a holly jolly christmas

well, Christmas is almost over.  I have mostly spent the last two days in my pajamas, chilling around the house with the kiddos, trying to recover and get sleep!  I am exhausted!  Most of Christmas was nice, but the Ellis Christmas left me tired and exhausted.

Sunday was lovely though!  I loved sitting and visiting with you ladies!  It was probably the highlight of my Christmas, because it was the most laid back and relaxing visit of the week.  Too bad we can't do things more - maybe someday :)  

Anyway, here are a few pictures from that morning.  It is always so fun to take Shea on the ferry.  He is so excited about being on the "ferry boat" and loves to pick out our seats.  After he sat down, he ran over to a bench near us to look out the window at a little tug boat, which he was convinced was also a ferry boat.  He immediately struck up conversation with the three guys sitting behind him.  Thankfully, they were nice and chatted with him.  Boy, do I need to teach my child "stranger danger" haha.  But I love love love that he is so personable.  For all the grey hairs Jeremy and I will gain raising this kid, I know in the deep place in my heart that he is going to be one amazing man when he is older.  Jeremy and I always say if the only reason we exist is to raise Shea up to be the strong Christian leader he is made to be, it will be worth it.  Helps on the crazy days to think of that, anyway.

The time at my brother Kit's house was nice!  We arrived a little before ten in the morning.  He made us some lattes and we helped prepare brunch.  Here he is with their new dog, "duke".

And my sister.

We ate food, exchanged a few gifts (I love that there is no expectation of giving and its always a little random each year, but the kids always get something little, so its perfect) and then had a white elephant.  We cleared out some junk from our home this year and gave a wall clock and some weird masks from Bali someone gave us.  haha.  Luckily, the recipients liked them.  The hardest part was that my brother, Josh, is going through a separation with his wife :(  He talked a little with Jeremy about it, but I honestly haven't heard anything directly from him.  We haven't been very close for the past few years, but he was definitely not himself.  Keep him in your prayers, if you think of it. He also lost his job right before he had to move out of their apartment and is living in family's house from his church.

Christmas Eve we went to service at church and then stayed at Jeremy's parents to open up their stocking to our family.  Then we came home and Shea opened his Christmas Eve pajama gift.  Here he is, so excited to finally open a present!

Jeremy and I have the tradition of getting some crackers and cheese and a special drink on Christmas Eve and setting up before we go to bed.  We got a dark Ale from Trader Joes and it was soooo good.  Yes, I like a good beer.  Must be the German in me.  And it was a big bottle so it lasted us a few days.  We don't drink much, so its fun to have a glass of something special every once in a while.

Here is what the kiddos woke up to Christmas morning!

Jeremy was amazing and stoked the fire ALL night os it would be warm in the morning.  Normally we let it burn out and it just takes a couple hours in the morning to heat up the house.  So he was up like every 2-3 hours putting another log on!  But the house was so nice and warm the next day.

Hailey had her first food and loooved it.  I got her some rice husks "num nums".  Just a baby rice wafer that kind of dissolves in their mouth.  Here she is in her Christmas PJ's ready for her food!

Kept her busy for a while.  I would share the video, but its pretty boring haha.

Here is Shea in his Christmas PJ's.  He just opened this cool oldschool tin firetruck from my Grandma.

There were smiles all around!!  Even if we both were SO tired and felt like a truck hit us.  It was a simple and fun Christmas.    After our little Christmas we got dressed and went up to Jeremy's parents for breakfast.  Here is Hailey in her Christmas dress.   But she soaked through it in the car ride to Jeremy's Grandma, so she was just in some random clothes all day. 

After stopping at Jeremy's Grandma, we headed to my parents and just hung out for a little bit with them and two of my brothers.  Then off to the Ellis Christmas.  It was loud and the kids were insane, and I think Shea had like 5 time outs (and so did some of the other cousins) and it took forever.  I was kind of stressed.  Hailey was great, even though she was up through like two of her naps!  She just smiled the whole time.  It just gets too insane though.  I think I ate like two bites of dinner because I had to referee Shea the whole time.  It was such a long day, all the kids were tired, and they were all fighting with each other it seemed.  I've never been so relieved to leave Christmas in my life.  I know it will get easier as he gets older, but boooy.  I was just DONE.  And two families weren't even there, so we still have to open our gifts I guess from the gift exchange, although Jeremy's mom got us some nice stuff already.  It's a little overwhelming.

I cannot tell you enough how I am looking forward to Long Beach next week and taking a NAP and not cleaning my house.  Which I have to do before Friday because we're having the family over to our house for dinner.

OK well.  I hope you all enjoyed your Christmas!  I need to go get dressed haha.

life in pictures.

this month FLEW by.  So, I'll just dump a million pictures on you to show you what we have been up to.  Is it seriously Christmas next week??  We finished all of our shopping (which was toned down a lot this year, and I am happy about that) and have everything wrapped and ready for Christmas morning.  Shea has a couple of fun count down presents to open each day (and has been naughty and opened two presents that were under the tree - luckily we put out ones that were not a big deal if he opened on purpose, so he could learn to wait for Christmas!).  I just have a few handmade gifts to finish up, and I will be ready.  I think I just uploaded close to 60 pictures, all from my phone and none edited.  This will be a long post.

