Adventures with Baby

Baby got a new outfit for Christmas.  Apparently Santa has a sense of humor.

Who needs a new pony when you have a slew of older brothers?

Teaching the Baby to get his groove on...

Christmas Day

Waiting to go downstairs...

To Grandmother's House We Go...

All dressed up and ready to go...

The reindeer pulling Santa's sleigh.

Three generations playing the piano...

Writing a note to Santa...

...and leaving cookies and milk.

True Presents

These are my best gifts...

Early Christmas Eve

Since we were spending Christmas Eve with Husband's Family we did a little early Christmas Eve for us.  

We had a delicious meal of Salmon and Asparagus.  With fancy juices.

Wait!  Fancy juices?!  

Where?

Fill 'er up!

After dinner we read the story of Christ's birth.

We talked about the real gifts of the season.  Eternal Families, The Atonement, and all that good, real stuff.  

Then we did something we usually don't do on (Early) Christmas Eve...

...we let the boys open their secret Santa gifts.

Four got himself this year and he loved what he got.  From himself.

Three got Hello Kitty earrings.  

Oh wait.  That was just a gag.  Next he got his real gift.

Husband got a ton of darts for nerf guns.  Which he later used on the boys in a surprise ambush.

It was a lovely evening from start to finish.

 And since we don't have girls, anyone want some Hello Kitty dangle earrings?

Boys and Their Toys

Five finally found a ball game I would let him play in the house.  It was a net with a little puff ball.

And Four was experimenting with hair gel.  

Five Gentleman and a Lady

Husband recently put his foot down over sloppy church dress for the boys.  

He made sure they all had a nice suit and then asked a friend at church to take a picture of us in our finery.  

What a difference...

And yes.  I've had this red skirt since four was a newborn.  

That's quality. 

Hopefully the boys suits last as long and cycle through the boys well. 

Feed a Man to Fish...Teach a Man to Fish...

When Three's siblings were here, several interesting things happened. 

First, they brought gifts for the boys.

Three's sister M, made the boys wallets out of duct tape.

And Three's sister, C, filled those wallets with cash.

Happy boys?  You bet.

The second interesting thing that happened was that M then sat down with Three and taught him to make wallets on his own.  She even left duct tape for him to experiment with.  

The boys sat down and wrote thank you notes to both girls yesterday afternoon.

That whole circle would have been great enough.

However...

Today, Three decided to make a wallet for one his teachers (male) and he is making a wallet for Five to enjoy.  

And that makes me very happy.  Because the girls gave a gift, the boys learned a new skill.  And because the boys learned a new skill, they could in turn give something of themselves to someone else.  

Well done, girls.  Well done.

Christmas Party

After the Sweet Sixteen party, we took the boys to a church Christmas party.

They made crafts.

We took our neighbor, L, with us.  He had a lot of fun.  I just happened to catch him looking very sober.

We mingled and mugged.

We visited with friends.  (I'll print a copy because I think they look really good.)

Then we enjoyed a wonderful dinner.  Four loved the beef brisket.

Baby and I took a selfie and were photobombed by Three.

The kids sang some songs.  You can see Three in the middle.  The top of Four's head is just below Three.  And Five kept waiting until he saw the flash on the camera go off and he would step out of frame.  Three different times.  Just to screw with me.  He laughed and thought it was hilarious.

Then the kids were told to line up for Santa.  Five waited until the kids exited the room to form a nice line in the hall.  Then he raced out and fought his way to the front of the line.

Santa can literally see you right now, Five.  He literally can see you being naughty...

Does it look like he is worried about ending up on Santa's naughty list?

Near the end, the rest of the boys got a turn with Santa.  Baby did fine for his first visit.  No cries.  Yippee!

And yes that is Five, with a candy cane sticking out of his mouth.  Does he look worried about ending up on the naughty list now?  Yeah...I didn't think so. 

Br. W is a professional photographer and he was taking pictures of the kids with Santa so hopefully we will get a good one for the memory book. 

Husband helped serve the dessert, which looked very good.  It was peppermint ice cream with chocolate cake and chocolate drizzle.

And Husband took a moment to look contemplative.  A rare look for him, I assure you.

After all the festivities of the weekend, we went home and crashed hard.