It seemed like Christmas morning came quickly. We were awake and moving around by about seven. Lindsay and Matthew first noticed their stocking filled with all kinds of treasures. Then we moved on to the presents under the tree. We had a great time exchanging them with each other. 

Lindsay and Matthew with their big candy canes and bears out of there stockings.

Joe with his stocking full of just fun size snickers bars!

Lindsay loved her new water colors!

Once Matthew opened his new cars, that you can shoot off across the room, he didn't seem to notice much else!

We had a wonderful Christmas all day long! After presents and breakfast and getting ready for the day, we drove out to Grandpa and Grandma Blomstedt's house to enjoy dinner and spending time with family!

Christmas Eve

Celebrating Christmas Eve as just our family was a new thing for us this year. We have always been with grandparents and other relatives on this day. This year Joe had to work until early afternoon. While he was at work the kids and I had fun wrapping the last gifts, singing all the Christmas songs we could think of and making our special dinner. We wanted to have a nice almost formal dinner for Christmas Eve. The kids always love it when we use the "good" dishes and glass glasses, so this was to be part of the dinner. On our menu was Corned Beef Roast, Scalloped Potatoes, Lettuce Salad, and Green beans. Sparkling Juice to drink and Cheese cake for dessert. It was a very nice meal. I love it when the kids use their manners and it is just a wonderful time! 

After dinner we had a lesson about Jesus and how Christmas is to celebrate his birthday. We read the story of his birth out of the book of Luke. 

After the Christmas lesson, the kids were both given their Christmas Eve present to open. As a child receiving pajamas on this night was one of my favorite traditions. So, we kept it around!

Getting ready

Cinderella! Yay!

Mater! McQueen! 

Posing in front of our Tree in their new Jammies!

After opening their new jammie's it was time for a family movie. This year Joe picked the new movie, his choice was Mega Mind. I think everyone mostly enjoyed it. 

Over all we had a very relaxing Christmas Eve together as a family.

Visiting the North Pole at Cody Park

Unlike years in the past, Lindsay was very excited to see Santa this year. It was getting close to Christmas and we hadn't seen him yet and she was actually getting nervous. It was a good that Santa was at the "North Pole" the Saturday before Christmas!

Lindsay with Santa. She asked him for a dream lite pet. 

Matthew was still a little to shy to ask for anything this year,
 but was happy to sit on his lap to get that candy cane!

Coming out of the ginger bread house.

On the carousel

On the horse pulled sleigh looking at all the lights.

On the swings

Lindsay the snowman.

Matthew the snowman.

Riding the carousel

Santa Lindsay on Snowman Matthews shoulders.

Daddy pulling the sleigh!

 After such a fun time and some hot cocoa it was time to snuggle in the blankets at home!

Blomstedt Family Dance 2012

The weekend before Christmas most of the Blomstedt family was able to get together. We had a whirl wind of a day with all the activities planned. Friday was ended with a family dance.  I failed to get my camera out very often so I only have a couple of pictures. 

These first two pictures are of most of the cousins sitting down to eat. After all the activity of the day everyone was ready to eat! 

Grandpa and Ashley Dancing

Grandma and JJ Dancing

Kian (? correct me if i am wrong) and Emma dancing. I love the look on his face

Lindsay loved dancing. She also loved taking a cookie break.
 Someone brought her favorite, sugar cookies!

We, as always, had a great time seeing everyone who was here and missed those who weren't. We can't wait until next time!

Bathroom Floor

We unexpectedly had to redo the main bathroom's floor this last week. We were planning on doing it next spring because we knew the laminate in there wouldn't late long. The laminate had not been installed correctly.  But, due to a slow sink leak and a toilet with a bouncy ball, we had the privilege of fixing it early!

Since we were not planning it at this time I failed to take before pictures. This Picture is from when we moved in  in July. You can kind of see the fake pink swirly tiles with glitter in them.  They went shoulder level around the room. and you can see the laminate floor as well. 

Here is a close up of the laminate. I grabbed my camera after most of it was pulled up. 

The linoleum that was under the laminate. 

Under the linoleum was a layer of tar paper and then the wood sub floor. 

 We just had to replace a couple of the boards. Most of it was still dry because of the layer of linoleum under the laminate. I did not take pictures of the sub floor going in.

Tile being laid

This was when we got to the tricky part. Joe did a very nice job cutting the tiles just right for this little space. 

 A few after pictures. 

The fake pink tiles all painted white!

Here is the bathroom all done for now. I am sure as time and money permit more changes will be made in the future.  For now the floor is fixed, the leaks are all gone and no more 80's( or maybe 90's can't decide) pink on the walls!

Coloring Activity

While I was working on a painting project, the kids really wanted to help. So I had them color these cute little wood crafts. They loved it! It also allowed me to finish the project! 

Lindsay's was a Christmas tree and Matthew's was a penguin. 

Lindsay with her tree all done.

Matthew's colored master piece! ( He did not want his pic taken)

Up goes the Tree!

 One of my favorite traditions has always been to put up the Christmas, as soon as Thanksgiving is over. Joe believes we could wait until the middle of December, but he is still a good sport and goes with me on this one. One thing that has been nice this year is Lindsay's excitement. She finds the same Christmas things we have always had but they are amazing this year! Matthew also gets excited about everything Lindsay is excited about. It has been fun and we are still 4 weeks from Christmas!

We had a good time putting up our Christmas tree and watching the Claymation Presentation. These have started to become a tradition to do at the same time. It will probably stick around through the years. I love having the decorations around and listening to the lights play Christmas tunes.

Thankful Tree

Every year we try to do activities to encourage being thankful. We have done different ones over the last few years. This year we did a tree. I made it rather large and taped it directly to the wall paper I don't much care for. All of the leaves on the tree are things we are thankful for. We did this daily through out the month. I think the Kids really enjoyed it and learned from it as well. It is also a great reminder!

And next up to take the place of our Thankful tree will be a beautiful Christmas Tree....

A day with Chris and Katrina

While in Greenwood for Thanksgiving, we took a day to spend with Chris and Katrina. Our First order of business was to visit Baker's Chocolates. They always have so many yummy treats! Then we moved on to the highlight of the day. The indoor play place at Mahoney State Park. We have always loved playing here, but we hadn't realized it had been so long since we last visited, so this was Matthew's first time! 

Daddy, Lindsay, and Matthew. Two more levels to the top!

Going to the big ball pit!

Ball Pit: his favorite place to be!

We spent lots of time in the ball pit as a family! 

Lindsay posing.

Lindsay posing closer up.

Here next is a series of flips done by Lindsay:

Uncle Chris,Aunt Katrina, Lindsay and Matthew.

We had lots of fun, and sorry for the lacking of pictures of the whole time, but we were having to much fun we didn't want to stop. We finally did have to stop after about 3 hours of non-stop fun, Matthew was getting very tired, Joe realized he wasn't so young anymore, and I had very sore knees from all the crawling(the bruises are just leaving)! Lindsay of course wanted to keep it up all day. 

To finish off the day we had a fun trip to Costco and a delicious treat from Red Mango. Nutella Frozen Yogurt = Amazing!

Thanks Chris and Katrina for spending your Saturday with us!