Christmas 2010

We had a wonderful and adventurous Christmas Eve and Christmas, one for sure that will always be remembered {the good and not so good!}!  Right before heading over to my parents house for Christmas Eve we received a phone call from my parents house that my parents were on their way to the ER because my mom had cut her finger and needed stitches.  So we went over let the kids run around while us adults tried to figure out my mom's "vision" for the night and get everything all ready for the night.  After my mom received 8 stitches they came home and we got started, only 5 minutes late!  We had  a yummy dinner, opened up presents, and my mom put on a little program.  We had a fun night, it was fun spending it with my family and having my Grandpa Rhodes with us was lots of fun as well.

Ryan all wrapped up!



Those are some cute kids!



We then left and started doing our little families traditions.  We set out treats for Santa, milk, Pepsi, and this year the kids decided they wanted to set out a baggie so Santa could take some treats home for the Elves.  We then put out our Santa key, sprinkled out Reindeer glitter so they could find our house, and then we also threw out Grinch dust so the Grinch wouldn't come to our house!  Last we set out our stockings and headed to bed.  The kids had a sleep over in our room again, they thought that was great!

{I thought I was so clever getting a theme going on their pj's.  Marcus has turn tables and ghetto blasters on his pants, Alec has a "My Dad Rocks" shirt, Olivia has guitars on her pants and shirt, and Payton has a guitar on his shirt.  They all looked so cute and comfy!}

 Starting at about 2 am Carson got hit with the Flu bug, we had all got it while he was in TN and a guess it finally caught up to him, not the best timing!  At 7 am the kids were up and ready to go!  Santa for sure found us, we had 4 happy little kids and 1 sick Daddy.  Carson tried his hardest to be happy, excited, and involved!  The 2 older boys were both thrilled with their ipod touches and thought the sleds were awesome (were a little sad that we had no snow to use them on), Olivia loved her Doctor kit and all the animals that came with it, her Tangled doll, horse, and Flynn, her babies, her two belts, pink football, and everything else she could ever think of!  Payton was a little overwhelmed with everything that was going on, but he loved his new zebra toy and didn't care for the wrapping paper at all!

When Christmas was approaching we would ask the kids what they wanted for Christmas Olivia and Alec said they would like a pillow pet.  At first Marcus did not want one and then he decided he wanted a dolphin one.  So Carson and I gave each of the kids a pillow pet and I made each one a blanket.  When Marcus opened his he immediately was heart broken and crying because him and his friends discussed a few days before that no one would be getting a pillow pet and they even made a song about it!  I felt horrible, but explained to him that I knew of other kids getting one in his class and if he wanted me to I would take it back.  Shortly after when we were watching a movie he decided that he would keep it, but we would keep it on the down low!  So Marcus got a dolphin pillow pet and a baseball blanket, Alec got the monkey pillow pet and a soccer blanket, Olivia got the unicorn pillow pet and a pink flower blanket, and Payton got the dog pillow pet and a train blanket.  It was a fun little project!

We had a nice relaxing day, with naps included!  We had fun watching movies and playing our new games.  We are loving our uno flash game and we think it is pretty funny that Olivia wins nearly every time!

What a wonderful holiday!  As I went to bed that night I couldn't believe that Christmas was over.  We are extremely grateful for out little family and all of our blessings!