Christmas Day 2009

Christmas day we had a ham dinner with the Kandoll side. Thank goodness it was in the late afternoon so we could recover from waking up at the crack of dawn the day before;) There sure are alot more kids, makes things fun:) Kids really feel the magic and wonder of the season, they don't get all caught up in the busyness of parties, baking, buying and wrapping gifts. It's nice to just slow down and watch them enjoy:)

Amanda telling the Christmas story

The kids enjoyed hearing it again and the older ones adding

to it with what they have been learning:)

Kids waiting for the presents

This was just amusing:)

Grandpa helping Max open his.

He was 1 of the 3 kids that wasn't feeling very good:(

Grandma made these adorable blankets for the kids.

The girls also got jewelry boxes.

Shane's blanket:)

Some hanging out

We did handmade gifts this year

Molly got mine.

It's a wall hanging memo board, I'm gonna post about that later.

Max with Uncle Jeremy's personal sparkling cider.

Kam is just sooo cute:)

Opening his gift from Grandma:)

It was a wonderful Christmas and time of celebrating the birth of our Lord

and Savior Jesus Christ!

Christmas Eve 2009

This year we decided to do a breakfast for the West family Christmas. Crazy though cuz none of us are morning people except for Bruce and Lisa:) Testament to that we were supposed to eat at 9:30 but I think we ate at 11:30ish;) lol Anyway we had a bunch of fun, we played games, people won prizes, good food good time!

Most of the kids, we had a little trouble with this

cuz there was always 1 baby sleeping:)

Biok and Lisa and Hudson:)

Janel, Nathan and Jacob

Carlin and Lily:)

Kamdyn really got into opening presents this year:)

Soo cute!

All the adults in our jammies:)

Poor Carlin was pretty much couch bound the whole time:(

He didn't seem to mind too much.

Max declaring he's full!

Our yummy food:)

A little evidence of Anita ;) lol

Max and Josh enjoying some Clementine's.

We had a very Merry and Blessed Christmas!

Christmas Baking

A little sampling of the baking happening around here:) I haven't done as much as I normally do for 2 reasons 1. Michelle and 2. preggo! lol Michelle and I always do our Christmas baking together. 2 people can get alot more done than 1;) It's kinda a blessing in disguise this being sick, don't really feel like cooking/baking stuff that doesn't really sound good! Anyway I'll give ya the run down on the way...

These are surprisingly good! All they are is a pretzel, a rollo candy, and a pecan.

Ya put the rollo on top the pretzel and pop it in a 350*oven 5 min.s

Pull em out and press with pecan.

Got this 1 from Michelle:)

This is a tray we did for a party. From right: Ritz dips, Starbucks peppermint,

Rich ladies fudge, Rollo cake cookies and Snow peaks.

These are Sweet goobers-basically peanut butter buckeye balls on a pretzel.

The pretzel cuts the sweetness of the peanut butter ball.

Last but not least Christmas bark!

Enjoy!

Teacher Gifts

Has anybody else been to the dollar store??:) I saw these cute little snow men and thought they would make the perfect teacher gifts filled with homemade caramel corn.

The kids teacher's were thrilled:)

Just thought I'd share them with you:)

Look what I made!:)

Well it started out Christmas balls and I got this crazy idea to turn them into a wreath:) I think it turned out pretty cute, but I am having a hard time trying to come up with a way to hang it. Securely that is on the front door:) I was going to put a ribbon loop on the back once I got going on it but in my excitement to get it done {kids bawling and my feet} I forgot.

So this is what I started with.

I had thought about adding the berries but decided against it in the end.

I also added in some painted fruit and glittered fruit.

Here is the end result.

