Same with this one- pre-mess tree and gifts! What a haul!
As per tradition, stockings first!
This almost looks like post-trick-or-treating pictures with Luke's jammies and all the dumping out of candy...
With it being Sunday and having 9:00 church, we all decided we would do the stockings and breakfast, then get ready for church and then if there was time, open a couple gifts. Well as the morning progressed, the kids decided they didn't want to open any presents in their Sunday clothes, so they opted to wait until after church when they could change back into their jammies :). Funny kids. It worked out great though, because we really didn't have a whole lot of time after getting ready.
Cute Molly didn't get up when everyone else did... she struggled even later.
Daddy helped her enjoy her stocking :)
Jackie struggled even more with getting up. He'd been up so late the night before with all the kids in the boys' room- he was NOT going to get up early. He violently refused.
Eventually though, we did drag him upstairs and he humored everyone with dumping out his stocking...
Look at that HUGE box of play doh!!! In his STOCKING! Santa and I are going to have to have a talk about what goes in stockings for next year ;).
After Creamed Eggs on Toast, Nate and the kids spoiled me with my birthday present! A new camera!!! I was seriously shocked!!
So we went to church, had a lovely time, Charity, Kelly, Bradley and I were in the choir. Everyone else sat on the second row (on the side- they actually fit since half of us weren't there), driving Daddy and probably everyone around them bonkers :). There were a few incidents that I probably shouldn't write about because they do not make Jack look good. Or Molly. It was Christmas morning though- they did pretty good :).
Waiting for everyone to come in the living room :)
Molly was first and already grumpy. We forced her to open her present from Santa.
She kind of got into the unwrapping. Not like she did at Grandma's house the day before- when she was making a pile of all the little scraps, one at a time, stopping to crawl over to it :)... it was adorable.
But she did eventually find out what was inside and loved her new ball popper!
Then it was Jack's turn.
At least we got Brad's reaction?
This look kind of says, "It's not walkie talkies"
If it's not a ukulele- what is it???
Erika was next! She wasn't sure what to expect since Grandpa had given her a ukulele :).
She likes it!
Noah's turn! He'd been dying to look at the letter he wrote to Santa that Santa had read answered questions. Also, he had a strap of bells from Vixen on his gift as well... pretty awesome!
I've never seen Santa answer questions in a letter before! Noah must have been REALLY nice this year!
Molly got a kick out of Erika's doll :).
And we all got a kick out of Molly pushing the wheelchair :). So cute!
Noah opening his present.
For some reason I didn't get a picture of it- it was a Magic Kit! Very exciting!
Molly enjoying her ball popper! This was fun for all of us... she was screaming and giggling! So cute!!
Luke's turn.
Still wanting to be surprised :).
Giant candy! Surprise!!!
This face is my favorite :). "What am I supposed to do with Twizzlers this big?!!"
Well done, Santa.
"Not a fly tying kit."
"But I do need a fly pole!"
Kelly's turn!
A moon chair!
Reading....
JAZZ TICKETS!!!
(I wonder how we redeem that gift certificate?)
No pictures, but I was next, I opened the gift Charity made for me- it's a cute anchor that she painted and wrote a beautiful quote on it... I love it! I have a picture of it somewhere on here...
Nate's turn, he opened his vending machine from Noah- very cool! He's really improved his design over the years :).
Erika had Molly this year- she made her a soft pillow out of the same fabric as Molly's soft blanket...
Very well received!
Kelly had Jack and made him a giant Angry Birds set :). He was opening parts of this gift all morning- so cute.
Showing Jack how the sling shot works. She went all out- super cute!
Hug leftovers
I had Erika this year- I made her a doll tent :). I'm really proud of it. It actually wasn't too hard to make. I hope she actually uses it though :).
This was funny- Molly had climbed into the tent and Erika used the pillow to lure her out :). Totally worked too :). Funny girls.
