Holiday Playdate

We had friends come over to play about a week ago and had a great time! We had a full house (mostly because ours isn't very big :))


All the kids played the m & m santa game that Cooper loves to play. They each got their own tube of mini m & ms and most kids were very good about just getting out a few to play with. I was cleaning up something after the game was done and I came in the room and Cooper had completely finished his entire tube of m & ms! That is a LOT of chocolate... I guess he takes after me!

Here's Dana holding Jackson. They were checking out the game players. I think Jackson is thinking "I want to eat some too!"


I thought this was funny. Janet is trying to get her nephew Zach to count out the m & ms and put them on the Santa. She kept taking them out for him and he would just pick them up and eat them. It was so cute.

Elise and Jackson playing
Some of the babies. Elise (she's I think 10 months old), Jackson (4 months), Jill (1 year). Amelia was the other baby there but she was outside being held. Doesn't Jackson look like a chub in this picture??!

The kids eating: Emily is in front, then it's Elizabeth, Jane, Ashlynn, and Jake

More kids eating: Jill is on the floor, then Josh, Ben, Zach, Cooper, and Drew

Playing outside. It was a beautiful day!

Meeting Santa

Cooper and Jackson had a great time meeting Santa! Last year Cooper was really scared and I had to sit with him on Santa's lap so this year I was very happy not to be in the picture! Cooper was thrilled to see Santa and stood waving at him afterward. The only problem was we had to wait about 3 hours...not so smart. Jackson wasn't thrilled by the end of the wait. But at least we got a picture!


Here's Cooper posing-they had some cute decorations ! (it was at Bass Pro Shop)

For some reason Cooper did NOT want to go on the carousel at first. I have no idea why?!?

I just thought the pictures were funny. :) Mean mommy. Ryan is trying to talk him into riding on it. He eventually did and had fun.

Pre-Christmas Activities

We had a busy week before Christmas! One day my mom had Cooper, Jackson, Elizabeth and Ben, along with our friend Ashlynn over to play. It was a "peppermint party." They had lots of fun!


At lunch

Then another day that week the kids came over to do some art projects.

Gma also had the kids over to decorate Gingerbread houses. Here they are in their cute aprons.

With the finished house. Cooper put about two pieces of candy on the house and then asked a million times when he could eat the candy.

Silly "Arf" the elf brought silly string one day!

"I'm excited for Christmas!!"

Gpa came over one day to take Cooper to Lowes for their kids project.

A fun and busy week!

Church Christmas Carnival

Last Fri night we went to our church for their children's festival. We had never been before and had a lot of fun! They brought it tons of games and bouncy houses, a full size carousel, and a live nativity. Eliz and Ben came with my parents so we all hung out together. The only negative was Elizabeth wasn't feeling the greatest and then Ben fell down and hurt his lip and nose, so we ended up having a little bit of drama. Besides that, it was great!


Cooper and Ryan at the end of the night
His "ahhhh!" moment. He met Frosty and LOVES frosty. We have a book about him and so he was thrilled to meet him! He gave him a hug too. This gives me hope about Santa. Last year I had to sit on Santa's lap with him, so I'm hoping I don't have to do that this year.

They had all kinds of houses set up to take pictures in front of. Isn't this a beautiful church?

On the ride... Ben, my dad, Cooper, Ryan, Elizabeth, and my mom. I stayed with Jackson and took pictures!

Playing a baseball game

A fish stomping game. It was funny because both E and B were really good at this. You stomped really hard and tried to fling your fish into a hole. Cooper would barely step on it and the fish would just roll off. Oh well!

Ben about to do the game. His lip is hurt at this point.

Watching the live nativity. (again, Ben's hurt lip. you can't see it too well)

Sweet Jackson. This is where he was most of the night.

St. Nicholas Tea Party at Grandma's

My mom and Elizabeth hosted a St. Nicholas Tea Party for the boys and a few friends. We had a great time and the kids had fun playing games and eating lots of food. My mom had the house decorated SO cute. Here is a picture of the table (and it also shows what Cooper did the whole time-steal little treats!)

I made these ornaments for the kids-super easy!

Gma and Jackson

Cousin picture! Cooper, Ben, Elizabeth, and Jackson

Elizabeth is such a good cousin to Jackson. She loves to hold him and help me entertain him. Can you see Jackson's cute reindeer socks? They even have a tail and little red nose.

Me and the boys

Playing Christmas Bingo. Marshmellows were the place markers and Cooper seriously would grab handfuls of them and shove them into his mouth. I tried to stop him and told him he only got to eat one when he got Bingo and said "bingo." So I look over again and he says "bingo" and grabs a handful ..even though of course he didn't have bingo! I don't think he quite understood the concept!

My mom also had this CUTE craft for them to make. I thought it was adorable.

The kids at the party (Elliott, Elizabeth, Berkley, Ben, and Cooper. ) Jackson was too hard to pose with them!

Thanks for such a wonderful memory mom!

Christmas Sight-Seeing

We went to a beautiful hotel here in the city that has some beautiful Christmas decorations. The kids had lots of fun seeing all the decorations-especially the train sets. Poor kids, we posed them SO many times! Cooper will be a pro at taking pictures when he's older!


Cooper and Ben were very huggy, so cute! Look at Elizabeth's cute outfit, I love it.

For some reason Cooper was SO into these reindeer. He loved to hug them, isn't that funny? They weren't exactly soft!

The gingerbread house they had there. Everything was made out of food! I think the sign said it used 500 pounds of flour and 350,000 m & ms. Crazy! Those boots and star are made out of

M & Ms.

All the kids. Cooper and Jackson weren't too into the pictures at this point.

My cute boys :)

We tried very hard to get Jackson into the pictures :)

another hug from Cooper

I love how they are hugging eachother here

A little of the train set is behind him.

I wasn't too successful here with the picture.