A Small Look at our Christmas

With all of our families here in town, we celebrate Christmas quite a few times. So in going through pictures, I decided to share just a few of the photos of Christmas morning. Otherwise, this could turn into the world's longest post!

The boys always set out cookies for Santa. This year, we left Santa some of the Lofthouse cookies. They're his favorite! We also left a mug of milk, which Santa isn't the fondest of, but always downs some for good measure!
Here is a few of our living room after Santa had visited. He had quite a load to drop off at our house this year!

I never got around to posting a picture of our tree after we decorated it, so here you go. It looked much nicer right after it was decorated, and before most of the ornaments had to migrate north due to little hands!!

Here are our stockings hung by the chimney with care. I was finally able to have the Pottery Barn Kids stockings that I've always wanted, but still have to get them embroidered with names. The kids all know exactly who's is who's, but Santa had quite a dilemma in passing out the stocking gifts. Luckily, he guessed correctly!!

Santa's present for Brennen and one of Ella's!

The first thing we heard when the kids were coming down the stairs was, "Whoa!" There is nothing better than seeing Christmas through the eyes of children!

Brennen got a new pretty sweet ride, if I do say so myself. It comes equipped with a working radio. All of the kids loved it!

Preston got a giant remote controlled Buzz Lightyear from Santa. It's about the same size as him!

Ella got her dollhouse and this beautiful little cradle from Pottery Barn Kids. It comes with her name painted on the end. So precious!! I love pretty little girl toys!

Caden got a Nintendo DSi XL, 20 piece accessory pack, and 2 games from Santa. Can't tell he was happy, can you?!

Maddox got the same thing from Santa. We haven't heard much from them lately!!

Something tells me that I will be seeing this same situation in about 12 years. Scary, huh?!

Santa also brought Preston the Dance Star Mickey. This gift was definitely a favorite, even amongst adults...

...but watching Preston grip onto Mickey and hug him as tight as he could, while exclaiming, "I LOVE IT!" was truly the best!

The three older boys can use the points that they earn at church to purchase little gifts for all of their family members. Caden got Ella this cute little minivan, which when he saw it, he "just knew she'd love it!" So sweet!

Ella, who found the truck unmanned, is sure proud of herself!

Ella got a lot of new clothes that Mommy knew how fabulous she would look in. Luckily, she is happy just tearing paper, with little regard to what's inside still.

Maddox and his second favorite gift. It's an electronic dual action lightsaber. Now he can hit his brothers using both ends!

Caden loves Monster trucks, so he was really excited about the Crash & Smash stadium. This toy is very loud, and I would only recommend it to those hard of hearing!

This is the Criss Cross Crash set that Brennen just had to have. Apparently there will be a lot of crashing in our house during 2011!

Maddox got a Kung Zhu Battle Arena. This thing surprised Maddox a lot. I did good!

This is Ella and her new Bouncin' Babbles doll. She bounces, babbles, and squeals just like Ella. I think Ella feels like she finally can relate to somebody in her!

Pillow pets- need I say more? Caden got this penguin one, Maddox got a panda, and Brennen got a bee. (Preston got one for his 3rd birthday already!) I do not understand the appeal of these crazy little pillows, but every kid I know now owns one. Wish I had come up with the idea of making stuffed animals double as a pillow!

Here is a funny picture of Preston and a new pinball game.

Ella got this Barbie Hug and Heal doctor set. It's a super soft puppy that makes all kinds of sounds. So cute!!

Ella also received a Little People house. I had wanted to buy one of these for the boys, but Bob thought it seemed too girly. So, now I have my girly girl to buy it for!!

And last, but certainly not least, is my new wedding band. Back in April, I lost my wedding rings. We had the engagement ring insured, but never took the time to insure the wedding band. So I got a new engagement ring, but have just been waiting to save up the money for a new wedding band. I have the world's best husband though! Bob, with the wonderful help of our neighbor, who just happens to be a jeweler, got me the wedding band I had my eye on. Am I a lucky girl or what?!

