that face trying to figure out what this is.
When he figured out it was for shining up his rock collection he was quite excited.
Say cheese!!
Monk Monk gets to help Tyce with his next present.
Hey, look, another present for me!
Mom got a turn.
So did Dad.
Wait, Dad, look here and let me get your picture.
I adore having another photographer in the house.
Kade and Ryne had both been dying to know what was in the really big box.
Corn Hole for Daddy!!! Now we just need summer to come back around so we can get outside and play.
Ryne and Kade both had big boxes from Monk Monk.
Both boxes were packed full of super hero goodies!
These boys do love their super heroes!
Another one for Mom.
And another for Dad.
More just alike gifts from Grandaddy and C.G. to open together.
Doesn't have a clue what it is but loves it already.
Kade, on the other hand was trying hard to figure out just what this thing was.
Once he understood what a LeapPad was, he was thrilled.
And this is how he felt about the games he got for his LeapPad.
Happy happy boy!
Tyce was opening his and Tesa's gift from Monk Monk.
He seems to be looking at this thing the same way Kade was looking at his LeapPad. I think he is pretty excited about his and Tesa's new tablet that Monk Monk got them to match the one she got C.G. so that they can video chat from their pack-n-play! I'm excited about it for them. I'm thinking my mom can babysit from Arkansas while I do housework....or maybe even while I catch up on the blog every now and then. Ha!
Thinking our coffee lover was pleased with his new espresso maker.
We almost forgot the big presents that were hanging out in the dining room.
New big boy bike!
Scooter!
Then there were the stockings....
Doesn't she look thrilled about stockings? I'm thinking she will enjoy next Christmas a whole lot more.
She seems pretty pleased with her baby doll rattle, though.
Ryne is getting Monk Monk all caught up in his LeapPad world.
Kade was so excited about trying out his new games that he got out his Leapster Explorer to try them out while his LeapPad was getting set up.
Kyle got his espresso machine all set up.
Kade took his bike for a spin.
Tesa tested out her bling bling ring rattle.
Tyce woke up from his nap to finish opening his gifts.
Hey, what's this? I found it in my stocking.
Get back, Daddy, this is my money.
Shoes!
Our friend Molly came over to see us.
And Kyle got some espresso making lessons.
With all the presents having been tested out it was time to wind down a bit with some puzzles.
I asked Kade how he felt about Christmas this year and this is the face I got. With that face he told me it was the best Christmas ever.
Tesa was thinking she'd like to forget about Christmas this year and just wait for next year so that hopefully she wouldn't feel so bad.
Tyce used up all his "feel good" and was pretty wiped out, too. Thinking he will also enjoy Christmas more next year.
Let me show you one of my favorite Christmas day scenes....
This is Kade with the ipod and C.G. with the new tablet. Kade is teaching C.G. how to play Angry Birds!!! I so should have gotten some video of that.
And to wrap it all up, we did get that puzzle finished!!
Christmas 2011 was fabulous.
(minus the fact that Tesa and Tyce didn't feel too jolly)
Got to spend it with my favorite people.
(minus Grandaddy who stayed behind in AR to hold down the fort)
The fun hasn't stopped. We've had birthday parties for Ryne. Granna and Paw have been visiting. and we are gearing up for a couple more celebrations. Tomorrow our babies have their very first half birthday and two days later our Kadester will turn 5!!! Lots more coming your way in blogland.
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