Monday, December 29, 2008

Our Christmas

Oh we were so looking forward to Christmas! Reagan has been wandering around for MONTHS talking about "presents". Seriously, I didn't think we would get her to sleep the night before! Turns out, she was the last one up! No harm - she needed the rest!

Our Christmas begins with dinner at my parents on Christmas Eve. All the kids are given their one present to open:


New PJ's of course!

Taylor enjoyed his "Dear Santa, I was FRAMED" pajama tops.


While Jordan enjoyed his "It's all fun and games until Santa finds out"... which is actually quite fitting for this little guy... *winks*


Madison had her little light up Rudolph PJ's. (And she does a little dance pose for me to take a photo...)



And we found Wall-E Christmas PJ's that light up for Reagan. She has a strange obsession with Wall-E and Eve-a. (Cute, but sometimes annoying. *winks*)


All the kids gather round the tree for a photo...


...and Reagan starts doing THIS:


So they all join in. Typical, so we found it fitting.

Especially Taylor. Gosh... He DOES look more and more like his Dad every day... *tee-hee*

We take the trip back home to spread our Reindeer food outside and hunker down for the night.




And despite everything that's gone on in this house over the last year? SANTA CAME.


He even left his BAG at our place. He must like the leg lamp.


But what we found in place of Taylor and Jordan's stockings ended up being SHOCKING. The stockings were hung, but replaced with two tiny little bags of coal. This could mean that they were only a *little* naughty.

That sneaky Santa was tricking them and hid their stockings in the Christmas Tree. *phew!*


He ate his cookies before leaving.

And the kids were excited to just dive right on in to gift opening!



This is Taylor's expression after every gift he opened.

Early in the morning, Grandma, Grandpa, Auntie and our friend Paul came over. Christmas doesn't feel right if you're not watching kids rip into gifts, right?



Madison opens the Rose Petal Cottage from Grandma and Grandpa:

And falls in LOVE.



Taylor is so excited for all his gifts he jumps IN the Santa bag.



And after all the madness, this is what I'm left with.




Family arrives a bit later for the traditional Christmas Breakfast at our home. Brian does a wonderful job of this and both families pitch in to help. Hash browns, eggs, sausage, bacon, Belgium waffles with syrup or strawberries and whipped cream, raspberry cream cheese crumb cake, biscuits and gravy... If anyone leaves here hungry? It's their fault.

Our Christmas was lovely and hope yours was too!

Happy New Year! :)

Monday, December 22, 2008

We Wish You a Merry Christmas!

From our family to yours: A Very Merry Christmas! Thank you for being such great friends and family! We *heart* you all to pieces! :)


Madison (age 4), Taylor (age 9) Reagan (age 2) Jordan (age 7) Leg Lamp (spending it's 2nd Christmas next to our tree.)




Friday, December 19, 2008

Twas the Night Before Christmas

Twas the night before Christmas at Madison's Preschool!

Madison was excited to wear "Christmas Pajamas" to school yesterday. They were having their "night before Christmas" party, complete with pj's and hot chocolate. So, we made some special Christmas pajamas for her to wear:


And we decided that she needed a warm, festive Christmas robe as well!:



They had a little performance that parents were invited to. I told Brian about it, but since it was before he got off work we weren't expecting him. She was ready to sing and so patient sitting with her class waiting for all the parents to arrive:

When she saw her dad, her face was PRICELESS! (And I'll be sure to add the photos as soon as blogger stops having a brat attack!!!)



She sang the songs so cute and had so much fun.




This is Madison with her "BFF" Bailey. She says that she and Bailey will be best friends forever and ever and ever. Awww...


Madison wishes Ms. Janice a Merry Christmas


And then wishes Ms. Lori the same. Lori will be attending the Sugar Bowl as her son plays for the U of U. (GO UTES!!!!) I love that she wears something with a "U" on it every Thursday and that the Christmas party was no exception.


One short, cute little song that the kids sang for the program. :)

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Christmas Open House!!!

I'm totally LAME!

I did not send out Christmas cards this year, therefore, I sent out zero open house invites!!!

We have so many friends/family that we just LOVE to see at the Open House. I'm sad that I just didn't get them out.

If you're wanting to come, it's this Sunday at my parents house. (For those that don't know, my Dad has a pipe organ in their home and we've had open house the Sunday before Christmas ever year for the past 21 years.) If you need the address, leave me a comment with your email address. I moderate comments, so I won't publish comments with email addresses in them.

I would LOVE to see some old and new friends there!

Here's a link to last years open house post.

Button Clips

Bows for my sis to take to work:



Monday, December 15, 2008

Madison's Dance Performance(s)

Madison could hardly WAIT for the dance performance on December 8th at Trolley Square. All day long she kept on asking "how much longer". It is just so fun to see her so excited about performing!

All dressed and ready to go!



The girls all in line waiting to go on stage. They were all SO HYPER... that was good because they really let their personalities shine during their dance!


Madison walking past us to get in her place.


Ready for the "I want a Hippopotamus for Christmas" dance!






Dancing with Hippos

Sitting in Sana's Sleigh after the Trolley Square performance.



THEN we had a second performance this past Saturday. Of course there was a massive snowstorm that morning and while the roads were okay on the way there, the way back was a different story.

Madison was just as excited for this performance as she was for the first one.


It was terribly cute and the whole audience went "awww" as the girls looked surprised and pulled their hippos out of the big Christmas boxes.


My niece Lauryn and her Hippo. (We're so proud! She even danced this year!!! *winks*)

Madison and Lauryn after the performance. They were so excited to take their hippos home.


Madison's hippo is a permanent fixture on her now. She sleeps with the hippo. She ate breakfast with the hippo. The hippo even gets it's own bed in front of the Christmas tree during the day.

Way to go girls on your great dancing! Maybe we can get Stacie to load a video of the dance so we can link!