Friday, December 26, 2008

Our Christmas in pictures

Since I am holding aleeping baby, this post will have minimal words am lots of pics (it'll be long). I hope everyone had a merry Christmas!

On Monday night we had our annual Kleven Christmas party. The little kids go up to the stage and hold letters that spell CHRISTMAS and stars and we all sing a great but not too well known song called "C is for the Christ child, H for Herald Angels in the night," etc. This year Natalie and Brooklyn were old enough to hold stars. So cute! Excuse the blurriness.

Some of my dad's cousins dress up as elves and do a funny dance every year. We all just die laughing. Love the tights.

Hannah's turn on Santa's lap. She didn't have much of a reaction. Hmmm, Santa's nose looks just like Uncle Paul's...

Natalie on the other hand was terrified. Poor thing. All the preparation in the world did not help when she saw the jolly fellow close up. She still got a "'prise" though (surprise).

Tuesday night was the Hatch family party (Mark's side). Natalie had a fun time, but got cranky near the end.
Natalie always says, "hold you mommy now" whenever I have Hannah in the sling. So this is what we look like.
There is a talent portion of the night, and Natalie said she wanted to sing Jingle Bells. Turned out to be a solo on my part once she saw everyone looking at her.
Hannah is really excited about Santa coming, can't you tell? Can I just tell you that I love these little jammies? They are vintage 1983 terry cloth pj's that my BIL Mike wore as a baby. It just makes her so cuddly.

Hannah bonding with her Grandpa. She stared out into space for a good while like this.
Natalie leaving the cookies and carrots for Santa and the reindeer. Good thing we had a cookie delivery earlier or mom would have had to run to the store for some last minute cookies!
These pics are a little out of order, sorry. Christmas eve night we had my mom's sister's family over and we had a yummy dinner and a small program. Here is my sister Katie with her hubby Ryan.

Hannah slept the whole time.

Natalie and Brooklyn dressed up as Mary and baby Jesus and Elizabeth and baby John the Baptist ti let both girls carry a baby. We were trying to avoid fighting. Too bad we had only one manger! It was so cute and funny. Kudos to Katie for putting that together.

Natalie opening her ornament, a Barnes family tradition for Christmas Eve.

I made a doll house for Natalie for Christmas. Here's how it turned out.
The little family on their comfy couch.

The family is supposed to be us, can you tell who is who?
The kid bedroom.
Kitchen.
She loved it! Hannah was not as interested.

Nat became a pro at opening gifts. Here is her book of herself that I made for free on snapfish.com.
She told Santa (well, hypothetically, not the real guy she was scared of) that she wanted a book and a baby for Christmas. Here is the baby we got her. She carries it around all day long

Then we went over to Grandma S's house for more Christmas. Here are Russell and Aubri (Mark's sibs) and Hannah.
Nat helping daddy open his gift.
It was a great day! Now we just have Natalie's bday on Sunday and we're done with presents for a while. Yay. Bring on the new year!

9 comments:

Brandis said...

That dollhouse is AMAZING!! You are supermom! :)

Stock Family said...

The dollhouse is so cute! What a good idea! We missed you guys at the dinner :)

Kristina Rich said...

Another comment on the dollhouse!! OH my gosh. You have to show me how you did that!!!!! It looks like you guys had a great Christmas

Matt and Maggie said...

Some of the best stories are told in mostly pictures. We did the same thing basically. We have a bunch of pix and videos of present opening, and I just don't have the kind of patience to upload them!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY NATALIE!

Melanie@Crafty Cupboard said...

Cute cute cute! Why Alisa, I love how you decorated your house. Who helped you? What talent! ;)

I like how Hannah was totally into this whole holiday stuff. What a trooper :)
You will have to send me the pics of Brooklyn on Santa's lap!

The Burnhams said...

Oh, it was fun reliving Christmas with you! What kind of face am I making in the picture of you and your girls up there...hilarious!! Will you teach me how to make a dollhouse someday when I have a girl? Maybe we'll see you guys on New year's:)
Love, Karlie

Bre said...

awesome update! I enjoyed all the pictures. I am so inspired by your doll house, that is awesome. I saw you at church today but didn't get a chance to say hello!

Katie said...

CUTE. the end.

Jody Weiss said...

Alisa, your girls are so so cute! It looks like you all had a pretty busy Christmas this year; hopefully we'll see you next time if we make it into town!