December

December is the best month.  But man, oh man is it busy.  So much to do and so little time.  It felt the busiest it's ever been this year.  Having an infant probably added to that, but also made it extra sweet.  I love having a new baby at Christmas time. 

Obviously I've been enjoying the slower paced life that January is, seeing as it's a month past Christmas and I'm just now getting to posting all of this.

Even though it was a busy month, this sweet face made my busy days merry and bright.

The month started off with a visit from our Elf, Nicky.  He came on December 2nd (Chloe's birthday) and the kids are always happy to see him each year.  We especially love when he brings treats!

We had fun all month finding him each morning in his new hiding spot.

When we were out running errands one day, we ran into Santa at Costco.  Leah looked squarely at him and asked, "Are you the REAL Santa?"  He replied, "Of course I am!"  That answer satisfied her and his jolly good gesture of giving them each a candy cane was well received.

I decided to start a new tradition this year.  Our family loves singing songs together, especially Christmas songs.  I wanted all the kids to learn and memorize a Christmas song.  I chose my favorite children's song "Picture A Christmas" from the children's hymn book.  We started practicing right before Thanksgiving and within a few weeks, all 4 big kids had it memorized.  It became a special time in our house when we practiced "our song"- usually in the evening, right before bedtime.  The spirit was very strong.  There is nothing more beautiful then hearing children's voices singing songs about the Savior and His birth.  When they sang the song in Primary later in December, the twins' primary teacher told me they knew every last word and sang it loud and proud.  I can't wait for next year to learn a new song together.  This was my favorite thing about December this year.

I love Christmas trees and I love babies.  Put them together and it's even better.

Fall babies make for sweet, tiny babies at Christmas time.  5 Fall babies for me and I love it.

The kids were very anxious to write letters to Santa this year.  Chloe was the writer for everyone and wrote what they dictated.

Ahhh, good ol' Chloe.  This is the second year in a row (at least) that she's asked for a real live bunny.  Too bad her mom has indoor kids and very few outdoor pets.  A permanent bunny sounds like zero fun for me at this point in my life.  And yes, I said me.  Don't the moms always end up doing the most work with pets??

Mitch's letter starts off small and simple enough, until he threw in an iPod nano.

Leah was very insistent that she wanted a phone with a charger.    I asked her what she would do with it and she said "Play games on it, like moms do!"

Lexi's list consisted of things she heard the other kids talking about- mostly ideas that Chloe wanted. 

Chloe googled the address to the North Pole and off they sent it!

Miss O stayed with tradition and wore the Andros Christmas outfit that the rest of the kids have worn.

 

Chloe, December 2004

Mitch, December 2007

Only one twin (obviously) could wear it at a time.  Lexi (left) wore it and I bought another one for Leah.

December 2009

Olivia wore the other one as well.

  We look forward to visiting Santa every year too.  This was a year of no crying children to see Santa and it was great.

My sweet Lexi asked Santa for hanitizer (hand sanitizer) and snowman pajamas.  I love simple requests.

Leah asked for that phone and a charger that she wrote about in her letter.

Livy was a perfect angel for Santa and even wore the same outfit the twins wore to meet Santa for the first time.

December 2009

Family Shot!  I will enjoy the no tears while I can this year.  I'm guessing next year will not be tearless.

The kids had to give Santa a hug before leaving.

We went home right after that and decorated our new 9 foot Christmas tree.  We had set it up a week earlier and hadn't had time to decorate it.  The kids were extremely anxious.

Having a taller tree this year made it necessary to get creative with decorating the top areas.

We found some candy cane headbands in our decoration box.  Olivia was not feeling the Christmas spirit in those.

But a binky makes everything better!

My sweet muffin turned 3 months a week before Christmas.  What a beautiful 3 months it has been with her.

We got lucky and got to visit Santa again later in the month.  Ben's boss was asked to dress up like Santa for a friend's holiday business party and he invited us to bring the kids to see him.

The kids had fun and we were all sent home with a little gift.  Thanks Santa Steve!

About a week and a half before Christmas, we had a gift exchange with Grandma Cynde before she headed out of town for the holiday.  The kids were so excited to see what she got for them!

Cynde comes up the cutest gifts.

She wrapped up this little note, stuck to a microwave bag of popcorn.  She also gave each one of them a McDonald's gift card to go get a happy meal.  She really does know what makes kids happy.

The kids were almost more excited to watch her open the gift from them.  We made her a "Grandma Cynde" book with drawings from the kids and pictures of her with them.

Olivia loved her new REI thermals that matched the other kids.

The girls had a playdate later that week with a sweet friend from preschool.  After lunch, they got to eat their Christmas trees that they decorated at school that day.

Mitch made a gingerbread house at school, but wasn't allowed to eat it due to the icing having raw eggs in it.  What's the point of making a house completely out of edible things if you can't eat it?

The Friday before Christmas, we had our first snow of the season.  The kids (and Ben) were so excited.  They were up and sledding by 6:15 a.m.- before the sun was even up.

They couldn't wait to show me how all of them could ride down together on one sled.  Living on a private street that is sloped has its advantages sometimes!

With school delayed 2 hours that morning, the kids had their fill of sledding and we enjoyed a hot breakfast and hot chocolate!

They all got good use out of their new birthday thermals from Cynde.  REI spokesmodels??

That same night, we took them to McDonald's for dinner to use their gift cards from Cynde.  Everyone got a Happy Meal except Chloe, who had fun piecing together her meal from the dollar menu. 

The next night was our Ward Christmas Party.  My 3 sweet little girls wore their matching Bird outfits.