Christmas morning Brayden woke up at 4 am telling Josh and I that Santa had been to our house.  I promptly had him climb in bed with us and asked him to go back to sleep for just a bit longer. :)  At 5:50 Caleb and Andrew were up and ready to open so we all got up and started in….

After opening gifts, Mom stopped by for awhile and saw all of the boys new gifts.  Then we had breakfast and Josh and Andrew took a nap. Then it was time to go to Mom and Dad’s for Christmas with the Spurlock’s!

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We were supposed to have Christmas with The Wiseman’s the next day, but some of the family was sick so we didn’t get to get together.  :(  But we did get together with Manda and her family and had pizza and opened gifts from each other. :)  (These pictures are from my camera phone and aren’t the best quality but you get the idea…)

We had a wonderful Christmas and are so bless to have such great family and friends!!!

Another Christmas has come and gone!  But it was a wonderful time spent with family and friends!!!

Barry, Molly and and the kids got home on Christmas Eve and we spent the evening at my parents house.  Emily and Blair came over and we had our Christmas with them.  We had chicken wings, shrimp, cheese ball with crackers, blueberry dip with cookies, and punch.

After dinner and opening gifts with Emily and Blair and the boys and Audrey opened their new PJ’s from Mamaw Debbie, she read Humprey’s First Christmas to the grandkids.

Then it was time to decorate some cookies for Santa!

On the way home we saw some lights in the sky that looked just like Santa’s sleigh with a red light and all.  The boys were so excited to see it!!! When we got home I read the Christmas Story from the Bible and we sprinkle the reindeer food on the front lawn.   Soon after the boys were tucked into their beds and ready for the morning to come!  Little Brayden was a bit to excited and had trouble falling asleep.  So it took Santa almost to 1:00 in the morning to visit our livingroom! Both he and Mrs. Clause were beyond tired….lol!!!!

I will post about Christmas soon.

WoW!  Have we ever been busy!  Our Countdown to Christmas fell by the waste side somewhere around 4 days.  To many things that needed to be done.  Shopping that needed finished, gifts needed wrapped, cookies, party mix and jello salads needed made.  We did get to watch movies each night leading up to the last 4 days.  The Wizard of Oz was a big hit for Andrew.  Luckily I had a copy of it on DVD, as he has watched it about 20 times since we caught it on TV.  He is a bit afraid of the Witch, but other then that HE LOVES IT!

Tuesday afternoon Grandma Pat (Josh’s mom) stopped by and gave the boys their gifts from her.  She spoiled them with about 6 gifts a piece…LOL!!!  All of which they LOVED!

Christmas Eve Andrew and I left early to go help mom with Christmas Eve preparations, while Josh and the other two boys stayed home.  Emily and Blair come over to open gifts with us that evening, since they had to go to other family on Christmas.  Barry, Molly and Jack got home that afternoon.  All of the family gathered at Mom and Dad’s.  We had snack foods for dinner, shrimp, chicken wrapped in bacon, party mix, cheese spread, summer sausage, cheese & crackers and Christmas sweets.  The boys opened their PJ’s from Mamaw and we were lucky and got a really good picture of all four of the boys together.

When we got home from over there, it didn’t take Caleb and Brayden long to fall asleep while watching one of the new movies from Emily and Blair (Horton Hears a Who).  But Andrew was a horse of a different color, sticking with the Wizard of Oz theme…lol!  He was up until about midnight!  Yeah, Santa had work to do and Andrew just would not give in and go to sleep.  So, sometime after midnight Santa started filling stockings and laying out packages.

After a LONG night the boys of course were up by 6:00 AM ready to open presents.  The ripping and tearing started soon after.  :)  They all three seemed to be really happy with what they got.  Andrew’s favorite was his Wow Wow Wubbzy book that talked, even though Santa brought a bike!  Brayden was THRILLED with his Super Mario Galaxy game for the Wii and a t-shirt with Mario on the front.  (Which I had to peel off of him tonight!) And Caleb loves his two pack of WWE wrestling guys complete with title belt.

Josh bought me a beautiful set of Mikasa crystal drinking glasses and the 2008 Willow Tree Angel.  I bought him a Cubs jersey and a box full of his favorite junk food. 

