What a crazy, but fun, 4 days of Christmas!  Carter and Seth’s last school day was Friday, December 21st.  They both had school parties and got to leave after their parties were over.  They have such super teachers and such a great group of friends.  I feel so blessed by our school and my boys’ teachers.  After the devastating shooting in Connecticut I am reminded (again) of the love a teacher has for her students.  I most definitely felt that way when I taught and I know my boys’ teachers feel the same way. I could write so much about my feelings towards teachers, but for now, on to Christmas. 🙂

We celebrated Christmas with my family on Saturday because Spencer had to work on Christmas Eve (when we usually celebrate).  The kids were SO excited.  I should say the boys were so excited.  Molly Kate really showed no interest in anything Christmas.  She never touched the tree and didn’t really get into opening presents.  She did, however, love all her new toys.  With 7 kids in my parents’ house on Saturday, you can imagine the chaos and noise!  But that is what Christmas is all about and we all enjoyed it!  We enjoyed a great meal and just spent the day watching the kids enjoy their new toys.

On Sunday, we traveled to Hendersonville to celebrate Christmas with Zach’s family.  It was a packed house!  Zach’s sister and her family were there as well as Zach’s uncle’s family from Ohio.  The kids loved playing with their cousins and Molly Kate especially enjoyed all the extra attention from Brooke and her girls.  The boys loved opening their gifts and had so much fun playing with their toys.  They especially loved their Star Wars Angry Birds game.  It was a big hit!

On Christmas Eve, we went back over to Mom and Dad’s for lunch.  It was nice to slow down and not focus on gifts for a while.  Molly Kate got a nap and the boys had some down time to play with their new toys.  On Monday night, we all went to church for the Christmas Eve service.  This is by far my favorite event of Christmas.  I LOVE attending church with my family, singing all the Christmas songs and lighting the candles at the end.  I’m hoping that it is teaching my kids what Christmas is really about.  Santa and presents are fun and a part of Christmas but hopefully that is not all they are focusing on! 🙂  After we returned home from church, we ate dinner and quickly realized how HYPER our boys were.  As a mom of 3 boys (and a girl), I am used to hyper and chaotic, but this level of hyper went way above the norm.  So we bundled them up and Zach and the boys ran laps in the backyard.  We couldn’t think of any other way to burn off some energy before bedtime and it worked!

Christmas morning was SO fun!  We had told the boys they could get up anytime after 6.  Of course at 6am ON THE DOT, Carter and Seth come running into our room (mind you they were coming from two different rooms).  We let them wake up Ethan and Molly Kate woke up from all the yelling. 🙂  Each of the kids took turns opening their gifts so it wouldn’t go by too fast.  It was so fun to watch them and their excitement.  My mom came over for breakfast to see what Santa  brought (my dad was sick) and Zach’s parents came over for lunch.  It was a great ending to 4 really fun days with our family!

 Finally…a smile on camera!!  I had to chase her around the house and get her super hyper before I took the picture.  She loves to be chased and what a reward…I love seeing my girl smile!

 All 7 grandkids on my side of the family.  Almost impossible to get them all looking at the same time but I think we did a good job!

  My crew…sometimes I look at pictures and think, wow I have 4 kids.  I feel it everyday though! 🙂

These two have the SWEETEST relationship.  Ethan misses him so much when they are not together.  Even though they tend to get in trouble when they are together, they play so well together!

Our family.

This sweet boy loves Power Rangers. 🙂

And this precious boy LOVES Mickey Mouse.  That is all he asked for during Christmas.

Carter and his Origami Yoda book.  He finished it in a day and has already read the sequel.  He loves to read!

Seth and his MegaZword again.

These two sweet girls feeding their babies that they just opened.  I can’t wait to watch them grow up together only 4 months apart (just like Rane and Ethan).

MK has really gotten into her babies.  She’ll line them all up and cover them up and say, “Night night.”  She’s feeds them with a bottle and with a spoon.  She also loves to give them “medicine” through an old medicine dropper that I gave her.  I love to watch her play!

Papa handing out the stockings.

Seth going through his stocking.  He always tells me his stocking in his favorite part. I tend to agree. 🙂

Ethan digging into his stocking.

Carter got home from Nana and Papa’s and immediately set up his science kit that he got.  He LOVED it.  We did one experiment that night and he had so much fun.

And on to the Evans’ festivities.  Zach and I were so very disorganized on this day.  We lost our camera twice that day.  VERY frustrating because this is one of only two pictures I took that day. 😦  But it is a cute one!  All the Evans’ grandkids trying to get a group picture.  Can you tell Molly Kate just wants to get down and play?!

Carter, Seth, and Dylan playing Star Wars Angry Birds Jena.  Ethan trying to wait patiently for his turn.  Such a cute game!

On to Monday…Carter, Ethan, Seth, and Molly Kate posing in front of their cookies for Santa and carrots for the reindeer.

And this was our CRAZY dinner on Christmas Eve.  They are all dancing at the table (including Molly Kate).  It was soon after this picture that we decided to have them burn off some energy running around in the backyard.  They loved it!  (By the way, I made them take their church shirts off because I knew they would get food on them).

Christmas morning!! Ethan opening one of his packages.

Carter digging into another one.

Seth checking out his Star Wars lego kit.

Ethan eating his cinnamon rolls using his new tray.  Notice he has some of his stocking stuffers shoved in the side of the tray. 🙂

Check out this little cutie!  She LOVES her new kitchen and apron.  If I’m washing dishes she’ll run over to her kitchen and pretend to do the same thing. LOVE. 🙂

Carter working hard on the Lego castle.  The boys (including Zach) worked on this castle all day!  Such a wonderful Christmas!