I love the matching PJ’s on Christmas morning…I know Ethan will soon decide he’s too old for this tradition so I enjoy it while I can.

Stockings!

My Love and me on Christmas morning.

Cinnamon rolls for breakfast, of course!  They were so good!

Mickey putting up with me and my camera again.

The only thing Lincoln wanted for Christmas were these Batman “jammies”!  Christmas could have ended after his first present and I truly believe he would have been content.

Isaac giving Daddy his present.

Ethan giving Mommy an angel ornament.

These two get so excited and are a blast to watch open gifts!

Lincoln doesn’t seem to have much of a reaction while opening gifts. He takes it rather seriously.

Silly boys.

All we need is another one of these…

This little guy had fun playing in the great big cardboard box!

This year they opened Harry Potter light-up wands for casting spells.  They play this made-up game daily, usually using a pencil or something that resembles a wand.  I knew these would be perfect!

They loved them! For the rest of the night they ran around casting spells onto one another.

We enjoyed hot cocoa and Christmas cookies followed by a drive in the van looking for houses decorated beautifully (or as the kids appreciated, tacky) with lights.

‘Twas the Night Before Christmas…

The boys weren’t the only ones giving into sweet temptations! Just before sinking my teeth into deliciousness, Warren said he could hear the tiny screams from within my house. :-)

I have to say, I prefer decorating sugar cookies and I think the boys agree.

Here are the boys just before we left for house #1.

Our dinner was delicious!

The kids wrote letters to Santa for the Macy’s make-a-wish foundation.

Sweet picture of Carrie and her boys.

Gift exchange! This, of course was what the kids had been anticipating all evening.

We opened gifts starting with the youngest and ending with the oldest. It was cute watching the kids wait patiently for their turn and get excited for one another.

Lego, woohoo!

Hex-bug!  (Lincoln got a couple of Green Lantern action figures).

This is how the night ended for Lincoln. About 5 minutes after this picture was taken, he was asleep in my arms. I held him for about an hour (my night’s highlight, for sure)!

The Falk Family in its’ entirety.

Let’s eat!

The kids’ table.

Our food was delicious (as always) and there was lots of it!

Pie! We had chocolate pecan, pecan, pumpkin, butterscotch, cherry, apple, and chocolate pie to choose from!

Evan and Warren

Ivy and Lincoln. He loves her!

Each year I take a pictures of the boys sitting on the front step together with their jack-o-lanterns. It was a lot of fun showing them the pictures from years past.

The boys started the fun by testing their muscles to see who was the strongest.

I got my annual pick-of-the-patch photo. :-)

All 10 of us on the hayride!  Look at all the BOYS…

Six little Falk boys.  They don’t sit still for  a second! Two out of six looking at the camera, not too bad. ;)

Our family on the hayride. The sun was bright!

Finally, they’re ALL looking AND smiling!

Apple fritter anyone?  This didn’t belong to us, but the boys were fascinated by the bees so I snapped a picture. The apple fritters are amazing, by the way.

My favorite person in the whole world!

I thought this tree was really cool looking.

Here they are trying to look happy as they pose next to a huge knight.

Turkey leg, anyone? Lincoln enjoyed sharing it with Daddy.

Funnel cake! This was probably the highlight for Ethan and Isaac. At least, it was for me. They couldn’t complain for a while with all the food in the their mouths. :)

Don’t they look handsome? I love the clean, new shoes!

The boys seemed calm, not too nervous about their first day. I overheard Ethan telling Isaac they should sit together on the bus. When Ethan’s best friend, Stevie said, “Hey Ethan, I’m sitting with you on the bus!”  Ethan replied, “OK, but Isaac is sitting with me, too.”  It was uncharacteristically sweet and I know it made Isaac feel special.

Here are some of the cul-de-sac kids. There are 15 kids in all at our bus stop!

I love this picture of the boys running through the mist trying to stay cool.

Our favorite, the baby bonobo.

Since the boys have showed such an interest in building things out of wood, Warren thought it would great to make something they could each help with and keep at the end of the project. This was a perfect idea. I’m hoping they take care of the boxes and keep them for a good long time.

Here, Ethan and Isaac are admiring how smooth the wood felt after it had been sanded.

Lincoln didn’t help much with his box, but he’s still so proud of it!

The boys had a great time getting to know their cousins a bit better!

Life is good!

Cannon Ball!!!

Chasing after the dive-sticks.

