December Fun

 Here are a few pre-Christmas pictures.  We did so many fun things.  Now, I am just enjoying the calm, relaxing days of January.  These first few pictures are of our ward Christmas party.  It was a great party and very well planned.  We all had a great time.

 All of the primary kids got up and sang some carols.  Our music man even composed a song for those who knew how to play instruments and they played at the party.  It was awesome!

 Here are the kids waiting to see Santa.

 Andrew wanted a bow and arrow.

 Anna wanted a Frozen doll.

 And Daniel wouldn't go anywhere close to the big red man.  He still got a candy cane though because he's so cute.

 Here we are about to make our gingerbread houses.  Josh found a gingerbread village kit.  There were four little houses in it.  I don't think we'll ever do it any other way because no one was fighting over their turn or whatever.  They each had their own and could design it as they so desired.  Win!!

 Daddy was busy with building gingerbread houses so Jenna and I took our own picture.

 I know I say this on every, single blog post but this girl just completely melts my heart.  She is such a good baby and is ALWAYS grinning ear to ear.  I love her!

 The finished products.  Quite cute if you ask me.  The kids were so proud of themselves.  Love it!

 Here's our Christmas tree.  We debated for a while whether we wanted a real tree or fake.  After weighing the pros and cons, we finally decided to go with a fake one.  I love it!  It took about 2 minutes to set up and just as long to break down.

 What an innocent little face, huh?

 Just so you know, getting four little kids to even LOOK at the camera is quite the feat.  Getting them to smile while looking at the camera, is near impossible.  I still love the truth in every one of these photos.  This is who they are, and as their mom, their personalities scream through the screen at me.  Those are my babies!

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Time!

 I sure do love Christmas time.  It is truly a magical time of year.  This was our first Christmas to have with just us.  We were so excited to spend Christmas morning in our own home for the first time.  We set some fun Christmas traditions and made some great memories.  On Christmas Eve, we read the Christmas story and had the kids dress up and act out the nativity.  They thought it was super fun.  Andrew was Joseph.  Daniel was a shepherd.  Anna was Mary, and Jenna was baby Jesus.

 Daniel fell on his face the day before and got a bad scrape on his nose.  I think he was going for the Rudolph look.

I know it looks like they get along but don't let them fool you.

 Josh pointed out that baby Jesus was wearing a bow.  Ha!

 Jenna wanted her close up.  We can't leave her out.

 This is her crazy face.  Good pose Jen!

 Can't get enough of those smiles!

 Here we are on Christmas morning.  The kids were like....kids on Christmas.  ;-)

 Instead of commenting on every picture, let's just say that they all had a great Christmas and were super happy with everything they got.  Below is Anna trying out her new dog.  She is always begging us for a pet, but Josh and I just aren't pet people.  I figured that this was the next best thing....especially for this mama.

 I think Andrew's face says it all.

 Jenna slept through most of the fun.  Once she woke up, we got to snuggle and open her gifts.  We got her some new bedding that I am obsessed with.  I'll have to post pictures of her nursery soon.  I love how it turned out.

 I just thought it was cute how she was just barely bigger than the stocking.  I love babies!

 Sisters!

 This is the face I got every time I asked him to smile.  He'd close his eyes and then try not to laugh.

 Jenna got a bumbo, and by the look of it, she's not loving it.

 After Christmas, we went up to my parents house to spend some time with the Stewarts.  Always a good time.  Always.

 Anna got an Easy Bake Oven for Christmas and this is her trying it out for the first time.  She LOVES it!!

 Sorry this picture is so dark.  Andrew got some tools from Gran and now he can help Daddy with all of his projects.

 I made my mom this door hanging.  I bought a jigsaw a few months ago and have been attempting to do a bit of monogramming for around our house.  I was really nervous to see if she would like it.  I wasn't sure if it was her style or not and didn't want to ask her and tip her off.  Turns out, she loved it.  Phew!

 We played some really fun games with some really yummy treats.

 Good ol' Rocky.

 We loved having Jacob and David there.  They are so fun!!

More to come....