Labbett Christmas and Happy New Years 2015!

After sickness on our part and Nana's surgery, we finally made it to visit everyone in Sidney.  We had a wonderful Christmas dinner with everyone and we opened presents.

Ava loved her My Size Elsa.  This was one of the items she had been asking from Santa, and I was so proud of her she was very grateful at Christmas and never even mentioned that she didn't get it.  But she loved it!  Ava and Elsa making silly faces!

Dawson adored his mp3 player from Aunt Margie.  He wore his new headphones all day long!

We ended up bringing Riley back with us for New Years.  We had grand plans of poppers, game night, hot chocolate and pizza.  But after two nights away and late bed times they were really really grouchy.  Ava ended up in bed at 7 after having a meltdown because she didn't come in third place in Hi Ho Cheerio.  The other three stayed up and played creationary before bed.  

A quiet New Years

But we were able to stretch out the festivities for two nights and the kids had sparklers tonight before bed.  

Thank you kiddos for the fun night(s)!

Christmas Day

Santa Came!!!!!

Dawson our morning bird was up first checking out the tree before anyone else.

Ava was very happy to receive a Barbie dollhouse.

Dawson had lots of favorites, including his new Bruder truck.

Carter had been asking for a nerf zombie gun mixed with a mega gun and he got it!

We had been fighting a stomach bug that struck Ava and Dawson on Monday.  Carter was sick Christmas Eve and delayed Santa's arrival.  On Christmas Day I wasn't feeling well and Dawson felt a little wiped out by the end of the day too.  I guess it wouldn't be Christmas without some sort of sickness!

But we had lots of fun playing!  Ava painting her doll's nails pink and purple.

While the boys were busy building legos.  

Merry Christmas!

Pictures from Christmas Eve

Awww, I just love this picture.  The kids slept in front of the Christmas tree on the 23rd.  Look at shadow curled up next to Carter.

Christmas Eve mass, one of the kid's favorite.  Ava dressed up as Mary again and the boys were sheep.  

I think dressing the boys up in the same outfit is so adorable and luckily at this point in their life they like doing it!

Poor Ava, she was so exhausted she fell asleep in the car on the way home from church with the elf hat over her eyes.

We capped the night off with dinner and watching The Grinch.

The Eve before the Eve

The kids have been asking to sleep underneath the Christmas tree one night, so we are doing that tonight, the eve before the eve.  This year each of the kids helped make a tie blanket for one or more of their siblings.  So we decided to open them tonight so we could enjoy our new blankets at our family sleepover.

Ava's pink and blue tie blanket features cats and dogs that Carter made for her.

Dawson has a John Deere blanket that Carter and Ava made for him.

Of course, Carter's blanket is camo.  Dawson helped me make this while the older kids were at school (translation: he watched me make the blanket and asked for snacks.)

A cozy Christmas-ey sleepover!

Gingerbread Creations

In years past we have always done a really simplistic version of gingerbread houses: graham crackers frosted onto milk cartons and candy stuck to it.  The kids love it, it's very simple and fun.

Now that they are getting older we decided to take it up a notch and we purchased the kits.

Carter and Dawson chose the Christmas trains.  Carter liked doing the kit, but he was kind of bummed that he wasn't allowed to eat it immediately.    

Ava picked Santa's sleigh.  Ava spent the most time decorating, she liked picking out different candy and creating a beautiful sleigh.

Dawson's Christmas Train

He got tired of decorating, so he dumped a most of the candy into the freight car.  

What sweet memories!

Cuddling Cousins!

This past weekend we visited Grandma, Bo, Uncle Jason, Aunt Tiffany, Andrew and Abigail.  We celebrated Christmas with them.  I didn't take too many pictures because my big camera is broken.  But I did take some pictures of the cousins in their matching outfits that Grandma got them.

Ava snuggled and stroked and loved on Abigail.

Little Twinkies in their matching outfits!!

The Boys in matching camo.  Andrew also has the matching outfit, he just wasn't feeling the picture session.  Very Cute!

Christmas Celebrations

The last week before Christmas break went so fast!  We were busy, and every classroom was having different celebrations.

First Grade had a Polar Express Day and Gingerbread Days.  They wore their pajamas to school, watched polar express and had a cookie exchange.  They also had Gingerbread Days and had different learning activities revolving around the Gingerbread Man and then culminating in cookie decorating.

Kindergarten also wore their pajamas to school for movie day.  They watched a movie and I was able to come to school that day to help the class decorate gingerbread houses.

Dawson didn't want to be left out, so he wore his pajamas all day long too!

Dawson's preschool has a Happy Birthday Jesus party.  Mike took videos for me, and they were very cute to see.  At the end of one song Dawson proclaimed very loudly "I have to pee."  Awesome.

Handsome boy, ready to perform!

I took this picture of Ava cuddling with shadow and I realized WOW! Mike looks exactly like his Dad in this picture!