Finishing set up

We finished set up- in Barkers Room first. 

I mean, PRIORITIES people. 

Barker now uses his broken dresser as a desk, hoping he would get sick of having an extra piece of furniture in his room, we said yes. He isn't sick of it- we are now broken dresser collectors...

But he is VERY proud of his new dresser. If you look in his new dresser, every piece of his clothing is folded and neatly placed in his dresser. Even his underwear. This kid needs to pass his clean bedroom habits to his sisters!

We finished decorating for Christmas and had no casualties on the nativity front this year. 

Changed the tree placement and enjoyed decorating with Christmas music. 

Setting up Saturday

Our lives are to the point where we have to Decorate for Christmas in stages.

Thats the reality of timing with a busy family of 6.

Lucky for us our kids were just happy to be getting ready for Christmas.

I love that they are still thrilled with tiny things like:

• the Christmas Tree is in a different spot this year
• we let them help fluff the tree (even though it looked like garbage all season and I hated it, but they loved doing it)
• "mommy mommy play that one Christmas Song we love to decorate to"
• "can I have a decoration in my room?"

and the list goes on and on.

We brought the decorations in Saturday morning and worked on getting the house ready to decorate, until it was time to head off to Barkers Basketball game. 

This was the day he got into the car with no winter coat or sweater- which was frustrating, as he try to get away with it ALL THE TIME. It was a busy day and we didn't notice. It was cold enough we had to find time to stop and get him a hoodie.... little turd. This was also the day his dresser that is 12 years old got replaced. Weird enough that was the thing the kids were most excited about- getting the dresser and putting it together.

Before getting in trouble about the coat thing, Barker also had a tough Basketball game. He did something in the game and the coach said something to him to correct it and Barker decide too sulk about it on the bench. He sat on the bench way longer than needed cause he as busy sulking. Somehow I got a pic of the coach talking to him- its profile but Barker is pretty annoyed at this point.

I made Justin take a laughing parent selfie as he was getting mad at Barker for sulking, and mad at me for blaming him for passing that particular trait on...

As we were getting the dresser put together, showering the kids, braiding hair for church and trying to find a second wind- Mark and Lindsay texted. They wanted to do a impromptu games night, snack night at their house. With the awesomeness of having a child old enough to babysit, we put the kids to bed and headed over.

It was a great evening of laughing, snacks and games. We are so lucky for family being close by to randomly get together and enjoy each other company. 

Chipman's Christmas

Chipman's got together for a day of visiting!

This year it was in High River, and it was really nice to have one less day in the van.

Even better to have a great day visiting with family!

We really love these Aunts and Uncles and cousins of ours- even though we don't see them as often.

Christmas 2018

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve 2018 started off a little rough in this house.

Barker was up ALL NIGHT barfing.

Every 30 minutes ALLLL NIGHT. We tag teamed- each taking a 2 hour stretch.

But Barker doesn't Barf quietly- he RUNS down the hallway, flips all the nights on and barfs from his toes with a loud noise to wake the dead.

It was exhausting.

He finally seemed to level out at 6 am and we were all able to sleep a few hours.  We were supposed to be at Moms around noon, but we needed to stay home, get some sleep and see how Barker was doing for a while longer. Everyone napped till 3:30pm and then we headed over. If you look carefully in the pictures you can tell Barker is exhausted for the first part of the afternoon, and by the end of the evening he starts to pick up.

Aunt Laura wasn't able to be there for most of the day, but she did swing by for a bit so we could see her!

We did our Gingerbread houses as soon as we got there. The kids had been BEGGING to do them. The plan was to do them earlier in the month but kids kept getting sick. Christmas Eve worked out ok- Barker and Justin were on a team- so Daddy pretty much did it, while Barker lazily watched.

Aunt Lindsay and Annaliesse dominated with their feature wall and garden.

Mommy, Grandpa, Arlie and Leena watched. Helping keep the candies flowing, toddlers occupied and extra icing on hand.

Grandma and Remy were doing great until their roof fell off 😂😂

Uncle Mark and Kalia go distracted trying to make Christmas Lights...

Daddy and Barker made an awesome roof line- but Aunt Lindsay and Annaliesse were pronounced the winners by the Grandpa judge.

Grandpa took a group picture, after he figured out how to turn the camera around. 😂

We had our dinner after Gingerbread houses- our Crab and dips and wings and loveliness.

Sooo yummy. 

I could eat crab twice a week.

Right after dinner we did Christmas PJ's- Barker was still exhausted, and Remy was still tried from being sick. 

Grandma made everyone matching Jammies this year! They are darling!!

This pic with Grandma and Grandpa and the grandkids is one of my favs from this whole season 😍

We were at home with cookies laid out, prayers, teeth brushed and in bed ASLEEP by 8pm. The kids desperately needed sleep to heal- it was a quiet night of Die Hard for Mom and Dad and bed.

At least for me... Justin hardly sleeps Christmas Eve- he gets soooo excited.