VDB Christmas

We spent Christmas morning with just Brian and the kids.  Then my mom, Jami, Rexy and Ryder came down that afternoon.  They got here in time for some snacking and then we opened gifts!  We are all kids at heart and LOVE to watch the kids open presents!  We opened presents and then we ate a yummy Christmas dinner.

We got Ryder an Iowa State helmet and uniform.  He had gotten in Iowa one too…so now he can wear both!

But lets just hope he chooses the Iowa State one more often!

My mom with the kids.  She got them all Schliterbaun waterpark passes for Christmas…they can’t wait for summer now!

Audrey opening (and Ryder watching closely)  her My Littlest Pet Shop toys!  Something new for her – Jocelyn never played with those when she was younger.

Build your own mini light saber kit

Trying to get a picture of all 4 of the kids

 

Our kiddos!

Tried to get mom in there with them too!

🙂

Cute picture of Audrey and her crazy grandma!!

Mom with Ryder…he doesn’t like to sit long…especially for pictures!

They got the legos and played all afternoon!  Jocelyn made this – well she had to redo it several times because Ryder LOVED to knock it down!

Ryder loves to watch Eli play his DS.

We decorated cookies too!

Look at Ryders snowman cookie he frosted and decorated!

Then he ate it!  Well at least licked all the frosting off.

Jocelyn decorating a cookie.  She loves to get all fancy with her frosting skills.

The finished cookies!

It was a very Merry Christmas that we were able to celebrate for over a week with most of our family!

I hope you all had a Wonderful Christmas with your family too!

 

Christmas morning…

I think that we opened presents later this year than we ever have on Christmas morning.  Jocelyn woke up first and came into our room.  Next Eli woke up about 20 minutes later.  They wanted to let Audrey wake up on her own, but about 8:30…they went in to wake her up!

The “kids decorated” Christmas tree!

 

They came down to see what Santa brought them!

Ebony checking out what was in her stocking!

Audrey with her new Barbie house that Santa brought her.

Jocelyn with her new camera that Santa brought her.

Eli with his Star Wars mighty beans.  Santa brought him Super Mario slot car set!

Brian and I with Eli – he made us some gifts at school!

The kids opening their IPODS…I love their faces!

 

Audrey wearing her new apron that we gave her for Christmas.

(one of our friends made it for her!)

I got Brian the special edition LOST series. 

And he got me a new IPOD!

It was such a nice relaxing Christmas morning. 

We are so blessed to have our 3 wonderful, healthy children! 

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas with your loved ones too!

Annual cookie decorating day

Every year, Kelly and I get the kids together to make and decorate cookies.  Here are some pictures from the day…

They loved all the frosting and sprinkles!

You know she is really concentrating when her tongue is out of her mouth!

Lots of sprinkles!!

That is all the pictures I got…I guess I got too busy decorating cookies too! 🙂

Just having some fun!

The kids got a trampline from Santa a few years ago and it has been one of the best (and most used) Christmas gifts ever!

 

 

They spend hours out there playing!!

Gingerbread House

Brians mom had brought a Gingerbread House kit with them, so the kids worked on it over the week.

 

And the finished product…

 

 

The joy of giving

Our church preschool has an annual Holiday Shop where the kids can come in and shop for their loved ones.  I absolutely love watching these kids shop for everyone on their list.  It just makes me laugh when I take around a 3 year old to help her/him shop and they want to get a big stuffed animal snake for their mom or dad.  I can always, no usually!, talk them out of it though!  My kids shop for each other, for us and for Ryder.  However, this year Eli had a birthday party that night so he gave me specific directions of what he wanted to get his sisters!! 

Here are the pictures of them with their gifts they got each other!

Eli gave Jocelyn this cool guitar necklace

Jocelyn gave Eli all this Chiefs stuff…a towel, a folder and some pencils.

Eli gave Audrey colored pencils and a game.

Audrey gave Jocelyn a picture frame and a frog pen.

Audrey gave Eli this Royals flag and a mini gumball machine.

Jocelyn gave Audrey a mini gumball machine, a big pen that says SISTER on it and an eraser.

They LOVE doing this every year!  They have more fun watching each other open what they got them than opening their own presents!  Such a wonderful thing!

 

The Belden Christmas

We were able to celebrate Christmas with the Belden side the weekend before Christmas because Mark and Deb were heading to spend the holiday with Debs side of the family.  We had a nice relaxing weekend…eating, opening gifts, eating some more, playing games, eating some more and going to church all together!  It was so nice to have them all come down to KC for the weekend.

Audrey with a cute shirt that she got.

Eli with a Star Wars transfomer.

Audrey with grandpa opening presents

 

Jocelyn with her new books

Eli and Uncle Mark playing Catch Phrase!  We love to play that game as a family!

The kids were getting ready to pose for a picture and they wanted Audrey to sit on their knees, but instead Brian went to sit on them!

The 5 of us!  Look at that attitude Audrey has! 

Yes, we know we are in trouble when she gets to be a teenager! 🙂

 Thank you to Melanie, Craig, Mark and Deb for celebrating Christmas together! 

We had a wonderul time with you all!

Audrey’s Christmas Program

Audrey had her preschool Christmas program a few weeks before Christmas.  They did a gift exchange, sang songs for us and then we all sang Happy Birthday to Jesus!  We ended it with having some yummy birthday cake!  I only took a few pictures because I really wanted to just watch her sing and not worry about getting a perfect picture!

Audrey singing..she actually did a really good job.

Singing happy birthday to Jesus-

I love that they do this with the kids so they are reminded of the real reason we celebrate Christmas!

 

A mom and Audrey day

In mid November, I took Audrey to Crown Center along with some other moms and their preschoolers.  They had just put up the buig Christmas tree!  It was a beautiful day and we had a blast! 

Audrey by the pretty waterfall!

They had all these wood vehicles all around the Christmas tree.  She wanted her picture taken in all of them…so here are a few!

 

 

Watch out…she is driving!

Looking up at that big Christmas Tree!  Can you see to the very top of the tree?

Audrey and Joseph Bray…they are buddies!

 

We also had a picnic lunch and went to see all the Christmas trees at Union Station.