thanks for all the presents!...12.28

the kids were being a little silly when we shot these videos...notice in drew's solo video, he mouths "thank you" at the end...that's as good as it gets, folks :)

opening our louisiana loot...12.28

i think i briefly mentioned before that baby jacob was not feeling well the week of christmas...we were planning to get up on the 26th and drive to louisiana to spend a few days celebrating the holiday with our family. but, with jake being under the weather, we decided that a 6 hour car ride and non stop busy days with no naps was probably not the best way to help him get better!!!

when mimi, poppy, and uncle andy came back from franklinton, their car was loaded down with presents for our three little munchkins! everyone is so generous and so sweet to give so many wonderful presents to our kids! sarah and drew had a blast opening present after present! and when baby jake woke up, he had 2 very eager helpers for his presents too!

thanks to all of my amazing family members for the gifts! we appreciate them more than you know!!!

where does the time go?

well, i have been away from blogging for a LONG time...

i don't have any new excuses.

i still have 3 kids.

i am still pregnant.

i am still in denial that a new little baby is making his appearance in a few weeks!

i didn't take very many pictures in january...i guess i was burned out from picture overload in december!

i will blog what i did document in pictures over the next few days to try to get caught up!!!

deck the halls...kids' edition

sarah and drew took LOTS of pictures in december. they have had their cameras for 2 years, i think...but, they were really into them for the month. hmmm...

anyway. these pictures are all courtesy of sarah or drew. and good thing they captured these pictures because somehow i failed to take any pictures of the house this christmas. i have 99 million pics of the kids, but none of the house. oh, well...i'd rather it be this way!!!

christmas afternoon at the wood's...12.25

baby jacob was cracking up at poppy bill...

poor drew. about 2 weeks before christmas, he realized sarah had a DS and he didn't. it was heartbreaking for him! thankfully, mimi and poppy had one in waiting for christmas. little guy was SO happy! he stood in poppy's office waiting for it to charge!

christmas morning at the woodard's...12.25

christmas morning at our house...12.25

on christmas morning, we were a little discombobulated...

santa had left daddy the big mirror for sarah's room aka dance studio which santa needed daddy to install first thing christmas morning!

sarah LOVES to dance and talk to herself in mirrors. she spends 90% of her free play time changing outfits and modelling them for her imaginary friends in our bedroom full length mirror...so santa decided she needed her own HUGE mirror for HER room...

as you can see, the mirror was a huge hit!

then, the big kids had to "hide" while santas' other presents were displayed in the living room. see, santa knows that the woodard kids like to get up as quiet as mice and sneak downstairs in the morning without their parents waking up...so, he told us that he was going to put all the presents in mommy and daddy's care to pass out later in the morning!!!

they were so giddy and happy to pose for pictures!!!

for the past 3 years, sarah has asked santa for hair clips and makeup...she hasn't realized to ask for the "big ticket" items yet :)

poor baby jake...you can just see in his eyes that he doesn't feel well :(

sarah modelling her new rainboots!
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after we opened ALL the presents and played a few of our new board games, we headed over to nana and pop pop's house for more fun!!!

christmas eve...12.24

***jacob did NOT feel good the week of christmas...he started getting cranky on the 22nd which is a sure sign of no good to come! we "powered through" having our friends over for santa, the christmas eve service at church, and then drug him around on christmas day, but we called it quits after that...we were at the doctor's office first thing on the 26th and he was diagnosed with an upper respiratory infection and given good ole pink medicine (amoxicillin) to clear things up! it took a while, but he was finally feeling better a few days into the new year!!!***
now if i could only remember if this was his first or second time to have amoxicillin... hmmm...need to watch out for him to have an allergic reaction next time like big brother did!!!

here comes santa claus...12.23

remember when sarah and tim went to the daddy-daughter dance back in november?

well, there was a silent auction there...

normally, *i* am the one who has problems at silent auctions. i think i need to win every item...

i was actually very proud of the ONE item that tim bid on...

(and he didn't even text me or call me to see if i thought it was a good idea!)

tim bid on an hour WITH SANTA CLAUS...anytime up until december 23rd!!!

you may recognize santa...we see him every year at storytime with santa at the enchanted forest...he is a very very very patient man!!!

so, we decided to have a little party for our friends to all come over and visit with santa at our house!

we *just* had 7 families over, but that came out to SEVENTEEN kids!!!

everyone had their own time to sit in santa's lap...or near santa...or not so near santa...

and santa's elves had prepared some naughty and nice lists for him...

it was hilarious to watch the kids' faces when santa "called them out" on not eating their veggies, or not sharing with their siblings, or my personal fave..."giving the evil eye"! ha!

santa also gave tons of compliments to the kiddos...we had lots of kids learn to tie their shoes this year, ride a bike, learn their ABC's...

everyone had lots of fun!!! and we all loaded up on sugar, sugar, and more sugar!!!

all of the kids decorated pictures for santa before he came over...

and we all filled bags of reindeer food to leave out on christmas eve!

after everyone had their time to visit with santa, we tried to take a few group pics!

of course, baby jacob only lasted through about the first 30 minutes of the party, so he was snug as a bug in a rug by the time we tried to get a picture of ALL of the kids with jolly ole saint nick!

oh, yeah...it also happened to be my birthday...so we did sing and blow out candles...

but, we totally forgot about the cake...so we did that about 10 minutes before people had to start leaving to get home for bedtimes!

having santa come to our house was a MUCH better use of the 23rd than celebrating me getting a year older!!!

this was a really fun night and definitely something to consider making an annual tradition!