Christmas!

I love Christmas.  Not because of the gifts or anything but just the spirit of Christmas and all the fun things we get to do with our family.  I also love to see the look on my kids faces when they get to open presents.  They had a good Christmas this year and It was such a great day.  And even better, no one was throwing up this year!!!

I asked each of the girls what their favorite gift was and Alexis said hers was her bedspread and paint.  

Brytlee loves beanie boo's and she was in heaven with all the new ones she got this year.  Her favorite gift was a giant beanie boo. 

Lizzy said her favorite gift was her art set.  Her main present from Ryan and I was suppose to be her new room but we are a little slow and it still isn't done.  

Adison said her favorite gift was her elsa ice castle.  She did love all her beanie boo's she got also.  She wants to be just like her big sister Brytlee.  

One of my favorite parts of Christmas was that Ryan made a great breakfast for us all.  He kept talking about wanting to start a tradition for christmas and I think we found one.  

Alexis in her new Christmas shirt.  Look how beautiful her eyes look.  This picture has no filter and is all natural.  She is a beauty!!!

Our family got the game pie in the face.  It was fun but a big mess. 

Grandpa figured out the way you should do it.  It was funny because it all went in his mouth.   

Alexis was way to excited to wait to paint her room and wanted it done as soon as we were done opening presents.  She was so sick of the brown and was so happy to see it leave.  I didn't mind it but whatever makes her happy.  

It turned out so cute!!!

Elizabeth loves her doll and loves the matching outfit that her and her doll got.  She is such a sweet girl!

When Christmas is over I do get a little sad.  I always take the tree down the day of or the day after Christmas.  I just feel so weird having it up with nothing under it and there is nothing else to look forward to.  It is always nice to have it cleaned up also.  I enjoy getting my house cleaned up.  I am so thankful for such a great experience with my family and friends this season.  I have so much to be thankful for and I am so lucky to be the mom of these great kids and have all the people I love around me.  I do miss my parents but know that they are doing much better things this year.  They are such great examples to me.  I am so thankful for them and all they do for me and all the blessings that we receive because of them.  I do know that they are sending blessings our way!!!  It was so good to see them on FaceTime this year and get to talk to them on Christmas day.  It does make me homesick for them, but it felt like they were still home and good to see them.
I am so thankful for all I have and so thankful for a wonderful Christmas.  

Harris Christmas Party

We love the party that we get to have every Christmas Eve with Ryan's family.  We have a yummy dinner.   And this year we were suppose to kill our Turkey and cook it up but we were in Idaho falls and were not able to get that done so luckily Chris had made some delicious Cinnamon Rolls that he had a ton of extras from the Mueller party and he let me take them to our Harris Party.  They were so yummy.  We sang some songs and told the story about the nativity and then Lizzy and Mickey sang and acted out the 12 days of Christmas.  It was so funny and cute. 

Alexis and Rett took turns reading from the book and then we would sing a song for each story.  It was so nice to set the mood for the right spirit of Christmas.  

After all that we opened presents from the cousins.   Max was so happy about his present and wouldn't put them down.  

He is in love!!!!

Every year Santa Jack brings gifts for all the kids and dresses up.  It is such a fun tradition that he does.  Max was so happy to sit on his lap and was so cute.  

Mueller Christmas party

Every year we love going to our Mueller Christmas party.  I love seeing all my family, and seeing all the kids do the Nativity, and eating all the yummy food.  My grandma makes a Norwegian dish called Gritmasoverpole (spelling?) that just really makes it feel like Christmas when you get to have it.  Max loved it and ate his like a champ this year.  Most of my kids are good about eating it.  

The kids love to dress up and do the nativity each year.  Elizabeth really wanted to be the donkey this year.  She is usually Mary but I guess it is someone else's turn.  

I love my grandma.  When I grow up I want to be just like her!!!  

Me and my cousin Shanna.  We were always best friends growing up.  It is so sad when you don't get to see each other for such long amounts of time.  She just had a adorable baby boy.  

Elizabeth was not very happy to take this picture.  It was right after this little group got into trouble  from putting water on the chalkboard.  

what a silly girl

Christmas eve!!! I woke up early and went and helped in Chris's shop.  It was fun to get to help out and see how busy he is.  He is going to have to open a factory soon.  I was hoping to get to spend some time with Chris but he was busy at a different event that sounded so cool.  He is apart of a group that all donate money and did a secret santa for family's this year.  They went to a movie theater and sat upstairs and listened to what each family told Santa they wanted.  The family they were assigned to was so sweet and the little five year old just said all's he wanted for Christmas was a toy for his little brother that was sick and in the hospital a lot.  I broke into tears when I heard that.  Such a sweet little boy.   It was such a amazing thing that helped so many family's and it sounded like a lot of fun.  As soon as they found out what the family wanted they rushed to the stores and then when the movie was over all the gifts were there for them to open.  

My kids all stayed at Annettes and played hard.... so they were very sleepy on the ride home.  

When we got home we saw out the window that there was a group of 8 deer lined up so perfect.  It was so cute.  (even though I hate the deer)  (they always eat our tree's)  Then we looked over and there was a big group of 14 more deer walking towards our yard...... uhhhhg