December and Christmas!

The beginning of December took Owen to Florida for some Large Ag meeting/convention. He said it was really cool. I asked if he saw any alligators and he said he did! He said they went out to some farm land that was close to pond and he saw a little one out there. He said it was perfect weather over there! Lucky- I was stuck home with three cute children the whole week :)

They ate very well while they were in Orlando. Owen sent me this picture, about the same time I was eating some left over soup. It's all good, though. I enjoyed my soup almost as much as he enjoyed his $80 steak (yikes!)

Our ward had their Christmas party in the middle of December. Owen got this picture of the kids with Santa. I'm glad I got a good one with last Santa they met! 

Colton just looked so cute in his Christmas Jammies all month long!

There has been quite a bit of snow around these parts this past month. We got dumped on for Christmas Eve. Owen forgot to get a snow plow when we moved into the new house, so he used a big piece of plywood and it worked great! Who needs a shovel anyway? ;)

The kids were SO excited to see the snow on Christmas Eve morning! I caught this picture at the perfect moment. After this Evie turned around and exclaimed "My wish came true, mom!" It made for a very Christmasy Christmas :)

Colton enjoyed getting his picture in front of the snowy window as well :)

 On Christmas Eve we did the traditional draw names in Owen's family and go buy a present. We usually go out for lunch as well, but we didn't make it to that part this year. The kids were enjoying the snow too much  :)

Later that evening we went to my sister's house to have a Christmas Eve party. Here are the kids playing freeze dance. They love that game!

How sad that our Christmas tree lights went out just a few days before Christmas day :( I wasn't about to go out and buy new ones, when they would be on sale the day after. Then Owen informed me that he would like to just get a new tree all together. ooookay. Anyway, here is a picture of the plate of cookies that Santa ate and all of the presents he left the kids for Christmas morning!

They were up at 6:30 am. Which I guess isn't too bad. I probably slept less than them because I was so excited for them!

They hit up the stockings first and were so excited to find candy canes, a favorite candy, a cup and a bag in each of them!

Surprisingly the kids wanted to open up the gifts that we as a family got each other first. Zayne got this claw from daddy. He was SO excited! I caught him mid run and scream :)

 I had Evie's name and I got her a couple of palace pets. She loves those things, although she was super disappointed that Treasure (Areial's cat, I think?) wasn't in one of the packages - how was I to know?! 

They each got a pair of Jammies from Santa! Evie got My Little Pony and Zayne got Avengers.

They each got an action figure doll - Zayne got Spiderman

Evie got Captain America. She had put that on her list! She was pretty excited! (side note - Evie and Zayne came out one afternoon saying that her Elsa doll and Captain America doll got married. Then Zayne's Spiderman doll and Evie's Anna doll were married and then Hulk was with all of them. They were the new avengers. That's what they told me ;)

The kids got some puzzles. This John Deere one because Zayne loves tractors.

This was the main thing on Evie's Christmas list. A puppy surprise! She was SO excited!

She also got this Littlest Pet Shop Jet (I thought she would play with it more than she does) Oh, well!

This was the main thing on Zayne's list - letters for the bathtub! They have proven to be very fun for both of them :)

Zayne LOVES his garbage truck toy! He played with it non stop for several days in a row!

Santa also got a great deal on a newer and bigger train table!

We had Owen's family over to our house on Christmas morning to do our gift exchange. I made cinnamon rolls, and dare I say, they turned out AMAZING!!! Later that day we went to my brother's house for Christmas dinner and gift exchange. My little nephew, who is 4.5 was making Colton laugh like crazy!!

 The day after Christmas is always kind of blah, I think, anyway. We lazied around most of the day. We did all of the puzzles the kids got, which they loved.

Colton had fun in the exersaucer that Santa brought him!

One last present we gave the kids on Christmas morning was the announcement that we are going to Disneyland!! I had some Mickey and Minnie Mouse jammies in a box, along with a count down chain to the day we leave for the trip and this sign that says "We are going to Disneyland!" They were a little confused at first - it wasn't the reaction we were hoping for, but they are really excited now! Zayne said it was strange and Evie said how are we going? Silly kids!

T minus 31 days until we take off for Disneyland! 

We decided to go to Disneyland back in October. Several of Owen's sisters and brother are going as well. Owen's parents are flying down with us. I scored some AWESOME deals on plane tickets. I'm talking cheaper than driving down there awesome! Plus, Colton really hates his car seat, so that would have been miserable! We are going for 5 days and our plan is to be so sick of it by the time we leave, that we won't have to go back again for quite a while ;)

Christmas Cheer!

On Thanksgiving morning we watched the Macy's Day Parade and put up the Christmas Tree!

The house was a total disaster, mainly because I have a little 3 year old boy who likes to get everything out, all at once, and spread it all over the floor, and then leave it to go make a mess somewhere else. I know they are only little once, but man, it drives me nutso! Good thing he is so dang cute :)

I went to nurse Colton in his room for a while and told the kids to finish putting the ornaments on the tree. When I came back out a little while later Evie reported to me that she had told Zayne that he couldn't put more than one ornament per branch. Good rule, Evie!! It made me laugh out loud!

My multicolored wreath that I made several years ago with my Moses Lake friends got broken in our move. I don't know which move it was, but it was one of them :(  I was so sad. So I decided to make another one! I think it turned out beautiful! I did really like my multi colored one, though. Maybe I can make another one next year.

Owen took the kids down to the tree lighting in town. Colton was ready for bed and I had no desire to go out in the cold. After looking at these pictures you can tell it was chilly outside that night! The kids had fun, though. Cookie and hot cocoa was a hit!

While the kids were out our elf decided to come for the season! He brought each of them some Christmas Jammies, an ornament to hang on the tree and some Christmas socks! 

The kids have loved having him back around. Our elf doesn't do naughty things or get into stuff. He just brings some fun stuff once in a while! And he reports to Santa when the kids don't listen to their mommy and daddy and go to bed ;)

Colton is looking like such a big boy in his new jammies!

I managed to get a few decent pictures of the kids in their jammies in front of the Christmas tree....I really love these 3 kids!

A week or so later the elf brought them a gingerbread train kit!

 I need to get a picture of the finished product! They did great decorating it!

Sometimes the elf leaves a note. On Monday he told the kids to go visit Santa at his gingerbread house in the village. We decided to have Family Home Evening in the car on the way over. So we sang Away in A Manger and talked about The Nativity Story.

The elf is so smart because it was a Monday night and there was HARDLY anybody there! We only had to wait behind 2 families!

This was a really great Santa! Evie asked if he was just one of Santa's helpers and I had to tell her that I thought he was THE real Santa Clause! He told Evie that he saw extra stars by her name on the good list because she was always such a good helper with Colton! Evie told Santa that she wanted a puppy surprise for Christmas. Actually she brought him her list ;) Zayne told Santa that he wanted letters to play with in the bathtub! I am blown away by the fact that I got a picture with BOTH kids smiling! That doesn't usually happen. I only had 1 chance to get a picture and it turned out lovely!

We celebrated, of course, by going to Krispy Kreme! They even had special snowman decorated doughnuts :)

Sometimes you need daddy's hand in the picture to get your children (er, child) to look AT the camera!!