A Very Merry Christmas

Christmas is almost to a close, and it has been a great day!
It started off a little rocky-Max was up from 3:30am until 5am..then, just as soon as I fell asleep, Max was back up at 6:15am for good.  Let me tell you, it's very hard to keep a curious squirmy baby away from a tree surrounded by presents, but I did it!
Kyin got up at 7:15-ish and asked me if Santa left him presents before he even seen the tree (yes, Santa left him presents!)  He wanted to start sifting through his stocking right away, but I made him go get Sophie and tell her that Santa came.  When all the kids were downstairs I was able to snap a pic of them in front of the tree-alas, it wasn't a very good one though.
Kyin & Sophie ripped open their presents, while Moose wanted nothing to do with it, but he was perfectly happy with his Baby Num Nums and chewing on everyone else's toys.  The kids loved all of their toys that they received, and they stayed busy until we went to our friends house for dinner.  We had a great dinner, with great friends and Tonya made a birthday cake for Jesus so we sang Happy Birthday and the kids ate cake.  We ended out visit with winning 2 games of Euchre.  Hope everyone had as good of a Christmas as we were blessed with!

Now..on to some pictures :)

The kids before bed in their jammies Elfie left for them-about 5 minutes after this was taken Max decided to splish splash in the toilet-so he needed a shirt change.

After Santa visited the Christopher house

..this is what you get when you make 3 kids smile for a photo before opening a bunch of presents.

ripping open the presents..

Max playing with Kyins toys

Sophie with her ixl from Grandma Cathy-she loves it!

Max with his activity table Santa got him

Soph with her magnetic dolls from Aunt Daisy & Uncle Steve

Kyin playing with Max's Super Star Station from Grandma Cathy

Elfie wishes you a Merry Christmas & a blocked off bedroom

That crazy Elfie is up to his schenanigans again!  This time he crepe papered the kids bedroom doors!  I wonder if the kids will think it's funny or be mad...

Elfie perched on a tree branch-caught red handed!

Kyin's room

Sophie's room

Yet Another..

..Pinterest inspired craft.  Sophie, like most little ladies, is obsessed with Disney Princesses.  I seen on Pinterest some hand cut sillouettes for sale on Etsy.  I took that idea and made my own, but in photoshop.  I think printed them on tissue paper and Mod Podged em onto a canvas.  Just like with Kyin's teachers gifts I fixed scrapbook paper to the edges to give it a more polished look.  I'm so excited for her to see them!

Elfie the Artist

Mischief maker Elfie decided to get artistic on the kids pictures last night.  They were less than thrilled-I think Sophie almost started crying.  She thought Elfie made her have a clown face, while Kyin asked why he was a cat with a moustache. Ha!  He did think that Max as Harry Potter was pretty funny-although he called him Peter Parker for some odd reason.

Catching up with Mr Elfie

I'm a slacker and doing 2 Elf posts at once.  Sophie (mainly because she was the first one up) found Elfie this morning on the bookshelf reading Moo Baa La La La. She thought it was funny, Kyin actually did too.  While Ky was at school Sophie pulled up one of their small chairs and 'poured' Elfie some chocolate milk with her princess tea set she got from Uncle B and Aunt Alyssa, but because I'm a slacker I didn't get pics of that.  Anyway, here he is enjoying a good book-

And tonight he's hanging out in my most favorite piece of kitchen paraphernalia-

Pinterest Inspired

I'm sure most of you are aware of Pinterst. If you're not, don't sign up, you'll lose valuable hours of your day. I am Pinterest obessed.  Seriously though, if you do want to sign up let me know and I'll send you an invite :).

Anyway.  I was browsing for an idea for Kyin's teachers presents for Christmas...and I found this tutorial.  Seemed super easy, and inexpensive! I didn't use shaddow boxes, mainly because I went to Michaels for supplies and they're not the cheapest.  I used 8x10 canvas-you can get them 2 for 7.99 :).  I also didn't use tacky glue, but used Mod Podge (I don't know how I've lived this long with out that stuff).  Anyway, here are the pics-

Looking at them now there are some things I would have done differently, but they're still cute.

I lined the edges with cute scrapbook paper so they weren't so plain.

Kyin signed the back of them and cut out hearts :)

Let it Snow!

Elfie misses the snow of the North Pole when he's with us in Virginia Beach...so he decorated one of his favorite spots with paper snow flakes.

Don't worry-he borrowed Kyin's safety scissors!

Peek a boo

Sophie found Elfie this morning peeking around the star.  She thought it was pretty funny-especially because according to her, the tree is where Elfie belongs.

On a side note: if any of the other MEMs (magical elf movers) decide to have their Elf turn the milk a different color: have back up for cooking..we had to eat greenish Chicken Ala King last night. Tasted the same, but visually it just wasn't working for me-the kids did enjoy the green pancakes though :).

