Holiday Happenings ... Wrapping-Up Christmas & Ringing In The New Year

Well hello there stranger! Happy 2015!!! I love January! In January, it is still cold outside, which causes us to do more indoor activities as a family. I love the fresh, new , excitement of starting a new year! Cant you just feel the possibilities in the air?  It sure has been a long while since I have written and shared with you all. I really do miss it! After a few weeks of celebrating Christmas and ringing in the new year, I am hoping to catch-up on our holiday happenings today... so buckle-up!!!

Just a few updates  in the Christensen home...

My two little peanuts are 10 months old!!!!!
They are crawling EVERYWHERE!!!!
Pulling up and cruising on furniture and standing on their own!
Wow!!
I took these pics of them after dinner last night. I fed the babies in front of the television, while they watched a Praise Baby DVD. I just placed them in their jumparoos and when they were finished, I left the room for a minute or so to prepare our dinner and this is what  I found!
Too cute for words!!! I love this age!







Yesterday, Robbie and I made Cloud Dough!
Have you heard of this? It was a Pinterest find and I know it will be a weekly activity at our house.




Super easy to make just mix together 8 cups of flour and 2 cups of baby oil!
I recently heard that you could mix baby rice cereal with coconut oil to make a safer edible mixture for younger children.

Disclaimer... I know my kid is dressed in camo pants and a striped shirt, which do not match at all, but they are play clothes and sometimes it's fun to just be a kid and get a little messy!



Robbie had a blast moving the cloud dough around and making roads with his dump trucks!



Of course, when we were all finished, we had to play car wash and give the trucks a bath!

By the way moms, GREAT way to keep your little tot entertained for at least an hour and a half!!!



Oh my goodness, how could I forget to mention that our cat, Maverick,
 has moved back home with us!!



It has been fun and entertaining to have a cat back in the house again. When I say fun and entertaining... I mean, fun for the kids, ( not so much the cat), and entertaining,  (VERY much so), to watch the kids romp around with our poor cat. :( Robbie loves to hold and love Maverick. Robbie's new job is to leave food and water out for Maverick and to replenish the cat food bowls throughout the day, ( which Robbie takes great pride in doing so).  I am certain that before long, we will have the fattest kitty on the block. As you can see in the picture blow, our Mavy is just thrilled to be held by Robbie! Maverick is more of a couple with no kids or old lady kind of cat, he just doesn't like all the noise from the kids! I think Maverick is ready to put himself back-up for adoption! ha ha








 We have had an eventful past few weeks. On January 2nd, Rich, all three of our babies and I were hit in a pretty bad car accident on the freeway. I can not go into too much detail for legal reasons, but we are all safe now and dealing with everything. We have a good and merciful God... thank you for your continued prayers friends!

Let's see... we really did have the most wonderful Christmas! It was so fascinating to watch the twins experience Christmas and all of it's wonder for the first time!

Of course, the twinies loved the boxes, bags and wrapping paper almost as much, if not more than the gifts themselves!

We spent Christmas Eve at Rich's parent's home with Rich's Grandparents, Brother, Aunt and Uncle and Parents. It was so lovely to see everyone and our little ones loved this time with the family.
I feel so bad that I didn't get more pictures on Christmas Eve... I was having too great of a time enjoying everyone. :) My sweet Father In-Law will be giving me a few copies of some of the photos he took. I will update photos here soon.

 After a nice dinner and time spent with loved ones, Rich and I packed-up the car, (loaded with presents and three smiling little faces) and headed to the 11:00 p.m Candlelight service at church. I think perhaps this is one of my best Christmas memories of our Christmas 2014. I loved watching my little Robbie hold up his candle while singing Christmas songs and hymns as loud as he possibly could! There was something so beautiful and truly peaceful about having all of my little family in one place at the same time praising, giving thanks and celebrating the birth of our Lord and Savior as Christmas Eve turned into Christmas Morning. Truly a beautiful experience and a memory that I will keep in my heart forever!

When we got home from church that night, it was late... or early morning, however you choose to look at it. It was around 1:00 am and we still had to leave cookies and milk out for Santa and Reindeer food out for Rudolph and the Reindeer!

Luckily, Jingle, our Christmas Elf , had left us this reindeer bag full of reindeer food to leave out on Christmas Eve. We were given detailed instructions from Jingle that we were supposed to sprinkle the reindeer food outside on Christmas Eve .

By the time we were all finished sprinkling reindeer food in our front yard and leaving cookies and milk out for Santa, we had one sleepy little boy!

Daddy read The Night Before Christmas to Robbie and before Rich reached the last page of the story, this little guy was fast asleep!

Once all the kids were asleep,  Rich and I prepared a Crock pot egg bake for breakfast the next morning and then settled in with a mug of hot cocoa to watch The Family Stone together.

Christmas Day

 Our little darlings woke us up around 7:30 am on Christmas morning! Not bad, Rich and I were glad that the sun was out before Robbie came running into our bed to announce that it was "Christmas   Morning !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Robbie was thrilled to receive a new Buzz Light Year Spaceship from Santa! What an exciting discovery underneath our Christmas tree on Christmas morning!! Jingle was sitting on top of the spaceship.

Daddy and Robbie played with his new gift all morning.

Later Gigi, Grandpa and Aunt Becky came over for brunch and more gifts.

Here is Jacob, loving opening-up his Christmas gifts!

Robbie had such a fun time playing in his new barn tent from Gigi.

This year, Christmas seemed especially wonderful. We had such a relaxed Christmas day, no driving and fighting freeway traffic running from one house to another. In fact, we spent the entire day in our Christmas pajamas eating, opening gifts, watching Christmas movies and just enjoying being together. The house smelled of cinnamon and apples. Toys and wrapping paper were scattered everywhere. The joy on all three of our little ones faces was just beautiful and I was reminded how truly glorious it is to have a house filled with children on Christmas day!

Happy New Year !

We had a fun filled New Year's Eve. Again, spent at home with our babies. No fancy schmancy New Year's Eve parties for me. I am perfectly content spending the evening with my four guys!

I know I have shared before that we literally live a block or two from The Rose Parade Route.

From December 31st to January 3rd our entire street is blocked off by police in order to create room for the horses, bands, floats and celebrity trailers.

My parents came early on New Year's Eve to celebrate with us.

I had remembered seeing on Pinterest, a few fun New Year's Eve ideas to do with young children.

One pinner said she bought several balloons and labeled them with a marker each hour from 8:00 pm until midnight. Every hour, the whole family would gather around to watch one of the children pop a balloon filled with confetti! We did this and let me tell you, Robbie LOVED it!  

Above is a picture of Grandpa Ray, holding our two New Year's babies.

Robbie, practicing blowing his party whistle.

Our little New Year's table of treats.

Okay, so another idea I took off of Pinterest...

 a balloon drop at midnight!

Genius!!!

Well, my little guy seemed to thinks so! Oh and the anticipation of waiting & watching the balloons!

Until finally... 10, 9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1 HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!

Balloons and smiles everywhere!!!

Oh and of course, time to pop the midnight balloon!

Then it was off to bed so that we could get a little sleep before walking down our street to the Rose Parade in a few hours.

The day after New Years, my friend Aimee and her two little ones came over to our house quite early for early residents admission to see the floats.

It was cold... well, by Southern California standards anyway! It was a clear and beautiful morning to look at floats with the kiddos.

Robbie and Angelica in front of one of their favorite floats.

I think hands down, this was the favorite float, loved by all!

Good times!

Well dear ones, that was pretty much our Christmas in a nutshell. I hope each of you enjoyed good times and made many beautiful memories over the holidays!

Blessings,