This is as quick of a snapshot of our Christmas morning as I could narrow it down to. We had a wonderful Christmas, and feel so blessed. I am so excited to see what God has in store for our family in 2011!

School Christmas Programs

Another thing we've got to do recently is to watch Caden and Maddox perform at their school Christmas programs. Caden's was first. Here he is before their show. He's growing up so fast and is such a handsome young man!
Caden really does not enjoy singing at all. He does participate and gets good grades in Music, but it most certainly is not his thing!

I think he was very happy to have the performance over. He's definitely not big into being on show, that's for sure!

Here is a picture of our little pigtailed princess during the show. She was not captivated enough to sit still, so she just kept walking from Grandma, to Mommy, to Daddy, and back again!

And here is about how well Brennen enjoyed it!

Two nights later, it was Maddox's turn. Here he before the show. Unlike his brother, he has no problem being a show stopper!

Unfortunately, due to the little girl in front of Maddox, getting a good picture of him was very difficult. She was very exuberant in her singing, and it transferred to all parts of her body!!

One final shot of my performer!!

My Cute Little Sheperds

Wow! What a month December was!! We stayed pretty busy, but did manage to have some dictated downtime when a stomach virus reared its ugly head around our house for about a week! So, here I am just now managing to blog about some of the goings on during December!!

We started off December with the choir that Brennen and Preston are a part of at church doing their Christmas performance. They performed before the older kids' choir, so that's what's with all of the stuff around them and the giant pole right in front.

Brennen is on the back row. He's the second one from the right. Preston is on the front row and is the first one on the left. Technically, this choir is supposed to be for kids 4 years old through Kindergarten, but the choir director had worked with Preston at VBS and thought he would do okay, so we let him try it. He did so GOOD!!!

Here are a few videos of my little performers!

A visit with Santa

Last Wednesday we took our annual pictures with Santa at Centerpiece Photography. As you can clearly see, Ella was not the fondest of Santa. She cried and cried and just kept reaching for Mommy and Daddy. It was so sad. (Didn't stop us from getting a few pictures first though!)

Preston wasn't the happiest either. He did not want to sit on Santa's lap. Then we also asked him to try and hold Ella's hand, thinking that might help calm her down. It didn't. If anything, it just made her scared, sad, and angry!

When pictures on Santa's lap weren't working out, Melissa decided some with Santa in the background might work a little better. They did go a lot better!

Aren't they adorable?!

Maddox is my clown, in case you couldn't tell!

Here is an example as to why you don't tell Maddox to "look in the camera!"

More evidence for my claim it that it is impossible to get all of the kids to look at the camera at the same time!

And here is a picture that portrays my gang pretty accurately!

Merry Christmas!!

The Ross Family Christmas Tree

Having always enjoyed the tradition of choosing a real Christmas tree, Bob and I decided that this would be the year that we would resurrect that tradition with our children. So I found a Christmas tree on line and last Saturday, we headed out in search of the Ross Family Christmas Tree!
This particular Christmas tree farm, gave you the supplies needed to harvest your tree, but you were completely on your own to do so. So the boys grabbed the tree cart, and a walking we went!

Ella was anything but speedy, so she only walked for a little while before being picked up.

She also liked to wander into the trees that were small and being saved for future years. I guess they were the perfect size to her!

After searching and searching, we finally found one. We actually narrowed it down to a few and strategically placed a child in front of each contender so we would remember which ones we liked. Then Bob and I circled back through and picked the one we liked best. (Having a few extra kids sure comes in handy some times!)

Here is Maddox in front of his tree, which also was the one we picked. As I said earlier, you had to cut down your own tree. This is where Bob came into play. He got to use the hand saw to cut it down. Here is is with Preston "helping"!

The boys were tons of help!

More help...

But then they got to pull it back to be shook and netted.

They did a great job pulling it back!

Here we are loaded up and headed back home!

Ella also got to eat her first candy cane. She liked it, as you can clearly see!

Everything went extremely smooth, including the set up. Here it is all set up inside...

...and without the net around it!

We had a wonderful time picking out our tree and I look forward to this fun tradition for our family in the years to come!