Merry Christmas!

We had a wonderful Christmas this year... Although it was pretty quite (as quite as you can get with 3 2 year olds and a 5 year old), but it was nice to not have to run all over the place and do what we wanted.

We kicked off the holiday with my birthday - I'm happy to be 35!! I love getting older as I've always felt like I was playing catch up with my age - ask me at 40, but for now, I'm happy with my age! Aunt Em watched the kiddos as Andy and I went out with a friend after the girls went to bed. I'm pretty sure we were home and in bed by 11 pm, but hey - it was fun while it lasted! My one accomplishment that day was finishing my "40 before I'm 40" list... Yep - I've got 40 things I want to do before I'm 40. I think it's a good one and can't wait to get started!!

Christmas Eve Em came over and we decided to make and eat hors d'oeuvres all day long.  We made each of our favorites and then stuffed ourselves! That night we did our annual (3rd year in a row) outting before bed time and went to see the Christmas tree in downtown Princeton. The kids just wanted to run around in the mud and dark, so we didn't get many good shots, but it was still fun. And it was perfect because it started snowing just before we were leaving, just in time for Santa to come!

Auntie Em with Declan and Stevie before the outing...

Bria (L) and Aven (R) not too keen on getting all bundled up to go... Auntie Em in the background trying not to spil her coffee mug wine :-)

The only picture I got off all the kids by the tree - they were off and running!!

Daddy and Aven...

Bria - help it's SNOWING!!!

Daddy and Declan...

Christmas day the adults were up before the kids... Em came over and we ate breakfast before anyone was even awake :-) And then the kids got up and tore into the enormous amount of gifts... Here's a few pictures from the day...

The before picture... Our kids must have been good because Santa brought a lot! That and we are blessed with an amazing family who sent lots of gifts!

Bria and Aven trying to get a glimps of their new kitchen!

Bria...

Stevie on Em's lap...

Bria ripping into her sisters gifts - it was chaos!

Declan hugging his new iPad from Santa... I'm excited that I get my iPad back now!

Daddy working too!

Aven playing with some creapy horses from Grandma Sally :-) She loved them!

Stevie on the new "indoor" play gym - Grandma Mary bought the kids a climber (since they LOVE climbing) - it's small so we set it up in our living room for the winter :-) All the kids love it!

Aven playing with their new tea set from Papa and Grandma Judy...

Bria playing with the girls little people horse castle from Aunt Linda...

Stevie playing in her new fridge from all the grandparents... All the kids LOVE LOVE LOVE their gifts...

This morning we all woke up at 10 am - YES 10 AM!!! I jumped out of bed, very startled with the time since I myself haven't slept that late in, well since I can remember! We had to wake the girls up and Declan was just getting up himself. The girls have been crazy sleepers lately - meaning they sleep all the time. Not a bad problem to have and today Andy informed me that you get smarter the more you sleep (now I know what happened to me the girls first year!) I'm thinking the girls excessive sleeping either means they are getting sick, they are going through a growth spurt or they are just tuckered out from all the playing and new fun stuff to play with. Time will tell...  

This year we are yet again blessed with amazing children, each other and awesome family and friends... Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas!