Christmas Morn 2010

"Did Santa Come?" Daddy went out to check while we waited to come out of mommy & daddy's room on Christmas Morning. We woke up around 7 a.m., so not too bad, but of course, much too early for mommy!! Mike's still like a kid, he wakes up around 4 a.m. and can't go back to sleep.

I guess Santa did come!!

Never mind she got a dream kitchen, the coolest present ever. All she cared about was the fact she got some Dora toothpaste and a Dora toothbrush in her stocking. She was amazed.

You can see Avery in the background trying to convince me to open her toothpaste so she can go brush her teeth. She spent a lot of time in the bathroom on Christmas. After the first 2 times, I had to pretend to put toothpaste on her brush, I was afraid she was going to stain her teeth! Is there such a thing as over-brushing?

Finally playing with her kitchen.

Santa is so smart, I wanted a water bottle just like this! I always love how the kids get excited about the big things but get just as excited about the little things, too.

Cutie in his Lego Head-Lamp.

She can sure open a present. She got good at tearing through that paper and FAST! She vacuumed for literally hours on Christmas with this little pink vacuum, in between brushing her teeth, of course.

Jengo-Fett's sleigh. Logan's proud Lego creation with Daddy this year.

Daven had fun playing with his new I-touch. On our way to Utah, we didn't hear from him for the first 4 hours until he said, "Mom, my I-touch is out of batteries." It was a big hit for both boys.

Christmas Eve 2010

Here are some family pictures from Christmas Eve. We had a great day! The kids were so excited all day long for Papa Pehrson to get here. We were glad he could make it. He was feeling under the weather earlier in the week, so we weren't sure. The kids kept praying he would get better.....it worked!

I think it is so fun to hear about everyone's Christmas Traditions. These are our Eve traditions:

1) Make cookies for Santa.

2) Play!

3) Home-ade Chicken Noodle Soup for dinner.

4) Open one present from mom & dad. (PJ's & Christmas Ornament)

5) Christmas Story: Luke Chapter 2

6) Leave cookies for Santa. We've heard Santa likes chocolate milk :)

With Papa here, we all had a giant sleep-over in our room. Well, except for Avery. We were a little worried she might get out of her bed and find the toys at 4 a.m. but she did really good. I think she came in our room around that time, but it was too dark for her to notice any presents in the living room. Phew! Oh, Papa slept in the boys room, we didn't subject him to the craziness of the giant sleepover in our room.

Favorite Christmas Memories from 2010

We had a wonderful Christmas season this year. I was so grateful that everyone stayed healthy during the holidays. I thought I would share some of my favorite memories from Christmas 2010.

1. Daven's Christmas Party:

Daven began talking about throwing a party for his friends in November. It started out as a Thanksgiving party, but we ran out of time for that. He kept persisting and his Thanksgiving party soon turned into a Christmas party. I thought it was really sweet but to be honest, I was mostly humoring him. "yeah, sure, that would be really fun....okay..." But, he kept bringing it up over and over. The kid would make a great lawyer someday :) I decided that he thought the party was really going to happen and he wasn't going to forget about it.

We set a date for December 18th. Well, it crept up on us really fast. I was thinking of ways to get out of the party. We were so busy. What a sad excuse, but that is what kept going through my head. A party was going to be a lot of work, how was I going to do that? Well, 5 days before the party, I woke up to take Daven to school. He had woken up early and hand-written invitations to ALL of his friends. They were very detailed. They even had our address and phone # on them. It was the cutest thing ever. I decided that we would throw the party together. How could I possibly tell him no?

Mike was a huge help. We pulled it off!! I think all the kids had lots of fun at our low-key party. Daven came up with some of the games. "Pin-the-Carrot on the Snowman." Then we played the m&m game, sherades, and decorated cookies. We did kill a little time by watching the "Polar Express."

Ten cute kiddos ended up coming!!

Paige

McKinley & Daven

Nathan James #1

Bailey

Logan & Annabelle

Nathan James #2

Little Sister even enjoyed the party!

2. Celebrating Our Anniversary

Mike and I decided to award ourselves with "coolest mom & dad" awards. We threw the party the morning of our 11th Anniversary. It makes us feel good about ourselves, we really aren't that cool anymore, but it is fun to talk ourselves up. We went out to dinner that night at BRIO. Oh-my..it is the most delicious Italian food I've had in a while. We had a great time that night. I can't believe it has been 11 years. It has gone by so fast & been filled with so many wonderful memories. But that is for another post, I'm sure.

3. Gingerbread Time

We found a "Gingerbread Train" at Target to decorate this year in lieu of our Gingerbread House tradition.

4. A Holiday Hay-Ride

Such a fun high-light for them. They absolutely loved and treasured it!!

5. Temple Christmas Lights

We invited our friends, the Staton's, to go to the Mesa Temple lights with us. They are so nice and were so sweet to go with us. We had a great time. They have the cutest family.

I'm hoping to get around to posting more pictures of Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. We had a good Christmas. I am so grateful for my kids, a wonderful husband and great friends. I am one lucky girl!