Waiting for Santa.. and the aftermath of Christmas morning!!

After the candle light church service, we came home and ate Daddy's yummy chilly, frosted some sugar cookies for Santa, and left some reindeer food outside!  So glad I got a pic of all of them in their matching Christmas jammies.  It's so weird to think that two years ago on this very day, we were just finding out that we would be adding a third baby to our crew!!  And here he is, what did we ever do without him??

Ready to go leave our reindeer food outside (cheerios and carrots)!!

 You have to lead them up to your house, you know..

 Grandma playing "this little piggy went to market" and Ben was loving it!!

Smiling with Grandma :)

 Santa came to visit!!  And BOY did Santa work hard on this dollhouse for Lilly, thank goodness he was smart enough to start working on it BEFORE Christmas Eve! :)  She also got some Frozen barbies and a Frozen book personalized to add her name in as a character in the book!

 Santa knew Nate had fun playing corn hole in Orlando, so he got him a corn hole game of his own!  Of course he also got his power ranger dolls and dinosaur that he asked for!

 Benny got a singing Elmo (one of his very favorites right now), a fire truck, puzzle, and HULK!

 Coming out Christmas morning to see if they made the NICE list!  This was really the best Christmas ever, the kids have never been so happy and ready to play with every single thing they got.

 Now time to open all the rest of the presents!!  YAY!!!

One more big one from Mommy and Daddy- An basketball goal!!  Nate has been having so much fun whenever he finds a basketball hoop at a friend's house or bday parties, so we knew getting one of our own was a must.

We let Ben sleep in while Nate and Lilly opened all their presents, so when he woke up all eyes were on him!  Sweet baby, he was so confused but excited to see all his new toys.

It was chilly Christmas day, but as soon as Daddy could get the hoop up, all the boys were outside playing!

This Christmas left me feeling extremely grateful for our family and the sweet traditions that are becoming so special to all of us.  We read books and sing songs about baby Jesus, who was born in a manger, and the three wise men who brought gifts to Him..  Christmas morning is still full of the magic that is Santa coming down your chimney and leaving dust from his boots on the fireplace, and flying reindeer that pull Santa all around the world in one night.  I love the magic, and I love reliving all of it through these sweet kids.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JESUS!!!!!!!!!

Christmas Traditions! 2014!!

The Christmas season came and went WAY too fast this year!  We had our tree and decorations up even before Thanksgiving, so at least we had some time to get into the spirit!  

In keeping with tradition, we built and decorated a Gingerbread house. 

 In keeping with his own tradition, Nate found a way to put way more icing in his mouth than on the gingerbread house.

Even Benny wanted in on the action.  Maybe next year, Benny!

Here are a few pics of the big kids' Christmas parties at school.  I was running back and forth, and of course their classes are at complete opposite ends of the kindergarten hallway!

I found some of Nate's class work hanging outside the hall..

Decorating cookies!

Getting the wiggles out doing some dancing!

Nate's class did some dancing too.  They were facing the screen because they were copying what the dancers on the screen were doing.  It was pretty funny to watch!

Lilly unwrapping her book from her teacher.

Some of these are pics I put on our Christmas card, and some I just thought were cute!

Prairie lights.. another Pierson Christmas tradition!

Daddy got one more lawn character.  He thought we should have three to equal the three kids!

Making sugar cookies and decorating them for Santa on Christmas Eve.

We went to go see Santa at the mall (the theme was Shrek Christmas), and it was pretty cool.  A neat "sleigh ride" to the north pole, which I think was the best part of the whole deal!  Ben was NOT a fan at all!!

Ok, this post is getting huge so I'm going to do another one with a few more pics from Christmas Eve and the rest from Christmas Day!