Cousin Pictures

While Karen was in town we took the kids to get some pictures taken for our parents.  We got a few great shots and are sure Mom and Dad will love the framed picture we got them!

We also attempted to take some pictures of our own...it is extremely difficult to get four kids under the age of three to look at the camera!  Here are some of our shots.

And here are some shots of our (almost) three year olds.... They are so much fun together!

Cassidy Visit

My sister's family was able to come and visit for a few days after Christmas.  It was so great to see Liam and Peyton for the first time since August, and I know they were all excited to meet Lauren.

Peyton

Liam

Hannah and Liam picked up like they last saw each other last week....they played, and played, and played.  It was great that they got along so well and we only had minimal "sharing" battles.  They really wore each other out!

 Hanging out in Hannah's new tent

 Playing with Hannah's matchbox cars
They were one of her favorite Christmas presents from Uncle Daniel

(her other favorite was a toddler digital camera from Aunt Karen! - Hannah took 250 pictures in the first two days she had it)

 Liam meeting Lauren

Cousin pile-up!

We had a really good time with all of the kids - despite the fact that Peyton was cutting some teeth and didn't sleep much at night.  With a newborn, a 6-month old that was teething, and two 3-year olds, it's safe to say that the adults in the house didn't sleep much either.  My parents came up to see everyone and spent the night at a nearby hotel.  I think Jon and Brian were seriously considering joining their in-laws for the night!

And just a few more pictures because I have a hard time narrowing them down!

 Lauren and Peyton getting acquainted

The Cassidy's arrival was a great birthday present for me!  It's a shame they live so far away and we don't get to see them very often.  This visit was the first time Karen & Brian had been at our house since Hannah and Liam were two months old.

Woolley Christmas

At 10am on Christmas Day, all of the Woolley's arrived for Christmas brunch.  Danila prepared all of the food for us, which was great, and then we headed to the family room to open presents.  I ended up stuck in the corner feeding Lauren (big surprise!).  Fortunately, we have a big sectional couch, so there was actually room for all of us to sit down while Danila passed out the packages.

11 Stockings - We're about out of mantle space

Here are some pictures of the present-opening.  There was so many of us opening presents that I know I didn't get to see every present opened or know who gave which present.  I think everyone received some very nice things and we all had an enjoyable morning - I think we spent over an hour opening presents, and I know all of the grandkids were spoiled by their Grandma and Grandpa Woolley!

 

 

 

 

 

Even the dogs got presents from Santa that they opened together!  But at the end of the day, they were totally exhausted.

 

Lauren slept through her first Christmas....at first with me holding her, and later on with Aunt Rachel practicing for her new little one that is scheduled to arrive in early March.

After we opened our presents, we all took naps.  The Ely's headed home so Gavin could nap at home and everyone at our house also managed to get in at least a small nap.  While I was napping Danila actually got the table set and everything ready for our Christmas dinner, which we scheduled for 4:30pm so the boys could watch the Laker game that started at 5.  (Although I'd love to sit and chat at the table for more than 30 minutes, we were being realistic that it might just be the ladies at the table after 30 minutes.)  Danila wanted to make it easy for us to host Christmas, so all I had to do was get the house ready and make the meat -- she took care of everything else.  It was delightful!!!  We had a ton of food (prime rib, ham, mashed potatoes, asparagus, sweet potato casserole, green bean casserole, salad, rolls and more) and I'm confident that everyone got enough to eat!  After dinner (and time to digest!) we also had a fabulous spread of desserts -- pumpkin, apple, and blackberry pies, plus chocolate chip cheesecake. 

We had a wonderful day with family celebrating the birth of Jesus.  We're thankful for great family time and great food as well!

Merry Christmas!