For Thanksgiving (which was forever ago, I know!) we stayed home and went to Jeremy's parents for a small thanksgiving with half of the family.  The next day, we hopped on a ferry and went to my brothers house in Kirkland.  He had us, my sister and her fiance, and one other couple they knew over.  It was a fun night.  We spent the night and visited our friend, Debbi, on the way home the next day.

I also made Hailey this ridiculous headband (which my brother commented upon seeing, "what is on your head?  are you a Dr. Seuss character?" ha).  It has since been smushed and I'm not sure if I can bring it back to life again or not.  Oh well.

This next picture might explain why it got smushed.  Someone likes to play with baby's hair things.

There has been a lot of morning cuddles while I don't want to get out of my warm bed.

And busy kids at school!  Here is John and Shea playing at one of the stations I had set up.

I is for ICE week at a school!

We went to a tree farm (had an awesoem groupon) this year for our tree.  Shea loved running through the trees and we got some hot cocoa (which Jeremy spilled on my seat in the car! ha) before we left.  It was a rainy, cold, and muddy day.

We've been spending more time at t he church, helping Jeremy's parents get ready for all of the Christmas things that have been going on.  The churches ugly red carpet is horrible all year, except at Christmas time, its  actually quite charming.

This year for our tree, we did all edibles.  Here we are stringing popcorn, cranberries, and kix cereal.

It now also has candy canes and gingerbread cookie ornaments we made, but I haven't taken another picture yet.

For J week, we studied Jonah at school and had this awesome fish in the classroom.  so much fun!

We also set up a christmas village this year.  I bought these houses at Walmart for a dollar each and spray painted them.  Yes, there is a gorilla, a zebra, and a camel living in our village.  I find different animals in little people in there almost on a daily basis :)  Shea thinks its pretty cool.

I also painted the living room some time in the last month!  My sister came over and helped me paint the main wall to the left a sort of "latte" color, and then I did behind the tv in a brown I used in the other room.  I still haven't finished painting the door.  It makes it feel a WHOLE lot homier in that room though!

And here are some of our christmas decorations

Oh and the fish from class.  I said these are in very random order haha.

I put wrapping paper inside of the windows on our entertainment center.  Amazingly, you can still use the remote through it.

Our little tree and scrabble tiles.

I also made new stockings this year.  Our burlap ones last year were too skinny and falling apart.  These are stronger, the right size, and Shea loved picking out his own fabric (the polar bears).

This was a jungle environment we made for school on J week.  We've been having so much fun in class!

More christmas at our house...

My student Savanna.  I just found out that she will not be returning to school after Christmas break.  Her parents are sadly splitting up, and her dad wants to send her to a different school (we're not sure why, yet).  I'm sad to see her go, but it has been a good first start to the year and ti gives me a little more freedom since she was the only paying student in the class!

Shea had his three year old checkup.  Didn't need any shots this time, so that was a relief!

and a reward for doing well!

gingerbread making at church....

playing games together...

our bulletin and artwork at school :)

Hanging out in the nursery on Sunday... The little boy always cries so hard and only wants Jeremy!  But we got out some graham crackers and turned on a veggietales movie and he settled down.

I got Hailey this RIDICULOUS hat and dress at gymboree yesterday (they had 40% off their already marked down stuff!)  Hanna took a picture for me on her camera too.

We went to the Christmas party at the club house.  Shea told Santa he wanted "cars" then they gave out a goodie bag to him and it had a car in it haha.  But he is going around telling me that this Santa was just pretend, because "Daddy is actually Santa Claus."

Today we went out to Silverdale because Jeremy had no work.  Part of his christmas bonus were these keychains from wendy's where you show it and you get a free jr. frosty with your order.  His boss gave him 4 or 5 of them, so we got three Jr. frostys for free!  A fun little treat.

And this is just goofy us at church tonight while Jer was working cleaning and I was setting up for school a little bit.  I was showing Jeremy the reindeer hat the kids are making this week and then he walked in wearing a choir robe haha.  

We also took a more artsy picture, because we have too much fun and act like 12 year olds most of the time.  I might have to facebook hack and make it his profile picture.

AND that is sort of some of life lately.  My book club has been a wonderful experience so far, and I am so looking forward to this Wednesday night!  It will be the first time all the ladies are there, so I have 6 coming now!  We are also doing a cookie exchange (which means I need to go make my cookie dough because the recipe I make has to sit a few days).

I am SO excited about Christmas this year!  And the week after we are going on vacation for 4 days with Jeremy's family to Long Beach.  Jeremy is planning on taking me out to Les Miserable for his birthday while we are there.  I think he is more excited about it than I am.

Can't wait to see you girls and catch up with you!