1st Christmas Home

On Christmas Eve we headed up to Grandma & Grandpa's house for dinner. They made their famous prime rib which turned out delicious as always. After dinner we watched the grand kids put on the Nativity. Grandma & Grandpa had taken all the grand kids to their house for a "dress-rehearsal" earlier in the week. Brynn said it was a lot of fun and they got MCDONALDS! It paid off because the play had several "scenes" and was pretty impressive. :) After the play the kids all opened their first present from their grandparents.... SURPRISE -- Jammies! We put them on and headed home so that we could get Santa's cookies & milk put out by the fireplace and put reindeer food outside on the lawn (sparkles mixed with oatmeal).

This year was our very first Christmas in our own home! It was amazing to wake up in our own beds and have our kids come snuggle with us before we went down stairs to open gifts. It was very relaxed and our kids are at such cute ages. They weren't in a hurry to open their presents.

Our babies right when they woke up. They're ready to see if Santa came. (This is Gavin's new "camera smile". hahaha)


They opened their stockings and one present before we had Daddy's Famous Crepes. Matt had set up the table for breakfast and made the crepe batter the night before.




We then went to Sacrament meeting and enjoyed some amazing talks and songs. It was really neat to have church early in the morning and sing songs and here stories that remind us of what Christmas is all about. Brynn sang "Away In A Manger" the rest of the day. We came home and got back into our jammies and went downstairs and opened up the rest of our presents. The kids wanted to play with each toy and read each book before opening up another gift and we had SO MUCH FUN watching them!!!





I made my first Christmas dinner and it turned out pretty good if I say so myself. It wasn't super fancy but it was a really relaxed meal and we enjoyed it together.
Chris & Ellie came on Christmas afternoon and stayed the night! We always have so much fun with them and love them SO much. We felt pretty darn lucky that they would share part of their Christmas holiday at our house :).

It has been a FANTASTIC Christmas! We are so grateful for our babies who make the Christmas season sparkle!!!

Christmas in the Country

We spent the weekend before Christmas with my family and we had a BLAST!!! We had planned it all out and made all the assignments on Thanksgiving so we'd have plenty to do.

We played basketball on the new hoop the guys installed on Thanksgiving weekend. We went on rides up in the mountains on the new quad Grandpa purchased. Tiff had Bingo all ready for the kids with super fun prizes. The adults played White Elephant and played minute-to-win-it games one night and I admit that I did pee my pants a little laughing so hard. We went skeet shoot-n' on the back hill (imagine me saying that in my best cowgirl twang). We cut out and ironed paper snowflakes and hung them all over my mom's windows (if there was a national competition on cutting paper snowflakes... I'm sure my brother Dave would win it!) The kids rode their scooters and plasma cars down the super long driveway.

I'm so sad that I didn't take any pictures. (Tiff & Ellie - send your pics my way ;))

My family is amazing and we love each of them so much! I can't forget to mention my mom's FABULOUS cooking.... YUMMY! :) It was good times and we are so very blessed to have our family close!

Salt Lake 2011

One of our newest and most cherished holiday traditions is going to Salt Lake together. We love to swim, go to dinner and see all the beautiful lights on Temple Square. And mostly, we enjoy snuggling together and watching a movie and eating treats as we look at the temple outside our hotel window. It's awesome to bond and share these family memories (Brynn talks about it randomly throughout the year.)