Christmas!!!

We got to go spend Christmas with my Dad and Marie. All of my siblings were there, except for Stacy. We sure do have lots of little ones now, the place was crazy but there is always a baby to snuggle!

 New Christmas jammies! This is one of my favorite traditions.

 So excited to find toothpaste in his stocking!

 Santa must have known that this little girl wants to walk so badly.

 Playing games! We got to do that a lot during the week. Despite many attempts I never managed to win the farming game.

 This kid is seriously cute!

 And this girl is adorable!

 Since we had a white Christmas we went out behind the house the day after Christmas to go for another day of sledding.

 There wasn't too much snow so some people took all the snow with them when they went down the hill so everyone ended up muddy. Luckily a second hill was located and more fun was had, by everyone, except me and tired Mckenna, we left early and the poor girl fell asleep before we even made it back to the house.

Does this look like the most efficient way to get the sled back up the hill?

The kids had so much fun, they have such fun Dads and uncles who will make sure they all get to play.

I love Christmas and family and it was really nice for Andrew to have a break from school so we could hang out. We ate yummy food (Andrew loved my Dad's famous prime rib this year) and laughed and played games and I hope we all tried to think about the Savior and the wonderful gift he is in our lives. I'm always so sad when the holiday is over and the magical season ends. Lucky for me 2nd Christmas was waiting at home, so watch for that post coming up.

Birthday Bash and sledding, sledding, sledding!

Andrew got a new sled for his birthday and we headed up the mountain to try it out.

 Alex had so much fun! He would have stayed all day if we would have let him.

 Baby girl was her usual happy self!

 My dad joined in on the fun as usual! How many people out there can say that their 60+ year old father goes sledding with them.

 I sure love these guys!

 Alex and Lindsay were so excited that they were matchy matchy.

 Andrew had a wonderful birthday lunch at the Diner, even though it is my favorite place to eat I am pretty sure I didn't sway/pick the lunch destination.

 Nathan insisted I make him some houses to blow up since the gingerbread creations that we made during Thanksgiving break didn't make it all the way to Christmas Eve. Give me some Saltines and frosting and M&Ms and I can do some quality work.

 I did not get a good pic of the explosion, but after some trial and error we did end up with a good show.

 Molten Lava Cake for my handsome man. All these winter birthday people got to celebrate together.

Mckenna thought that was just great!.
So glad my family is full of good sports who put up with our birthday festivities with us.

Christmas Prep!

I must admit that my husband is one of the biggest Christmas enthusiasts I know. Once we got back into town after our Thanksgiving travels he was in Christmas mode. Even though my house was a complete mess all week this does make me happy and his enthusiasm must be contagious because our two cuties seem to have caught it.

 Alex hung ornaments all over the house!

 And he is just adorable!

 This little girl also loved the ornaments, seriously she couldn't keep her hands off of them.

I know my photography skills are seriously lacking not to mention my darling baby girl had already attacked the bottom of the tree, but this is the only picture I have of the tree up and decorated. Alex named the tree Nori this year, I loved the name and the fact that he came up with the name on his own. I love Christmas and I love the wonderful festiveness all the decorations add to my home (even if Nori was super dry and we had to vacuum almost daily because of her). It is so fun to share the excitement with my kiddos.

As part of our Christmas preparations we attended the ward Christmas breakfast and the kids got to see Santa. Below is the progression of the visit.

 Alex chatted with Santa and told him that he wanted a car that you can drive.

 Then Mckenna got to join in the fun, she stared at Santa...

 And stared...

 then she reached out her hand...

 and yeah, got it trapped in Santa's beard. Was she testing to see if he was the real deal?

 After re-adjusting the ridiculously heavy headbands that Mckenna and I were wearing and a million picture attempts we did end up with a good pic.

 We were able to go to the Zoo Lights. It was pretty cool, they have all kinds of animals and Christmas decorations done in lights. It is way convenient to walk around and see all kinds of lights instead of having to drive around and try to find the good neighborhoods.

Sadly the batteries in the camera died early in the night so we don't have many pics, but you can trust me it was pretty cool.