It Christmas Morning at our house!
After keeping the kiddo's up a little late last night hoping they'd have an easier time going to sleep 7a.m comes too soon for some. They all wanted to sleep together once more. Not wanting Santa to wake them they took their mattresses into the "office" to sleep for the night!
It always amazes me that it's the older kids that wake up first and then insist on waking the younger ones!
And she's up!
Brayden loves his army men. He builds them forts outside using rocks, sticks and mom's scotch tape. If he's inside Legos can usually be found that have been turned into forts for his little guys. Santa decided to bring him an army airplane with army guys!
Little Kylie loves the Disney Movie Frozen! All she wanted was a Elsa or Anna Doll. How excited she was to see Anna with a ride able Sven.
During girls camp earlier this year one of the girls brought a camera with her. You take a picture and if you want you can have it print the picture right there and then. She was quite excited to read those directions and start taking pictures!
Emily also having a friend with the same type of camera also asked for one.
I think we're gong to have enough cameras to go around in this household.
Santa brought Hunter a drone.
Brayden trying to help his big brother put it together while carrying his army plane around with him.
This year I didn't put names on the packages. I used one type of wrapping paper for each child trying to keep the excitement, wonder and guessing game going. Miss Emily loves to draw! I found this pack of gel pens from Costco this year and thought she'd love it! It was one of the early gifts wrapped and put under the tree. Because of it's odd, partly round shaped packaged it quickly became one of the most talked about gifts all season long! Who was this odd shaped gift for and what could it possibly be? We had all sorts of guesses. A baby doll for Kylie, a mini bow for Brayden,
How excited Emily was to find out that the most talked about gift for weeks now was going to be her's! This fun experience, all done by accident no less was so fun! Got to keep my eye out for more odd shaped packages or boxes for next year!
Miss Kylie loves to dress up! Emily giving her a little box of lego's was quite the hit!
Every year we give our kids 3 gifts on top of what Santa gives them. After friends, grandparents and cousins giving them gifts too it's crazy the amount of fun things they are given. This year Grandma Heaton gave Emily a little box of scrap fabric, scissors, pins, sewing needle and thread to make different crafts.
Madelyn knew Hunter was giving Brayden a bow and arrow. She decided to make him a home made target all on her own. Having her younger sisters help they went through my fabric stash and made him a Minecraft target using nothing but felt, scissors and a glue gun.
Kylie loves dresses! That's almost all the girl wears. She was quite thrilled to be given long sleeve dresses with legging underneath. Help keep that little girl stay warm but wearing what she loves.
My kids are growing up, specifically my older 2. Sometime's Christmas and Birthday Gifts can be so hard!!!! They don't play with toys anymore, they can be kind of picky about clothes and shoes and their fellow teenage friends are so into electronics that it sometimes rubs off on them. So this year I let them help pick their own gifts. And just so it's on record....I hated it! I wanted Christmas morning to be a surprise, to not know what was wrapped underneath the Christmas Tree. Madelyn chose her boots several months ago and they've been sitting on top of my closet since. She say's she had actually forgotten about them it had been so long. The only thing this girl wanted was a bag, a traveling bag, like a suit case bag. What??? Apparently she's trying to be prepared for girls camp in umm... like 6 months from now or how about Volley Ball camp also in 6-7 months. She says she'll also use the bag for Volleyball next fall that won't be for another 9 months! Says she'll keep her volleyball and shoes in it. Alrighty then.... We looked at stores, looked online and she finally found a bag she liked on Amazon. Sure hoping we can find a good use for this said bag that isn't 6 months from now. Getting a new volleyball and Captain America pajama bottoms were at least a bit of a surprise. The camera and book from her favorite author that Santa brought her was also a great surprise!
My oldest! He too is crazy hard to buy for. He wanted new clothes and video games for his Xbox that he recently bought. This young man of mine loved lego's. He's kept good track of them! He put several sets together and then sold them on ebay. Using that money he bought himself a new Xbox. Way to go Hunter! So I can understand wanting video games although for 13 years now we've purposely left most electronics out of our Christmases. What 13 year old boy asks for new clothes?? Specifically, he wanted gym shorts with matching dry silk shirts! Glad he was happy with them. Hunter also loves playing the cello so had to get him a new book for that. This mom relented and with Hunter's help we bought him 2 new games for his Xbox. Both are rated M (for mature) due to the fowl language which I wasn't happy about but according to many reviews online there is a setting that can be changed to take out the swearing making it more appropriate for this 13 year old. He too was excited about his new book that Santa brought along with a lime drone that had already been put on the charger for use.
One of Kylie's new gifts was Old Maid... letter style. Oh how fun! Sitting around the table playing games with those I love the most.
Love this picture of Daddy helping Kylie!
Christmas fell on a Sunday this year. After gifts we made us a yummy sausage, egg and muffin breakfast. The kids were able to enjoy their gifts until we headed off for a special Sacrament Meeting at 1pm this year. After church Sheri's family, Mom and Dad, Matt and Miranda and GGpa and Pat came over for a Cafe Rio style dinner. We're saving the turkey feast for next weekend when all my siblings will be gathered together. We had a great, relaxed, enjoying each other kids of day. I love my family.
Merry Christmas!!!!
