Final Christmas celebration of 2015

So the beginning of Jan and the end of winter break brought about the last family gathering for Christmas. We celebrate with some of Josh's siblings and mom. 

it was a crazy morning for us, as i had choir at church and church before everyone was suppose to arrive around noon. Somehow it all worked out.  The kids were pretty shy with everyone suddenly at their house. Max was also tired and never did get a nap. 

We had just enough food for lunch for everyone, then open presents. The kids loved this part, as Max has been asking to open more gifts. Poor boy was so spoiled this year. 

The youngest at the party gets the bow! 

Quilt made by Josh's sister

playing with uncle ben

Grandma got the kids hats, only max wouldn't wear his. LOL

it was a good time, but hard at the same time. Once everyone left we were all wiped out and just scrambled to get ready for school the next day. 

Jan 2nd snow and wood

This was a rough day.  Josh had a rough night and i wasn't sure he was up to helping out, but somehow he made it. Friends came up to with a log splitter to help Josh cut up some big logs and bring more wood into the shop for the wood stove. We use a wood stove to heat our well pump that pumps the water up to the house.  

Josh totally ended up over doing it by the end of the day, but the kids had a great time playing outside for most of it and we got a lot of wood in the shop for the winter. 

New Years eve

We started New Year's Eve out in the snow :-) 

We had a very quiet celebration at home. We got a bunch of appetizers to make for supper and then did a movie night. 

Bedtime came about 8pm. We had to start getting into a normal bedtime routine.

This boy loved he had Johnny popper popcorn, but our microwave didn't like it so we burnt a lot of it, but max didn't care. He ate pretty much all of it. 

Picture fun with hats! We did that first instead of waiting until everyone was tired. 

Toasting to 2016, while I'm not looking forward to all of it, trying enjoy the moments I can with my family

The Snow came

So finally on Monday we got snow! The day it snowed was awful as it was so windy and it was mostly sleet. So we didn't get to enjoy the outdoors much.

Tuesday josh had a doctors appointment first thing so we took the kids to my moms where they played outside twice. Then came back home and went out again. We tried to keep quiet while josh napped as he was pretty miserable. 

The kids loved playing outside with the fort they made and snow "markers"  they also played so well together. Love how much they love each other. Bella also watches out for her brother so much. 

There was sledding down the driveway which probably made the driveway slick. Good think I have 4 wheel drive. Max couldn't get very far at first but Bella would push him so he could go far. Then they played bumper sleds at the bottom of the hill. 

We enjoyed the snow all week and so happy we could get outside in it. 

Christmas Day

Christmas morning. Our little tree with presents under it waiting for little kids to come open them. This christmas was very much for the kids. yes Josh and I got gifts, but the joy and magic of the holiday was mostly for Bella and Max. With our ground Angels looking out for them, they had such a magical Christmas. They got so many things they wanted and wished for. Only clothes did Max toss aside, lol . I pray that they keep this magical memories for this christmas. 

Daddy was on deboxing and put together duty

WE totally forgot about the stockings until after we ate breakfast. Ooops, They were also candyless this year, which i think going forward they might always be. So nice to not worry about candy. Then after a short time to play, we loaded up in the car to head to Nana's house

Nana's tree with all the presents. I swear it didn't look like much, but once it was spread out it was a lot! 

My mom's little living room was covered in paper, toys, plastic and candy

Working putting together Max's work bench. He conviced Aunt Tracey to open all his gifts for him. 

Daddy helping out with the remote controlled excavator 

Christmas  MONOPLY! well John Deere version this year. Andy kicked our butts!

Grandkids picture. As normal Max was the only one who didn't want his picture, but we looked back and he has does this the last three years.

needs to be edited but my mom with her grandkids

Family shot 

My Sister and me! 

We packed up from mom's and headed home. The kids were tired but managed to stay awake in the car and then were excited to play with there new toys. We did a chirstmas movie with supper and then bathtime. The kids got new bath toys to try out. Bedtime was a bit of struggle with Max. We finally got him to sleep in his own bed with the promise of presents the night before, but now we didn't have that promise so yeah it was a rough one.