Christmas Day!

Christmas morning...

The kids left Santa some caramels and cookie bars and he ate them all! Brayden had also left him a note telling him thank you for all that he does! She's so thoughtful! He wrote back telling the kids how good they've been this year!

Brayden's "big" gift this year was this dollhouse!

Ashton's was Bigfoot!

The kids hugging after exchanging presents...Brayden gave Ashton the game "Wac-a-mole" and Ashton gave her Rapunzel from "Tangled"...they knew exactly what to get each other this year and had fun shopping for each other!

Just three days before Christmas I found out from Brayden that she wanted this diary more than anything...something she had not mentioned on her Christmas list! Luckily Santa knew and found it for her!

After all of the presents craziness, my family all came over for brunch! That's when I gave my parents another little gift - tradition in my family growing up was to always give my dad Seattle smoked salmon. I had my sister pick it up in Seattle for me before coming here so I could give it to them. They were so excited! :) (I love my dad's Christmas outfit!)

After my family left, we had a little break, and then Mike's family came over for dinner! More presents were exchanged...Brayden's were from Mindy's family and Ashton's was from Kurt! Ashton was just a little excited...can you tell???

And it's been a tradition that Mike's parents do a "present string pull" with their presents to all of us! So fun!

Brayden had been very secretive about a special present she was working on for Mike and I all week. Everyone was gathered in our theater when Brayden presented this to us in front of everyone...

Throughout the week before, Brayden had worked hard to get every single person's signature from both my family and Mike's family. That meant so much to us coming from Brayden, being as shy as she is, that she went up to everyone to get their signatures for us! And then presented it to us in front of everyone! She is so sweet and thoughtful! We LOVED it!

Thanks to Nate and Monica, we were able to get some group pictures with EVERYONE, which is something we rarely get to do! For as big of a group as we were, they turned out pretty good!

We had a wonderful Christmas, and hope you did too!

Christmas Eve Part 2: The Christmas Part!!!

Well, the kids think that it is so cool that they get to open presents on my birthday too! We usually let them open just a couple of presents from family members on Christmas Eve. The first presents all of the kids got to open together were from Cameron and Aubrey...

The girls got cute silly bands, soaps, and bath gels!

Ashton got a shirt just like Cameron wears and Cameron's favorite pomade so he can look just like his idol!

Twins!

The kids wearing their presents from Mike and I...new pajamas (and slippers you can't see in the picture)!!!

All of the kids in their new pajamas!

Cameron and I went in together on a present for my parents - season tickets to a play theater!

Brayden and Ashton got a snow cone maker from Grandma and Grandpa! They were so excited! Now they want to have a snow cone party!

Tradition in my family has always been to do the nativity story every Christmas Eve with this same nativity set from when I was little! My dad read the story in the scriptures while the kids acted it out with the pieces.

Later, the kids called us down to our basement theater where they put on a talent show for us! They did everything from singing, playing basketball, dancing, playing guitar...

to even making Mike hula-hoop!

Then Brayden had a cute little presentation that her class at school had put together that she wanted to share with everyone. Breanna and I were her assistants!

All ready for bed in our new pajamas!

Brayden ended up with insomnia that night - she was too excited to sleep and we didn't get her to finally stay in bed until around 11! So that pushed Santa to be a little behind at our house...I believe I heard him still getting things ready until around 1 am! And we still had a long, exciting Christmas day ahead of us...

Christmas Eve Part 1: My BiRtHdAy!!!

The day before my birthday, Mike took me out to dinner at The Cheesecake Factory and to a super fun play at The Off Broadway Theater downtown. We had a fun date night together, and then a fun day as a family on my real birthday the next day! My birthday Christmas Eve started out with a morning of homemade cards, presents, and french toast made by Mike!

They SPOILED me!

My sister and her family came to visit from Seattle and completely surprised my parents! We all met up at Cafe Rio for my birthday dinner and that's where the surprise was revealed! It was so much fun!

Here's my brother-in-law Jason, my sis Adrianne, and my parents.

The CRAZY kiddie table! Brayden, Breanna, Eva, and Ashton.

Cameron and Aubrey just came early that morning from Reno!

Then we went back to our house for more presents and cake! Aubrey and Cameron were so sweet to get me some new pajamas that I was in desperate need of! I was so excited!

Mike was so great to take my "subtle" hints that I wanted him to get me my favorite cake from The Cheesecake Factory for my birthday! This cake (not a cheesecake) is called "Chris' Outrageous Chocolate Cake", which I am in love with!

My birthday is always crazy, but I wouldn't change it for anything...it just wouldn't be the same! It's always my birthday until my birthday cake is served, then it's on to Christmas! The "Christmas" part of Christmas Eve will be in my next post!

Big Family Fun!

Mike's whole family was in town for the week of Christmas, and we thought the best place to accommodate a group of 30 and have a blast was the Incredible Pizza Company!  There was something for everyone there - we had a reserved table in the movie room with a football game on a big screen for the dads, lots of food for all, and games, rides, laser tag, and so much more! We all had a lot of fun!

This is a very small portion of our group (my nieces Kyra, Kayla, Alyssa, Krystal, nephew Matt, and Ashton and Nana)! I wish I could have gotten one of everyone - we were all spread out. This is right before a game of laser tag!

Ashton didn't really golf, he just thought he'd look cool posing like he was!

MiStLeToE!

Last night Brayden and Ashton told Mike and I that they had a surprise for us and that we needed to stand next to each other by the couch. They both then got on the couch behind us and held these mistletoe pictures they had drawn over our heads to make Mike and I kiss! I think it's pretty funny since most kids get grossed out by their parents kissing and our kids always try to make us! This was pretty clever of them though! I didn't know they even knew what mistletoe was!

Christmas Stuff Catch Up

Here are our self-taken attempts at Christmas pictures...we put it off until last minute, so this was the best we could do for this year! Hopefully next year we'll do better and think further ahead!

Brayden's dance class had a little Christmas recital. It was so cute! Brayden's memory of it isn't the greatest, though, poor girl! The girls were supposed to do a solo/freestyle dance in addition to the rehearsed dance, and she chickened out. She's still mad at herself for that, but she did great on the group dance and should be proud of herself! Plus, there is always next time to redeem herself!

Sadly, no pictures of the kids with Santa this year...usually by now we have at least a few! We've missed our opportunities because of sickness! I guess there's still time, but I think the kids are happy with the video they received from him a couple weeks ago (see past post), so hopefully that will hold them over until next year!