Julius Christmas Part II

Mason opening presents with Grandma Rita. 

The kids all got sleeping bags and were so excited! Whenever we get the sleeping bags out now, Mason is upset that Nolan isn't there with his sleeping bag! 

Grandma Rita with the kiddos. They LOVE the matching jammies she bought them. Addison just said to me last night "Mom, I'm so glad Grandma bought us these jammies because we love to match" - Ha! 

Mason loving his wild animals from Nolan. 

Nolan got remote control cars and when they crashed, the heads popped off. Addison wanted a turn and right away crashed into Hugh and the head popped off. She was pretty proud of herself. Ha! 

 We gave Nolan one of our favorite games, Nibbled. They had a good time :) 

Julius Xmas

One of my favorite photos from Christmas! Love this one. Mason is hard to get a smile out of, so this was a winner :) 

We don't take many family photos, so I try to get one every once in a while..... 

With her pile of presents :) 

She wanted this soooo bad!! No idea why. But it was something she talked about a lot. Grandma Rita came through - ha! 

Just last night she said, "Can I wear my Grinch dress?" If that dress is clean, she wears it! She has worn it to school on jammie day too. Great gift Grandma! 

Mr. Nolan playing with Tracey and his new Magnadoodle. The Christmas magic through kids' eye is the best!! 

This crazy kid loves to be a little different :) The cyclone blazer will be a little big, but hopefully he grows into it. Makena was so embarrassed. We also got him a shirt that said "Born to drive a tractor, forced to go to school" 

Conner helping Nolan build his farm. 

The "big" kids. Makena was 15, Conner 14, Parker 13, Brayden 10

Twins! They must be in style, Makena picked out this shirt for Parker :) 

More to come...... 

 

Holiday Night at Dance

Addison had a "holiday night" at dance class, where she was supposed to dress up in Christmas attire. Well, I was tickled pink......she got to wear her Grinch costume again. Ha! And we had found some striped tights from Makena. PERFECT! I felt I had a big "mom win" :) 

Mason does this quite a bit.... this is his "I'm embarrassed" or "Don't look at me" reaction :) 

Addison doesn't usually let Mason play with her cash register. She left it out one day he found it. He thinks the scanner is a telephone :) 

Trying for a good picture! The Elf brought a singing Rudolph, the kids loved it! 

Mason, however, did not love his picture being taken :) So we tried to get a good one of Addy solo. 
 

Santa & a Gingerbread house

We went to a pancake breakfast at the Slater Fire Station. It was yummy! Mason pounded some pancakes. 

But then things went downhill for Mason when we went to see Santa..... haha! We left this day and Addison said "I'm going to get TWO dolls, TWO Kinetic Sands, and TWO unicorns" We asked why she thought that and she said "because I told two different santas so they both have to get those things for me". Oh boy....... lol. 

Building our ginger bread house. Went for the traditional look this year :) Also, we bought the pre-assembled house. Game changer. It was great! Doing a ginger bread house was much more enjoyable and less frustrating this year. Ha! 

 The Elf brought Addison some sweettarts. Good thing he put some on the table that he wasn't touching.....she could barely hold back her excitement to eat them! 

The Tree Lighting

Went to Slater in early December for the Tree Lighting and fireworks. It was a little chilly but the kids didn't mind - ha! Addison loves fireworks so we thought we would check it out. Next year, we are going earlier, they gave away a bunch of prizes! 

Tried to get a quick picture in front of the big tree. It's in the middle of an intersection on main street. 

This kid loves books. I attribute it to the baby room at daycare. It's not uncommon for me to read for him for 20-30 minutes at a time. That's a lot of short books! Ha! I love that he will sit and look through books on his own. 

The kids are matching with their baseball hats. 

Mason loves the Magic Tracks! It's one of his favorite things to pick out of the closet. But for some reason, he thinks the cars are a head massager and he runs the cars in his hair. His hair hasn't gotten caught in the tires yet.....but that's part of the reason I don't like getting the tracks out!! Ahh! 

This one would be better as a video, but he was excited because he saw Iowa State on the TV. I cannot say enough how much we love his excitement for Iowa State! 

 Addison and I were out running errands, she was busy multi-tasking in the back seat. She was working on the computer and then answering emails on the other computer. Then she would answer her phone because she is the boss and her employees "just can't do it without me" - haha! 

The Skittles experiment

The kids love doing "laps" under the counter at the Ames house. Mason thought it was hilarious this night! 

Mason isn't laughing as hard in this video, but he did beg Addison to drag him. Ha! He left a line of drool across the floor as well. Don't mind all the junk, we were still slowing unpacking boxes here and there in November..... 

Grinch the Elf left Addison her favorite candy..... with an experiment to do too! 

Addison was excited, she loves experiments. She already did this one at preschool last year, but that didn't matter. She still had fun! 

Aw, a little boy's fantasy....... getting all the balls out at once. Ha! Dude loves balls. He was so excited! Thankfully, he is satisfied just getting one ball out. He didn't need them all out to be happy....yet. Ha! 

 

Videos

 

Videos from November :) Addison loves to have Mason tickle her. 

Mason learned how to roar from Nolan....but Nolan's roar is MUCH louder. Ha! We have no idea why Mason has a quiet roar, but we think it's funny. 

Dude loves cheese! He got the cheese off the counter. He would eat the whole bag if we let him. There might be a video somewhere of him saying "more cheese more cheese". You can see how protective he gets when Addison tries to take it. ha! 

We love "Fancy Like" at our house :) We liked it before it became huge, but we loved that we would hear it on the radio so much! Now we are sad it isn't played as much. Addison wouldn't let us video her singing it, but finally she did. I love how serious she is, haha! Also, she says "Trunk" bed instead of "truck". 

Basketball

Ryan and I volunteered to coach Addison's basketball this year. It was really just practice, no games. We did 6 circuits each practice. The kids were pretty good, minus one obnoxious boy. Ha! The kids loved running killers. Who would have thought? Not me! 

Mason had to go with us, he was pretty good most days. ha! 

Addison's team pic. There was one other girl that was missing that day. 

After basketball, we went to Homemakers. Of course we had to stop to have a cookie...... 

 And a ride on the escalator. Addison loves escalators and elevators and has to ride them whenever she has a chance (which isn't that often it seems).