I like it;)

Poor Max

In all the 9 years we've had kids this is only the 2nd time we've been to the ER! Max is the only 1 that's been and his 1st trip was less than a month ago! Should I be worried?!? lol Anyway this trip was a middle of the night 1 {the best kind right;) } He had been throwing up and having bad diarrhea and ended up being pretty dehydrated. Lily was able to come up and stay with the kids and get them off to school. Anita came later and waited til MIL Paula was able to get there to stay the night with them on Tuesday. It's nice to know you got people you can count on no matter what:) We are very thankful for them!:) So after hours of taking temps, blood pressure, X-rays and CAT scans and tons of puke and poop {ugh all the smells+prego lady=not good!} they finally decide to admit him to pediatrics. Hook him up to an IV -that was quite the deal in itself! We all {Max, Bruce and I} are exhausted so we get settled in our room around 8:30 and try to get some sleep. I hadn't slept a wink all night in the ER Bruce had off and on, so I told him I was gonna get to sleep 1st but when I tried I could for the life of me fall asleep:( Max definitely captured the hearts of all his nurses;) They gave him a tractor, a teddy bear, a book and pretty much anything he wanted! Poor guy he just looked so pitiful and miserable:( Anytime a nurse or Dr. would come in he would say "Please don't hurt me!" and they always felt bad and tried to reassure him that it would be ok. I didn't get any pictures of him when he looked really terrible before the IV cuz I was a little frazzled! I feel bad for parents of kids who are really sick and have to spend alot of time at the hospital! It's so hard to have your kid crying cuz the nurses have to draw blood or having them ask for something to drink when they can't have anything! I'm sure that what they have to go through is so much worse! My heart really goes out to them!

You know they are really sick when they just lay there with no protest!

His IV he had to have an arm board because he wouldn't stop moving his wrist.

He had such big, black circles under his eyes! It was so awful to see him like that, he's normally so full of energy! Hopefully this will be the end of it!:) I've put all the toys in the house {they have way too many toys!} into a tub full of bleach water and wiped down the place with disinfectant in hopes that no one else will get sick and so far so good:) {knock on wood!;)}

Christmas Bark

Don't be freaked out by the ingredients in this recipe- its delicious!!

1 sleeve of saltines

1 c. butter

1/2 c. brown sugar

1 to 1 1/2 c. choc. chips

1/2 bag of Heath toffee chips

1/2 c. pecans {optional}

Preheat oven 350*

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or you can just spray with Pam spray.

Lay out the saltines on baking sheet.

Melt butter and brown sugar in saucepan

Bring to boil for 1 min.
Pour over saltines making sure to cover evenly.

Bake for 15 mins.

Sprinkle chocolate chips over saltines to melt. You can pop it back in the oven for a couple mins.

Once melted spread chocolate evenly and sprinkle with toffee chips and/or the pecans.

Let set up in fridge.

Enjoy:)

{this is for you Sharla}

Our Little Christmas Town

This is the first year that the kids have been SOOO in the spirit of everything Christmas. Don't get me wrong they have been excited the other years to but this year they want to help with the decorating, picking out gifts, putting up the tree, and on and on:) Its pretty cute kinda sad tho since Ive been disgustingly sick this year! In case you haven't heard we are expecting another baby;)

The kids setting up our "Christmas" town:)

Arranging....

and rearranging....

this was just really cute:)

Kam trying to get in on all the fun!!

Little cheeser;)

Mint Ice Cream Sandwhiches

Bruce and the kids made chocolate chip cookies {from the tube;)} and we just happened to have mint ice cream and the kids had never had these so we gave it a shot, guess you could say they loved em:)

don't they look yummy?!?!

Sooo nummy!!

Thanksgiving

Yea I do realize that Thanksgiving was a couple weeks ago;) We had the whole family this year, Danny and Stephanie usually go to the Lang's, and for the past couple years we've had Michelle and Jimmy, so we sure missed them:)

Kids table:) Max looking a little forlorn!

The "adults" table:)

The kids doing a craft.

Logan Janel and Nathans.

I had seen this idea somewhere and wanted to try it out.

I think the kids liked making them:)

Hope ya'all had a great Thanksgiving!