Christmas Morning 2012 Video

Before we get too far into the New Year I wanted to get this out there. This made one of my favorite Christmas memories! We open all of our gifts on Christmas Eve so she only had to see what Santa left her. It was so funny to watch! Santa really came through this year though - especially with 2 packs of fake long nails!

Merry Christmas 2012

We had a fantastic Christmas here. We started celebrating Christmas Eve with the traditional BBQ dinner at our house. It was smaller than years in the past but it was still nice to be surrounded by family on Christmas Eve.

Preston's girlfriend got to join us this year. Taylor loves Kasie. She's always showing us where she lives when we drive by her neighborhood and asking Preston if she can go with him when they hang out. Taylor is one lucky little lady that Uncle Preston's nice enough to let her tag along.

Tay got her very first softball glove! I can't wait to look out the window and see her and DJ playing catch in our yard.

And a very special treat from Daddy. She got her first NFL jersey and of course we can't get a jersey for anyone but Peyton Manning. We love him in this house.

New Christmas jammies. . .

And what family event would be complete without some type of frosting battle? This time it was with the chocolate from the chocolate fountain. Poor Great Grandma. I'm glad she has fun goofin' around with these boys!

We left cookies and carrots for Santa and his reindeer. We wrote our note for Santa and Taylor really hoped the reindeer would eat all their carrots this year. Last year she was pretty upset to see that one of them had left half a carrot behind.

We read two books before bed - The Soldiers' Night Before Christmas and the classic Night Before Christmas. Taylor woke up at 5:30am to tell us it was Christmas morning. We made her crawl into bed with us and fall back asleep. At 7:30am she woke up and excitedly said, "Merry Christmas! Daddy, Mommy, it's time to get up now! It's Christmas time!!". Then DJ explained to her that we had snuck up on Santa last night while he was dropping off presents for her and we got pictures of him by our tree! Taylor just looked at DJ with big eyes and said "you mean like the M&M's did"? We were so confused and she said "you know, when the red one says 'he really does exist' and then falls over". We had no idea she was referring to an M&M Christmas commercial.

She thought it was so silly that Santa left some crumbs from his cookies behind but loved that we got pictures of him next to our tree as he dropped of presents for her.

 I LOVE her morning hair. The bangs crack me up!

She was very excited to see that Santa came through this year and brought her a pink Razor scooter. But my favorite part of Christmas came when she got to see what Santa left in her stocking. She opened up her stocking, closed it on her lap, looked at me and DJ and said, "Are you kidding me?!?! 2 packs!!" She was over the moon about the 2 packs of fake press-on nails Santa had left in her stocking. Santa sure did good this year!  

I honestly think she may have been more excited about the little things filling her stocking than she was with everything she had opened on Christmas Eve. When she found the package of new princess panties she pulled them out and said "New panties! It's just what I wanted!"

A new tooth brush got a great reaction too . . .

Special new earrings of her very own . . .

And the morning wouldn't be complete without a test drive through the hallway on her brand new scooter.

Her big present from DJ and I was the V-Tech Innotab 2S. It's like an iPad for little hands. Everything she likes to do on DJ's iPad can be done on this. She can play games, draw pictures, read books, work on writing and spelling. The best thing about it is the games have different levels so they can be played up until she's 9 year old. She hasn't let it down since she got it.

After Christmas morning festivities at our house we went to Paul and Carrie's for Christmas breakfast. We look forward to this every year. After breakfast the younger kids (Taylor and cousins) get to open gifts and this year the adults all did a White Elephant gift exchange. It was pretty fun and I think everyone was very happy with what they got. Joel and Ranee got to join us this year too!

Taylor got a Barbie camper from Grandma and Grandpa. I think it was very fitting since she's always asking to go play in their real camper in the back yard! She's even made Grandpa have a camp out back there this summer! One morning he even let her eat breakfast out there after having a sleep over.

We spent the rest of the morning snacking on food, playing games and hanging out. Later in the afternoon we headed over to Paul's parents house to spend some time with that side of the family. Taylor was so excited to see her cousin Sophia. That poor girl gains an extra shadow every time Taylor is around. We are so blessed to have such great family to spend the holidays with. We wouldn't want it any other way.  

And just for giggles. . . my two loves dressing alike . . . We may have to get DJ a jersey for the Bronco's though.

Merry Christmas

From our house to yours we'd like to wish you a very Merry Christmas!

And. . .

Santa came to our house last night and we were able to capture it on camera for Taylor!

I think we may have surprised him just a little!