Just chillin at a Campfire

..roasting marshmellows.  Elfie overheard about the campfire Jerrad & Kyin went to, and he wanted in on the action..and whats a campfire without roasted marshmellows!?

And yesterdays:
Hanging with his Christmas homies

I'm a Gleek-so what?

Shocker-I'm a total Gleek. I love love love the show-if they went on tour, I would SO be there.  I know a lot of you think Glee's lame blah blah blah, to you nay sayers I say "Shut it".  These people are Talented-yes, with a capitol 'T'.  Just an example-an AMAZING Adele mash up was on a couple weeks ago, and I thought I'd share the vocal goodness of some of the ladies of the Glee cast.

Enjoy :)
...and it's okay to like Glee. Really. It is.

Ugly Sweaters

Tonight our friends are having an Ugly Sweater Party.  As soon as we got back to Virginia I scoured the thrift shops (okay, well I went to one, and looked for like 10 minutes...) and found these beauties.  They were originally supposed to be for me & Jer, but Sophie and Max wouldn't have lasted an hour at the party :(.  So, we cut the sleeves off my sweater and put it on Kyin.  Doing so made me worry about my sons future in fashion-he really liked the sweater...

A Simple Phone Conversation..

...makes my little Fluffy so happy.  She got to talk to her cousin Rylee the other day on the phone, they had a conversation that lasted almost 10 minutes.  It consisted of their Elves and where they were, where they were at (Sophie was at Mommy's house with Kyin & Baby Max), and Grandmas cat Tyler among other things. 

Anywho, here's some pics I snapped of her chatting away..

oh yeah-I wanted to add, I love that she roams the house aimlessly when she's on the phone, just like me.

okay..pictures..

Elf on the Zip Line?

So..I slacked and didn't photograph Days 7 & 8 for Elfie. In case you're wondering where our Elf took up residence on those days, on day 7 he was actually on the shelf by the glittery Wish sign, and on day 8 he was sitting in the lamp.  Sophie thought the lamp was funny, she kept saying Elfie was stuck and that he needed to go to him home (the Christmas tree). 

Which brings us to day 9-extreme sports Elfie.  We shall see how the kiddies respond to zip lining Elfie..

Caught Red Handed!

I caught the turd! I caught the garbage picker!

..And he's back in the Game!

Apparently the I'm sorry note/email (I told Kyin that I typed his note and sent it to the North Pole for Elfie to read, to which he argued that I should have just called the North Pole because they don't have computers there) worked it's magic on Elfie. The kids were very well behaved today, which is amazing because they didn't have any of their toys to play with. 

So, Elfie is back in Soph favorite place for him-the tree.  But he was so excited to be back that he made a snow angle  on the counter for the kids to see.

Sorry it's a lame pic, but I am exhausted and I NEED sleep.

Elfie has gone MIA.

The kids were horrible yesterday. Acutally, horrible doesn't even touch how they acted yesterday.  Not only do they have to pick out 5 toys each to donate, but they full out lost their toys and they have to earn them back. I really think they both were in timout for well over an hour total yesterday.

Well, Elfie must have decided the kids were on the naughty list, so he didn't come back last night-he stayed in the North Pole.  It took Kyin a while to figure out that Elfie wasn't here. When he did figure it out he was very sad.  After he got dressed this morning, he had me write Elfie an I'm Sorry note from him & Sophie. 

This is the note that he dictated to me:

Dear Elfie:
I'm very sorry for being bad, and I want you to come back, please.  You're very cool.  And I want you to come back plllleeeeaaaassseeee! Please! Please! Please!  If we are good, could you tell Mommy in her ear that she could give me back my toys?  I love you Elfie.
Love,

Kyin & Sophie

He and Soph also drew him pictures.  They have been much better today. Thank God.  Hopefully the case of the butt-holes they had yesterday are gone!

Uh Ohh..

The kids were bad today. All of them. BAD.  Unfortunately for them they were seen by the watchful eye of Elfie.  Tonight Elfie left the kids a note about his meeting with Santa. 

The note reads:

            

 Dear Kyin, Sophie and Max

Last night with I went back to the North Pole, I didn't have a lot of nice things to tell Santa.  Santa was sad to hear about your bad behavior.  Kyin: be nice to Sophie and stop whining.  Sophie: Be nice to Kyin and listen to your Mommy and Daddy. Max: stay out of the garbage can.  Good Behavior = Nice.  Bad Behavior = Naughty.  So Be Good!

              Love Elfie

ps I see you when you fight over the chairs

pps What color is your milk? :)

Elfie turned the milk GREEN!

Hopefully this note from Elfie will knock some good behavior sense into these kids!! Well..except for Max-I just hid the garbage can.

