Mason's Monster Party

Mason's Birthday is actually at the beginning of January, but on December 29, Matt found out he would be leaving for Texas to fight fire. Knowing he would miss Mason and I's birthdays, I decided to throw together a party that next day so we could all celebrate together! When I asked Mason what kind of party he wanted, he told me he needed to have a Monster Party! It actually turned out to be a great theme because in the time frame we had, I was pretty much limited to what was already in our house for decorations. So a lot of construction paper, google eyes, and glue later...Monsters!


This is when he first saw his cake...

I loved how the indentations on the cups made it look like they were frowning!

His presents...I have to admit, I had a lot of fun making these! It was a good thing I had done his birthday shopping when I did the Christmas shopping!

The first time he saw the gift bags...he was so excited he hit the floor laughing and kicking!

A ball toss game...this is actually our bean bag toss from my daycare, I just covered it with a poster board to make it look like a monster and I made simple styrofoam eyeballs for the kids to toss.

Glued eyes onto feather dusters and decorated the wall with construction paper monster faces.

The table had more monster faces stuck into styrofoam balls.

The older kids were in charge of the games, Avilee did the ball toss, and Spencer did monster bowling, and monster hide and seek. I don't know how I missed pictures of the other two games, but I did...whoops! the bowling pins are monsters, and the hide and seek game, Spencer hid a stuffed monster we had around the house for the kids to find.

We had monster stickers for prizes :)

Mason got a new pair of dinosaur shoes!

A sleeping bag...

And a race car!

Singing Happy Birthday!

It was a scary good time!

Christmas 2011

It is a tradition in our family to open one present on Christmas Eve. This year I was so proud of myself for having all the presents wrapped the first week of December, so I could relax (haha). Then on Christmas Eve, I was so far out from wrapping, I had no idea what was in each package anymore! Luckily, the three I picked from under the tree turned out to be good choices. Maybe next year I will remember this and mark which ones I want them to open!

Avilee opened an outfit for her American Girl Dolls, Mason got a Hundley stuffed animal (a character from Curious George, his favorite), and Spencer got an invisible ink pen that only shows up under a special flashlight.

Another tradition we have is making gingerbread houses with Grandma! She brought all the necessities with her and the kids had a great time like always.

Spencer made a gingerbread cake to leave out for Santa.

After dinner, the kids put on their new pajamas and sprinkled the yard with reindeer food.

We always read The Night Before Christmas and the Christmas story in the scriptures before bed.

Christmas morning!

We have never had any video game systems so this was a pretty exciting thing!

Baby Sawyer got everything on his list :)

Santa brought Mason a remote controlled monkey. He calls him "Name-o" and thinks he is pretty great.

Avilee helping Sawyer look at his loot.

My Dad is an official Green Bay Packers Stockholder! GO PACK!

Spencer enjoying his new game.

Avilee making lipgloss with a kit she received.

Mason shopping around the house with his new cart.

Matt controlling the population in Big Game Hunter.

It was a wonderful day and we had so much fun being together as a family!

Jimmy the Elf on the Shelf

The Elf on a Shelf tradition came to our home this year and it was so much fun! We watched the movie and then our box arrived the next morning, elf and book inside!

Avilee read the story to us, and we decided to name our elf Jimmy.

Jimmy moved around our house each night, left us notes, riddles, gifts, and activities. The kids also wrote him letters and had him deliver notes to Santa.

Jimmy brought this tree from the North Pole!

He sent us on a scavenger hunt that led us to supplies to decorate cookies...

Avilee's cookies were gigantic!

We had a great time decorating, although I think Mason ended up with more icing than cookie!

One morning we found Jimmy making snow angels in the sugar!

Jimmy left us everything we needed to make caramel apples...

He gave us Rudolph noses in our sleep!

Toilet papered the Christmas tree!

Put us in Christmas jail while we were asleep...

Mason got a nasty tummy bug one week and Jimmy left him a get well soon basket...

On Christmas Eve, Jimmy wrote us a letter and left a present to say goodbye...

The bag had a new pair of pajamas for all four kids!

This was such a great time. The kids were so excited for Christmas to come, but also very sad knowing that Jimmy wouldn't be visiting us each day. We sure hope he comes back next year!