Christmas 2010...

Our new ornaments for the year from Disneyland

Christmas morning came a little early....1:30 am to be exact. This was the first year that we have not had to wake up the kids. Cael came into our room first wanting to know if we could open presents. I looked at the clock and told him no because Santa hadn't came yet. He calmly reassured me that he had came cause he had already went and checked. After further questioning he admitted to looking from the hall and seeing some "Toy Story" stuff, but didn't go into the living room. I believed him since he didn't say anything about the bike and surprisingly agreed to go back to bed. He crawled in bed with us and we all went back to sleep until I heard Kensie's door open around 5 am. She always comes into our room first in the morning, but she must have been excited and headed right for the living room. Casey jumped out of bed and went to stop her but she was already checking things out by the time he got in there. Luckily Santa had wrapped most of the presents. She then went and woke Cael up so we could start opening.

She was more excited about opening the presents than what was actually in them and for some reason kept saying "C'mon Cowboy" as she tore the paper.





Loved her scooter

and her "Prins"

Doll House from Mom & Dad

Millennium Falcon from Mom & Dad

Don't look to close.

Kensie's Loot

Santa-

Hello Kitty Scooter

Princess Aurora

Princess Sleeping bag Set

Cootie & Bingo Game

Coloring Book & Crayons

Candy

Mom & Dad-

Loving Family Doll House with Accessories

Princess Dolls

Melissa & Doug play food sets

Clothes

Caels Loot

Santa-

Tony Hawk trick bike

Toy Story Sleeping bag set

Batman Cave Accessories (riddler & two-face)

Games

Coloring Book & Crayons

Darth Maul Lego Watch

Candy

Mom & Dad-

Star Wars Darth Vader Case

Star Wars Action Figures

Millennium Falcon
Clothes

As for me and Casey we counted our Disney Trip as most of our Christmas, but Casey did surprise me with a new little Canon for my purse. I love it and it's even blue. Thanks Babe...

Breakfast at the Smith's. We then headed down to exchange with my family.

My Dad got a new camera too.

Halle

Gift from Chad & Jessica

We gave Chad & Jessica Food Storage....doesn't he look excited?

Grandma with the gift Gavyn bought her at Santa's Secret Shop. Nikki said that Santa's Secret Shop was not nearly as cool as it use to be, but then again we were 20 years younger.

Princess dress-up from Grandpa & Grandma.

Art set & Despicable me from Grandpa & Grandma.

Us and the Newtons gave Grandma new dishes for her new kitchen. After everybody exchanged we loaded up and went back to our house so they could see what our kids got and then we headed to Mona to check out their loot. When we got back from Mona we had lunch at my moms and then headed to the Smiths to exchange with them. Grandpa Gary had worked the night before so we waited for him to get up to exchange.

Cael, Kaitlyn, & Abbie

Cael with his DS from Grandma. He opened the case first and looked a bit confused and said "but Santa didn't bring me a DS, I'll have to tell Grandma." He then opened the DS and said "i was wondering what Grandma was doing!" He also got a blanket, clothes and stocking stuffers. The girls gave him a Nerf gun that he enjoyed shooting at everybody.

Kensie got a Vtech laptop with learning games, accessories for her doll house, clothes, slippers, & some fun stocking stuffers. The girls gave her a memory game.

The kids and their Christmas boots. We got back to our house around 5 pm and just lounged the rest of the day. The kids loved all their stuff and it turned out to be our best Christmas yet!

Christmas Eve 2010....

This month has few by and I can't believe Christmas is almost over. We have been so busy the last couple of months that we really haven't been able to enjoy the holidays. My goal was to have all my stuff done by Christmas Eve so we could have one day to actually enjoy the season, but that didn't happen and I ended up running around crazy trying to get things done.

I had a hard time decided what to give this year for neighbor gifts. At the last minute we decided to do sugar cookies and suckers (for all the diabetics out there).

We then went to my mom's for our annual Jammie opening. Thanks Mom & Dad!

We ended the night by having dinner at Chris & Jakoye's. Shari's mom had sent these cute Santa ornaments for the kids to do. They loved putting them together and it entertained them for a good 5 minutes.

After dinner we went and delivered the rest of the neighbor gifts. We were so late that most of the people were expecting Santa at the door not a procrastinating elf.

Santa arrived just before we went to bed. I can't wait to see their faces in the morning....:)

a day with the girls...

The Smith girls that is.... Kaitlyn and Abbie spent the day with us while Chris & Jakoye went to a Dr. Appt in SLC. We love having the girls over and the kids always play well together. We had reached the point in the day where they all started to get bored with the toys. That is when I got out my old "Polly Pockets". They loved them and played for hours. Cael even enjoyed them. I love toys and still have most of my childhood favorites. I'm so glad that I saved these especially since I found out that some of these are going for over $40 on ebay.

We then headed outside for some sledding behind the house. Since we built our house on a hill our backyard has a slope seperating our lot from our neighbors which makes a good sledding hill. It was perfect sledding weather with it being warm, but still a lot of snow. The kids had a blast and we stayed out until dark. The girls cried when Chris showed up to get them and I was literally draggin my kids back in the house.

Abbie

Raden & Rody....

A couple of months ago Nikki took Cael & the kids to the Animal Ark in Orem to check out all the pets. They did this more for a field trip and when she called me after they had left, she informed me that she had bought him a hamster!!! I tried to keep my cool and act like it was OK, but I was dying inside. I hate RODENTS!!! She then started to laugh and calmed me down by informing me that he would be coming home with frogs. I can handle frogs. :) Grandma Linda dug out an old fish bowl and they joined the crab on his dresser. He didn't name them right away, but after a couple of weeks he declared their names would be "Raden & Rody". Which ironically sounds alot like the two boys Nikki babysits, Braden & Brody, who Cael loves playing with. Overall they have been pretty low maintenance and Cael has loved showing off his new pets. After the hermit crab disaster I thought we just weren't cut out for in-door pets, but after a few months they are still going strong and keep the one crab we have left company.