Christmas Eve

While Eric was out of town this week here is some of the fun that I came up with:

Jumping into a pit of pillows

Ashton's turn

obstacle course with tunnels and bridges

We also made these lollipop cookies

On Thursday afternoon we took the kids to see The Muppets

Ashton sat still for a little while but then he got a bit squirmy and we had to walk him around the theatre

On Friday night we went to the Botanical Gardens at Chatfield to see all of the Christmas lights

It was quite cold but the kids had a good time and the lights were beautiful

Today (Christmas Eve) we took the kids tubing in our neighborhood:

Eric and I took turns pulling the kids up the hill with a rope and then sending them down.  They loved it!

I took a turn going down the hill too

Eric decided to go down a bigger hill on the tube

Ashton loves playing in the snow

Eric taking his turn pulling the kids up the hill

Here is a video of the kids tubing:

The girls in front of the Christmas tree

The boys in front of the Christmas tree

A tradition that we have with our kids is to give them new pajamas on Christmas Eve.  Here they are opening their new PJs.

Another tradition that we have is to watch old home movies on Christmas Eve.  Here are the kids in their new pajamas watching the videos.  (I can now see how badly our window needs to be cleaned)

Cate and Ashton ran upstairs for bedtime because they are so excited for Santa to come.  I read them both stories together in Cate's room before putting them both to bed.  

We have had such a wonderful day and I feel so blessed to have such a great family.  

Ashton's 2nd Birthday Celebration

It is crazy to believe, but my little boy Ashton is 2 years old.  This weekend we had a little party at our house for him.  He had such a great time and the older that he gets, the more he understands what is going on.  If you ask him how old he is he now says "2".  He is growing up so fast!  He has such a great personality and he is constantly making us laugh.  Here are some pictures from the party:

The birthday boy

 

Cate was Ashton's helper when it came time to open the presents

Ashton opening the present from Aunt Pat and Uncle Don

Aunt Pat and Uncle Don helping blow up the bouncy toy cow

Here is Ashton bouncing on the bouncy toy cow.  It was a big hit!

Ashton and Cate opening the present from the Harkless family

Ashton LOVES trucks and this truck is no exception.  I think you can tell how much he loves it by the huge smile on his face.

Eric, Cate, and I gave him a matchbox car track that shoots the cars up in the air.  

Grandma and Grandpa Schmidt gave him this beautiful fire truck that has pedals on the inside, a bell, and a fire hose on the back.  He LOVES the firetruck and only gets out of it to eat and sleep.

Ashton opening up the fire truck 

A family picture (Ashton didn't want to get out of the fire truck)

I made Ashton a leggo cake for his birthday because that is one of his favorite toys.

Ashton can't wait to dive into his birthday cake.

It didn't take him long to eat his piece of cake

To talk the kids into doing a family photo we told them we would do a silly one first and then do a good one.  

And here is the good one :)

Cate singing Jingle Bells for everyone last night

Last night I put together Ashton's matchbox track and he was so excited to see it.  

Here are some videos of the kids from this morning:

Cate and Ashton riding trikes this morning

A video of Cate teaching her cousin Elyse how to Mambo and how to sing Jingle Bells

Fun at home

Ashton reading a book.  I love hearing him count at the end of the video.

Here is a video of a game that Eric came up with and I love hearing Ashton laugh!

Ashton doing a somersault 

Pre Christmas Fun

Now that it is December we are in full swing Christmas.  I love the Christmas season and it is so much fun carrying on the traditions of our childhoods with our kids.  Here are a bunch of pictures from our weekend:

One of my best memories is decorating gingerbread houses with my Mom.  Once Ashton was down for a nap Cate and I put together a gingerbread house and then Cate decorated it herself.

Here is the house all built and ready to be decorated

Cate had a great time decorating the house

Once the house was decorated the roof kept falling off so we had to rig up a support system.  Now that it is dry we don't need the supports any more.

We got a bunch of snow on Saturday so we dressed the kids up in all of their snow gear and headed outside.

Ashton loves playing in the snow.  His gloves are a bit big for him though.

Cate tried to walk across the front yard and then fell in the snow and got stuck.  She loved it!

The kids playing in the snow together.

Saturday night we had some friends over.  The Larkin kids came over and here is a picture of all of them racing around the couch together.  

 On Sunday we headed out to pick out our Christmas tree:

Here is a picture of our tree at the tree lot.

It was very cold on Sunday but the kids had a great time picking out the tree anyway.

Here is a picture of the tree on the car

When we got home from picking out the tree we made some Christmas cookies.  After nap time we all decorated them together.  It made me so happy to look around the table and see us all there having a great time together decorating Christmas cookies.

Our beautiful cookies!!

After decorating the cookies we started to decorate the tree.

Cate posing with our finished tree.  It turned out great!