Monday, December 19, 2016

Christmas Morning!

We celebrated our family Christmas morning on Saturday. We did things a little bit differently this year. We put the presents out under the tree earlier in the week so that the kids could look at them and get excited about what might be in them. Then, Friday night, we did our traditional cookies and milk for Santa and we (Rog and I) filled the stockings after the kiddos went to bed. 

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The kids got their new Christmas jammies before bed.

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The boys stocking stuffers are generally pretty similar. 

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Favorite stocking stuffers included tooth pillows, scented markers and pokemon "guys."

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Some of Coco's favorite things included glitter markers, the Elena of Avalor c.d. and blind bags.

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My favorite stocking stuffer were these letters that I found at Hobby Lobby. The kids got to color them and now they're hanging on the playroom wall. Coco's wasn't quite done in this picture.

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The kids each got four gifts.

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The boys' big gifts were Lego train sets that actually run on remote control. Cruz's was over 600 pieces and Rowan's was over 800, yet somehow, they managed to have them all put together by Saturday night.

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Cora's big gift was a very true to life looking baby doll.

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She was very excited as her her best baby recently suffered the loss of an eye.

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In their book category, they got choose your own adventure books. They thought those were pretty cool. 

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We did Christmas donuts for breakfast this year.

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The rest of the day was spent with the boys working on legos and Cora playing with her new baby. Cruz did about 60 percent of his lego set on his own- it was challenging dealing with a small motor in the train.

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Rowan, the lego master, did nearly all of it himself.

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Cooper watched and supervised from afar. We had such a special family Christmas morning. Now, it's time to pack and get ready for our big trip to Illinois! We can't wait to celebrate the birth of the Savior with all of our families! 

Saturday, December 17, 2016

Christmas Programs

The boys annual Christmas music at school was on Friday December 9. Roger and I had to miss it because we were in Arizona for work/visiting friends. The boys didn't mind too much because that meant that Grammy, who held down the fort all week, got to go and cheer them on. The school also provided a live stream of the musical so Roger and I got to watch the kids from our hotel room.

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My sweet boys got all dressed in their concert clothes (with minimal complaining) before I left so that I could snap a quick picture. 

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SCS always posts a bunch of pictures on their facebook page of various events so I grabbed these pictures from there. 

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It's kind of like Where's Waldo... can you spot Rowan?

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Miss Coco's pre-school held their Christmas program last Thursday night and we all got to attend. 

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Coco was one of the sheep in the nativity play.

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After the play, each class performed two songs. Cora's class did "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" and "Joy to the World."

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Cora said she was nervous beforehand but you couldn't tell when she was on stage!

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Joy!

I am so glad that God led us to both schools. Moving was hard. Choosing new schools was hard. I am just thankful that we are where we are.

Tuesday, December 13, 2016

Santa 2016

I think one of the reasons that I love Santa photos so much is because they are an easy way to see how much everyone has grown. 

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It's hard to believe that our bunch of kiddos started off with this blue eyed little boy. 

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Our first Santa photo with all three kids.

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And now we have three big, smart, sweet, funny kids. I have a feeling they're going to be high schoolers and I'll still be begging them for  the yearly photo with jolly old St. Nick! :)

Monday, December 5, 2016

A Mickey Christmas

Joy, Christmas and family fun. That sums up our magical weekend at Disney. Enjoy the next bazillion pictures. 

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The fireworks were gorgeous, there was Christmas music blaring through out the park, there were stops for cookies, hot chocolate and snow cones. The castle lit up beautifully and it even snowed on Main Street.

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We didn't leave until 11:30. The kids were wide awake and full of energy. It was such a fun time.

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Sunday we went to Epcot for a bit. We were all pretty tired though.

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No matter how tired, Cruz is the kiddo who never wants to leave. On our way out he saw Daisy Duck and requested that they visit her quickly. That tells you how much he wanted to stay- characters are not his thing! We are so thankful for a fun weekend. You might think Disney would get old after a while but somehow, it never does.