Holiday Fun!

Below are some pictures of our Christmas break. Notice I am not in any of the pictures, yes someone has to take the pictures and it just works out that most of the time it is me taking the pictures...the sacrifices we mothers make (bummer when you are 26 weeks pregnant and already feeling like a beached whale....no offense to beached whales). Anyways Christmas morning was great and Tristen and Blake were excited to open their gifts. Here are just a few of our holiday pics.

         Mom, Dad & Tristen made a Gingerbread house while Blake napped on Chritmas Eve. Blake is too full of energy to even attempt this task. It was a lot of fun, even though half the candy probably never made it on the gingerbread house thanks to a little girl :)

Jason taking a break from working on the basement, now he's on to his next construction project! The gingerbread house.

We were pointing out the fact that our gingerbread man looked really ANGRY with his red beady eyes, kinda creepy, huh!!! I guess you would be mad too if you knew you were going to be eaten. Oh well he tasted yummy!!!!!!!

Christmas Eve we decided to leave some food out for Santa, Frosty, and the Reindeer. Tristen got to pick out the treat: Donuts, string cheese, carrots, and chocolate mik.

Tristen decided after we put the yummy food under the tree that Sanata didn't need his string cheese or chocolate milk so she decided she would eat/ drink them.

Christmas Morning, we cut out some of the gifts in the picture, oh well :0

                   Tristen and all her loot! She loved opening her gifts, it was fun to see her reaction to her presents.

Blake loved opening his gifts as well, granted he is still young (18 months) so he liked  ripping the wrapping

paper off his gifts just as much as he liked his gifts. Next year he will no doubt appreciate Christmas more.

Bud and his cheesy smile (he has a hard time keeping his eyes open for a pic) chasing me with his cars, he is such a fun and cute little guy

Christmas breakfast, yep, homemade bannana muffins, cinnamon rolls, and clementine oranges...healthy huh?

Hey it's Christmas :) That night I made a Ham, mashed potatoes, rolls and veggies for dinner, so one decent meal counts right?

Lastly I had to include this one, Tristen had a good laugh at herself when she ran around the house with Mr. Potatohead's (Santa) beard on. She cracks us up!

Merry Christmas Everyone :)

So Christmas is tomorrow, it's hard to believe isn't it? This year our little family decided to take it easy, easy in the sense that we aren't traveling to visit family this year. We were going to visit family in Tennessee (my parents, 2 sisters, and brother and their families are having x-mas there), but we decided last minute that it wasn't practical for us to make the trip. Yes, people should come first, especially at the holidays. However SANITY I think dictated our decision this year.  The reality of Jason starting school again in January, Jason completing the framing stage of finishing our basement, Jason's church calling as stake technology specialist, plus additional upcoming commitments that will be a little time consuming. Not to mention I would love to have the basement done (can you say TOY ROOM) by the time baby #3 comes, which will be in about 3 months (deep breath...). I am certainly not complaining, our family is blessed with so much and we are all healthy and happy. I think the phrase, "we don't want to bite off more than we can chew" might be a little too late, but this is why we decided to have Christmas in Chicagoland. Jason has had the week of Christmas off and has primarily been working on the basement. The basement is coming along pretty well. Jason has learned a lot while doing it (he isn't a handy man naturally, but his work ethic and willingness to learn always allows him to get the job done right. To be honest he has impressed me by the quality of his work as well. So that is what is new with us.

On a side note, it has been a lot of fun this Christmas season to see the kids, especially Tristen get excited about Santa Claus. Ok scratch the Santa Claus concept, Tristen doesn't want Santa to come to our house. Tristen is way more interested in Frosty the Snowman coming to visit our house. Frosty is her "favorite" , and I think it is due to the mild obsession she has had for the past month or two of watching the Frosty the Snowman video almost every day. Oh well, kids are kids. This year we are looking forward to continuing and starting new family traditions. It is so much fun to feel the excitement of Christmas through kids. I don't think that can ever get old. Anyways, our family wants to wish everyone a Merry and safe Christmas season. Below are some pics of Tristen and Blake from our Christmas card. I will post more pics of  Christmas hopefully soon.