Five Men and a Lady

Wednesday, January 7, 2015

Christmas Day 2014

Santa made it to our house this year. As crazy as our boys are, they must have still made it onto the nice list!

They were pretty excited Christmas morning. It's so strange to be on this side of the camera now. I remember thinking "How can my dad be video taping when he has presents to open?!"

Even Todd got a gift from Santa, which proved very helpful Christmas morning. He may have eaten a lot of wrapping paper.

Now this captures the fun of Christmas!

and this...

The boys were pretty excited to play with their new Star Wars figurines and Legos.

Then we packed up and headed to Twin Falls for Chandler Family festivities.

New suits for the boys

Austin is definitely going to add some height to the family.

This little man's first Christmas!

Then we did the pajama parade with the whole family. Poor Don could barely get through the rules with all the excitement in the house.

This picture was pretty entertaining. These hyper boys would NOT hold still.

A wonderful Christmas Day! So nice to be able to do our own Christmas morning and still make it to Grandma's for dinner!

Monday, January 5, 2015

We had our first of probably many Chandler/Tucker Christmas Eve celebrations. During the day the dads took the older boys to Jump Time to attempt to wear them out and help pass the hours -- waiting for Santa can seem like forever! Then we all joined together for dinner and Christmas Eve festivities. I am so grateful I get to plan the fun with this girl. Love you Amy Jo!

We went with breakfast for dinner. Gingerbread waffles, sausage, eggs, fruit etc. Pretty yummy and definitely a hit with the kiddos (extra bonus: we had leftover waffles the next morning!)

Then it was time to recreate the Nativity. There were some pretty cute shepherds running around our house!

It wasn't the most reverent reading of Luke 2, but we got through it and I got one picture that actually captured all the kids (and lots of blurry ones too)

Then off to the piano room for carols. I even pulled out my violin and Aaron, his ukulele

I always love when this girl climbs on my lap!

Next, it was jammie time!

Trying to get all these kids to pose is nearly impossible!

All lined up for the Pajama Parade!

Dance! Dance! Dance!

Even without jammies, this guy can move!

While we celebrated inside, a beautiful dusting of snow fell outside, just in time for Christmas! It was perfect! We had a hard time keeping the jammie-wearing boys from jumping right in.

It was such a great day and I really feel so grateful to be able to celebrate holidays with family so close. Every time I think about Chicago my heart hurts. I miss those people so much. But it is so sweet to see our boys creating memories with their cousins. A blessing indeed.

Sunday, January 4, 2015

December highlights

December was a pretty fun month around here. Lots of excitement leading up to the holidays. Our house was particularly crazy...

We had a visit from our soon to be uncle!

Wesley's teacher, Mrs. Ball, delivered our pizza as part of a school fundraiser.

Lots of getting into decorations.

Christmas cards!

School visits

My tree! I'm really getting into this Christmas decorating thing!

Eddy! The kids are much more careful about how they act when he's around.

Live nativity. It was awesome. The highlight for me was talking with a 93 year old woman about good Christian people of all faiths. So grateful for people that do things like this to help us focus on the reason for the season.