Christmas with the Arnolds

We headed to the Arnold's house on Christmas day and managed to save gifts until after nap time. The kids were very excited to finally open that huge pile of gifts though!

Mason loved his binder with markers, stickers and pages for drawing! It was hard to get him to open any other gift. Very cute!
Eli with his daddy and Lina with her mom (and soon to be baby brother!).
Olivier, Anna, Audrey and Lina. They were too into gifts to pose for photos!
Anna loves her light up Cinderella glass slippers! She would stomp her feet all evening to see the lights go. If she only knew she needed only to tap them!
Look at all that fun!

Christmas morning!

Christmas morning was busy at our house. We managed to get this photo of the new bikes that Santa brought the kids before they found them!
This is a collection of videos as Anna comes out to the tree and sees the bikes and gets on her new bike!


Do you think she is happy? I think so!
The boys and their stockings. Notice that the bikes didn't go far and of course the princess Barbies never were far away from Anna.
The boys opening their cameras.
Anna got dress up clothes and is opening some Tag books.
Olivier opening his art supplies. He was so excited to see Mater!
And Mason was even more excited that he had something with Mater too!
The boys also got a pretend doctor kit. My ears, heart, teeth and blood pressure are all in check!
And the bikes! They love their bikes! Videos to come soon!

Christmas with the Remillards

On Christmas Eve we celebrated with the Remillards! We were there most of the day and managed to open gifts after Santa arrived at nap time and delivered all the gifts and filled all the stockings. The rare moment of getting all five kids in one photo! Mason, Olivier, Anna, Natalie and Rhys!
Mason was very cautious at first about opening his gifts.
Olivier also seemed a bit concerned!
The four older kids opening gifts. Lots of activity!

Can't leave out Rhys! Very cute wearing the Santa hat!


Mason was a bit more aggressive in his gift opening now!
And one of the best lines that will melt your heart. Anna opened her Disney Princess Barbies and exclaimed, "Santa knew just what I wanted!" Yes, Santa knew just what she wanted!
Natalie and Mason had a good time playing with the magnets on Natalie's easel.
And Grandpa is helping Olivier by putting batteries in his Thomas engine. Boy does he love that Thomas! Can you tell?
And I thought this was cute, he is petting Grandpa's wood bird!
What a great start to Christmas!

Ready for Santa

The cookies are out and ready for Santa when he arrives in our sleep!

Merry Christmas! Sending you love!

Transition

I stayed home with the kids today while Tania had to work. Without her knowledge, I converted the boys' cribs to transitional toddler beds. If this doesn't go well, and the boys climb out and have difficulty staying in their cribs at nap and at night...well I'm 100% willing to accept 58% of the blame. Think that'll work?

Here is Mason in his "bed" for the first time.

















And Olivier smiling away in his "bed."















The boys did take a very good nap in them this afternoon so I'll keep my fingers crossed.

Santa!

Today Santa took time out of his busy schedule to make a quick stop at day care and bring a few gifts to all of the kids! When he arrived I expected a lot of excitement from the kids but they were very happy sitting on their mats and eating their snacks.

Santa makes his entrance:

Mason did really well sitting down right next to Santa but I think he didn't realize it until his name was called. Once his name was called Mommy was needed!
And here is Olivier getting a gift.
Anna was very excited, her first Barbie, and a Cinderella one!
All three kids with Mommy and Santa!
Olivier playing with a garbage truck! Mason was happy because he finally got his ambulance back after Olivier stole it from him.
Mason seems to be in shock that he got another toy!
So much fun and what a great Santa! :-)
What a wonderful time we had! Thank you!

Tea party!

This afternoon we went to the the Teddy Bear Tea party. We had a great time last year and it was even better this year because we had friends that joined us!

Anna, Lina and Julie waited in line to get their face painted.
Anna did a great job sitting very still.

And here is the finished product!

Then we headed inside for lots of fun! Anna loved the gingerbread cookie and then they got to decorate a cookie. Anna put on all the frosting out of her bag (and would have put on more!) and then enjoyed eating some of the yummy candy. She did manage to get some on her cookie too!
There is our group, minus our amazing photographer, April!

Julie, Anna and Lina waiting in line for their turn to ring the bells during a song.

And here is Lina and Anna ringing bells during one of the songs.
And a great shot of Anna. That is my baby girl!
And she was willing to sit with Santa this year but was not willing to tell him what she wanted for Christmas. It was exciting to see her so willing to go close to him! We are making progress!
And, much like last year, she really liked the Snow Queen!
It was great to spend some time with Anna without the boys along! :-) I have a feeling she will sleep well tonight after the busy day!