Christmastime

Well we were busy this month, but we had a lot of fun and a wonderful Christmas. The kids had so much fun getting all the decorations out and decorating the house for Christmas. Brooke will be sad to see it all come down this weekend. I mostly am going to post a ton of pictures from over the past month (more like the past couple of weeks).

I love having the kids help decorate the Christmas tree because we wind up with bunches of the same ornament in the same spot! But it never fails every year Brooke gets the urge to add her own decorations to the tree. We never know when she's going to do it. One year it was after we had opened all the presents and we found hangers and stockings and anything that you could find. That year she even put the car keys in a hanging container and hung it on a tree, that was a problem when it was time to drive over to Grandma's! But this year we go ALL her wonderful play jewerly on the tree. She put on her necklaces and bracelets. And was very proud of how the tree looked in the end.

A couple days before Christmas, JD had the day off and so we took the kids down to the mall to see Santa. That was such a fun experience! It was Nixon's first time seeing Santa and he did great. He just sat there, but didn't cry. Brooke was so excited to see him and let him know what she wanted. One of the best parts of the experience was when we were waiting in line there were three other families around us with little kids. All three families had sweet little girls around Nixon's age and he made fast friends with two of them, definitely flirting with them. Another little girl saw this and came right up to Nixon and just started hugging him. Nixon wasn't to sure about her. It was fun for all of us in line and kept us a little entertained.

One very fun and unexpected surprise was that we got a snow storm on Christmas Eve! It was so beautiful to watch the snow fall. We all bundled up and played in the snow while it was falling. We are all kids at heart so we had a ton of fun!

Nixon after we were out in the snow.

This is what our car looked like on Christmas Eve night when we went out to give some goodies to our neighbors and grab a pizza for dinner. I don't have much experience with snow, so I had never had my car doors frozen together. I told JD that I couldn't get the doors open and one of them he had to push on the inside while I pulled on the outside! Oh the fun things you learn!

Christmas morning coming down the hall!! We had to wake Brooke up because Nixon woke up first and we were pretty sure he wouldn't wait for Brooke.

Nixon with his new beanie and banana from his stocking. He LOVES bananas. I think that is honestly an understatement!! He wouldn't wait for his banana so that was the first thing he did.

Nixon's backpack from Noah, that he loves!

Santa brought us a new Wii game and it has been so much fun! I think I'll have very strong arms in a couple of months, it's a good work out. JD gets frustrated because we can all (excluding Nixon) beat him in ping pong.

Brooke with one of her favorite presents, a barbie fairy from Grandma Burns. Her other favorite gift was a robe and slippers. I love when they are so easy to please!

When we went to Arizona for Thanksgiving, Nixon found Noah's Handy Manny toolbox and the tools bounce up and down in it and it plays music! He loved it and played with it a lot and would dance to it, so Santa brought him one of his own. It was been fun to watch him dance to it. Him and Brooke also love chasing his cars that you shake and then they go on their own.

We're all bundled up and ready to go play in our little amount of snow.

Brooke throwing her first snowball. She had to ask how to make one! It was so fun. The snow was so powdery that it had a hard time sticking together and would fall apart as we threw it.

Nixon watching Brooke and mom have a snow fight and not sure if he wants to join or not.

Running around the yard trying to avoid the snowballs. The sidewalk was icy so we had to be careful and after Nixon slipped twice on it we went inside to have hot chocolate and get warmed up. It was a wonderful month spending time together as a family, spending time with friends celebrating the season, and most importantly remembering the birth of our Savior.

Hope everyone had a great Christmas and a wonderful New year.

HAPPY NEW YEAR'S!!