Christmas Morning

We had Christmas morning at home with our family of 5.  It was so nice!  The kids woke up around 7 and we all (except Atley, she was still asleep) went out to the living room together to see what Santa had left.  Then we had Christmas breakfast.  For as long as I can remember, we had sausage twirls and sticky buns on Christmas morning, so I've carried on the tradition!

Checking out some fun stuff 

Happy kids!

Atley Jane on her first Christmas with her first baby!

Nora, modeling her new hat and dancing with Minnie

Eating our traditional Christmas breakfast!

Sausage twirls and sticky buns

Christmas Eve

I'm trying to get caught up!  We attended the Christmas eve services at our church and it was very nice.  Christmas Eve church is one of my favorite things to do during the Christmas season.  All 5 of us sat together in 'big church' and enjoyed a great service.
I took a few pictures before we headed to church.

I love these 3, so so much!!

Beautiful Nora

Handsome Ethan

Loving on each other {a rare occurrence some days ;)}

The 5 of us!  (plus the elf)

We received some indoor snowballs, so naturally we had to have a snowball fight after we changed into pjs.

Ethan in action!

A little scary...

Nora had a blast too!

And right before bed, we got things all ready for Santa and his reindeer.  Ethan had gotten some reindeer food from school, so we had to sprinkle it in the yard.  And of course, Santa needed his milk and cookies out and ready!  We also read the Christmas story from Luke and enjoyed a very nice Christmas eve as a family!

Sprinkling the reindeer food

All done...and very excited!!

My little Santas :)

Milk and cookies are out!

Finishing the night with the Christmas Story from Ethan's Bible

2014 Decor and Gingerbread Houses

I finally got around to taking some pictures of our Christmas decorations this year.  I like to have something to look back at to see what I've done in the past.  Here's what Christmas (decorations) looks like at our house!

On the first day of Ethan's break, I had planned to make gingerbread (with graham crackers) houses with the kids.  It was a hit!  They loved it and did a great job.  They each had their own little house, icing bag and bowl of candy.  Nora might have eaten more of her candy than made it on her house...but she had fun!

Serious candy placer

And the serious icing piper

Ethan and his finished product!

Nora and hers!

I found the idea and "how to" here.

Church and Christmas Lights

We went to church tonight and had some pretty sharply dressed kids, so I snapped a few pictures before changing into pj's for the night.

We have some goofy kids!

Love them!!

All 3!
(Atley had a blow-out and had to be changed immediately upon arrival home)

Sweet N!  She got a haircut today :)!

Ethan begged to wear a tie tonight.  Who could resist this handsome kid!

Our good friends, the Talty's, have a "Polar Express" tradition where they surprise their kids after putting them to bed with treats and a drive around town to look at Christmas lights.  We decided take a page from their book and after we got the kids all ready for bed, we told them to get in the car so we could go see some lights!  They were excited!

Chima Ethan!  (He went to a Chima bday party today and came home with a mask)

She's excited!

All ready to go!

There is a house in town that has quite the show!  They have their lights synced up with music, so when you drive by you turn your car radio to a certain station and watch the lights dance along with the music.  It was very cool!  We all enjoyed it!!

Very colorful!!
(I didn't take this picture.  I took it from their Facebook page.)

Golf

Ethan has been going to golf class for the last 6 weeks at the DISC (Decatur Indoor Sports Center).  He's done these classes before, but this year I really feel like they are actually teaching him something.  He's had fun and it's been fun to watch him.

Working in the simulator

Indoor driving range!

Putting to finish his virtual hole

Here's are a few clips from his golf class this year.

Tummy Time

Atley is growing and changing so fast!  We've been trying to get some tummy time in each day (although, we fail some days).  She likes it for a while, but I can tell she's getting stronger!

Such a big girl!

So strong and looking around.

And...she's over it!

Yancy Concert

Last Sunday night, our church hosted children's Christian artist, Yancy, in a Christmas concert.  Our children's department uses her music every week for the kids to dance and sing to.  For a couple of songs, she needed a children's choir.  Ethan was excited to sign up and participate.  He practiced and practiced and knew every word to the songs he was going to be singing with Yancy.  It was so fun to watch him (and the rest of the concert).  I've put together a little video of his singing.  And you'll notice towards the end, Nora had a blast too!!

Ready to go! (When did he start looking so big?!)

Nora is ready to get the concert started

Yancy (not Nancy)

Children's Choir

Ethan is singing his little heart out :)!

So fun to watch!

Nora, dancing to the music

Ethan and his friend, Soren between shows!

Check out the video collage!

Meeting Santa and Mrs. Claus

Monday night was the Tate & Lyle Children's Christmas party at the children's museum.  Santa and his Mrs. were there and it was a great time!  We had pizza, pictures with Santa and of course some playing in the museum!

Santa, Mrs. Claus and 3 Collier Kids!

Silly Ethan, having a good time

Watch out!  She's a crazy driver!