On Christmas Eve, my parents actually made a short day trip to Columbus to bring Hannah a present from them and a few from my sister's family.  They spent the day visiting with the Woolley side of the family and then Jon made some delicious soups and some homemade bread for us to enjoy before we went to the Christmas Eve service at our church.  Our Christmas Eve service was great -- except that Lauren pooped through her dress, which we discovered in the middle of the service, and then needed to eat just as we were getting ready to light the candles for Silent Night at the end.  It wasn't exactly silent if you were sitting near us!!!  Hannah, on the other hand, was great about sitting with her aunt and uncle and grandparents (we sat in the row behind them) and loved being passed around by the family.  I'm glad she behaved, since that was the first time she sat through a church service (other than my Grandma Catney's funeral mass).

Here are a few pictures of Hannah opening the present my parents brought her.  Gotta "love" a present that makes noise and doesn't have batteries that you can remove..... Hannah certainly enjoyed it and played it (with Uncle Josh) quite a bit before dinner.

 

 

On Christmas morning, Jon actually went in and woke up Hannah at 8:30am.  We actually didn't expect her to sleep in because she was so excited about Santa coming and the presents under the tree, but she must have been tired and worn out from all of the festivities on Christmas Eve.  I was feeding Lauren when Jon went in to wake up Hannah (even though I'd asked him to wait until I was done!).  I think he was excited to see what Santa brought him!  Jon videotaped a very sleepy Hannah coming down the stairs.  She was very excited to see all of the presents under the tree!

 

Hannah was really excited about the presents, but the one thing I thought was great was that after we gave her one of her presents to open, she wanted to make sure there were presents for all of us and kept saying "we have a present for you".  So great that she didn't think they were all for her.  We opened the Santa presents and our family presents with just us in the morning, knowing that all of the Woolley's were coming over for Christmas brunch and presents later in the morning.  Hannah's three presents included (1) a Thomas the Train, (2) a giant aquadoodle mat, and (3) a tent set that had a backpack, sleeping bag, and flashlight.  She spent an hour playing with Thomas and the Aquadoodle mat before everyone arrived.  We didn't assemble the tent until later in the day, but she was excited about the flashlight!!  Here are some pictures of her playing with her gifts.

 

The one nice thing about doing our presents when we got up is that Hannah was really excited to have some new toys and she actually got to enjoy playing with them before the real chaos started when everyone was opening presents.  Hannah was able to enjoy each present as she opened them and spent some time playing with one before opening the next.  I actually didn't take too many pictures of our morning present opening because I was having too much fun just enjoying the girls and our time together.

Making Cookies

I may be a glutton for punishment, but I scheduled a cookie-making morning with three toddlers.....am I nuts?  Yes, probably, but let me just say that the kids had fun!!!  I made fudge the night before and then planned to do butter cookies, peanut butter blossoms, and gooey cookie wreaths with the kids.  My kitchen was trashed, most of the adults have refused to eat the butter cookies because they saw how they were made, and there are sprinkles everywhere, but we had lots of laughter and squeals of delight!  It was a great morning.

Hannah and Jake were all about helping with the peanut butter blossoms.  Jake did a good job of COVERING the balls in sugar.  Hannah, on the other hand, just stacked the balls in the bowl of sugar and didn't quite get the hang of rolling them in sugar.  They also both got to enjoy picking cookie cutters for the butter cookies.  Gavin also made a few cookies, but for the most part spent his time running around playing.

Hannah and Jake loved adding the ingredients to the mixer and they did a good job of taking turns with the speed setting and on/off switch.

LAUGHING!!!

Jake also really enjoyed stealing the batter - both while in the mixer and once the peanut butter blossom balls were rolled in sugar.  In fact, I was about 1/2 dozen short on cookies with all of the "help" I had making them!

Caught again!

Jake gets a head start on making the butter cookies! 

Thankfully, Danila was around to help roll out the dough and oversee the cookie-cutting -- it was definitely helpful to have a 1:1 adult to kid ratio in the process.  In fact, at one point I think we were at a 2:1 adult to kid ratio, and I can't say that we had too many adults!

Like I said, we used a lot of sprinkles.

The collapsed gingerbread house....