Christmas Day!

Merry Christmas!  My favorite part of Christmas morning is being together as a family.  The boys were SO happy to be thought of by so many of their family and friends!  They were also excited about giving gifts to each other.  I felt like we had a very meaningful Christmas, but this post is mostly about their presents.  They are just so excited in these pictures! Christmas morning, the boys came down the stairs to see their presents.  We were so lucky that they slept in!  When Tyson and Austin did wake up, they waited patiently for Neal to get going.  It was so nice!

They got Cereal with spoons in their stockings!

Neal was loving his book from Grandma!

 

The boys wanted to play with each toy before opening the next.  It was so rewarding to watch!

Tyson and his knock-knock joke book.  He is just starting to understand humor!  I LOVE him!

Austin was so excited about the car in his stocking!

Austin in his minion suit :) Thank you Christian!

We took a break after opening stockings and had our Christmas oranges and cereal! Tyson wanted to save his orange from his stocking, so he took one of the matching ones from the bowl on the table :)

I just love these guys!

They were so excited to have something of their very own.  It was adorable!

Grandma Francis sent us some cars that you pull back and they go on their own.  Neal was in heaven!  All the boys went to play!

It was so much fun!

Austin and Neal

The race is on!  Neal now tries to pull back on all of his cars.  It's adorable!

Neal didn't need anything else to be over-joyed!

But...he got this beauty from Goodwill.  He was pretty thrilled!

We were the recipients of gifts from so many of our family!  All of our Grandparents, parents, many of our siblings, and aunts and uncles were so kind to think of us.  We are so grateful as we live so far from so many.  I was just amazed

Here the boys are mesmerized by a singing puppet!  It was so funny to watch!

Neal couldn't stop dancing!

The boys got to wrap up their gifts to Christian.  Here is Austin's gift--now that's a lot of tape!

Thank you Grandma!  The boys were in heaven!

The boys got each other gifts this year.  Tyson got Austin some bubbles which of course had to be played with ASAP!

Barefoot and all!  Even though it was COLD!

Brothers are just so much fun!

Neal just loving life!

Big and little brothers!

I love this picture!

Can I have a turn?

I love it!

Complete giddiness!

Christmas is so much fun to share with little kids, grandparents, aunts and uncles, and more.  The best present is being together, forgiving one another, and treating others as Christ taught.  I'm so grateful for this gift! Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas 2014

For Christmas this year, I donated my hair.  After years of growing it out, I finally did it! (Sorry Nichole--I'm so slow!)  Nichole has helped me run a marathon and now donate my hair.  What's next?

The bulk of it was 8-10inches which was perfect for Pantene.  Christian was super scared I would look like a boy, so my friend Kelsey took me shopping :)  Luckily, I didn't look so bad, so I had to return some of it, but not all!

Tyson gave some vanilla sugar scrub  to his teacher for Christmas.

I thought his jar turned out pretty cute!!

Merry Christmas!

And the card!

Christmas Eve, the boys got to open their pajamas from my mom!  Thank you!  Notice, the tree is only decorated lop-sided at the top.  Thank you Neal!  He was asleep by the time we opened this present!

They loved the books, too!

This year we had our friends, the Stephens over for Christmas Eve (as well as the missionaries from our church!  These 18 year old boys spend two years away from home, telling others about Christ and the reality of His life and teachings.  They are amazing.)  Here we are playing the candy bar game!

The Stephens brought a cake--we sang happy birthday for the Christ-child and the kids were in heaven! (We had café Rio style tacos for dinner!  Yum!)

Christian, lighting the candles!

We acted out the nativity.  This was the most fun!  Jason has the star, Neal, was the Christ-child, Austin the wise man, and Tyson was the inn-keeper!

When the wise men were to fall down and worship Jesus, Austin fall flat on his back!  It was hilarious!  He's smiling now because we all started laughing, but he had no idea what he was supposed to do!

Here was our stable, stuffed to the rafters with the animals.

Christian was the narrator.  Elder Spaulding was Ceaser and Elder Loveless was the shepherd.

Both Joseph and Mary got to ride on the donkey this year!

Our little wise man!

 

This year, we also made our own candy-canes and suckers!  Thank you to Kris, for showing us how!

Most of the time, the kids played...

But when it came time to pull the candy, we needed lots of hands fast!

My friends Kris and Emily!

Our finished product!  It was so fun to give home-made gifts to our neighbors this year.  I can imagine it getting over-whelming but for a few neighbors it was fun!

For Christmas, Christian gave me family pictures.  Thank you to our home-teachers for taking them for us!  Afterwards, I realized I didn't get any with me and this little dude!

He was pretty grumpy, but I just love him!  Merry Christmas everyone!  May the spirit of Christ truly permeate our homes and guide our actions.  I'm so grateful for each other and our opportunity to grow and stretch beyond anything we know now.  Merry Christmas!