Christmas Day

After Christmas morning, we spent the afternoon and evening with my parents, brothers, and sisters.  I'm so glad when we can get everyone together.  It's so fun.  We all brought a white elephant gift for the adults and my parents got the kids each a gift.  Sam got a battery powered train that goes around his whole bedroom.  He loves trying to get all the cars in line and honestly does a fairly good job of it and very much entertains Seth in the process.  Evelyn got Frozen themed stuff... Elsa and Anna finger puppets (which she insists on keeping next to my bed so I can keep them safe) and a picture to hang in her room.  Seth got (gasp) cars and a car book.... happy baby, that's for sure.  The big one deserves a blog of it's own... but Ada was given my Mom's violin.

This was my mom giving Ada and Aubrey a violin lesson. Ada was sooooo excited.

Mom and Dad got a new couch and everyone was in heaven.

It was fun to go sledding with everyone.  They had a blast, no one cried (except Seth a little), and Seth even loved going down with Dad a few times. 

Amazingly, Sam who never willingly agrees to any part of the Nativity decided he'd be okay with being the innkeeper.  Evelyn was my shoulder angel.  She decided that was the only way to go after Daddy did it with her and Millie last time.

Ada Mary with Lance Joseph.

Christmas morning

This Christmas, my camera is broken yet again... so yet again, I'm very grateful for my phone.  Each of the older kids got legos as their santa gift and lots of books from mom and dad. Overall it was fun.  Ada wasn't too thrilled that she didn't get roller blades, but she didn't make a fuss about it.

Evelyn got a tea set from her brothers and sisters... she's used it almost daily since.  She even sets out "tea" for Seth to share... he likes that there's food and plays right along.

Evelyn completely loves the Pig and Elephant books... she got a new one and carts it all over.

Dad got a waffle iron and Mom got picture frames for my Grandma Wilcox's paintings.

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve with our Grandma, Grandpa, Ggpa, Ggma and Hansen cousins.

Evelyn and Millie are good buds. It does my heart good to see my anti social child play with cousins.

My favorite two activities of the evening are the yearly Christmas story readings by Grandpa and the second was that Ggma took a turn.  She read the kids "The Night Before Christmas" and gave each of us a handful of random words.  Then she would pause in our reading and we would fill in her gap with one of our cards.  "The night before Christmas and all through the ______.  Not a ______ was stirring, not even a ______."

I had one more picture, of me playing with Baby Seth but can't for the life of me find it anywhere.

Robertson 2015

Ada

So we were reading our daily scripture study with the kids and stopped to explain the word 'bondage'.  I said kind of like slave and Ada piped up, "Like in Ben Hur when they made him a slave." Dad would be proud.

Funny kids

So a couple of funny stories over the last week. 

1 - Sam had a hard time getting to sleep the other day.  He came in to our room whining that he was having nightmares. (He'd been in his room 5 minutes)  He said that in his nightmare, a video game broke and everyone became man eating cheese.  I couldn't help but giggle.

2 - Ada and Mariah have been playing a lot in the last week or two.  Mariah and Ada went into the back yard to take care of their dog, Mavis.  They didn't come back for a while and eventually we heard Ada crying.  She came in with her tongue sticking out.  I asked her what happened and she said that Mariah had dared her to stick her tongue to the tether ball pole.  I just started laughing.  I couldn't even help thinking about The Christmas Story and the kid stuck to the flag pole.  After I got more out of her, it turns out that Mariah wanted to try it, so she licked the pole softly.  It looked like it didn't hurt, so Ada tried it and stuck her tongue on there and Mariah did it again.  They both came in with pieces ripped out of their tongues and embarrassed at what they'd done.

Sledding!

Jer worked from home yesterday because of the icy roads... so during the baby's nap time I took the kids sledding at Cherry Hill Park.  Yay!  was the general feeling.  I loved watching the kids have a blast. 

Sam says baby is only this high

Oh my gosh it talks face

Nativity

This year we got to do the Nativity with our Hansen cousins. Sam, like always, didn't want any part of it... Ever since the first Halloween that he could talk, he refused to be anything other than who he is. "I'm not Mario!I'm Sam!" Acting out the Nativity is no different. He is okay pretending to be a sheep, but no people. This year he was the narrator. He did a good job for being 6 and said he'd do it again if he could narrate.

Doing chores