Before, During and After

 The anticipation!!!

 Claire photo bombing

 Christmas morning we woke up the kids!

 Reading a book from Grandma Hebdon: Ferdinand

 Grandma Quinn's wooden Christmas Cookie kit

Great Grandma Quinn's present was a book that plays the song If you're happy and you know it, and as soon as Claire pressed the button, she got a huge smile on her face because she recognized the song!

 Ball pit!

 Claire set Sofia on Barbie's lap and said that it was Barbie's granddaughter

 Having a picnic with Anna, Elsa, Olaf and Sofia

 Todd and Claire paraded around the ball pit to Mannheim Steamroller Christmas music and enjoyed going under Dad's legs, which make a perfect tunnel

 Frozen playdough with sparkles

 Do you want to build a snowman? He's supposed to have a bacon scarf, but we were lazy and decided to save it for another day.

Todd enjoying the board books at the library. After being in the house four or five days straight due to Christmas and church being cancelled, we were happy to get out!

Sewing a Horse Stick

I know! I actually sewed something! And the amazing thing is, I did it in one day! I know my mom is probably so proud of me right now. She taught me everything I know about sewing. I feel so empowered right now!
Here's the story: I have very crafty friends that sell their creations at craft shows. Sometimes they post their goods on Facebook. One day I saw that they had made some very cute stick horses. Childhood came back to me, and I wanted to buy one so bad! But, the thrift/creative part of me wanted to take on the challenge of making one of my own. If they could do it, I could do it! (plus I got a coupon to JoAnn Fabrics that I just had to use). And there are so many possibilities out there! Almost too many options. I finally settled on these three websites for some guidelines:
http://madmim.com/strapping-stick-horse-diy/
http://liagriffith.com/diy-felt-stick-horses/
https://www.etsy.com/transaction/120882622?
Mine ended up looking like a big war horse instead of a cowboy horse, or a feminine horse/unicorn, but that's what I was aiming for; a gender neutral horse that was durable. We're still trying to name him. Does Maximus sound good (think Tangled) or Moonlight?

 Here is the candy train that Skyler helped Claire create.

 Elaine, Todd is finally big enough to wear his rain boots! He loves clomping around in them.

 After

 Before

 Claire making a crib for herself.

 Todd got to eat graham crackers on our grocery shopping trip and was loving it.

Like a true Quinn, crafting and watching a movie at the same time (Nutcracker ballet)

Star Wars and Sand Castles

 Skyler and I recently watched all 6 of the Star Wars movies. One of the boys I nanny said that he wanted some Star War toys for Christmas. Assuming that his parents would get him some, I made this galaxy dough for him. I think it looks like a lot of fun and I felt clever for holding up the lid to the computer so that I could trace the exact logo on the lid. If it didn't have the sparkles in it, it would look like a big lump of coal! lol

 I found a recipe that mixes sand, flour and vegetable oil so that Claire would be able to make towers out of the sand that we play with. I was bold and let them play with it over the rug one day, but decided that outside would be better because of the oil in it.

 Sitting on Daddy's lap Sunday afternoon. We're pretty done by the end of the day!

 Todd eating his first candy cane. He was chowing down on it!

 Yes, it is far from a white Christmas here. This is the year the kids will play with sand instead of snow!

 Our new Nativity. I let Claire set it up.

 When picking up Skyler,she decided to wear her halo.

 

This is a picture of the guardian angel of Todd trying to keep him from walking too close to the road by pulling on his hood and causing him to scream :) This angel is often concerned with her brother even walking a few steps away from the front door because he's heading toward the car and the road without an adult.

O Christmas Tree

 We finally got our Christmas tree!The kids were tag team screaming the whole time at the tree lot. Then Skyler almost got flattened when putting it in the tree stand. But it was totally worth it and smells divine. Here are a before and after picture. It took the whole next day to put all of the lights on and Skyler was the only one tall enough to put the star on top. It took me a couple of shopping trips to find the perfect tree skirt. I ended up finding the perfect one at Walmart, of all places. Oh Christmas Tree!

(Usually I don't write posts like this, but Skyler and I were noticing all of the posts on Facebook about people putting up their trees for Christmas and we couldn't resist doing one of our own :) We love this little tree that Skyler made in scouts and I'm thankful that his mom saved it for him. It's the easiest tree I've ever put up!, and its saved us a lot of money over the years!)

Snowflake Ballerinas

This is my recent discovery on Pinterest while trying to find a simple gift for Claire's ballet teacher:
http://thewhoot.com.au/whoot-news/crafty-corner/paper-snowflake-ballerinas
I also found some paper snowflake patterns here:
https://designspectacleblog.wordpress.com/2010/12/02/how-to-make-your-very-own-reddit-snowflake/
I think they're so elegant! Now I want to watch the Nutcracker.