Christmas Day

  Since Christmas was on Sunday this year we waited to open our gifts until after we were done with our nine o'clock in the morning Church.  Also since Christmas was on Sunday we had a shortened version of church, so you could spend more time with your family.  The kids were okay with that because they really don't wake up very early anyway.  Luke woke up with enough time to get dressed and ate his breakfast during Church. 

  Luke wasn't really in to opening gifts.  I opened them for him through out the morning.  Once I got his toys ready to go he loved them though.  The girls of course are all at an age that they love ripping into their gifts.  Later on in the day my parents came over along with Adam, Angie, and Logan, and Brad and DeAnna.  Unfortunately I was not as good about taking pictures on Christmas day, so there are no pictures of all the cousins together.

Our tree on Christmas morning.  You can see the remnants of the cookies and milk that got left for Santa along with a note from Harper reminding Santa she wanted a Peppa Pig house.  She had a minor freak out the night before that she hadn't told Santa she wanted  a Peppa Pig house.  Fortunately she had told me. The giant badly wrapped present in front of the fireplace is a Barbie doll house for the girls.

Avery on Christmas morning with Emery and Harper in the background.

Luke dumped his stocking candy on the floor and it ate right there.

Luke playing with his tool box.

This is by far Luke's favorite Christmas gift.

Emery and Avery doing some art projects.

They were actually having fun.  Avery and Harper were just annoyed at the moment that Emery sat on them.

Daryl and Harper playing My Little Pony Life.

Brad got a Nerf gun for Christmas and the girls were lining up to be shot by him.

DeAnna gave Luke this awesome man bun.

Christmas Eve

  Christmas Eve Daryl's brothers and his sister were able to come over to celebrate with us.  Dinner was great and so was our company.  Also our newest dog nephew, Oscar, came along with Karl and Aimee for the first time to our home.  Once we safely had the cats in hiding things were okay.  It was a great evening.

Tyler looking ridiculously tall on the Scoot N' Zoom

Aimee and Ayva hanging out.  

A large portion of the evening was spent playing Rocket League on the X-Box.  Here is Daryl, Kyle with Luke on his lap, Harper, Kyle, Thomas, and Avery.

Here are all the cousins.  Luke, Avery, Emery, Ayva, Tyler, and Harper

Ayva approves Emery's Christmas gift.

Luke looking cute.

Here I am helping Luke open up his Christmas gift from Aimee and Karl.  It was two balls, so he loved it.

The rest of the family watching the kids open gifts.

Aimee's nieces did her hair, so we documented the good hair day with her and Karl.

Karl, Ashley, Daryl, and Kyle

Daryl telling Kyle that he's been a good boy this year.

Aimee and Oscar

All Decorated for Christmas

      I like to document how my home is decorated for Christmas, so here' a a pretty honest portrayal.  Everything was pictured like I found out which is mostly not the way I put it out if it was accessible to children.  It makes me wonder why I put thing out where they can reach them.  Enjoy the scads of handmade Christmas decorations from my children. 

This is a nativity set.  Going with a felt nativity set was the right choice I see.

Avery made the little wreath.  Harper made the snowman and the gingerbread man.

Luke made the big cut out Christmas tree.  Emery made the little trees and the wreath.  Avery made the Christmas tree on the red paper, and Harper made the giant gingerbread man.

Harper  made the penguin, and Emery made the picture of Santa.

Luke made the gingerbread man, and Emery made the bejeweled Christmas ornament.

Here are some more nativities that I have on display.

Avery painted this little nativity set herself and is very proud of her work.

Avery made the Christmas light garland.

Here's my Temple Square village with my German pyramid.

My Mom made me this beautiful stocking quilt for my birthday actually and it just came back from the quilter.

Here's my fireplace.

Where no Paper Plane has Gone Before

    This week the girls were flying paper planes off the landing and I told them to stop because one was going to get caught in the chandelier.  Indeed my words were prophetic.  Fortunately I was able to extricate it with my eight foot ladder and my grabber.  Here are some other pictures I freed from my phone documenting the random happenings of the month, and maybe a little from last month.

Who could guess this would happen in a million years.

Emery happily blow drying Harper's hair.

Luke and Emery on my bed like they own place.

Emery pretending these wrapping paper tubes are her robotic arms.

Luke and Emery in their Amazon box boat.

Luke and Zander eyeing each other right before Luke decides the step isn't big enough for the two of them and pushes Zander off.

Logan's Birthday Party

  We helped celebrate Logan's second birthday by bowling with him last Saturday.  Logan is such a sweet boy.  He passed out a round of hugs and kisses to all his party guests before we left.  He is just a sweet, happy boy.  The girls loved bowling.  Emery even rolled a strike all on her own.  Luke was pretty upset once he learned I wasn't going to let him walk the ball all the way up to the pins.  He spent the remainder of the game walking all over with Daryl.  I'm pretty sure that Logan spent a lot of time exploring the bowling alley with my Dad as well.  

Logan with his awesome party hat and his mom.

I don't think you can get much cuter than a two year old in bowling shoes.

All the kids sitting together.  Logan, Luke, Harper, Avery, and Emery.

Of course by the time I got to the other side of the counter we had lost Harper and Luke.

Logan opening up his birthday presents.

Emery in her party hat.

Doing Christmas Stuff

  I gave in to my Avery and Harper's nagging and we cut out sugar cookies and decorated them.  It took me three days to do of course.  One day to make the cookie dough, one day to bake them, and then finally we got to the decorating phase. Entirely too much frosting and sprinkles were used in the process. 

  Then this last Friday we had our Christmas party at church.  Avery and Harper participated in a little nativity production there.  Harper was the donkey because it was cute and the costume fit she said, and Avery was an angel.  Emery was really excited that she got to meet Santa.  We really don't talk about Santa overly much in our house, but Emery was obsessed once she found out that we would be meeting Santa.  She kept going on about how Santa loved her all day.  She was so happy to sit on his lap.  Luke on the other hand was way too tired to care about Santa, so he's not pictured.

Emery and all the white sprinkles.

Luke and the multi colored sprinkles.

Avery and the red sprinkles.

Apparently Harper is the only one who didn't use a ridiculous amount of sprinkles.

Avery is the angel holding her hands together above her head with the colorful tights on.

Harper is hanging out next to the angels in the grey donkey suit.

Emery's pure look of joy upon meeting Santa.

Avery and Emery with Santa.

Now here is Harper too.