Christmas

 What a perfect, perfect Christmas we had!!! This has by far been my favorite one - the kids are at such a great age to experience it all right now!

Our church did a Christmas Eve Eve service again this year.  It is so nice since Christmas Eve seems to be such a rush getting to and from church and getting over to Art and Debbi's and half the time Clint doesn't even get to come to church with us, so it worked out great.

 

 My beautiful kiddos all dressed up and ready to go.  I really wanted them to be able to sit with us this year during the service instead of having to go into the nursery and they both did great - with the exception of Brilee saying she had to go potty 3 separate times - and never actually going!

Clint had to work on Christmas Eve so that was really a bummer, but we spent most of the day lounging around anyway.  I was feeling a little "funny" that day so I didn't even know if we would make it over to The Stapp's, but baby stayed put and we had a great time eating dinner and opening gifts with all of Clint's family. Brennar and Drew got pretty much all the same gifts which was super nice, last year Brennar didn't understand why Drew got big boy stuff and he didn't, so that eliminated a lot of drama:)  Brilee pretty much hung out with me or Maddi all night and was perfectly content to just sit there

The next morning the kids actually slept until about 8 which was awesome and we woke up to find that Santa came!!! 

 A couple of our friends have this roller coaster and luckily Santa brought one just for them!!

 Brilee is already quite the dare devil on it - no hands and sometimes even backwards!

 Ninja Turtles have found their way into the Stapp household

 All 4 of them!!

 Brennar having Uncle Alex help him out with a new toy

And Kula and Lucy were reunited:)

Another great Christmas to put down in the books!!!

Weekend at the Broadmoor

 We went and spent the weekend before Christmas at the Broadmoor again this year.  This time my family came with us, and we all had a blast.

We took the kids bowling for the first time.  They both had the best time, it was so fun to watch.  I am so glad we did it!

Brennar and daddy getting his ball ready.

 The little missy waiting her turn - I can't believe how patient they both were while the rest of us (minus me) bowled.

 This is where Brennar stayed the entire hour we were there - just making sure all the balls came back like they were supposed to.

 Isn't he the most handsome little dude!! I just can't get enough of him!

 We also were able to ride the Santa Express this trip.  I waited too long last year to get tickets so we missed out, so I bought them back in August this year!! And it didn't disappoint!!

 Grama Honey and Daddy waiting to get to the North Pole

 Brennar and Grampa had to sit across from us - it was kind of a bummer but worked out ok in the end

 We finally arrived at the North Pole!!! And picked up Santa:)

After Santa came through, his Elves stayed in our car with us and read books, sang songs, played games and gave out cookies and hot cocoa.  It really was such a good time for all of us!

 My little water babies couldn't pass up a chance to swim - although Brennar seemed to do more blasting off Grampa's shoulders then actual swimming:)

 They don't get to use kick boards in swim lessons so they thought it was pretty cool that all they had to do was hang on and didn't have to really work at it

We also did the Christmas brunch - yummy yummy!!!! SO much fun!!!! Can't wait to go back next year! But maybe we will make an extra trip down there over the summer, just to make sure it's still fun:)

Birthday Party time!

We decided to have Brennar's birthday party early this year, since he pretty much is a Christmas baby, so we had it the first weekend in December.  We have always had parties at our house but this year we decided to go to Little Monkey Buziness. It is pretty much just a big room full of different bounce houses. I think everyone had a great time.  Especially my little monkey!!!

This is Brennar and one of his friends from school, Richard.  We have had so much fun with his little class, I am so sad that he is changing rooms next week, but it will be good for him

She had a pretty great time, too:)

Brennar loves him some cousin time - he is just enamored with Drew

And here he is with his best buddy, Eli

The 4 Stapp kids and one Stubbs:)

He requested blue and chocolate shark cupcakes - I think we succeeded in making him happy

And the 2 Stapp girls - the older Brilee gets, the more she looks like Maddi - I just hope she turns out to be like her too, she is the sweetest little girl and is SO good with my kids!!

I have LOTS more pictures from the day, but most of them are action shots of the kids so didn't turn out too good - oh well, it shows how much fun they all had!!!

Christmas program and party!

 

Unfortunately we had a little bit of a parenting fail the night of Brennar's Christmas program.  Both the video camera and regular camera were super low on batteries, so this is the best I got:(

 He was the first one walking out - loved that!!

 He got to sit in the very front - again loved that!!

 And he actually sang all the songs and did the actions with them!!! LOVED that!!

 I helped with his Christmas party at school so didn't get any pictures during the party. But at the very end, all the kids brought a wrapped book they had gotten, one of the moms read a story and each time she said Jesus, the kids were supposed to rotate their books. OH MY GOSH - don't do this with 3 years olds!!! I think every one of them was crying at some point!! They just didn't understand - they all wanted the book they had brought:) Oh well, maybe next year.

 Brennar is moving to a new class in January- I really loved this group of kids:( Hope the next group is just as fun!

 But what I am really going to miss is his teacher!! Mrs. Hassa has been absolutely wonderful with Brennar, he has learned so much and she is so sweet to him!

Luckily, the classroom helper, Mrs. Busch, will be in his new class too!!!

Its beginning to look a lot like Christmas!!

It's been so long since I have wrote!! Ahhh! Where to even begin? We had a great time over Thanksgiving in MT.  This year only me and the kids made the trip, so we missed Clint, but had fun just the same.  All my grandparents came also so I really liked seeing the kids with them.  We made a trip to Chuck E. Cheese, which was super fun for all of us, I'm not sure if my mom or the kids liked all the games more:) Brennar is taking after Alex and only ate a roll for Thanksgiving dinner, Brilee didn't do much better, she had rice. However, they both ate a few slices of chocolate pie!!!! They could definitely just eat dessert and be just fine, just like me! We also went to the holiday parade.  I can't even believe it, but it was both of their first times at a parade - how can it be that in 4 years we have never went to a parade!!

 

The night we got back the kids got to open their first presents, matching jammies and a Christmas book.  They have had fun getting to open a new book each night.

Aren't they super adorable???

Brennar also had his first Christmas program. I honestly was looking forward to it for weeks.  The only song he would tell me they were singing was the "mountain song"  took a few days, but we finely figured out it was Go Tell it on the Mountain.  He also told me he was going to be an angel:) Well, duh, what else would he be?? He really is my little angel boy.

All dressed up and ready to go! This really is something that happens all the time at our house. One of them will just randomly go up to the other and give them a big hug.  Brilee has started adding, "Brennar, I love you somuch" no typo there, somuch is one word:)

 I just love them so much, too!!

 She ADORES him!!