I love the Christmas tree on Christmas morning. So peaceful and ready for excitement and fun.
Before heading downstairs we gathered in our room to review our gifts to Jesus for the year and to read from the scriptures.
Then it was time!
Everybody was happy with the contents of their stockings and their Santa gift.
The hunt for the pickle was fierce.
Grace was victorious and was the first to open a present.
She chose the gift that Emma gave her and was SO excited for her new fleece blanket. Even better that Emma made it for her.
Isaac was thrilled to get a new pocket knife and held on to that thing all day.
My favorite part of Christmas morning is watching the kids open their gifts from each other. They are always so thoughtful about their gift-giving and thankful for what they receive.
As usual, I was spoiled by Lee and the kids.
Isaac and Grace made super cute ornaments for me and Lee. My favorite kind!
We left a few presents for the very end.
They were a little confused to find puzzle pieces in their bags.
They quickly started putting the puzzle together.
And then figured out that we were going to Disneyland!!
Pretty exciting! But they would have to wait until the end of January so they also got a countdown chain as a present. :)
We were all pretty excited! It was super fun to see how excited the kids were. Emma figured out something was up before Christmas morning, but the twins were totally surprised.
After all that excitement, we were ready for our cinnamon knots!
It was such a nice Christmas morning.
When we were ready we headed to Granny and Grandpa's house. David, Logan, and Tanner flew into town late Christmas Eve night, so we were excited to see them.
Isaac and Logan got right to work putting together the new Lego set Isaac got.
Mom and Dad were so "surprised" to get the predictable gift of a Costco gift card.
We enjoyed our time there before going to Grandma Dorothy's house.
Isaac and Grace gave Grandma a set of their cute peanut ornaments.
We ate a delicious Christmas dinner and then played games. It was nice to be together.
The day after Christmas is almost as awesome as Christmas day. We played games and worked on puzzles all day. Grace had basketball practice and Emma had swim team practice in the middle of it, but that was ok.
I worked on birthday gifts for the Primary kids in 2018.
The day must have worn Grace out though because she crashed that night!
The next day the twins went swimming with Logan.
Isaac dove off the diving board over and over!
We relaxed at our house for the rest of the day.
Isaac was so good with Tanner. Poor Tanner was sick the whole time they were here. Isaac was able to make him smile.
We took some pictures with David and his kids. It was nice to have them there, wish Lesli, Grant, and Ashlyn could have been there.
Anna and Alyx came over to play on Thursday morning. They got nice and wet on the trampoline.
We decided it was time to retire the stop and go clock that had been in the twins room for so long. I loved that clock, it worked so well to teach them when they could get up. It was a little bittersweet to be selling it!
Grace got some good relaxing in before she went to basketball practice.
On the way home from practice, we stopped and enjoyed the lights one more time in Wait Park.
Friday morning we met Granny, Grandpa, and Logan at the theater to watch Coco. We ended up in the front row, good thing they had reclining seats!
We loved the movie! It had such a good family history message.
Then we were stuck in traffic while we tried to make it up to Granny and Grandpa's house for dinner.
Grandma Dorothy was there too.
She and Grandpa took a nice nap. Ha!
Grace had saved up her own money to buy most of a camera that we bought from Craiglist. She and Logan had fun exploring the options on the camera. We had to say goodbye to David that night.
Isaac and Grace helped Wade and Sunya take down their Christmas lights the next morning.
Emma had to work, but the rest of us enjoyed the beautiful day by going on a bike/walk.
The drive to church on New Years Eve morning was beautiful.
Emma went to Canby 2nd Ward after our meetings and got to see Skylee and Cole.
We went to the Hawkins' house that night to celebrate the new year with friends. We had a great time and it was even more fun to have Mom and Dad there, too.
Wackee Six is always a favorite! We played as couples this time which was a different twist. We loved it!
We got home and in our PJs in time to actually ring in the new year with sparkling apple cider while we watched the ball drop in New York City.
Goodbye 2017, hello 2018!
.JPG)