Christmas!

We had a fun and simple Christmas this year. We were a little bit behind due to my morning sickness and then our trip to Disneyland, but we were able to get everything done in time. We got all the decorations up on Christmas Eve (including the advent calendar.... the kids had fun putting ALL the numbers on). Then, we headed over to Brein's house for a Christmas party with family. The kiddos all got to open their Christmas jammies together.







Then, we took the traditional "cousins in their jammies on the couch" picture.


Tyller and her batman jammies.


Aariel made these adorable hand-stitched onesies for all the preggos. (From left to right: Rileigh's, due in Feb.; Brein's, due in July; Madi's, due in August; Mine, due in June.)


After the party, we went home and went to bed so Santa could come. There's something magical about Christmas eve after the kiddos have gone to bed.


Christmas morning is even more magical, though. :) Surprisingly, the boys let us sleep in until 7:30. Then we got up to see what Santa had brought.

Stocking stuffers




Evan asked Santa for some transformers and legos. Asher asked Santa for a fire truck and a "cool jet". They both got exactly what they asked for!

Asher definitely thought the jets were cool.




Evan admiring one of his transformers:


Opening the fire truck


We also got a Wii for the family (Evan kept calling it a "wig"). and after presents were opened, we ate cinnamon rolls for breakfast and played the Wii to our hearts' content. :)

That afternoon after naps and everything, we headed up to my parents' house in Rexburg. My little brother, Thomas, left for his mission to Lubbock, Texas this week so we went to hear him speak in church the day after Christmas.

When we got there, we had a yummy IHOP style dinner with some homemade pumpkin waffles and buttermilk syrup. Then it was time for presents!

The kids loved these things that they got from Grandma and Grandpa. I don't even know what they're called, but it's made out of a bunch of little pins that take the shape of whatever you press it onto. You know what I'm talking about.




After presents we played a few games and had a lot of laughs. It's sure nice to be close to both our families again for the holidays. :)

We had to leave right after sacrament meeting the next day, but Thomas did a great job on his talk. I'm so proud of him and I know he's going to be an awesome missionary.

That's the basic recap of our Christmas this year. Is it bad that I'm kind of glad the holidays are over? ;)

Another fun thing we got to do right after Christmas was visit with some dear friends of ours, Ben and Rainee, who were in town from Alaska. We knew these guys in Provo and then they came out to St. Louis for chiropractic school, too. We sure miss them, so it was great to get to walk around temple square and have lunch with them.



I'm hoping to stay caught up on blogging a little better now that I'm feeling well again. I've got family pictures to post as well as a few miscellaneous others. :)