Christmas 2012

We spent Christmas with Jesse's family this year. It was so fun to get everyone together and I believe that my kids and I were the only ones to get sick at all and I got the worst of it. Unfortunately, little Kylee burned her hand on the fireplace but thankfully we had nurse Jesse to the rescue and he brought some stuff from work to help with it. Other than that, it was a wonderful Christmas and I think everyone had a great time. The kids had so much fun playing together and they were all sad when it was time to go home.

On Sunday we all frosted sugar and gingerbread cookies together. The kids had a ball. Notice Atreyu's cookie that he dumped an entire bottle of sprinkles on. I'm pretty sure Grandma ended up throwing it out. They turned out to be excellent cookies!

On Christmas Eve, we acted out the nativity and almost everyone dressed up for a part. Lydia and Alora both wanted to be Mary, so we had two Marys this year. Some of the pictures are kind of blurry but you get the general idea.

I have started the tradition with my kids where they get to open a present of pajamas on Christmas Eve. I forgot to take a picture of the kids helping Baby Bri open hers but Atreyu opened his after his bath and was very excited!

Christmas morning was, of course, crazy and wonderful! It's fun having so many kids around at Christmas. Atreyu got a Thomas the Train set from Santa and Cambria got a turtle that can be filled up with balls. She wasn't too interested in it but hopefully she will enjoy it as she gets older.

All the kids were so good to share their toys with each other. Ryan's truck was a big hit with all the kids.

On Christmas afternoon, some of us went out behind Grandma and Grandpa's house and went sledding and playing in the snow. Atreyu had fun going down the hill with Cam and Jenny and then he, Lydia and Alora made snow angels.

We had excellent food all week long. It was nice splitting up meals so that one person didn't get stuck with everything and it gave a good variety. On Christmas Eve we had turkey and ham and Alora wanted one of the turkey legs. She went to town on it!

I just thought that these pictures were sweet. Cambria wasn't feeling good and we couldn't get her to calm down. Seth offered to take her and she fell asleep. Seth called it the "stranger effect" and it really worked.

We really had a great Christmas! I am thankful that we are able to celebrate the birth of our Savior every year and that we can take extra time to focus on Him, His life and His love for us.

Santa and Cookies

I know that based on the title of this post you would think the cookies have something to do with Santa but that's not the case. We went to story hour at the library on Thursday and Santa was scheduled to appear. I told Atreyu and Cindie that he was coming and they got very excited. While we were waiting, we sang some Christmas songs and the kids made some cute reindeer they could hang on the fridge.

We all heard some jingle bells and knew that Santa was coming. The kids were so happy to see him. Cindie sat on his lap with the cutest little grin on her face as she told him that she wanted a baby.

Last year Atreyu just cried when I tried to sit him on Santa's lap. This year he went willingly without me. Santa gave each kid a present and a candy cane and Atreyu had seen that he had given the other kids a book so when Santa asked him what he wanted for Christmas, he said a book. I got a picture of him and Cambria with Santa and of course Cambria isn't looking and Atreyu is doing his closed eyes "cheese" face.

Now to the cookies. We made sugar cookies again a couple days ago and Atreyu had to make his own cookies as well. He's been doing this for a few weeks making cake and chicken. He grabs any of his toy containers, stuffs them with as many toys as he can, and puts them in the "oven" which is on a bookshelf. It's so funny watching him do this and I have tried to organize all the toys at the end of the day but I'm starting to think that it's just not worth it. He's such a smart kid and I love him so much!

Some December Happenings

I LOVE Christmas time! I start getting excited for the whole season around Halloween. I just love the feel that is in the air. For the first week of December we started wondering if we were actually going to have a white Christmas because it was so warm. It has snowed some since and more is predicted so I think I will get my wish. I decided to make some sugar cookies with Atreyu and we both had fun. He helped me cut the cookies out as well as frost them. I think he ate more frosting then what he put on the cookies but it was a fun experience and I think it will become a Christmas time tradition; especially since Jesse loved them!

Cambria is getting better in her little jumper. She doesn't jump yet but she enjoys standing in it and watching everything that's going on.

Now that I have a little girl, I really want to make a girly (but classy) room for her. I was looking on Pinterest and saw this cute idea of putting silk flowers behind the knobs on a dresser. I already had some cute little yellow flowers and I think it turned out super cute!

We have these toy keys that we let Atreyu play with and all on his own one day he figured out how to lock and unlock the bathroom doors from the outside with them. I think he may be too smart for his own good.

I have also tried to get some pictures of me and my little girl recently and I think I have a couple that have turned out super cute. What a little doll!