Christmas

 

Christmas morning Kaylee came in our room at 5am woken up by a thunderstorm. I've never had a thunderstorm on Christmas morning before. She stayed in bed with us until Brooke and Austin woke up about 7:30. Kaylee was good and patient. I'm surprised she could wait that long. 

They finally got to go see what Santa brought after we turned on the tree lights.

 

Some how Santa fit new beds for Kaylee and Brooke down the chimney. (Brooke had been sleeping on a mattress on the floor for the last 2 year. I had to convince Santa it was time she had a real bed.)

 

Kaylee also got legos a new quilt for her bed and a pony family that came with hair things to style their hair (she loves doing hair.)

Brooke got legos, a giant Dora coloring book and a turtle (Brooke has a thing for turtles.)

 The little man got a baseball mitt and ball, clothes, and a batman car set.

After seeing what Santa brought we opened presents. We were so blessed to get packages of presents from both grandmas and grandpas and from aunts and uncles too. It was so fun watching the kids open their presents. They were so excited and kept saying "I always wanted this..." even if they had never seen or thought of it before.

 

 Kaylee's favorite gift was probably her tablet. We got her an off brand one for the same price that they were selling toy ones for. The toy one would require us to buy games but the tablet has free downloads.

 

Brooke's favorite gift was her vreader although she says it was her pajamas.

 

Austin of course didn't know what was going on but her sure liked to rip paper (when his sisters gave him the chance) and play with empty boxes.

 

Jake got clothes... he needed them.

 

I got a color printer (we only had black and white before and I kept making Jake print things at work for me so they would be in color), earrings and a rol pat. I love it!

A few days before Christmas I read that a winter storm was going to come through on Christmas and I got so excited. The girls kept begging to go to Utah so they could play in the snow. I was so happy a storm was coming until I read that the DFW area probably would not get snow.

 

 I really wanted a white Christmas for my kids so I started praying... As I said we woke up to a thunderstorm so I was a little disappointed but I still had faith it could work out. The temperature dropped by the afternoon and.... SNOW!!! Heavenly Father answered my prayers!!

We had a while Christmas after all!

 While Austin was napping everyone wanted to play in the snow. I was a little reluctant because it was cold outside. (I've gown soft in the 3 years we've lived in Texas.) The kids and Jake persuaded me and although I was cold I'm glad I went out.

We had snow ball fights, chased each other around the yard, and even made a small snowman. (It wasn't good packing snow.) It was only an inch of snow but it sure brought a lot of joy!

We had a very Merry Christmas!!

Christmas Eve

Our wonderful Christmas week started out Sunday. We made cookies as a family to take to some friends while listening (and in Kaylee and Brooke's case dancing) to Christmas music. We all seemed to have such a happy feeling. I love this time of year and I love my sweet little family. After the cookies were done we delivered them. We usually aren't out after dark since the kids go to bed by 7:00. It was so fun to see their reaction to all the Christmas lights -"Oh they're so beautiful!!"

After delivering the last plate we drove past the local park that has lights (although it's no where near as cool as Ogden or Layton Park in Utah). We got out and walked around and once again the kids were in awe.

 

 

On Christmas eve we decided to go to the zoo. Kaylee and Brooke will now request I take their pictures at certain spots every time we go. This is one of them...

 And this is another....

 

We don't usually feed the parakeets but since it was Christmas Eve we decided to splurge and spend the $1.00 a stick ;)

 Even Austin got in on the action although I think he just wanted a nap...

 



On the way home Brooke crashed and Austin crashed. Kaylee was really tired too, but of course she is too big to take a nap so she had to be sneaky to hide that she was sleepy.

 Growing up we always got together with my mom's side of the family on Christmas Eve and all the cousins acted out the nativity. We don't have enough kids for that so we used our little people Nativity and had the kids act it out while we read Luke 2. The kids got to open one present that night and of course it was pajamas.

Brooke was especially excited about her pajamas. She even said they were her favorite Christmas present. The kids went to bed so easy that night. Too bad they don't have that motivation to get to bed every night. They couldn't wait for Santa to come!
Jake and I spent the time waiting for Santa to come by wayching some classic Christmas movies from our childhood- Garfield's Christmas, T'was the Night Before Christmas, and The Best Christmas Pagent Ever.


One year old!

 Austin turned one last week! Where did the time go?

He hardly got a chance to open his own presents, Kaylee and Brooke were very helpful.

 Notice his wet clothes? Austin drools all the time. He did just have his 4 top teeth come in.

 I was excited for Austin to have his birthday cake. By the time we got to his cake he was tired and just wanted to go to bed.

Austin would not touch his cake. He didn't want anything to do with it. I was really disappointed, Jake was so proud.

Jake put some peas on his tray and Austin ate those just fine. He must take after his father to choose  vegetables over the cake.

 

We sure love our sweet little boy. He is always making us laugh.

Haircut

 I decided it was finally time to give Austin a haircut. It was getting pretty long as you can tell in this picture. I put off cutting it because I was afraid he wouldn't look like my little baby anymore. Some how a hair cut makes babies look like little boys.

 Kaylee was my photographer. It wasn't easy to cut this little guy's hair.

 Obviously he didn't enjoy it...

Ta Da! The finished product- it wasn't perfect (the back looks kind of rough) but it looks a little better.



Birthday Boys

 

Austin and his friend Kai were born 6 days apart so we had a little birthday party last night...

The boys had birthday pancakes. (We'll save the real cake for Austin's birthday)

Austin was tired and wouldn't eat his pancakes but Kai sure enjoyed his.

 

 

 

Look at this boy's hair! It doesn't stay down no matter what I do! I guess he needs a hair cut but I'm afraid to do it.

Christmas Tea Party

 My aunt started the tradition a few years ago to have a Christmas Tea party. It was so much fun.

We decided to host our own tea party this year since we aren't going home for Christmas. We invited 6 friends over and they had a great time! We enjoyed mini sandwiches, muffins, cream puffs, cookies and of course tea hot chocolate.

 We also decorated cookies...

 

We had a great time and sent all our guests home a little sugar high. :)

December

 December in Texas means raking leaves.

 Kaylee and Brooke spent days playing in the leaves.

 The both had a nest of leaves.

We made snowflake ballerinas (found on pinterest) for fun.

I saw a sign like this on pinterest (can you tell I like pinterest) and decided to copy it...

 



 

It doesn't seem much  like Christmas time here since it's been at least 70 degrees most days this month. I'm not complaining. I like the warmer weather. I wouldn't mind a little snow on Christmas Eve though. We are staying home for Christmas again this year. We would LOVE to go to Utah but it is too expensive to fly. We'll have to come up with some new family traditions since we can't spend time with our families.