Mom and Kathy come over for awhile after everything was opened and Kathy brought a few more packages for the boys to open and ate breakfast with us.  I made a really yummy egg casserole!  After they left the boys put in a new Goosebumps movie and Mr. and Mrs. Clause fell asleep on the couch and recliner, while they watched it.  (Ahhh, a much needed and well deserved nap!)  Soon it was time to shower and get the boys dressed and over to Mom and Dad’s for more packages and dinner.

When we first got their, Barry, Molly, Jack, Glen and April were still at their other families.  So, while we waited for them Kathy, Mom, Mamaw and I played a bit of cards while Caleb, Brayden, Andrew and Josh watched movies on the new portable DVD players that we bought for them.

Once everyone arrived we started opening gifts.  I was thrilled to get a new food processor from Dad and Mom (salsa making should be much easier this summer) and a stand mixer from Glen and April.  And my brother gave the best gift of all, he made DVD’s for us with video and a slide show from Mamaw’s 75th Birthday/Family Reunion.  I am crying right now as I think about how WONDERFUL and THOUGHTFUL this gift was.  I will cherish this priceless gift ALWAYS!!!

They boys got so many nice gifts and lots of new clothes.  Dinner was great, we had a Honey Baked ham and all sorts of delish side dishes.  After dinner and hugs and kisses and thank-yous all around, Josh took the boys home to play with their new video games and I stayed to play cards with Barry and everybody.  We lost both games but we sure had fun.

I came home around 9:00 to my house looking as if  a bomb had exploded.  I closed my eyes and got another new movie started (VeggieTales, The Pirates that don’t do Anything) and we all 5 fell asleep in the living-room before it ended!

Today we had Christmas with Josh’s side of the family.  We had dinner and a gift exchange with the kids.  The kids played games, opened gifts and mostly ran around the rented hall.  (At least it wasn’t someones house…LOL!!!)

Denny, Caleb, Brayden and Gilli

Liam and Andrew

Andrea, Jason, Donna, and Gilli

We have made many great memories that will last a life time over Christmas 2008!

1.  Saturday (as I posted about below) mom, the boys and I went with my Aunt Kathy to a Christmas party for her job.  She works at a medical clinic as a receptionist.  After the party we did a little shopping, where the boys bought their Christmas gift exchange gifts for their class parties this coming Friday.  They were pretty well behaved and I then took them to get soft pretzels in the mall.  That was a special treat!

2.  As we were going home Caleb saw these HUGE Nutcrackers and we had to stop and take a few pictures.  I am not sure if I have ever talked about this on the blog, but he collects nutcrackers.  He has quite a collection for only being 9!

Of course it was only fair that Brayden got in on the act too…

Andrew was sound asleep in the van at this point it time.  So, no pictures of him. :o)

3.  Caleb had his cousin Denny spend the night with him Saturday.  They were great, hardly knew that he was here.

4.  Sunday we had dinner at my parents.  Fried ham, scrambled eggs, biscuits and french toast!  YummY!

5.  After dinner Josh took Caleb and Brayden home and Mom, Kathy and I made Christmas goodies.  We made about a MILLION buckeyes, I made party mix, and we tried something new this year, Peanut butter-filled crackers with white chocolate coating.  Very simple and VERY good!

So that was our week-end!  This is the last week of school the boys have for the year…lol!  I remember thinking that was so cool when I was a kid in school.  :o)

Share your tree with others at We are THAT Family

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While your here why not check out our Countdown to Christmas I have some great giveaways!

1) With lots of begging, the boys talked me into putting up the Christmas Tree this week-end.  It took all day Saturday, with pre-cleaning, moving the furniture, dragging in boxes, sorting through everything, putting things out, dragging boxes back out, and after cleaning!  But we got it done, the boys are happy and we are now ready for the holidays. BRING EM’ ON!!!

2) We watched the big OSU/UofM game while putting up the tree!  Ohio State rolled right over Michigan this year.  That is 5 years in a row that OSU to beat Michigan!  GO BUCKS!!!

