Christmas Eve- the Adams Family

My family has always been the impatient family. We could never wait for Christmas day, so we started long ago celebrating Christmas on Christmas Eve (if not before!). So since I've been married we've set aside Christmas Eve as the Adams Family time together. We left the Votaw Christmas to travel to Olathe to celebrate with my parents and brothers. We left with the sleet, but got to return in the snow. I think the snow may have excited the kids more then the actual Christmas!

I'm not a swords, gun type of mom, but luckily my kids have uncles who like to buy the these goodies. Maddox loved his GI Joe sword and mask.
Maci too excited to wait. Can we just open already!!!

Linc loved his rocking horse. He could care less to open any other presents, he was having to much fun with this cool toy.

We had a very Merry Christmas and a nice relaxing night with the family. We see my family a lot, but there's just something magical about Christmas that makes the whole atmosphere feel different!
Time to hurry home to bed before Santa comes!

Christmas Eve- Votaw Style

Christmas Traditions: Fun, Fun, Fun!

Our Christmas season always starts out with Eric's extended family. A few years back we out grew his grandparent's home so we started having it at their lifelong church. Lucky for us, the church is only about 2 miles away, so we headed out with the sleet hitting. We had a great time opening gifts, and of course eating, but the best part is to see all the cousins, aunts/uncles and grandparents.

The kids love to play with their (distant) cousins. We are fortunate enough to see each other often so they have all become very close.

Our kids are extremely lucky to still have their great grandparents around.

It was a great start to our holiday weekend and only more fun to be had!

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas!

Maverick's 5th Birthday

This cute little adorable guy turned 5 this weekend!

and these tractors sum this little man up. My nephew Maverick had his John Deere Birthday party this weekend. All this kid can talk about, think about, or breathe... is John Deere!

Maverick invited all of his cousins... and Santa to his party. The kids (including uncle Josh) were so excited to see him! My kids were a little shy... Maci locked herself into the bathroom, Linc just screamed and ran away, and after pulling him out from behind the couch, Maddox finally set on Uncle Josh's lap to whisper in Santa's ear what he wanted.

Trying to get a shot of all the kids together. Not an easy job! From left to right:

Chloe (Becky's) Lydia (Scott's) Maddox, Maverick (Josh's), Zeb (Scott's) Lilli (Becky's) Maci and Lincoln

Present time and so much fun!

Happy Birthday Maverick!

Christmas Parties

I can't believe we are a week away from Christmas! I haven't had my baking urges I usually get this time of year, so I'm feeling a little... hmmm???

whats the word for it????

less bloated maybe? ha!

Ok, can't go that far, still eating plenty of junk, just not baking it myself. But I did have a special request from a very special girl on her treats she wanted to take to her Christmas party at school. She wanted Santa cookies. I knew I could go buy the premade dough with Santa in the middle and she would be thrilled... but I decided to surprise her with a little something extra.
I saw these in cupcake form and had to give it a shot. The hair was supposed to be made out of coconut, but I figured no 2nd grader is going to eat it if it's covered in "that stuff." So thanks to my creative friend Eryn, she told me to just use frosting...I thought they turned out pretty cute!

Eryn also offered her lovely husbands help with Lincoln so I was able to go to the kids Christmas parties. It was a lot of back and forth but I loved it all! Maci and Maddox are in 2 different schools on the opposite sides of town, but that didn't stop me. I went to Maddox's sing along, left and drove to Maci's sing along, back to Maddox's party, and then back to Maci's! All in an hour! I can't wait until they are in the same school!

Maddox's school is made up of all Kindergarten and Preschoolers. It was so much fun to listen to these little voices and watch the actions.

Maci's school is made up of 1st thru 5th graders and is quite a bit larger. It is amazing to hear them sing Christmas songs in schools, when this day and age they try to get all that is related to Christianity out. Her group was a little louder and... wilder????

But at the end of the day we went home and cuddled and watched some Christmas cartoons! Maddox still loves to cuddle, and of course if one comes, they all come! I'll take the cuddles any day!

Snow Day

Teachers don't know the kind of influence they have on kids. My meat eating, food loving daughter Maci has changed this year. She's turned vegetarian, and is constantly finding more and more that we need to recycle. All coming from the great influence of her teacher (I love her teacher, don't get me wrong! but it's hard to cook when the kids get picky!)

Anyway, she came home from school one day last week and her teacher had told the class if the students would wear their pj's backwords and inside out, they would get a snow day the next day. As she always does, she listened and did exactly as told. She even got Maddox to follow his directions. This is how they looked before bed.

So wouldn't you know it worked... snow day the next day. (however being the smart cookie she is, she later told me that she didn't think the pj's had anything to do with the snow day- she thinks the teacher knew that we would be getting a lot of snow. -- can't fool her!)
so what better thing to do then make Christmas cookies. (Yes... it's freezing outside and Maddox still has no clothes on. Atleast he has shorts on! ) We cooked and cooked and made all kinds of Christmas yummys.

My favorite! Sugar cookies!

Adams Christmas

My dad has one brother, and we typically only see his family once a year. But that time of year came yesterday, and we had so much fun. My aunt and uncle came up and brought my cousin and his wife and their 2 kids. It's always a fun get together because our kids are the same age. Along with them were my parents and my brother, sis-in-law and nephew. I forgot to get my camera out early but I did remember come gift time!

