Gingerbread, Christmas and Big Owies

Here are the kids on Christmas Eve with their new jammies. My good friend, Zach, has a tradition with his family of giving out new pjs every year and we thought it was a neat idea. We've decided to start it with our kids too. Ben was bouncing up and down when he saw his Star Wars Clone Wars pjs and Emma started singing "Hannah Montana" when she saw hers. Josh could care less, but he still looked dang cute in his construction jammies.

(I know this is out of chronological order and I apologize in advance. I just had to mention this towards the top because it just happened today.) Our poor Josh! He has had a nasty cold, coughing, snotty nose, sore throat. This morning he woke up with an attitude which definitely isn't like him. He was inconsolable which earned him an early nap. I gave him some tylenol and sent him to bed. He slept 4 1/2 hours straight which tells me he probably needed it. Then I brought him downstairs with the kids and within 10 minutes Josh tripped over a pillow and hit his nose on the edge of the brick fireplace. Blood was coming out of both nostrils. I got his nose to stop bleeding and he wanted to play again. He grabbed his new little tykes dump truck he got from Santa and within 10 seconds had fallen on it and smacked his nose... AGAIN! More blood. I got it to stop bleeding and then he jumped down and started running around with Emma. Then he tripped over a blanket and smacked his face on the ground. Even more blood. My poor baby!! After Jake got home Josh was in a better mood and was playing with the kids upstairs. His pants fell down as he was running and he tripped over them and smacked his face on the floor. A little blood this time. Within 2 minutes he pulled one of the stockings down from the fireplace and the stocking holder hit him right on the forehead (it's pretty heavy!), leaving two nice bruises. Jake couldn't help himself and had to take a picture of our accident-prone child. Hopefully tomorrow Joshie will have better luck!

We made gingerbread houses for FHE with my sister, Whitney, and her best friend, Mallory. They were supposed to fly home to Portland the Saturday before but their flights were canceled (twice actually) because of bad weather. They finally just flew to Seattle and Mal's dad picked them up and drove them home. We were so glad they made it in time for Christmas. The kids loved having Whit & Mal around and I'm sure wouldn't have minded if they had spent Christmas here.
This was taken after all the presents were unwrapped. Ben LOVES his Wii and will challenge anyone to a battle. Emma adores her Baby Alive (it really pees and poops... ugh), her make-up kit, barbies, and new kitchen that talks. Josh is having a great time with his new little tykes slide, shoving anything with wheels down it and then doing it again. He also loves his dump truck and plays with that quite a bit (when he's not smacking his face on it!)

We hope all of you had a wonderful Christmas. It's hard to believe 2008 is nearly gone and 2009 is almost here. I'm already thinking about my 2009 goals and can't wait to start another great year.