Decorating for Christmas!

Tuesday was Christmas decorating day! The kids were so excited to get things out for Christmas and look at everything. They missed out on this last year because we didn't decorate at all (we were packing up to move to Arkansas!)

So, it made it extra special this year. Joe isn't always so excited about dragging everything out of the garage to decorate, but once everything is out he has a good attitude about it! :)

The kids and I put up a lot of the decorations around the house, but saved the tree for when daddy got home.

Joey is helping daddy put a nail in the wall to hang the Advent calendar (actually I don't know if you would still call this an Advent calendar when it has mostly Santa stuff on it!) :)

By the way, we really do feed Joey. He's just stretching up so he looks extremely skinny.

Hanging it on the wall.

This is what it looks like empty. Joe's mom got this for us a few years ago. It is magnetic and everyday you put a new magnet on the right number. The kids are taking turns with who gets to do it in the mornings.

I think I got this idea from Meredith last year, but the kids thought it was pretty fun to wrap their door. And, I've been impressed that Kylah hasn't tried to unwrap the door! :)

I bought a little tree for Joey and Kylah to have in their room. I let them put all the little ornaments on it. We keep it lit at night, and they use it as their nightlight. Who knew Hobby Lobby had such great deals?! (When Joe got home on Tuesday night, Kylah told him that we went to Lobby Lobby earlier that day...so cute!)

Don't mind the way I look...it was a long day, but the kids are cute waiting for me to pull ornaments out of the box. I really am my mom now. She always sat at the box and pulled out the ornaments for us to put on the tree. We only have a few that the kids made so far, but I definitely told them the stories about them as I pulled them out!

So, the story of the tree. You see, we now live in a 1100 square foot little house. We are content to be here for a few years, but it does cause a few dilemmas. Like, where do we put a big Christmas tree? For the sake of still being able to see the TV, we got a little 4.5 foot tree (again at Hobby Lobby!) that we can put in our living room and still have a little bit of room in there. The kids don't know any difference; they're just excited to have a tree!

We tried to direct them a little to try to put ornaments in empty places, but other than that, they hung them all by themselves.

Side note...you will notice in the pictures of Joey hanging the Advent Calendar that he only has underwear on. We made him go put some clothes on before we decorated the tree. He came out with this little ensemble---swim trunks two sizes too big and a Superman/Army t-shirt. Oh well...I lay out his clothes for school, so I figure he can pick what he wants to wear at home!

Kylah took her job of hanging ornaments pretty seriously. And, yes, she is using a princess dress as a cape. I just don't ask questions anymore.

It's so nice when they work together. If only it happened all the time...

Joey got to put the star on this year.

Our stockings all hung up. We got baby Norah a stocking already so she would have one to match Joey and Kylah's. The kids were excited that Norah got a stocking too! She's already as real to them as if she was outside of my belly. I love it! (Speaking of Norah...I don't think I have made that announcement on the ol' blog yet. We decided on a name! Norah Margaret Manthe is the name we picked for our little girl. Norah because it's so darn cute, and Margaret is for Joe's great-grandma, Nana, who was very special to him.)

And here is our Christmas mantle with tree in all it's glory.

I'm trying to get the kids to not take the stockings off. The stocking holders are heavy, and we've already had one close call with a holder and Joey's foot!

Have I mentioned I love the Christmas holiday?!

I'm a little bummed that the Christian radio station here is not playing all Christmas music yet, but hopefully soon!

Happy decorating to everyone!