Christmas morning

Christmas morning started early for us...4:30 AM!

We told the kids they had to wait to go into the family room and check out their gifts until everyone got up and we all went in together. Well, who knew they were actually going to listen to me. They woke me up at 4:30 and we told them that it was the middle of the night and they had to go back to bed. We then got wake up calls every 20 minutes from these two until we finally gave in at 6:30am. All the craziness of gifts was over by 7:15, it was a long, but fun day.

Lillie on her new two wheel bike that she learned to ride. Now she's riding like a champ.
This was Penny's main activity of the day

Oh, and this too

Everything before we got started (totally out of order)

Lucy with her loot. She asked every Santa she saw for a Piggy Bank. Looks like he was listening.

Abbie and her new DS

Santa and the Reindeer must have been hungry from their busy night.

Are you kidding me?

Check out how this girl made these...you won't believe it!

Click HERE

Christmas Eve

For Christmas Eve we were able to just hang together as a family and it was so nice just having a chill evening. First, we went to the Temple lights.

Then, after we got home, Eddie the Elf (our own special Elf) visited and brought our Christmas PJ's.

Eddie the Elf always writes the kids a note from Santa about how this year went and special things he's noticed about them.

Of course, we had to make some Christmas cookies for Santa.

We had to test them out also to make sure they tasted ok.

All of us in our jammies

Ward Christmas Party

Our ward Christmas party was actually really fun. They do it one of the culd-a-sacs in our neighborhood and there was a rock wall, balloon animal people, cotton candy, doughnuts, soups, hot chocolate, tractor/hay rides, bouncy castle, and a nativity play. Abbie and Lillie were angels. Lillie didn't like the white outfit I had for her, so she wore blue. It was funny because it was an outfit that was supposed to be for someone playing the part of Mary, we just added wings to it. It made me think of a bridesmaid wearing white to her friend's wedding.

Lucy sitting on a Santa's lap for a third time. She was so proud of herself that she wasn't scared this year.

One Month Old

Seeing Santa at Bass Pro Shop

Abbie's piano recital

With her teacher (my sister Natalie)

Tumbling/Cheer Performance in December

Happy Birthday to Brad!

My super awesome husband turned 32 in December. We started out the morning with breakfast in bed. He requested blueberry pancakes.

I know it's on a flowery plate, but that's our "Birthday Plate" in our house. Everyone gets a turn to eat on it when it's their birthday. Sorry honey, we have all girls.

That night we had a birthday dinner for him with some friends.

He's not a huge fan of cake, but looooves pastries. So, here is what I picked out just for him to enjoy. Everyone else had cupcakes.

Happy Birthday to the best husband I could ever ask for. I am so happy that you were born!

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree...

Here is our lovely Christmas tree we picked out this year. Of course, I made us get the tree the day after Thanksgiving. Let's just say it was pretty dry by the time Christmas Day rolled around.

My poor children have this person for a mom today.

When will my sweet baby sleep through the night so "nice mommy" can return?