Our Holiday!

Our holiday this year was wonderful!! We had so much fun, and loved being with family to celebrate. My sister Melissa and her husband and baby came from Utah. Also, my sister Alli came. My brother is home from Iraq so we got to spend it with him and his family too. We missed my other sisters presence, but still had a great time.

So much happened during this holiday, I don't know where to start. First, we had a special visitor come to my mom's house. It was so exciting for the kids. They all were thrilled when they saw Santa at the door. He brought candy canes and a gift for each of the kids.

Colson's eyes got really big when we put him on Santa's lap. He didn't cry though. Parker wasn't quite sure what to think for a while, but warmed up eventually.

We also went to a light show in Spanaway park. It was so cool! The kids loved it!! It was an entire park lit up that you drive through. We listened to Christmas music and looked at it all. We loved it!

Our beautiful Aunt Alli was there, and Ava and Parker were so glad. They love her! Every time she walked in the door they ran to her screaming her name.
With all the people in the house, Ava and Grandpa needed a little quiet time so they sneaked into the living room to read a book.


We made Christmas ornaments too. I couldn't resist putting some antlers and red nose on Colson. He looked so cute!

We spent Christmas eve at my brothers house. We had our traditional fondu, but added a cheese fondu also. It was delicious. We fed the kids first then put a movie on and had all the adults eat. It was really nice. Alli insisted that we all dress up this year, and I have to admit it was kind of fun. I hesitate to put this picture up of me because you all can now see how much work I have to do to look like my normal self again. Ah the things we do to have kids . . . But, I am committed to lose the weight before my 10 year high school reunion this summer.
We opened Christmas pj's and found all the parents had the same idea with tinkerbell pj's. Parker was ecstatic about his 'mcqueen' jammies too.

We sang Christmas carols to my sister Melissa's piano playing, which was really fun. We sang everyone's requests then read the Christmas story from the scriptures. Bed time rolled around and Grandpa read "The Night Before Christmas" to the kids and we put them to bed.

The adults stayed up and played games(which I won! I never win Trivial Pursuit so it was really exciting). Then we went home and waited for Santa to arrive. The kids were really excited and had a great morning. Ava's favorite present was a violin. It's so cute, it's a little 1/8 size. We're going to start learning this week. Parker's favorite gift was a Thomas the tank engine. He LOVES it!! Colson's favorite gift is a play mat he can lay under. Daniel's favorite gift was this cool plant sensor you can put anywhere and it will give you a read out of the light in that area and the plants that would grow best in that area. My favorite gift was a blog book as well as a scroll saw! I'm really excited to try out my saw so I can make my own stuff instead of buying it from one of my favorite stores called the wood connection.

We came home on Sunday afternoon. We had originally planned to come home on Monday or Tuesday but all 3 of our kids had a melt down at 4 am Sunday morning. We both knew it was time to go home and get them back in their own beds and on their own schedule. My mom would say that I was having a melt down too, but really, I was just done with my kids freaking out and I was really tired. So we headed home. It was a good choice.

Anyhow, we had a wonderful holiday with our family and are glad we live so close so we can be together during those special times. I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and a happy new year!