Wednesday, December 26, 2012

Santa came to the Burch's


This year I have felt and enjoyed the Christmas spirit all month long.  We have done activities and baking and stories and snuggling.  Consumed lots of hot chocolate and rocked by the christmas tree.  It has been such a wonderful christmastime.  Hunter always determined every year to see Santa kept "hearing him" and so he did not fall asleep until almost one a.m.  The girls were out like a light as usual.  The next morning as we always do we interviewed the kids about what they had heard the night before.  "I heard him on the roof and as he was leaving I actually saw part of his belt and his boot" came the excited report from Hunter.  Emma eyes as wide as could possibly get jumped up and down saying  "Me heared the jingle bells last night and Santa comed and gived me presents under my tree."  What did you hear Ave we asked her.  Looking disbelieving at her siblings she matter of factly stated, "I didn't hear anything.  Nothing.  I was just sleeping."  Ha ha ha.  The big excitement of the stockings was the fact that Emma got the pink loofah that she had been wanting.  I don't know many two year olds that care about such things but she does.  After using mine once in my shower she was hooked and had been asking for a pink one.  So funny.

The pace of the present opening was perfect.  Starting with Em each kid opening one and a time watching each other open.  Being so cute about getting excited for each other when one of them would open something they had really hoped for.  Once they opened they spent time looking over each thing before going over to find their next gift.  It made it last a long time which was fun.  Hudson spent the first part of the morning snoozing in daddy's arms.


All the Burch kids got some new pots, pans, and play food for the playhouse.

Hudson and his new Sully stuffed animal from Monsters Inc.
We let each of his siblings sit by him and open one of his gifts for him and then show it to him.  This was so hilarious and fun for the kids.  Hudson was wide awake by this point and had his eyes open huge and looking around at all the fuss.  Smiling at the kids as they talked to him about his presents and showed them to him.



Emma's top item on her list was a doctor kit.  Another blog post for a funny story about all that.  When she opened it up she started clapping and yelling "look Mom it has a squeezer!!" pointing to the blood pressure cuff.  Needless to say that everyone received a checkup and I have had my blood pressure taken like fifty times in the last three days.


Hudson LOVES his new playmat from Grandma and Mom loves it too.


Avery found a pair of doll ice skates in her stocking and right away was insisting that she knew that Santa had brought her an American doll.  She soon found out she was right.  She was all trendy with a scarf, tights, boots and fun glasses.  Avery loves her and has a great time changing out Hannah's shoes almost as much as she switches her own.







Hunter didn't have one specific thing that he was mostly hoping for but he loved his remote control truck and his Exploder NERF gun.  It did melt my heart though when he opened a present from Deke and I and quickly announced it was probably his favorite.  A DC sweatshirt that he had been eyeing for a couple of weeks and a cool ZooYork shirt.  He had tried them on and Deke and I had told him we would think about it.  He had asked us several times if we could go back and get them and we secretly already had.  He was so excited and I wanted to cry because it is such a pre teen thing to be excited to get clothes for Christmas.  Can't I just keep him nine???

The girls got a couple of gifts from Mom and Dad to share.  Including some Calico Critters for their dollhouse that is still under renovation.




Eden and Ave both got new pink razor scooters which they enjoyed riding together.


The kids were all at such fun ages this year.  All still loving the magic of Santa, Emma actually getting the concept this year and looking forward to it and Hudson getting passed around for us each to have a chance to snuggle.  Deke and I just kept looking at each other smiling and later talking about how much we love the different stages our kids are in right now.  Merry Christmas everyone from the Burch's!!!!!

Monday, December 24, 2012

Holiday card photo attempt

Four kids. One Mom. A bored nine year old, a semi cooperative six year old, a really wiggly two year old and a sound asleep seven week old.  Trying to get everyone to look and smile at the same time...next to impossible.  This year having just had Hudson I decided it was a perfect year to leave mom and dad out of the pics.  Wanting to wait to get photos done by a photographer of the family after a little more time for me to recoup.  I decided to take my own card for our photo and just put the kids on my bed and get a shot.  Not too bad but I really need to learn photoshop because stuff like Ave's strand of hair in the picture above drive me crazy.
Good thing that in the grand scheme of things that kind of stuff really doesn't matter and my kids are adorable.  I feel like sometimes I need to not worry about it all looking perfect and just love it for what it is.  Which I do.  I love these pictures, not because they are the "best" pictures of my kids but because I love their expressions of love for their new baby brother.


These four keep me busy, and I LOVE IT!!!!






Jingle bells

Christmas day we had a chance to get to ride in a very festive horse drawn carriage.  The horses were so beautiful and between the nice cool weather, white horses and carriage it made it definitely feel like Christmas.  To top it off the horses had large jingle bells attached to their harnesses that jingled the whole ride.


The kids loved getting a chance to pet the horses...





We also got to check out some of the older carriages that this nice couple has as well...



Taking turns riding you would climb up into the carriage and bundle up in the blankets that had been provided.  Snuggling up with our little family the kids all bundled in their jackets and Hudson snoozing away. Singing carols as we went along our way, enjoying the cool weather and the grins on the kids faces.  The clicking of the horses hooves and sounds of bells jingling as we rode.

It gave me just an idea of what it would be like to ride in an actual sleigh and imagine if you were riding through the snow.  Add that to my bucket list :) :)