We drug out the gift opening through lunch, and we thought the kids were going to die. When it was finally time they were already sitting with their presents ready to go. Maci is the lone princess with 5 boys. I love the excitement on their faces.

Maddox was excited about getting a DS game, Maci a new book, and Linc a Zhu Zhu pet.

My uncle made Eric these homemade drill holders and Linc used it as the tunnel for the play hampster. He loves his fake furry friend. It was a hit!

and who can stay awake with all the chaos going on... not my brother Josh!

Cookies, Cookies, Cookies

I had a wild idea this year to start a cookie exchange. I have so many friends around that I never see and it's silly when we live so close. So this year I put the invitation out to come on over for some chit chat and cookies.

There was a counter full of yummy cookies. I'm having a hard time controlling myself from eating them all this morning!

A small sampling of the yummy treats!

I had such a good time catching up with everyone. We need to make excuses to get together more often. Thank you all for coming, and we will definetly do this again next year!

Christmas Parade

The first weekend in December brings on the Christmas Cheer with the annual Holiday Parade! This year Linc and I skipped it to do a little Christmas Shopping, but Eric and the older 2 enjoyed it with the cousins!

The perfect spot! Eryn parked her car the night before to make sure we got the perfect spot! They replaced her car with her mom's van and opened the hatch for the perfect warm retreat!
There are a ton of horses for Maci to pick out her favorite. This year it was the little ones she seemed to like best.
But Maddox and Daddy liked the HUGE ones!
And the best part! Santa!

Lincoln

I thought Maddox was going to be the comedian of the family... but lately Lincoln has been on the rise. The main things you will hear out of Lincoln's mouth are... "watch this" or "is it funny?" On the way to church Sunday Lincoln was yelling, "mommy, mommy... watch this!" After which he hit Maddox over the head with a DVD case, then looked around him and said... "is it funny?"

Christmas Program

We had Maddox's Church program this weekend and we were so excited. Maci was always so shy she would refuse to go sing... but not Maddox! Mr. Social was so excited to show off his siging chops!

Getting ready to go and trying to get a cute picture....not easy with 2 clowns!
AHHH... Look at these 3 cuties! Growing up WAY to fast!

Is this crazy! The kids of the church- Kindergarten and under! You would never find Maddox so I pointed him out to you! It was standing room only so we took advantage of the balcony!

FYI... if anyone's interested I could really use a zoom lens for my camera if you can't tell!

What a WONDERFUL surprise!

Isn't this a lovely surprise? I'm sure you can tell how THRILLED I was when Maddox showed me how well he can spell his name... in marker on my family room carpet!
Yes... that high pitched scream you heard that you couldn't tell where it was coming from... that was me when I saw this!

Christmas Season is Here

The day after Thanksgiving gets a lot of people out shopping, but it gives us the oppertunity to put up our Christmas decorations. I have to admit, the older the kids get, the more fun it gets. It also gets easier, as they do the work for us!

Maci and Maddox were so excited to help. They loved finding the piece and putting it together. We spent the day decorating, listening to Christmas music, and enjoying Thanksgiving leftovers of course.
Thankfully my mom has the decorating talent and offers to do our bows every year. She comes over every year and helps us finish off the decore. You can see how helpful the men were- they were to busy watching the KU game. But here's the finished product in our family room!

And the finished product in our living room.

and who can start the holiday season without the yummy peanut butter blossom cookies! These will be a constant staple at our house... until we start our New Years Weight Loss resolution!
Thanks to our little cook for making them for us!

Our Little Cooker

I'm so excited! In the very soon future, I will have a chef in my house! Maci loves to cook, and is getting better and better at it. She loves to pull out her cookbook and whip us up something new. Tonight she made us some oatmeal bars. Yummy Yummy!

Finished product

I posted earlier about our girls day out to the pottery store, and here's our finished products! It was a fun day, and now Maci has 2 gifts to give to some lucky person for Christmas.

Thanksgiving

I LOVE Thanksgiving! I love the beginning of the Holiday Season. I love the smells! I love the weather! I love the decorations! I love people turning out at Church! I love the sermons! I love the family time! I just love it all!!!

This year we had 49 people come to our house for the noon meal on Thanksgiving day. I spent the week before cleaning and preparing, but nothing is as special as "the day." I love waking up in the morning to the smell of the turkey cooking, to the rush of getting all the last minute stuff done and cleaned up, and to the thought of everyone we get to spend the day with.

As we were preparing for the big event our kids found their own things to do. Maci really got into her parade- the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. Maddox is occupied with his DS, and Lincoln, doing nothing other then being a wild man!
The 3 things I'm most thankful for! My 3 healthy, beautiful, PERFECT children!

Linc found a little quite spot to go text someone.

Our young table and our older table. Our kids love to spend the day with their cousins and extended cousins, and we love spending the day with all the grandparents.

The kids loved the outdoors! We loved the weather so that they could enjoy thier time outside! The kittens got a lot of attention. Peyton let Maci and Lacie dress her up in their build a bear clothes.

The other kids loved the fields. Eric and his dad built, mowed, and made a football and soccer field for the kids and men to enjoy. They were broke in well!

By the end of the day, the kids were settling in for the afternoon.

Linc decided he wanted to watch some cartoons. This didn't look like the most comfortable seat in the house, but he stayed this way for a good 15 minutes!

It was a lot of fun, and we enjoyed the day. I only wish it could of lasted longer so I could of spent more time with everyone. It all seems to go to fast. Luckily Christmas is only a few weeks away and we will see you all again!