3) Sunday we went to Church.  Our youth pastor gave the message and it was GREAT!  I wish that I could have paid more attention though, Andrew somehow slipped past the nursery workers and into the sanctuary.   As I saw him running up the isle, I thought to myself, “Oops, someones kid got loose.  Oh, no that is my kid!”  While Josh grabbed him, I went to tell the nursery worker that I had him, I met her in the hallway, frantically looking for Andrew.  LOL!  She told me like 10 times she was SOOO sorry.  The bright side was that he just ran right to us and didn’t say anything so it didn’t disturb things much.  :o)

4) After Church we went to moms where we made homemade pizzas.  Very yummy!  And a real deal since we had got the pizza kits from the company store from Josh’s plant and only paid $25.00 for 12 boxes of two, we only used three and spent $10.00 on the other toppings.  What a cheap way to feed 10 people.

5) Other then that I played some cards and Josh took Caleb and Brayden to a friends birthday party.  Another laid back week-end.  But this next one will make up for the last two, I am sure!

*I will share some pictures of our tree later today!

Starting where I left off in my last post…

The boys were so excited about their new PJ’s from Mamaw that they JUST HAD to put them on as soon as they opened them. So, after we had their PJ’s on and hugs and kisses were passed out to all, we headed home. Once home Josh got out the family Bible, I found Luke and we all set together as I read the “Christmas Story” to them. I noticed that Brayden was listening very closely this year, so after I read it from the Bible I took the time to tell the story in 5 year old terms. With the help of my sweet Caleb, I think that Brayden truly understood the reason for the season this year. :o)

I think that those boys fell asleep before their heads even hit the pillows that night. And Santa went to work, only to realize that their McD’s gift cards were at my mom’s, in my purse that I had left there! So, off I went back to mom’s…. Then Santa went to work.

Christmas morning was so nice. The boys woke up at 7am, we opened gifts and played with toys. Around 9am my mom and aunt Kathy came over and ate breakfast with us. I had thrown together a French Toast casserole the night before and popped it in the oven and fried up some sausage. Good Eats…

At around 1pm we all met back at my parents for gift giving and more food. The boys got so many nice gifts and so did the adults.

Now on to the best part of Christmas!!! Josh wanted an X-Box 360 for Christmas. He had asked for gift cards from everyone this year from Wal-Mart so he could start saving for one. As I am sure I have shared before, our finances are VERY tight with only Josh working, so he thought that it would still be awhile before he could afford to buy his X-Box. Well, I just so happened to find a GREAT deal on the Monday after Thanksgiving and after a quick call to my mom for some funding, I had ordered an X-Box, complete with three games, an extra controller and a carrying bag for all of it. SO, my whole family chipped in to help pay for the gift. The plan was to give Josh empty gift cards with low amounts written on them so he would think that he wasn’t even close to the right amount. And he was the last to open his one gift that my mom had given him. I will let the video tell the rest of the story…

How do I even begin to put into words our wonderful Christmas this year?

Friday afternoon I went in to Caleb’s class to help out with the class Christmas party. The teacher had a fun little game of hot potato for the kids to play for their gift exchange. And we passed out cookies and punch for the kids.

Friday evening we spent at my mom and dad’s house celebrating with my cousin Emily and her fiancé Blair. Emily works in a hospital and this was her holiday to work. It seemed funny Christmas morning with out her there, but at least we got to spend sometime with her Friday.

Sunday was spent with Josh’s family. We went to his cousin Denny’s home and eat and had a gift exchange with the children.

Monday, my poor 7 month pregnant sister-in-law, Molly, was sick all day with some sort of a stomach yuck. We all felt so sorry for her. What an awful way to spend Christmas Eve!! Not only was it Christmas Eve and 7 months pregnant, she wasn’t home. (Christmas morning she was feeling much better.) Amongst the sicky, my mom, Kathy and Brayden made some Christmas butter cookies, while I made a Jello Salad for Christmas dinner the next day. That evening we had a fun supper with snick-snack foods with the family and the boys opened some PJ that my mom had bought them to wear that night.

Take a look at this super cute apron my mom had made for the boys…

I will be posting pictures and a really neat video of our Christmas day tomorrow. I hope that all of you had a wonderful CHRISTMAS!!!