Birthdays!

Happy Birthday Chayse!

Chayse turned the big 5 on December 24th! I met him when he was just a year and a half old. I can't even believe that he is already 5. Time sure does fly by.

So because the poor guy gets a birthday the day before Christmas I wanted to separate a time out for him to get a little party. He is in love with Monsters Vs. Aliens so he wanted that for a cake. He always likes to look at them at Wal-Mart. Well I'm not paying like 20 bucks for one of their cakes. So I decided I would attempt to make one myself. I think it turned out pretty well! It's B.O.B. Chayse really liked it!

Every party has it's pooper!

And of course the other amazing birthday celebrated is Jesus's! We went to Pella and had a lot of fun because both my brothers and their families were also there. I haven't seen Brandon and Wizzy for awhile and Patrick has grown so much! I see Jeremy and Hilary a little more, but still not often enough and their son Samuel has grown a foot I swear since I last saw him in August!

Ok So the major Christmas news we've had is a little funny and a little maddening.

So usually in the mornings I get up and go to work, Dayzy and Chayse are usually up watching t.v. while I'm getting ready. Scott stays in the bedroom for awhile taking care of William and sometimes he sleeps in a little longer. (the kids wake up at like 7 a.m.) Anyway they decided to open their Christmas presents either before I woke up, or while I was getting ready, or after I left for work. We didn't notice it all day long. I did look over at the tree and thought that it looked like there were less presents but thought nothing of it.

Scott and I didn't buy presents for each other, and only bought for the kids because money is a little tighter this year. So there weren't a ton under there to begin with. Anyway that night was fine the kids played in the living room and we had a normal evening at home. Chayse fell asleep watching a movie on the couch and so I let him sleep there and was going to have Scott move him when he got home from work. So I went to tuck Dayzy into bed and found a toy on the floor. It was a Bakugan toy. I was like, "huh...Dayzy is this from Mommy's? Because I swear we also got Chayse this toy." She just said uhhhh I don't know. I then saw the box/ plastic to it. Then I saw the wrapping paper. I asked if they had opened presents. She admitted it right away.

Come to find out that they had seriously opened almost all of their presents and all of Chayse's birthday presents! They hid them in their room, they also hid the wrapping paper in their room. That means they knew what they did was wrong. I told Dayzy that I'm taking them all away. And I searched their room for the presents and they had to find the rest the next day.

Ok so what do you do when this happens? I put this as my status on facebook. Most people laughed, many told us to re wrap them and give them back.

NOPE! Scott and I decided that they had to learn their lesson. So I took all the toys away that they opened, and even the ones they didn't open. If they had left it in a box it got returned. If it was opened I re gifted to my nephews, or sold some toys to a guy at work. They got nothing from us, no stockings either.

Amazingly they've been really good about it. They realize what they did was wrong, they didn't complain. Santa didn't bring them presents at my parents. (yup they woke up early to look) They asked where the presents from him were. My mom asked if they had been naughty and they said yes. Chayse lost out doubly because he opened birthday presents too! He got 1 movie that I hadn't wrapped that he hadn't opened. They saw my nephews get what they had opened and said oh I really liked that...but then walked away.

I know many years from now we'll laugh about this and probably bring it up every Christmas. But I was so mad! Half the fun is seeing the kids' faces when they open them. I wanted to see their reactions.

But on the plus side, Scott and I work opposite schedules and the time we do have off together has been spent going to family Christmas events. So we didn't know when we were going to do our family Christmas at home. Now we don't have one! :)