Christmas!!!

Mason and Bo came running into our bedroom at precisely 7:00 am. That was the time Ross & I told them was okay for them to wake us up in the morning. They told us that they'd woken up at 1:00 am and had a hard time sleeping after that. Oh how I remember those days. Ross went to get Lily up, I went to push record on the video camera and start the Christmas playlist on the iPod. Then it was go time. Bo was so relieved to see that Santa had indeed brought him presents and not coal. He tore into his pile like a mad man. He was finished opening all of his presents and had gotten to the end of his stocking where his precious iPod touch was, before Mason had even opened two of his presents. Mason likes to savor every moment and even help Lily with her presents on Christmas morning. But when Mason saw that Bo had gotten and iPod touch, he couldn't get to the bottom of his stocking fast enough.













After a couple hours we woke Stella up and everyone helped her open up all her Santa presents. She was in heaven.




Then a few hours later we dug into all the presents under the tree. It was a such a fun day!

Christmas eve

Christmas eve is just the best day of the whole year. It feels so magical. I love to see how excited the kids get. There's nothing like it. Bo was pretty nervous this year though. He received a video message from Santa warning him that he was on the naughty watch list a few weeks before Christmas for not keeping his room clean. It was a devastating message for him to receive. It affected him much more then I had imagined it would. He was definitely a bigger help around the house for the few weeks leading up to Christmas though. I don't think his room has ever stayed so clean.

This Christmas eve we went to Ross' parents house for dinner. The food was delicious as always. After dinner we were entertained by all the grandkids. First, they reenacted the first Christmas while Grumpy read from Luke. Then the kids, (mainly the girls) took turns singing or dancing for us. Lily even hopped up there and sang 'I'm dreaming of a white Christmas'. She was too nervous to sing all by herself so she asked her Pop to get up with her. It was the sweetest.

Mason was thrilled about playing Joseph.


Bo was a wiseman and Lily and Stella were angels.






Then we headed off to my parents house for the kids to open one present each. PJ'S!!! We also ended up letting Mason and Bo open up their presents from Chase and Faith.

gearing up for the big event

The kids were soooo very excited for Christmas to come. Christmas is a very big deal in our family. Lily sings Christmas songs all year long and begs us to watch the Grinch, along with our 10 other Christmas movies in October. I'm pretty strict on the no Christmas anything until after Halloween though.



We took the kids to see Santa at the mall. Lily was soooooooo excited. After waiting in line for an hour, she asked him for some baby animals, a leapster and some makeup. Bo was a little nervous to see Santa in person but he did it anyways. He asked him for an iPod touch. Stella thought she was excited to see Santa but decided that sitting on his lap was not something she was prepared to do once the time came. Lily told Santa that Stella wanted a baby doll for Christmas. Mason decided he was too big to sit on Santa's lap this year. So so sad.



The kids had a ton of fun making gingerbread houses at Aunt Annie's house. There was a ton of candy to choose from all they had all their cousins there. They also got to make their very own ornament. So much fun!

Lily's party

It's been such a busy couple of weeks that I'm finally getting to these pictures from Lily's birthday party. Lily had a super fun day. It started out with Grammy coming over with her presents to Lily. She spoiled her of course. Then Lily and I went to the new Disney movie, Tangled. It was so fun to go just with Lily. Then we went to Build-a-bear where Lily got to make her own stuffed animal. She picked out the wolf and named her Foxy. Then we ate dinner at the mall and went home for more presents and cake and ice cream. It was one filled day!









A football cake, you ask? Lily was dead set on having a football cake just like Bo did last year. I offered to frost it pink, but she informed me that footballs are brown and white.