Santa Came!!

Torture. We were going to make everyone wait for Noah to get up, but we couldn't.....




Not really sure who's stocking is who's----



Nate and I have tried really hard to compromise on all the Christmas Traditions that we grew up with and love. This is one of them. Nate used to have to eat a huge breakfast before he could open any presents. My family didn't eat breakfast until we were so hungry our stomachs were digesting themselves (usually around noon, WAY after present time, much to my mother's dismay).... so WE let the kids go through their stockings and enjoy them while we (course when I say "we" I mean Nate) make breakfast.... then we all eat breakfast and THEN we open presents. It's worked out very well. And I must say, I like that their tummies are full while we are doing the present opening..... it can get kind of ugly even as it is :) (honesty hurts sometimes don't it) This year we were going to wait for Noah, but he took too long- that is until Brad woke him up (course Brad will tell you that Noah's eyes were already open..... somewhat hard to believe, but whatever). The kids all helped Noah get his stocking. He wasn't so sure about the stocking thing. He did like the candy though.




These next few pictures may look repetitious to ya'll, but to me!!!! they all possess a special memory jerking element that i wish to cherish.

even though Charity has found her stocking and looked at the cool present it holds, she still can't resist looking at everyone else's

Luke loved his pen...... Don't you just love how Christmas can make even a pen seem like the coolest thing you've ever seen!! (I'm pretty sure that the pen is lost now :) )

I just LOVE Kelly's face in this one..... so her.

And even though this is blurry, I just know that in 20 years this will make me cry :) LOL. These are such classic faces :) especially Charity's :).... love it.

looking in the tv room at the Santa stash!

Noah wasn't really sure about the presents at first.... still waking up I think.... we had to shut the door to keep him in the room with us :) It was funny.

This face is priceless :)

"Brad got what he wanted!!!!" Bradley painstakingly wrote out all the letters to "Robot" and "Motorcyle" on his list at FHE a few weeks before. That was ALL he wrote (mostly a time issue, but he's really not all that greedy anyway), and that was a short list compared to his sisters. So he was pretty excited to open this present from Santa.... they all were in fact :)

Here's the only picture I got of sweet Erika on her first Christmas.... mainly because she nursed the rest of the day :), but at least I got this one. Kelly had Erika this year and got her a cute little toy to hang on her carseat. I love that we draw names, it's so fun for the kids to think about each other, and this way we can get decent presents instead of doing having to go cheap for everyone to do everyone.

Just for the record:

Nate had Charity- he got her Shrinkydinks.... she LOVED them

I had Luke- he got a bakugan.... it's hanging on the fridge right now, so I think he liked it at one point :)

Charity had Me- she gave me a hoodie jacket, the kind I love!!!

Kelly had Erika- cute carseat toy, everyone is trying to get her to love it :) may take some time

Brad had Noah- he got him a magna doodle and I'm pretty sure Noah will get to play with it eventually

Luke had Nate- he picked out a watch, it's blue :)

Noah had Kelly- he got her this really cute pet hospital

Erika had Brad- she got him Hungry Hungry Hippos

once he got into it, he didn't want any help :)

I LOOOOOVE Christmas morning with kids. It's SO much fun to watch their little eyes light up. And I LOVE that they are young and don't really care so much what it is, but that they get something. I'll miss this stage I'm sure :) For days before they were praying that they would get "at least one toy" so you can imagine their excitement with more.