Christmas Morning

Santa came! Santa came!

 Waiting patiently at the top of the stairs

 Jay kept stealing the chocolate out of the other stockings and then turning around so that nobody could see him sneak it into his mouth lol

  We always say, "Who wants to go first?" and then that person gets to go under the tree and get the presents they got and wrapped for the family and deliver them into the receivers lap, and pick the order of opening

 and then of course, lots of hugs and thanks :)

Once Jay saw that Santa brought him new underwear he just had to wear them right that minute- even over his pjs ha!

 Jay excited to have Dad unwrap his present

 I love making blankets for everyone, but I usually am the one left without one when it's cold and the warmest blanket in the house is the Broncos blanket I made Kevin. I like the Broncos, but they aren't my team...so Kevin made me a Greenbay Packers blanket! I didn't even help him, he sewed it and tied it. So cute! And cozy too :)

We spread it out all day and played games and watched movies. I always think it's the best day ever! No distractions from outside, and getting to just be together (in our jammies) all day as a family. Love love love Christmas!

It's been a really nice month remembering Jesus Christ, being kind to one another and more Christlike in our lives...lets see if we can carry that along all year ;)

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve Dinner... just a quaint evening with our little family

 The kids never complain about their one Christmas Eve present to open is always the same. They love it! haha

 Best attempt at a siblings pic in their jammies. Jay would NOT sit still

 He wanted to do this instead :)

How about a family one with a Jay restraint!

We have some sneaky sneakers around here, so we thought it would be fun to have them all sleep in Scott's room so that we could all wake up together on Christmas morning. It seemed to work out until they all came climbing in our bed at 5 am! We forced them back to sleep until 7 (well at least that's what we thought but Scott came clean and said he went downstairs to check out the goods from Santa! lol)

December Happenings

Jay has become completely obsessed with babies, and this baby doll never leaves his sight. I mean goes to the store and for rides in the carseat, gets packed under his arm like a football all day, and sleeps under his arms at night. I think it's the most precious thing in the world, except he wakes up 2-3 times in the night because he can't find "his baby"! 

We have a newborn in the house and it's not even real lol

That and potty training success has been keeping Jay up all hours of the night and so nobody has been getting much sleep around here

Stinker....but he is cute- I will give him that

We made it to the live nativity they have in Nibley this year. We use to go back when Scott and Hailey were tiny.

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Hay ride

Afterwards we drove around and looked at Christmas lights which is always way fun!

We started a new tradition this year. I saw someone selling these manger kits (for an outrageous amount of money) and so Kevin offered to build one. Then there was a little sack of straw and anytime anyone does a good deed or an act of service they got to place a straw in the manger. The goal is to fill it up before Christmas and then you lay the baby Jesus in. All the kids really enjoyed it, but I would say Hailey did the most in the family. She stayed after school to hold the door open for all the kids, wrote a Christmas card to the mailman, and lots of other sweet things. It was fun. We will definitely do that one again!

The kids decorated a ginger bread house, watched a ton of movies, read a lot of Christmas books, made lots of cookies and my moms famous popcorn cake, and of course got to decorate the Christmas tree. (I was playing with my new camera with colors...pretty fun)

This is the kids tree- They strung popcorn and all of their favorite ornaments :)

One night we decided to have a Polar Express Pajama party. We invited about 6 of their friends over in their pjs and everyone got a stack of tickets to use to get into the movie and buy treats. It was soooo much fun! My kids loved their "jobs". Before anyone came over Arianna was sitting on her stool practicing her part she would say. Then we would hear her saying, "Enjoy the movie!" lol

 Scott of course wanted to handle the concessions. The kids had an all time blast, ate way too much candy, and just laughed and giggled until it was bedtime.

 Always have to get those church dress pics right? 

 Then I think it was 2 nights before Christmas and we got a knock, and a loud "HO HO HO" and jingle bells too at the doorbell and who could it be but Santa Claus himself! Seriously, everyone- and I mean everyone (Kevin and I included) were surprised! He said that we have all been extra extra good this year and have been doing so many good things to others that he just had to come and see us early. He brought us presents too! :) Pretty fun!