Day after Christmas Storm

We woke up the day after Christmas still not feeling well so it turned out to be a good day to have a huge snow storm come through, and it was a huge storm.

Cooper loves the snow, so we let him out and he ran all the way to a neighbors and wouldn't come home so John and Katie went to find him right as the snow was getting heavy.

Katie and Aaron couldn't wait to go sledding so John took them out and they had a blast, but the storm was still going and the wind was pretty strong so they didn't last to long.

After a few trips up the hill and you get pretty tired. Katie loves to be out in the snow so she lasted the longest.

It is so nice to have a sledding hill in your front yard, mom gets to watch from the window inside the nice warm house.

Just before coming inside Katie and Aaron had to make snow angles, nice job guys!

The storm started Sunday evening and snowed all night and into the afternoon on Monday so early evening, when it stopped snowing we had about a foot on the ground but the wind was up to 40 mph at times so some of the drifts were even deeper.

The snow was so bad and the wind was still blowing so hard that John's work was closed Monday so it was nice to have an extra day to be home together. It took John about 2 hours to get out driveway cleared, what a job! We love the snow but it stinks to have to clean it up after. Welcome winter to New England!

Christmas Day

This year we wanted to stay home and not have to go anywhere and it was so nice. We have always gone to parents houses either mine or Johns every Christmas so this year we did it at our house.

The kids loved it they didn't have to stop playing all day and they had a blast sharing their new toys with each other it was nice to watch. Aaron got an aircraft carrier with lots of planes and guys to go with it and that was the hit of the afternoon they all had a fun time playing together.

Katie got out a few of her dress up things and showed them off to us, so cute pink hair!!!

Johns parents came over with more gifts for the kids and John got a gift from everyone in the family that he has needed for a while now and he was shocked at seeing his very own tool box!! John got me a new camera this year and it is awesome it is a Nikon 12.1 Megapixels 15x zoom and can record video's as well. It is awesome. I love taking pictures and have a camera I can do video's on as well makes it that much more awesome.

Katie got a remote control dog and she loves it she walked it all around the house.

This was my first turkey dinner that I did all alone and it seemed to turn out good. We all had plenty to eat that's for sure

This is what Zach did most of the day he played Lego Batman and Lego Star wars the most but he was a good kid and turned it off when he was asked so it worked out well.

The kids got Toy Story 3 and How to train your Dragon so we ended the night watching the Dragon movie and hanging out together, what a wonderful day it was.

Christmas Morning

We were blessed with tired children so we were able to sleep in until 7:30 Christmas morning.

The kids had a blast opening their gifts and everyone got what they wanted. Katie got a huge stuffed dog.

Aaron got a remote control car.

Zach got his long wanted DS game system and 4 games to go along with it.

The kids each gave each other gifts and Katie loved the ring that Zach gave her!

I wanted to give Katie a dress up box full of clothes and accessories but needed to have a place for all the things so I called on my father in law and he gave my old toy box a make over and it looks awesome. Katie has put all of her dolls in it along with just about everything else she got for Christmas so I think it will work out better than I was hoping. We had a wonderful Christmas spending time together playing with every one's new toys.

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve always turns out to be a very busy day for our family. John and I both have to work that day so we are lucky that John's parents help us out and watch our kids until we can come and meet them for the party.

Pam has a party at her house on Christmas Eve and we get to spend some time with her side of the family that night. The Kids get to open gifts from Grandma and Grandpa Shuttuck. This year was the best one yet. They have been asking for pillow pets for a couple years now so that is what they got for our kids, and they were so excited. Thank you grandma and grandpa they love their pillows.

Once we left the party we went home and the kids open one gift from us and they all got new Pj's. This year has been a crazy one with us working so much and to add to it everyone except Zach is sick, really sick, so we made our night short and sent the kids and ourselves to bed.

Some friends of ours made reindeer dust and Katie remembered at the last minute about it so she went out and sprinkled it on the ground outside our house. We had a fun night even though we all felt pretty poorly. Can't wait for Christmas morning!!