Luke had Noah and made him this cool crayon art. This was really cool to make! Luke painstakingly sat there with the blow dryer on the thing for at least an hour! I still can't believe my blow dryer laste that long and still works. I think Noah liked it :).
Bradley had Luke and made him this cool shooting target. You can't see it very well in this picture... we'll have to get a better picture of it later. Pretty cool though. He was pretty proud of it.
Jack had Bradley, he and I made Bradley a bow and arrows. Jack was so cute about it!
Molly had Kelly. I was just going to do what I usually do and make something myself for Kelly and pretend like it was from Molly, but then I got the idea to make something that Molly could help with a little AND that would be a reminder of this year of her having Kelly. So we made her an ornament with a picture of Kelly and Molly inside :). I let Molly put some beads and things inside- that was her contribution to the project- it turned out pretty cute! The cutest thing was when Kelly opened it, Molly pointed for her to put it on the tree :). She knew exactly what it was even.
Nate had Charity and he pulled out all the stops and made Charity this everything board! Magnetic, velcro, and hooks to hang up anything and everything she could possibly want to hang up :). Very cool!
Clearly she loves it.
Jack had a lot of fun all morning- he insisted I take a picture every single time he opened a gift :). Made me laugh. I"m only posting a couple of them :).
And with each piece of his Angry Birds thing- he would give Kelly another hug- so cute!
Erika was a blast to watch. She is just so happy with everything she gets! I loved watching her reactions to even the socks and underwear (and treat). She was dying to open everything out of its package though- it was killing her that Nate asked her to wait :).
Kelly went all out and got these fun pillows for everyone. Erika got a donut, Noah- french fries, Luke a pizza, Bradley got a hamburger, Charity a dog, and Molly got a big teddy bear!
Seemed appropriate that we get Kelly a pillow too ;). Hers was pretty cool-
Cuddling with Charity in between mood swings.
I don't love selfies. But I do love knowing that I was there :).
Swinging back around! This poor girl struggled a LOT that morning. We ended up just putting her in bed after an hour or so. She was not a happy camper. It really was nap time though- in her defense.
Charity's Jazz clothes :).
This was the boys opening their Rival Nerf guns. Pretty fun stuff :).
I took this picture to remind me of when Jack was trying to carry his bowling set down to the family room and couldn't carry all of the pieces at once. They kept flying out of his arms just as he'd grab the last piece... unfortunately it was hilarious :). I was laughing. He eventually figured out how to put them back in the box and carry them down :). Funny boy.
The little girls got a fairy door to hang up in their room. The big girls got a date to Station Park :). New thing this year... not sure how I liked it.
And that was that. This is where the pictures usually end. But this year I got a camera!!!! So the pictures continue :).
I had to play around with all the creative modes :).
The night before Christmas we got dumped on!! There was so much snow in the morning! And it really didn't stop most of the day! Pretty awesome! Someone was dreaming of a white Christmas and they got it! The kids played in it a lot that day.
This is when the kids pulled out the cake and surprised me!! They are too awesome!
They even cut it up themselves and dished it up! Thanks to Nate for buying it and thinking of it ahead of time of course, since he had to go to work that afternoon and couldn't be there.
Then Noah wowed us with some of his magic tricks! This one is cool and I still don't know how he does it- He bites off a piece of oreo and then...
Spits it back on somehow!
Very cool.
This trick takes two people :). The stretchy arm! Very cool.
And I love them doing something together :).
And then Kelly sat there while I fiddled around finding the perfect settings for the situation :). I like this one the best. She's so pretty!
And with the flip screen- we can now take selfies with my camera :).
She does exist!
This is his GQ pose
Post-dab
Love this boy! Look at those dimples!
After ice cream cake we all watched Home Alone: Lost in New York. I LOVE listening to the laughter from the little boys during these kinds of shows :). They make it all worth it :).
What a Merry Christmas and Happy Birthday it was!! I'm so grateful for my family and for the love that I have for them and that they show me. I feel so blessed!
And what a beautiful Sabbath it was to celebrate the birth of our Savior.
