Tuesday, January 20, 2015

Christmas Day 2014

As always, Christmas was a crazy, busy time! I decided moving so close to the holidays is NOT the best idea! There are so many expenses that come with moving anyway, then you feel like you have to decorate all cute and buy new stuff (that happens to be on sale because they want you to buy, buy, buy!!). I know I went to Target way too many times in December!

New Christmas church clothes! You know I love the kids to match twice a year, Easter and Christmas. Thank goodness for sales (and The Children's Place) because these kids are getting expensive to dress!
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Somewhere the kids saw the idea to make marshmallow snowmen. Since we had all of the ingredients I thought, why not! They do look a little creepy with red hots as the eyes though!

Addie wanted to make cupcakes for Santa on Christmas Eve. Sounded good to me! I love how Opal is trying to sneak in the picture. :)

Can you tell they like sprinkles??

FINALLY got everything wrapped and under the tree around 1am!! Why does it take so long!?
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Christmas morning! Always so fun to see their little faces light up when they see the tree and all of the gifts!! This year was fun because Dia was a little more in to it. Addie and Johnny really wanted to buy everyone a gift from them but they didn't have enough money so really it was us buying 1 more gift for everyone. So, I stole this idea from a friend! We put every one's name in a bowl then we each drew 1 out. We set a $10 limit on gifts, then split up at Target and started shopping! The kids had a blast and it was so fun to see how excited they were to watch everyone open the gifts from them!

We also donated to a Giving Tree here in Bonney Lake. I was starting to hear the kids talking about all of the things they wanted and how they were going  to be getting all these toys. So I explained to them what a Giving Tree is and how some people just can't afford to buy gifts on Christmas. We headed over to the Police Station and after reading a few tags, picked a boy (I think he was 7 or 8). Then we headed off to the store to buy his gifts!! The kids were so good while we were shopping. I could tell they really were trying to stay focused on only looking at things for this little boy but it is so hard to stand in the toy section and not look at other things! After we left the store with the toys we headed back to the Police Station to drop them off. The lady working the desk was impressed that they (the kids) were all mine and that we were teaching them at such a young ago to be charitable. I honestly think it helped my kids to be a little more appreciative with what they have. Our ward was also doing a Giving Tree so they heard a lot about those and how you can help other people!

The kids all seemed pretty happy with what Santa brought them! Of course the living room was a disaster by the end. We had what I thought was a yummy breakfast. The kids wouldn't touch it!! Sad. For the rest of the day we played, napped and relaxed. I made dinner and we all slept well! 






New silly socks!



I love Opal's face here! She loved this Geotrax airplane!





We could have given her 20 books and nothing else and she would have been a happy girl!




Addie's twin doll Aly also received some presents! Addie is so cute and hand made some things for her!


This series cracks me up! We asked her to show us what she got so we could get a picture. Who knew that involved waving it all over the place before finally stopping?!


Posing with the huge box that is the new trampoline!

The best part for Addie: staying in her pajamas all day! The best part for me: No one complained about not getting something they wanted and they loved everything! Such a fun time of the year!

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