scenes from Christmas morning

Merry Christmas!! What a happy day it was. Trains, legos, dinosaurs, a teepee were fun, but had nothing on the snow we got during the night. A white Christmas was just what we had hoped for.

 ^^ convincing him that a shirt for a present is the best. we really didn't have to try hard, it had a train on it ^^

 ^^ seriously, he did not want to let go of one train ^^

 ^^ i died ^^

 ^^ and then i died again ^^

 ^^ i think this snowman is my most favorite ever. ^^

Half way through the day our Taylor got a terrible headache and ended up being sick for just over two days. We were so sad for him. His electrical blanket that he got for Christmas was the perfect comfort. We enjoyed watching movies for the rest of the day with him.

 It really was a magical day. Two days before Christmas, I was afraid that it was ruined. I so carelessly left 'the list' in plain sight for them to see. They found out just about everything they were getting. After a few tears, I told them it was okay and that I probably would have done the same thing when I was their age. We made a deal that they would 'forget' and we moved on. From that moment on though, their was an even bigger excitement in the air, if that was even possible. 

christmas eve

^^ sorry Rudger ^^

Spending Christmas Eve with our little family was just about perfect.    

 We played and prepared for our dinner most of the day. We ate our Christmas ham by candlelight. The brothers exchanged gifts. The boys finally got to open their present that jingled every time they shook the box. We opened our Christmas Eve games, Spot It and Story Cubes this year. We watched the Nativity. We sang Christmas Hymns. And then we tucked the boys into their beds; they laid their heads downs and, even though the excitement was thick in the air, fell asleep pretty quickly. 

 ^^ The Polar Express movie is our favorite, that last scene really gets to me. I hope the boys will always have a believing heart, but not in Santa, in their Savior. I made each of them robes this year and put this bell in the pocket with a quote from President Monson to remind them that the Christmas Spirit is the Christ Spirit. ^^

Justin and I stayed up to watch It's a Wonderful Life and finish a few things before morning came. As always, Justin fell asleep before me. As I was putting the final touches on Christmas I looked out the window. 2:00 in the morning, this is what I saw. My heart was so happy.

how our home looked at Christmastime

 This year our decor was simple, homemade, some old favorites, and some new things. The Christmas tree was small. I wanted the white tree to be our basement tree, Justin was not convinced that a real tree was the way to go, and our big tree was just not working for us. So the little tree it was. 

My favorite scene was these boys under the tree trying their hardest to decide what the jingle sound was in their boxes.

finally a day to do a treat craft

One of my favorite things when the children were a lot smaller was doing simple little crafts during the holidays. They ate that stuff up...literally. With them being in school now and so many more obligations than we use to have, I was longing for those days again. 

I snapped out of it and decided we still had time for those fun activities. When the boys saw the white powder donuts and the store bought cookies, their eyes lit up and they remembered. 

And I realized they haven't completely grown up on me yet.

12.22.2014 - happy birthday taylor

We are still a bit shocked that our Taylor is nine. Nine. 

He woke up to crepes with chocolate mousse. He went to piano lessons. The brothers gave him their 'candy poster' (we decided to chang from a poster to a bag of treats with sayings on them). We spent the rest of the day downstairs building lego sets...everyone... even mom and dad. We also watched the 1st and 2nd Harry Potter while building. It was so perfect just being together.

Happy Birthday to our Christmas baby. We love you.

6.22.2014 - taylor's half birthday

On June 22 we like to celebrate Taylor's half birthday. We treat the day like it is his real birthday. He gets breakfast in bed, presents from mom and dad, a dessert, and this year he got a simple friend pizza party.

It was a good day. The only problem is that two of the brothers now think they need a 1/2 birthday party, too.

christmas weekend - three

The third weekend of December we were looking forward to a weekend full of parties and Christmas fun. The boys were done with school and ready for a two week break. (we all were) 

Friday night we made our way to Aunt Alisa and Uncle Jerry's home for an appetizer dinner with homemade toffee and a sherbet/squirt drink. We stacked cups as high as we could and threw marshmallows into buckets. It was the perfect kid party.

Saturday morning we woke up with sickness and spent the rest of the weekend laying around watching movies and doing absolutely nothing. When Levi was sick, Corbin said we should leave him home and go to the party we had planned for Saturday night. And when Levi was better and Corbin was sick, Levi said we should leave Corbin home and go to the party we had planned for Sunday night. 

In the end, it was good to just be home and be together.