Ready for Christmas

We have had our house decorated for a while now but I have not put up any pictures.

We have a village that goes up each year but we have now run out of space and I will not be able to get any more houses until I have a larger space to put them on.

This is the family's favorite thing to put up and we let the kids decide where the houses will go so it really is a family project to get us ready for Christmas

I really love our tree this year it ended up being the perfect size for our living room and we all had a blast decorating it together.

John and I bought this nativity the first Christmas we spent together and I love to remember that first year we spent together each time we put it up.

Our stockings are special to me because my Aunt Barbara has made each one specially for each of us. Mine was made when I was a child and as I have added to my family she has made one for them as well. As you can see they all have a similar look except mine which has not always been that way. As we were packing to move back to MA we found some mice in our garage and they had only gotten into one box, and that was a Christmas one and the only thing that was ruined was my stocking, they had pulled it apart and chewed right through it. I have gone 2 Christmas's without a stoking which is fine I don't really need one but I feel sad looking at all of our family's name hanging on the wall with mine missing, so John the wonderful husband he is bought me a new one this year. It does look different but it just shows me how much my husband cares about me and I love it. We are so blessed to have a happy and healthy family I am so grateful for that every day. Merry Christmas I can't wait to hear about every ones Christmas day.!!

Sing a long

Zach had a school sing a long last week and both John and I were able to go and see him sing. We had a great time watching the 3rd and 4th graders sing a bunch of Christmas and other holiday songs.

They sang the 12 days of Christmas and made up actions with each day it was really fun.
Zach is not one to be in front of people so we were really happy to see him enjoying himself standing on the stage singing. Great job Zach we had a fun time singing along with you and your friends!

Happy Birthday Katie

I can't believe that my little girl is 7 already! She is such a joy to have in our family, she is the peace maker between her brothers and loves to help others. She has grown into such a lovely girl.

Katie's Birthday was last week and we had a fun night together.

She was able to open one gift and she got a doggy bank that barks and wags his tail when you put money in it. Needless to say she found all the change she could around the house that night.

The next day she got a package in the mail so we let her open her gift from grandma and grandpa in UT. She got hair clips and these lovely gloves that she has not taken them off since.

Sunday after Church was her family party and we had a great time.

She got some wonderful gifts mostly Barbie and even the boys had fun watching and helping her.

It was a good day spent together as a family we played games and had a good time.
Happy Birthday Katie We Love YOU!!!

Birthday Week Part 2

Katie wanted to make sugar cookies for her birthday so Friday night we made the dough to put in the fridge. Saturday we rolled out the dough and baked the cookies, but we ran out of time for decorating so we put them away to finish another day.

Sunday we went to see the Nutcracker and had a great time.

It is a girl day for us so no boys allowed! We had a great time and we asked Grandma Shattuck to come along with us this year. Thanks Nana we had a blast!

After the Nutcracker we went to Johns parents for dinner and Birthday cake. John's dad has the same Birthday as Katie so we had his party that night. Happy Birthday Papa!!!

Monday we pulled out our cookies and frosted them, Finally!

The kids had a blast and love that they can decorate any way they want.

We had a great weekend doing lots of fun things together, one more thing on the Birthday week list and that is Katie's family party. What a week!

Katies Birthday Week Part 1

Katie's Birthday is this week but we wanted to do something special for her so we took the kids out of school early on Friday and went to see the new Disney movie Tangled in 3D!

This was all of our first time seeing a 3d movie and the kids really loved it.

We had a great time and after the movie was over we went out to get pizza.

We don't go out to eat much so the kids had a great time. Katie has a few things going for her birthday this year so there is more to come as the week go's on.

We all had a wonderful day together, I can't believe that Katie is already 7 where has the time gone. I'm so happy that Katie is a part of our family, she has so much energy you can't contain her but we wouldn't have her any other way. Can't wait to do all of our other birthday things with here the rest of the week!!!