Merry Christmas!

With a five year old in the house, this Christmas was extra exciting this year. Sammy was pretty excited herself, but this was more a reflection of her brothers excitement than any idea what Christmas is really all about. We spent Christmas Eve making and decorating cookies for Santa (we may have sampled a few too!). After waiting all month, the kids were finally allowed to open their first gift of Christmas...their Christmas PJ's.

Andy was up bright and early Christmas morning claiming he had heard the prancing of reindeer on the roof overnight so he was sure Santa had come. It didn't take the two of them long to open everything and start playing. Apparently the kids were good this year because Santa brought Andy two Star Wars Star Fighters and Sammy a Magnadoodle. We are not sure where we are going to put all of the new additions to our toy room, we were truely spoiled (and blessed) again this year.

Christmas Eve making cookies, all dressed up for church and opening Christmas PJ's:


Christmas Day opening and playing with our gifts:

Andy's 5th Birthday

Today is Andy's 5th birthday! He started the day early this morning with a chocolate sprinkle birthday donut and his first birthday gift...a Bumblebee Transformer!



After his normal Tuesday morning music class, we surprised the little guy with a redecorated room. Star Wars themed, of course. He was pretty excited to sleep on his new sheets under the glow-in-the-dark stars that now cover his ceiling (something I will probably regret someday).



The highlight of the day for Andy was definitely his Star Wars party tonight. Andy and 9 of his friends became Jedi Knights and battled themselves (and us) to the point of exhaustion with their dollar store foam light sabers. Every birthday party is a learning experience for me. This year I learned that planned activities with 5 year olds take half the time expected. It was a crazy 2 hours with lots of improvising for some short attention spans! Thankfully, Andy's dad was willing to wage battle with the little Jedi's and killed a lot of time.



The Clone Wars cake...


Our little Jedi Knights and Sammy


Eating cake...


Andy opening gifts...

Breakfast with Santa

Today was the annual Breakfast with Santa at our church. The morning included pancakes, Santa, crafts and storytime with Mrs. Claus. Andy had a great time... catching his pancakes on his plate, asking Santa for a Star Wars space ship, and making Christmas ornaments. Sammy was so excited to "see" Santa that she could barely wait in line. But all that changed once she was actually sitting on his lap, even with big brother trying to calm her down. Maybe next year!

Decorating the Christmas Tree

Last weekend the Cooper Christmas tree came out of the box. Needless to say, we had two very excited kids in the house. We will once again spend the month trying to keep the ornaments on the tree and the super glue handy. Sammy loves to have the lights turned on and Andy is all too happy to oblige her.