Lexie's party

This year she has been obsessed with Little Mermaid, ever since we saw it at Tuacahn.

So we went with that for her party.

 I knew that once Christmas started coming, I wasn't going to want to plan anything.

So I started kinda early.

But of course, December got here, I wasn't quite done planning, but I was done.

If you get my drift.

Christmas birthdays are horrible!

her invite

The day in between Christmas and her birthday is pretty much dedicated to preparing for the party. But I'm so exhausted from Christmas I just can't make myself do it. I honestly had no idea what I was going to do for decorations. The only thing I could think of was to have hanging balloons, balloons on the floor, and maybe some streamers from the ceiling. To make it feel like we were under water. Lucky for me, Sherie had an idea to make jellyfish out of bowls and garland and hang them. It was such a cute idea. I probably didn't make them quite the way she visioned them, but they worked.

I had this crazy idea of having the kids make sand art with pixie sticks.

It started out pretty organized, but quickly turned to a mess!

Presents

This was the face I got when she figured out Ariel really sings!!

 She has asked for a bike probably since May.

I'm not kidding. All the kids on the street have one...but her.

She loves it!!

her cake

made by gramma sherie

She wasn't about to take her fingers out of her mouth.

 And only did to blow the candles out

but put them right back in!

Can you even imagine what it's like trying to fnd a place for all this stuff?

I just had to find a place for at least that much two days before.



And the very next morning...

It was a fun little party.
We probably won't ever do it again on her birthday. It's too close to Christmas.
She doesn't need all those presents in 2 days, and it's just so hard to want to even throw a party.
I'm thinking more of a half birthday from now on.
Like in June.
We'll see.

Happy Birthday little girl!!

We love you so much!!

Happy Birthday...

miss Lexie!!

We love you so much!!
And hope you have the best birthday ever!!

Christmas night

Every year at 5:00 we meet at Colby's parents. We eat a traditional English dinner then participate in whatever Doug & Janet have on the agenda. And trust me, it's an agenda! This year went a little like this:

Bon Bon's, games, and singing

some of the bon bons were missing items this year, which is why some of us don't have a hat, and some didn't get a prize. Sad.

Each person had a part to The Twelve Days of Christmas, and we sang the whole song.

It was funny.

This year they added a talent show. They know I don't love doing a talent, but I didn't want to be the only one without one either. Colby & I both did something a little less 'talent-y'.

He showed a picture of his fish he caught in Canada.

And I showed my christmas table topper I made.

As for the rest of them...well, some of them anyway...

Once we get our sillies out, we turn our hearts and thoughts to Christ.

Each of the grandkids play a part in the Nativity.

This year, Noah was a wiseman, Cutler a shephard (he was suppose to be Joseph), and Lexie was Mary.

And then presents. By this time it was 9:00, and our poor kids hadn't even played with anything they had gotten. We made our way home, unloaded the car, and this is what we had to deal with...

So we spent the next 2 hours trying to clean up, organize, and letting the kids play.

Colby + bbq we forgot to take a picture of

Tiffany

Noah

Cutler

Lexie + the playhouse

It was another crazy busy day. But it was fun, and we didn't really feel rushed, or scatter brained. We are always so happy to spend time with our families, and are very blessed to live so close to all (most) of them.

We had a great Christmas!

Christmas day

After church, we hurried home to change our clothes and make our first stop.

Gramma Sherie & papa Kent's house.

This was the [partial] scene upstairs when we first arrived

and these are the only pictures I took there

After spending a couple of hours there, we headed over to grandma & grandpa Miller's

and here is where we finally gave up...

We hung out there until Shan's family came, then we opened the cousin & sibling gifts.

After just a couple of hours, we had to head home so we could get ready to hit the third family of the day.

Christmas morning

Christmas day was once again...CRAZY!!!

We had 3 families to see, open our own gifts, see what Santa brought, go to church, and enjoy the day.

Somehow it all worked out.

Although, seriously, I hope we can do something different next year.

We woke the kids up at 6:00. We've never woke them up that early before. Not for Christmas anyway.

My parents and Chad came to watch them open gifts at home, and see what Santa brought.

But they weren't here when we got up so we made the kids wait for them.

Noah's Santa + ours

He asked for an Erector set and Cars 2 legos

Cutler's Santa + ours

He asked for a bow and arrow

 Lexie's Santa + ours

She asked for a vacuum, and a playhouse.

The night before we separated out all of the presents so that we could just open, and not have to sort. We figured we wouldn't have a ton of time because of church at 9:00.

As Santa was setting everything out...I was feeling a little bad about not getting our kids very much.

But I quickly reminded myself they still have 3 grandparents, and at least 3 cousins to get presents from.

It really did feel good knowing we didn't go overboard and buy stuff just to buy this year.

*at 4:00 in the morning I remembered I had a bag of clothes I forgot to put out for the kids*

First official look at everything

Colby took the kids to pick out their gifts to me. When they got home they wrapped them all in one big box.

He called it the treasure box.

So all the kids were gathered around me watching me open it.

Boy was it full of treasures!! Lexie picked out 2 nail polishes, one for me and one for her. Noah chose the nut crusher. And Cutler gave me a Swig gift card.

LOVE all of it!!

 About the only surprise gift to Colby was the Tiller attachment for his weed eater.

I was so excited to surprise him with this, and 2 days before Christmas he was out using his dad's that he had borrowed months ago. I guess he'll have it for the spring!!

After we all opened presents, Lexie went over and sat on my mom's lap. She was telling her "Santa didn't bring my playhouse. He must have forgot it. Maybe he'll bring it next year".

My mom retold me all that and I felt horrible. 

We had totally forgotten about it. It was outside all ready to go...thankfully.

So I asked her where she thought Santa would have put it.

She answered outside so I told her to go look.

It was freezing outside, but we had to go look

 It's perfect for the little kids. And they love it!!

Christmas Eve

Colby worked part of the day so that he could have the day after Christmas off. About 1:00, the kids and I headed over to Kent & Sherie's for lunch, games, and some presents. Sherie had a bunch of snack-y food, which was scrumptious. Perfect for us! The kids played a little 'Red Rover', and we all just kinda hung out. Since Stefanie and her family didn't come this year, we decided to open the cousin gifts together, over the phone. It was so much fun listening to the kids squeal in the background, and in our face, over what they had opened!! Stef's kids had all my kids and gave Noah & Cutler both a Paper Jamz guitar, and Lexie a bathtub Ariel.

Cutler got into it right away!

And wasn't one bit shy about it.

Noah would leave the room to practice, or try to figure it out, then come in to play a song for us.

We got them both to play together.

They love them!!! 

Lexie was so excited to see Ariel!!

And since she gets to bath with her, she wants to get in twice a day.

I don't let her, but she wants to.

We let the kids play for a bit, then we cleaned up and went to the next house.

Grandma & Grandpa Miller's!!

First we ate Prime Rib.

Yum!! for most. I don't love it. There's too much fat to clean off for me.

Then...

Grandpa had the race track set up out in the garage

and the kids were in heaven!!

We finally got them all back into the house for some more fun.

Grandma read a "Left Right" story for the kids to pass a present around.

The girls were so funny to watch.

They don't know which is left or right, so they were all mixed up.

It was so funny!

Jennifer played Pin the nose on Rudolph

Then we frosted and decorated our cookies for Santa

Right before we left, Grandma read a story to some of the kids

And then we hurried home to get in bed and wait for Santa.

After all...

the big man doesn't come until you're fast asleep!!