Christmas Day

For the past few years, Santa had brought our kiddos treasures in a sack for each of them. Since Lyla was here this year, Santa left her things in a sack too!I thought that our kids would wake up at the crack of dawn this year, but I was surprised that when I heard them start to stir it was already 7:30! Here they are anxiously waiting to run downstairs and dive in! I love their first thing in the morning looks =)

Christmas morning used to go by so fast for us. We would go through stockings and open up presents and be done in like 45 min. We decided we wanted things to take longer, and to be able to enjoy every moment, so first the kiddos looked through their stockings and Santa Sacks....

Lyla got a lot of really cute and unique toys.......

Tori asked for Go Go my walking pup....

Levi asked for more Hex bugs and a battle zhu zhu pet game....

And Alexis finally got the sewing machine she has been dreaming of =)

We can't forget the grownups!

this is the only picture I got of AJ opening his stocking. He doesn't look to excited about those starbursts, but he was!

No matter how old you get, Christmas morning is always so much fun =)

After that, AJ went to work on making us a delicious breakfast. We had Belgium waffles, homemade hash browns, eggs, and sausage. It was so yummy! While breakfast cooked, the girls played a new ds game they got in their stocking.

Brandon's parents arrived right about breakfast time. They have never been over on Christmas morning, so it was so fun to have them there!

After breakfast we started opening presents.....

These next two pictures of Lyla are so precious! The first one is of her with Tori's gogo pup. Lyla loved it so much! The second one is of Lyla snuggling with her new pillow pet. What a sweetheart =)

We actually got to watch Nana and Papa open the gifts we gave them this year. We usually just put them under their tree for them to open Christmas morning. But since they were coming to our house, we left them here so they could open them with us!

Here is Cindy with her "fake wedding ring" from AJ. Check out her blog for the full story. When she opened it up she exclaimed, "I've been wanting a fake wedding ring!" It was hilarious =)

All of our kids really wanted snuggies this year......

We got done around 1 (i think) so we just relaxed a little, and then headed over to my mom and dad's house, like we do every Christmas afternoon. We had so much fun hanging out with family there. We had a yummy dinner, opened up more presents, and then hung out and played games. Christmas is always so much fun when you are with the ones you love. We were so sad the Fords weren't there =( It turns out that David didn't even get called in on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day, so they could have stayed after all! What a bummer!!

I can't beleive another Christmas has come and gone! We had a wonderful whirl wind of a couple iof weeks, with the wedding and then Christmas. It was so much fun being around famiy daily for so long. I love family!!

Twas the night before Christmas...

With the wedding over, we could now concentrate fully on Christmas! On Christmas Eve, our tradition is to spend it over at Brandon's parent's house. Usually Jeremy and Tisha and their kids are there too, but this year they were vacationing in Cozumel so it was a smaller celebration. We still had fun though. Brandon's mom always makes sure to plan lots of yummy food, and fun activities for the kids. After we ate and lounged around for a bit, Nana brought out some presents that Grandma Simmons had sent for us and the kids. She gave each of the kids a cute little stocking with some nick nacks and 2, two dollar bills! Thy were thrilled! She gave Brandon and I a framed picture that she had painted. The last time we were at their house, Brandon had mentioned to her that he would love to have one of her paintings, and she remembered. It meant so much to Brandon. I didn't get a picture of it, but it was so pretty!

Nana always gets each of the kids a present to open on Christmas Eve that is some kind of fun activity for them to do that night. Levi got this fun game, that blows up little styrofoam balls, that you shoot with a nerf gun.

Nana got Alexis and Tori some bracelet making kits =)

They all had fun playing with their new toys for a bit. We then started watching Pirates of The Caribbean. After about a half hour we decided we would rather play a game, so Jana got out Yahtzee. That is me and Brandon's favorite game. When we were first married we would always play it, so it brought back some fun memories and we had a lot of laughs =)
After the game, it was getting late, so we decided to open up our Christmas Eve pajamas. The kids each got some warm jammies and new slippers!

I got Brandon some Superman Pajamas, and he got me some cute green festive ones from Old Navy (actually, Cindy picked mine out in Utah and wrapped them up. So it was a surprise to both of us! I love them! =) ).

We headed home around 8:45. The kids were so excited to get things ready for Santa to come!

We took a few pictures in front of the fire place, and then opened the gifts that they each had made each other. Levi was excited to sprinkle his reindeer food that Alexis made him, all over the front lawn for Santa's reindeer. Alexis wrote a long letter for Santa, and they set out cookies and milk for Santa, and carrots for Rudolph.

After that, AJ, Cindy and Lyla got back from my parents house, so we took a few pictures of all of the kids in front of the tree.

Growing up, on Christmas eve all of my siblings all slept in the same room. I have to keep the tradition going!
It's so much fun to see how excited the kids get for Christmas. It brings back so many fun memories from when I was a kid =)