Elfie on a date

A milk & donut date that it. Elfie made friends with Soph's LaLa Loopsy doll *aka* Giant.  They went on a little milk & donut date. I hope Sophie doesn't get mad that her Giant has a boyfriend now..

In case you're asking yourself what Elf donuts are-they're apple cinnamon Cheerios, dipped in icing and then dipped in sprinkles :)

Sophie Singing

Miss Fluffy loves to sing. Whether it's theme songs, ABCs, Twinkle Twinkle..she's all about it.

TPing the Christmas Tree!? Really Elfie!??

Elfie decided to get mischievous tonight and he took the toilet paper from one of the upstairs bathrooms and he TP'd the Christmas Tree. What a naughty little Elf...but I'm sure Kyin will think it's hilarious!

Because your night wouldn't be complete..

..without hearing a bunch of 3-5 year olds singing Christmas songs!!! --disclaimer: When it looks like Kyin is making a 'time out' sign he's actually trying to block out the spot lights so he could see us up in the balcony :)

We Wish You a Merry Christmas

Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer

*Jordan seriously cracks me up at about 50 seconds in*

Jingle Bells pt 1

Jingle Bells pt 2

Joy to the World

Kyin's Christmas Recital

Tonight was the Christmas recital at Kyins preschool.  He was SO excited, he was singing Christmas songs literally all day. The picture quality is not so good :/ The lighting was so bad in there that I had to have my camera's settings all wonky and use my speedlite which I'm not really all that used to using. 
I'm thinking it's going to be years before the videos upload, so I'll add those when they're on youtube.

Kyin & his best buddy Jordan

Singing songs

During prayer

And singing more songs

Elfie the Cookie Monster

It took Kyin a while this morning to find Super Elfie, he actually thought he didn't come back.  About 15 minutes after he woke up he found him.  Although, he thought Elfie got stuck in the lights while flying around the room. He was also worried about Elfie's safety-he got up on one of the dining room chairs and told Elfie it wasn't very safe for him to be up there and that he could fall and get hurt. <3 that little guy!

Tonight Elfie thought the cookies I made looked tasty and decided to try some. He's a messy little elf and left crumbs on his collar, and chocolate on his face...although I don't blame him, those cookies are amazing.

Its a bird..it's a plane..it's SUPER ELFIE!

Kyin has decided to change Brighty's name to Elfie. He was hilarious all day today-he would steal sideways glances at Elfie in the tree and say "he moved his head. He was looking that way, and now he's looking over there".  He also made a few things for him and carefully placed them next to him on the tree. When Kyin was playing games on the computer Jerrad collected the papers Kyin sat next to Elfie and put them in his hands so it looked like he was holding them.

I think the cutest thing was when Kyin asked Elfie if he wanted to go look at Christmas lights with us when we went for a walk around the block.  I told Kyin that Elfie was probably going to use the alone time to use the bathroom and get a snack.

First day was a success!
..on to day 2
Elfie decided to dress up as Super Elfie!

First morning of the Elf..

Kyin REALLY didn't want to get out of bed this morning..that is, until I reminded him that he needed to find Brighty the Elf!  He jumped out of bed and came downstairs.  It took him a little bit to find him, but when he did he was all smiles.  He keeps coming up to me telling me he keeps turning his head, but he'll whisper it to me, so Brighty doesn't hear. 

Elf on the Shelf

We are starting the tradition of the Elf on the Shelf.  If you haven't heard of this (like I hadn't before Pinterest-more on that site later) it's an Elf that you place around the house every night in a different spot and the kids have to find him/her the next morning.  The elf also comes with a book that tells the kids that the elf leaves every night and reports to Santa and tells him if they've been good or not.  The kids can't touch him or else he'll lose his Christmas magic powers and then he will leave and won't come back.  Kyin named him Brightly.  So..here he is...Brightly.  His first stop is, of course, the Christmas tree.

Pictures of the Nuggets

Max, Fresh out of the oven

Miss Fluffy in her sunglasses

The kids helping Jer blow out his candles

Max with his Rocket he got from the Easter Bunny

Jer got a fake mustache out of a quarter machine..we had fun with it

Soph in her Ducks bow

And Moose in his Ducks outfit..with the Ducks football

Kyin playing in the sprinkler outside

..the sprinkler

Playing in the backyard together

The Moosey-man in his bedroom

Max & Daddy <3 this photo

Kyin loves his baby brother

Soph, Ky & Jordan at the Norfolk Tides Game

At the pool during adult swim time..eatting snacks waiting for the kids to be allowed to go back in

Sophie throwing a fit at the aquarium

The mustache..

Military family halloween party

Carrot stealer-love this pic

yeah..this is what I get when I try and get a group shot

Soph's litter of babies

Attack of the Moose!