Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas and A Happy New Year!!!

Christmas is never dull when you have a bunch of kids around. Although the chaos isn't quite as organized as my brain would like it. The kids started with opening up their traditional Jammie's on Christmas Eve. We then read the Christmas story and talked about the most important gift of all. Carter kept telling us this whole week when we would get grumpy or moody that Christmas was about love and having fun with our family. :) He is right! He gave me a little package of sparkly fake snow things and told me that was all of his love. So sweet!!!

Mason is always excited about Christmas. He loves seeing the presents under the tree and has a fabulous time unwrapping each item. He got a Curious George Jack in the Box, many Disney books, shoes and blocks. To bad he won't look at the camera with his gorgeous big smile!!! His favorite present may have been the Jelly Bellies from cousin Sahara. He yelled out loud when he opened those.

Carter is always pleased with what he gets. After each present you hear a quite or sometimes
loud, "Thank you Santa." Carter loves Christmas and loves giving his own little presents to people. He was pleased with his weapon selection this year and actually does quite well with his toy Bow&Arrow. Light up shoes, Light Saber, kitchen pots and pans to go with the new huge kitchen that I will post a picture of later..built by daddy of course.

Taylor followed her brothers lead and thanked Santa for every little item she received. She was thrilled about her softball mitt, Tinkerbell name plate, puzzle, and doll with wagon. At one point in the morning she was watching Carter open his gift and he got all excited, she leaned over and gave him a big hug because she was excited for him. That instantly reminded me of my childhood and how excited we would get for each other. Christy, remember when I got my Molly doll? You cried more than I did!!

Three words for Brennan; chocolate, sword, shoes. He couldn't decide if he preferred his slippers or his very own new Wellies! He is always walking around the house in Taylor or Carter's Wellies and I guess Santa thought it was high time he got his own. He learned on Christmas how to actually say, thank you and scissors. He couldn't get into one of his presents(the one he is trying to open with the sword) and he looked at Mike and clear as day said, "scissors." It was really cute that he caught on to the need for scissors with just the few boxes we had used them on.

Michael, Michael, Michael. Mike is like a kid on Christmas. Even if most of his stuff he didn't unwrap that day. Tools were needed for said kitchen. :) Mike was excited about his stocking items, a new watch, and a new sweater(if my opinion counts he looks real hot in).

What does one get Hollie to make her smile? Chocolate my friends, chocolate. I got just that with some fabulous chocolate from Belgium. Yummy yummy was the bottle of hot chocolate!! It still is, I have a little left. :) My new coat is fabulous!! I also was grateful for a few clothing items to add to my wintry sweater collection. Not anything Rug Doctor related was in that box...but my face just says, "this better not be an original box!" :) Love you babe!

The kids opened stuff from aunts, uncles and cousins so fast that not many pictures were taken. We added many movies to our collection and were pleased with each one. The Elders came over that night and hung out with us. They were able to talk with their families and seemed very upbeat afterwards. Mike is holding up some PJ's that are suppose to be size 8/10--seriously?? Who's kid is that big!!?? :)

Taylor helped the missionaries open their gifts from us and she made sure they did it just right. It was pretty funny to watch. Mike thought it would be nice for Brennan to hand out a gift to Taylor. Brennan didn't want to give the gift, Taylor took it anyway, Brennan was crying. Then he got his own and life was better. :)

Thank you to all of our family who sent lovely packages. Sorry we didn't get pictures of everything. The kids did help themselves to one box while mom and dad were still sleeping the day after Christmas. :) We hope all of our friends and family had a wonderful Christmas.

WE LOVE YOU!!!