CHRISTMAS!!!

With only one, yes one day off before Christmas Eve, we had to slam in some last minute Christmas fun before the holiday came and went.

We just had to make our annual gingerbread houses (primarily because I still had Valentine, Easter and Halloween candy to get rid of!) Don't be fooled by the look on Tanner's face, he was having a wonderful time.

This year we were lucky enough to have my sister, Annie's kids come and share our tradition with us.  We had a great time decorating with Garrett and Shay and loved seeing their very creative ideas.

Ashlyn just eats this stuff up... literally... we have a hard time getting a picture of her houses because she is always in such a hurry to eat them!

Ian's Masterpiece

Tanner's creation

Ashlyn's piece d' resistance

We also wanted to get some sledding in, but the snow just isn't cooperating this year.  That didn't stop Ashlyn from giving it a go... and with a dog this year it just made the prospect of sledding that much more exciting.  Ashlyn thought she would teach Maggie how to mush.

Maggie gave it a good effort, but couldn't quite make a go of it.

Thank Heaven for twin brothers!

These are some last minute Christmas projects that we finished up.  This is a sign for Zac's dad so that he can have a place to keep all of the kid's school pictures.  The sign says "Grandkids Make Life Grand" and there are clothes pins along the bottom for each grandkid, plus a few extras for anyone  ambitious.  Zac made the signboard, isn't he amazing... and I did the crafty parts.

THIS was the present that we couldn't wait to give daddy.  The kids and I made a road map on the back of a tee shirt so that when daddy wears it we can give him a back massage by driving cars on his back.  I drew some of our favorite places such as daddy's work, our house, the cabin, the lake, daddy's job site, etc. and the kids colored the pictures.  Zac loves it! (okay, I do too, I have probably worn it more than he has!)

We celebrated Christmas Eve with a lunch and party at Grandma and Grandpa Martineaus.  We got to put on another nativity for the Martineau side and this time Charlotte decided that when she saw the comfy manger, she would be baby Jesus.  She loved it in that thing!

With the sunlight streaming in and the amount of kids, it was hard to get very many good pictures.  But Ian made an awesome Joseph again, Ashlyn picked her favorite part of an angel, and Tanner was a wiseman.  We love doing this with our cousins.

We ended our night with a pizza and doughnut party at our own house.  We played games and set out doughnuts and carrots for Santa and his reindeer.  Then we (unwisely) let these three monkeys bunk in together for the night.  We gave them a phone and told them to call us when they woke up in the morning, so that we could come and get them to see their Christmas morning surprises.  Well, the phone calls came in all night.  At 1:30 a.m. Ashlyn called to say that she thought she heard Santa.  At 4 a.m. Tanner called to see if it was morning yet.  At 4:15, 4:30, and 5:00 a.m. the kids called to say they couldn't sleep and to see if it was morning yet.  Zac and I finally gave up and we opened presents at 5:30 a.m.  Next year, there will be no phone... only an alarm clock and instructions to stay in bed until 10 a.m.!

Santa brought Tanner an erector set to build an awesome crane that he worked on with his dad for two solid days!

Ashlyn got a Fijit as she had asked Santa for a robot.  The Fijit does lots of neat tricks and she loves it.  But she says the best present that she got was a stuffed Webkinz turtle.

Unfortunately, Charlotte thought the Fijit was pretty cool too and wouldn't let Ashlyn play with it very much, but would run and hide with it.

Ian with some of the fun things out of his stocking.

The crane is finally done and it only took a Bachelor's of Construction Management to put it together!  I think the look on Zac's face tells the story of the complication of this machine.

We are sooooo tired!  And yet church starts at 1:00 p.m.  In the midst of the craziness Charlotte decided I wasn't getting her church shoes fast enough for her and so she tried to get them herself resulting in a big bloody nose on the way out the door to church!

Ian's awesome race car track from Santa

Charlotte loves her new babies and was holding this one up and making her say "Cheese!" for the camera.

Taking the babies for a ride in the new stroller.

We truly had a wonderful holiday filled with peace and the Spirit of the Lord.  We were blessed with lots of amazing and thoughtful gifts from friends and family and we hope you all had a Christmas filled with the same love and contentment.  We look forward to many exciting adventures in 2012 and wish you all a happy holiday season!