CHRISTMAS!

Santa made some little girls very, very happy this year. 

 

 

Jossy was literally speechless as she came down the stairs and saw it.  It's huge but at least several kids can play with it at the same time, a must for this family!  With 3 girls, it's about time we got an actual dollhouse.  (I also heard that Santa got a killer deal!)

The big kids had to wait about an hour for Lacey and Alice to wake up before they could open presents.  After that it was shear chaos despite our efforts to pace everyone so we as the parents could enjoy each reaction.  We just tried to capture everything as best we could on video and camera so we could view later things we missed. 

If there was a prize for the most consistently enthusiastic reactions, Jossy would win it hands down.   

With one exception . . .

She opened this gift from Santa and said sadly, "I don't like this movie."  I tried to tell her just because she didn't like the movie didn't mean she couldn't have fun with the doll.  She was still bummed out.  As I tried to remind her that we should be thankful anyway, Matty told her she already had a miniature doll of that (little 3" tall thing) that she plays with all the time.  She said, "Oh, yeah!" and was all happy with it.  Thanks, Matty, for saving the day on that one.  Guess we'll keep working on gratitude.

 

I could honestly put together an entire video montage of Alice attempting to eat everything, but I'll let these 5 pictures suffice since I'm too lazy for crap like that.

We try not to spoil our kids but make sure they get a few things they really, really want . . . within reason.  They were all very happy. 

The rest of the morning was mostly filled playing with new toys.   (Notice the awesome daddy playing barbies?  That right there is HOT!)

Yep, they had a blast . . . while Mom cleaned UP the blast. 

Christmas Eve Dinner in Jerusalem

My kids look forward to this tradition all year long.  We love it.

Trimming the Frosted Tree

Gingerbread houses?  No, thank you!  We prefer the quick and easy "decorating an ice cream cone to look like a tree" idea.

 

Reindeer and Lights: Check!

Do you ever feel like your holiday season is a big, long checklist?  That's how I often feel.  I try not to let all those "things" get in the way of really enjoying Christmas but sometimes it's hard.  This year neighbor treats/gifts had to fall by the wayside.  I just couldn't do one more thing.  (So to all my amazingly awesome neighbors, I hope you can forgive my inability to add to your pile of treats.  Hopefully you'll still talk to us.  No one's egged our house yet so maybe we're good.)

Last year we didn't get to take the kids to see the lights at Temple Square (a tradition for us) because of a sudden and severe ear infection for Jossy on the way there.  Well this year that didn't stop us .  . . because it came one night earlier than our planned trip.  Yep, her 2nd time getting an ear infection in her life and it ends up being almost exactly 1 year later from the first.  Had it been the next night we would have missed the lights again. (The tale of her instacare trip is a whole other story I'm going to skip.)

We were trying to get there by 5 PM when the lights went on so we could get the kids to bed on time.  I started getting them ready at 3, and we still didn't get there til 5:30.  Why you ask?  4 kids.  That's why.  I felt jealous of my mom who was meeting us there with my dad and brother.  They got ready, drove there, and beat us to our meeting spot all within 30 minutes.  I think it took us 30 minutes just to go from parked to walking.  No joke.

 

 

 

Once we got in the car to leave, everyone was starving.  It was later than we expected and Alice was ready for bed.  She let us know by screaming for a good 30 minutes before falling asleep for a quick nap.  The big kids loudly argued over how to play "I Spy" and Lacey wouldn't stop crying and begging to go home because she didn't want to see the reindeer.  FUN TIMES!!!  It's those loud moments (which are frequent occurrences) that make me wonder why do I try?  Why do I even bother trying to take them anywhere or do anything fun?  But then for some reason I try again.  I may have mommy brain damage.

So after arguing with everyone over whether or not we should go see the reindeer at Thanksgiving Point since it was the last night for it, we went anyway.  Big fiasco there but we did it.  We grabbed some dinner which included merely Cheetos and cookies for some.  (Mother of the year over here!) 

We ate most of our food when Jossy got a severe stomach ache so we rushed out of there thinking she might throw up.  On the way home her tummy felt suddenly better and she was fine. 
So glad we rushed . . .

Death By Flash

Seriously, trying to take a half-decent family picture is worse than trying to get 4 cats into a swimming pool.  Why is this such a big deal?!  Step 1- Look at the camera.  Step 2- Smile.  Really quite simple.  But you'd think I was killing them for all the complaints and funny faces that were pulled. 

We have one, count it ONE, family picture of all 6 of us!  We took it ourselves back in the Fall on our canyon drive and it was . . . okay.  I just wanted one of all of us that was a little nicer.  Come this spring/summer, we'll head outdoors and get family pictures done for real.  I just needed something in the meantime.  So after church the week of Christmas I tried to take one.  This is the best I got.  Too bad the ones where Alice looked forward had everyone else looking silly.

My swimming cats

Blurry Perfection

I don't care that this is a horrible picture, because to me it's perfect.  (I couldn't turn on the flash or I'd wake them up.)

Alice usually takes her middle-of-the-day nap in bed with me so I can lay down, too, but this day it's was Daddy's turn.  Lucky Dad.

Second Santa

So I'll admit, when we took the kids to see Santa this year for pictures it was not their first time of the season.  We had run into Santa at a furniture store in late November and got pictures taken then, but the pictures were with a worker's point-and-shoot and printed right then and there on a portable machine, which was not exactly the highest quality.  Somehow I convinced my kids we needed to go see Santa again so I could get better pictures. 

We froze but survived.

 

After talking to the big guy, we walked around for just a few minutes to see the lights, warm ourselves by the fire, and grab some candy sticks to appease the masses on the ride home.  Jossy was bawling by the time we got in the car because her fingers were so frozen.  I think I wouldn't mind Christmas in Hawaii sometime.  

 

  

6 Month Cousins

I was taking my niece's 6-month pictures when my sister suggested we throw Alice into some as well just for fun.  They turned out cute enough that we framed one for their grandma for Christmas.

 

Even though I wasn't planning on taking any pictures of Alice at 6 months, I figured I might as well when she was all ready to go anyway.

This hat was once owned and worn by Alice's great-great-grandmother Maggie Smith.

LOVE Alice's blue blue eyes!