Christmas Bells are Ringing

Happy New Year, I can't believe it is already 2009. Christmas was so much fun. Having children really brings out the child in yourself. (Not that I need more help)I love seeing my kids cute faces, opening their gifts and laughing. It reminds me of when I was a kid and the excitement just builds up and gets me more giddy. Hannah woke up first and came into our room (It was 7 not bad eh?), "The milk and cookies are gone, The milk and cookies are gone"! Jon tells her to go downstairs so she wakes up Zach and of course we hear sleepy footsteps going into our basement and then screams and running back up the stairs, not so sleepy this time and of course I jump out of bed as they tell me Santa came, Santa came! hahah All of us run downstairs and grab the camera. Oh.....now people seriously. I am looking at everybody's pics of them while they open their presents and their kids are dressed, their hair is done. The mom has makeup on??? WHAT THE??? Not us! We come down in whatever we went to bed in, and start snapping the pics! Not so pretty but...atleast it's us.

Later that evening we got together with the Bean's and the Vest's. We had so much food, but no pics! The best thing about that night is we actually talked the guys into playing games. It was a great night! We've been pretty busy this season, Hannah had her Christmas program. She was so cute! She is growing up so much, it makes me sad. This is a pic with her teacher, Mrs. Binge and one of her friends Morgan.

For Christmas Eve, we decided to make, in Zach's words,"The Best Cupcakes in the world". Well, here are a few pics of them. Notice Jake's contribution when our backs were turned.

I know everything is not chronologically in order but, oh well. The kids had a blast playing outside in the snow. This was the week of Christmas, so yes we had a white Christmas. Zach was the only one to actually stay outside and "help" me shovel. Hannah and Jake lasted all of 5 minutes. Right now, if you are squinting or double clicking to see if Zach is wearing pink gloves and hat, yes he is. That's what happens when you have an older sister.

Our Ward Christmas party was tons of fun. I had to shoot a few pics of the kids on Santa's lap, Jake was as usual such a carefree child and hopped right up on Santa's lap! Gotta love that boy! The ward also put on a skit of the nativity and Jon was a shepherd. He wore my bathrobe and so of course I had to take a pic of him! He looked so cute.

One of the last things we did this year was have Aunt Jenny from New Mexico visit us. We have been having such a good time. We were a little too ambitious and decided to visit Lake St. Clair, because Jenny really wanted to see it. Well....after driving 45 minutes, we got out of the car and of course it's -4 outside. The kids are freezing, I am freezing, and thinking, maybe this wasn't such a good idea. We rush to get a few pics and jump in the car again. So much for dressing warm, so we could walk around a little. Notice how happy the kids look? Well, I am finally ending this post. I have to stop doing HUGE posts! I hope everyone had a great New Years and Christmas.