Christmas with the Porters

Last Saturday we went to Jamestown to John's sister's house for a Christmas celebration. I'm posting a bunch of pictures and since he's the baby, Seth will appear in a lot of them. :)

Look at this little guy!

His sister Annie- isn't she beautiful?

Mary Beth loves playing with her...

The Brooks boys.

John's sister Jenny's boyfriend Paul was put in charge of the annual Porter family shrimp ring.

After many attempts, this was the best I could do to get John's mom in a picture!

All the cousins together!

John's sister Katie(the little cuties are hers)- thanks again for hosting this year Kate!

The girls got Barbies- and they were ecstatic.

I made this A shirt for Annie- Mary Beth wants one to match now too.

Grandpa got the kids bomber hats- Mary Beth is in LOVE. It's real rabbit fur!

Mickey loves boxes...

All of the girls(so John's 4 sisters and me) got matching hoodies from the college where John's dad teaches- so of course that meant a group picture!

Good times- and it goes without saying the kids LOVED playing out with their cousins all day and opening Christmas presents early. Thank you all for the wonderful gifts and fun memories!

our gingerbread house

a yearly tradition...

these colors make me happy.

Mary Beth licked the icing off her fingers 3,588 times.

Mickey only helped for awhile and then said he didn't feel good. So he went to lay down. :(

the last few years I've bought the premade gingerbread cut-outs in the box and it really is a fantastic time saver. Unfortunately the one I picked this year was broken in 10 places!!! Ugh. So just add this to my list of ways I'm ruining Christmas this year. What are we on? #2? Wow, not too bad for it being December 19th! Wait, it's actually #3 because I realized today that I forgot to dvr Frosty the Snowman last weekend and therefore the kids missed their chance of watching it. And I'm sure if I think long enough I can come up with some more...

Pretty cute house, huh?

I did so good just letting the kids do what they wanted this year. No micro-managing the design like I usually do. I think teaching pre-school for a couple months cured me of that character flaw. I also did some baking today- more on that later. Plus I have a TON of fun pictures from Christmas with the Porter side to post. Hopefully tomorrow!

lego club aftermath

Every other weekend the boys have Lego Club with their two friends Shia and Noah. They always have a cool creation theme- this week was Christmas, snack, and free play. We have a special tub of legos which are only for the club so that they don't have to play/wreck each other's personal legos. They all love it. Here's what the dining room looks like when it's over...

roller-girl?!?!

On Sunday we went to a roller skating birthday party for the kids' friend Norah. It was Mary Beth's second time in 2 years and Jeffrey's first time ever.
I hadn't been on skates since... I don't know, 1983? So I was a little shaky at first.

Jeffrey and Mary Beth were really getting the hang of it toward the end so we stayed longer. Mickey learned to skate last year and is REALLY good. I don't have a picture of him though- next time... which may be soon because everyone had so much fun that they are begging to go back soon.

wreath from antique book pages

I made a wreath out of pages from a 101(literally) year old book.

Jeffrey was mortified that I was ripping it up.

The paper was quite brittle and it took 15 hours

(well, that might be a slight exaggeration) to make but I love it!

No one can even breathe on it or it might disintegrate though....

You can make one too{it's fun!}- and it's not hard just takes a bit of time{and the willingness to rip up an antique book}. I found a great tutorial here. PS- that's my new favorite blog so check it out even if you don't want to make a wreath. I've been making lots of crafty things lately from her blog- quick, easy, lovely projects!

Mickey's choir concert

Tonight was Mickey's choir concert. He has been going to school early every Tuesday and Thursday for months practicing...

He was so excited- and so were we! Unbelievably, we got FRONT ROW seats and had a perfect shot of him the whole concert. I was ecstatic about this- it's every mother's dream...
Look at his big brown eyes... I looked around at all the kids and realized he had the biggest ones by far. Adorable!

So handsome in his sharp outfit and santa hat.

Oh Micks Micks- you did so great! We are so proud of you!

Afterwards we went to McDonalds for ice cream to celebrate but their ice cream machine was broken!!??!! So we bought a box of ice cream sandwiches at the grocery store and went home for our treat. We were also celebrating Jeffrey's program that was last Thursday during the day(the one I had to miss because I was deathly ill). :(
It was a good night...
I love you Mick.

my mom's favorite: the snowman