Ethan and Isaac loved playing “shark” with Daddy.  They were pretending to cut or shoot themselves and  fall into the water. It seemed a little violent to me, but they said the shark wouldn’t come after them if they weren’t bleeding. Of course… (Can you tell they love to watch shows like “Nature” and “Nova?”)

All this pool fun made Lincoln “soooo hungwy.”

Cul-de-sac cookout.

Water balloons were the big excitement of the night. Ethan and Isaac learned how to fill and tie the balloons themselves, which was so nice!

The Thornes came along with us to the Memorial Day parade.

This puddle was left near our house after a heavy rain. Oh, to be a kid again. I would have loved this!

The cul-de-sac dads are awesome. They played kickball with the kids for two hours to give the moms a break.  I appreciated it so much and the boys had a blast.  As if that wasn’t enough, Warren then took the boys to Barnes and Noble and I stayed home all by myself.  They returned with my favorite coffee. I should mention all the homemade cards and pictures the boys made for me. (Ethan made me a coupon book with a coupon that was good for “cleaning part of the house.”  After all, who wants to clean the whole house?) They worked hard and Isaac even helped Lincoln make something for me. I even ran out of space on my refrigerator! I had such a GREAT day. I’m blessed!

We know Ethan isn’t a teenager yet, but he sure thinks he is sometimes.

The circus can be exhausting for a little guy!

The day started with Lincoln’s 3 – year check-up.  He weighed 32 pounds which put him in the 50th percentile.  His Doctor said he looked perfect was very impressed that he had never been in for a sick visit (other than pink eye when he was less than a year old).

The boys entertained themselves by building with Lego for hours and hours.

Lincoln paused a moment from playing the piano to ask daddy a very important question. “Daddy, how old are you?”

We were introduced to Sorry Sliders – I think there was a game in progress almost the entire weekend.

Mom had this extremely difficult and frustrating puzzle just sitting in the kitchen begging to be pieced together. After countless hours of effort from several people the strenuous puzzle came together! Pretty amazingly, only two pieces were missing from the 508! Not bad with 13 children running past the table and even stopping occasionally to “help.”

I love this picture of the children gathered around as Grandma passes out the Christmas gifts.

The girls are really out-numbered in our family. In roughly 10 years, I’m sure we’ll need to double or maybe triple the amount of food for each meal!

Grandpa and little Harry.  I’ll bet someone with great taste bought that nice shirt and sweater for Dad!

Story and tea time with Grandma.

Isaac’s new gun shoots up to 20 darts at a time!  I love that Warren made this educational by using the boys new graph paper to compare the number of pumps to the number of darts released. Haha! (In case you’re wondering, it takes 23 pumps to shoot the full 20.)

Dan, Kari, and their boys came over for a while on Christmas night.  Five little boys, two big boys, an endless supply of Nerf guns and ammunition made for a loud and dangerous evening!

Don’t let that sweet face fool you. ;)

Kari, what have we gotten ourselves into? And you’re adding another one!

Merry Christmas, Mickey!

Growing up, my mom made cinnamon rolls every Christmas morning. It just wouldn’t be the same for me without the smell of cinnamon filling the house while opening presents.  This year, Warren put a slide-show together of past Decembers and played it on our TV with soft music.  I loved it!

This is the last book Isaac needed to complete his set.  He really enjoys reading about animals.

Lincoln calls these his “moving guys” because they can bend and move at all the joints.

Lincoln drew two guys for Warren. I framed his work of art so he would give it as a Christmas gift. Apparently, I didn’t explain that very well to Lincoln. He tried to give it to him the day before Christmas by waking him up and saying, “Here you go, Daddy. I made a picture for you.”  When I told Lincoln that it wasn’t time to give it to Daddy yet, he ran back, picked up his drawing and said, “Wait Daddy, Mommy needs to wrap it.”

Ethan and Isaac bought gifts for the family from the school’s workshop. It was cute to see what they came home with. They did a great job thinking of what each person might like.

Isaac’s gift: A word search book he has been wanting for a long time. I love that this made him so happy!

Ethan’s gift: An Amazin’ Hamster (Santa version)

Lincoln’s gift: A Batman action figure

My gift: A new lens for my camera!

Warren’s gift: A new coat which he opened earlier than Christmas Eve out of desperation.

Next, we had snowman soup and Christmas cookies!  Ethan asked how many cookies he was allowed to eat. On Christmas Eve there are no limits. I told him he was welcome to eat until he felt sick. His response, “Seriously!?”

We hopped in the car and took a ride to see some Christmas lights.

Daddy read to the boys and then off to bed they went.