Christmas Day

Well we had planned on being home Christmas morning but because of some winter weather in the forecast we decided to be safe and head to Mike and DeDe's Christmas Eve instead. 

 On Christmas morning the kids woke up to this.  (Reid's above. Lilly's below.)

 Next year Santa will practice more restraint. ( ;   He just found really good deals! 

 Opening it up.  The kids are at such a fun age for Christmas. 

 They were both thankful, too. 

 Bucky has been a huge hit! 

 And of course everything princess is, too! 

 They got a variety of things--the little wagons for toys or dolls (they love to put a bunch of stuff in them and drag them all over the house), some books, Cars toys for Reid, Princess toys for Lilly, new tooth brush holder w/cup, bath stuff, and a scentsy animal for their rooms.  They had a blast making Christmas lists this year.  Maybe next year we can work on being a little more selective and only putting favorite things on them instead of EVERY. Thing. They. Saw.  Haha! 

 Lilly and Reid were SO EXCITED to give Baby Breanna her Christmas present.

 She enjoyed the tissue paper!

 The donkey laughs when you tickle it and it's ear move while it is laughing.  It is pretty hysterical.  Reid was showing her how to work it. 

 Opening presents from Uncle Bert, Aunt Becca, Breanna, Mike, and DeDe.  These poor underprivileged children!!  (That would be written in sarcastic font if there was one.)

 We had planned on getting together with more family that evening...

 but the winter weather did come and so everybody stayed where they were.  We sure did miss seeing everyone that day but loved having a White Christmas.  It sleeted all afternoon and then turned to snow that night.  We definitely made the right choice leaving early! 

 

Feeling it.  Notice he has my boots on.  (:

 They were so excited!!

Beautiful!  Around 9:30 we lost power and headed to bed for the night.  Lilly and Reid said it was the best Christmas ever.  (:

Christmas with MoMo

 We started our round of Christmas celebrations with MoMo, PaPa Ray, Aunt "Michelly" and her family.  MoMo has everybody sit in a circle to open presents.  Here are these two waiting and excited for their presents. 

 Silly faces!

 Matt super thrilled I am documenting this.  (:  I am convinced one day he will thank me for my family documentation.  Ha! 

 MoMo always does elaborate wrapping.  We were so spoiled blessed at Christmas!

 MoMo got both Reid and Lilly a brand new bike!!

 Lilly rode her bike all the way to the park the other day!  I am so proud of her and how fast she picked up on riding a bike since this is first one! 

 Reid likes to walk his around.  Haha! 

 For Lilly and Reid's cousins I tied up one dollar bills and put them in an ornament...

 they thought it was great!!

 Blayne thought it was pretty funny, too. 

And Jackson has his cash out, unrolled, and in his pocket in about 1 minute.  Ha!  We played lots of games and my grandma and Aunts and Uncles came later but somehow I didn't get any pictures of them...or myself.  I promise I was there kids!  Next year I am going to have to write on my hand to get in the pictures!! 

Last of Christmas Countdown Activities

Well we didn't get to all of our activities this year...but I figured that would probably be the case.  (:  We got sick right before Christmas so that last few days just didn't happen. 

 We did manage to put together our neighbor gifts.

 

 I wanted to do something the kids could put together so we got oven mits and stuffed them with a cookie mix and a wooden spoon.

 They LOVED putting them together and passing them out!

They were really disappointed more people weren't home but we did pass them out during the day on a weekday.  We will have to plan better next year.  (: 

We made snowman pizza.

 It was definitely kid-approved!  They have asked for this no less than 100 times since then. 

 

 We built a gingerbread house.  This ended up being a disaster.  This was the night that the sickness was starting but I just thought I was tired.  I had bought this gingerbread village kit thinking it was going to be easy...except that it was all broke (probably because it fell off of our counter).  I tried to icing them together anyway but every time I got one house done...another one would fall apart again. 

 So I just busted out the graham crackers.  The kids enjoyed eating the candy and putting it on the house.

 And sneaking some frosting.

TaDa!  Once again, we loved our Christmas Countdown.  Next year I am going to add gift wrapping and address Christmas cards and rest as days on our countdown so I am not trying to do that plus another activity.  I absolutely love the Christmas season and all the sweet memories we make during that time of year...all while celebrating the birth of Jesus!  (: 

Family Photos, Part 2

Back in December we had some family photos taken and I shared some of those--but I saved my favorites because I hadn't picked which ones were going on the Christmas card.  Without further adieu, my favorites:

So blessed!