But now Taylor has proof that Santa can get into the house even though we don't have a fireplace!

I hope everyone enjoys the magic of Christmas as much as we are!

Here We Go A Caroling . . .

Not really. We didn't exactly go caroling unless Taylor and I singing along to Christmas carols in the car counts.

Every year before Christmas we take Taylor out to see Christmas lights. There were some pretty amazing lights this year.

My favorite was the house of one of her teachers. On the last day of school Ms. Chris gave us all directions to her house and told the kids if they went to her house and found their names in her decorations they would get a prize when they came back to school.

How cute is this?!? Just one more reason why we love her teachers as much as we do. Every student in class is listed on Santa's list here. When we got back in the truck Taylor asked us how Ms. Chris knew Taylor had been a good girl. :o)

I loved the little Gingerbread Village at this house!

I want a Mater blow-up for our yard now!

This last house we went to is always amazing. He has decorations spanning from one end of his yard to the next. I couldn't even get it all in one picture.

   

Now today we are getting ready for our traditional Christmas Eve gathering at our house and waiting for Santa to come. I can't wait to see what he brings this year :o)

Here Comes Santa Clause

Taylor was so excited to go see Santa. We went to the Bass Pro Shop again and I was excited to see that it was the same Santa she's seen for the past two years. Now when she looks back on the pictures she won't ask why Santa has changed so much!

Every year we get a picture of Taylor in front of this old red truck. I love it!

While you wait for Santa they have a whole slew of things to keep the little ones occupied!

Taylor was so excited to see Santa this year. She does have one concern though. Taylor thinks that because we don't have a fireplace Santa will just bypass our house. DJ told her that Santa has the code to get into the house through the garage and I told her that if he forgets the code he has magic powers.

I love that he is listening so intently as she tells him she'd like a pink Barbie Razor scooter and fake long nails for Christmas.

I'm glad this isn't on her Christmas list this year!

The girl version of A Christmas Story!

 "You'll Shoot Your Eye Out!"

Santa text me the other night when a certain Miss someone was misbehaving and told me that she better be careful not to get on the naughty list! I felt a little bad afterwards because I didn't think she would react so strongly to it. She sat strait up and was on her best behavior the rest of the night. The next morning she even asked me to text Santa again and tell him that she was being very patient and acting like a good girl. This is such a fun age! (I made a contact in my phone named Santa Clause and used my own phone number. I can just send a text to myself and delete some of them to make it look like Santa and I are having a real conversation. I got the idea off Pinterest). :o)

  

All Sugared Out

What happen to December?!? It's been super busy around here lately. I've actually been trying to post this since Sunday but that obviously hasn't happen. 

Last Saturday we held our annual Christmas Cookie Baking Day. It literally takes a day but it's one of my favorite things about the Christmas season. We started at 10am and I think we were done by about 6pm.

This year we made Peanut Butter cookies with kisses dropped in the middle, the traditional sugar cookies, Red Velvet cookies, Peanut Brittle, Turtle bars, Nut Balls, and No Bake cookies. It was so much fun this year! Taylor is so funny in the kitchen. She likes to act like a grown up and really show her personality.

Taylor always seems to be right next to Great Grandma when we bake cookies. I don't know how those two always get paired up but they make a great team.

I love that Taylor will have a lot of pictures of her with her Great Grandma and Grandma. It's one thing I wish I had that I don't.

 Carrie had a little bit of a rough start. Talk about temperamental.

We put Gabe to work before he snuck off with all the guys. . . It must have been coincidence that Paul's dads birthday party was the same day so none of the guys got to stick around and help.

Look at those muscles!

She loved being able to use all the cookie cutters. . . some of them were upside down though. 

In Taylor's mind, this is a 'lightly-floured surface'

I think Carrie and her mixer must have had a falling out through the year because she really wasn't having any luck with it this year. First it was the flour incident early in the morning and then after lunch it was powdered sugar! It was probably the funniest things that happen all day. . .

Taylor's been trying to learn how to whistle. She sat at the decorating table and whistled the entire time. I kept singing "Whistle while you work. . . " She was just like one of the seven dwarfs. . .

I was so glad they all got back in time to help decorate. We always make so many sugar cookies that this is the one part most of us dread at the end of the day.

Taylor and I found some extra cute decorations this year. . .

The one thing I'm missing is a funny picture of Great Grandma. The first year we did the baking I have her sacked out on the couch licking a chocolate spoon, last year she was posing like Tim Tebow in her Bronco's apron. Next year I'll be sure to get something good!