Our Christmas

 Our Christmas was wonderful.  I hope yours was too.

On Christmas Eve, we had my brother's family and Uncle Nate over for tamales.

 Nate spent the night with us, and Santa knew where to find him, thankfully.

 I bet you can't guess what Uncle Nate got for Daisy!  :)

 My kids were so much fun Christmas morning.  Ellie especially was way into it all, making it truly magical.  Poor dear was a bit upset though when she was more excited than the rest of her siblings.  Finally at 7:30 we allowed her to wake up the little kiddos.

 The aftermath:

 Maren got a Monster High makeup set, and she's been looking very beautiful ever since!

 The rest of Nick's family joined us that afternoon and we opened presents, round 2:

 I love that photo of Nick's mom.  Her smile is so genuine.

 Later that night I put Daisy to bed and Maren was whining/crying out in the hall (common occurrence, really).  When I came out of Daisy's room a few minutes later, I found this:

 Christmas is exhausting, no?  Funnier than this was now we have a pink mark on the carpet where her make-upped face once laid.  :)

Cute cousins:

 The rest of our week was good and relaxing.

Sunday morning, a little tea party for the sisters:

Take notice of Ellie's pinky finger.  Girl knows how it's meant to be done!  Also, take notice of our recently painted blue pantry door.  I guess we like some bright and happy around here.

Daddy's been growing out his scruff (per Mommy's request):

 Well, hello there blue eyes (x2).

Another awesome thing about this last week?  Lainey potty trained herself.  We really didn't have a choice but to put her in undies because she kept taking off her diaper to get on the potty and would keep her diaper dry all day long.  She's gone just over a week now with only a handful of accidents, which have included several trips out of the house.  She'll be wearing undies to bed before her brother.  Way to go, girl!  Momma was very happy to cancel the size 4 subscription on Amazon.  The one problem with being self-taught?  Girl can make a big mess without the proper procedures.  Enough said.

Merry Christmas

 I'm excited for Christmas day.  My kids are really excited.  But, I'm also sad this Christmas season is almost over.  I've been enjoying it so much.

I'm really glad to have my kids home for awhile.  Not setting an alarm this morning was heaven.  

Random photos:

 My baby girl taking her babies to bed with her.

Daisy tried "real" food:

 She wasn't very impressed.

My pretty pink princess:

Okay, back to Christmas.  We braved the snow last night to get to Grandmother's house:

 It was a very enjoyable evening.  Thanks, Mom.

My heart is full.  I am so grateful for this time of year that turns me toward my Savior.

 I know He's real.  I feel His love.

I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas.

Lights

 Hold on to your seat, partner, we're goin' for a ride.

First, I love this:  

I love it that my big girls love to play with their baby sister.  They fight over who she loves the most.  I love that they are old enough to pick her up and take care of her, and last night, Ellie successfully put on a diaper.  This opens up a whole new world, people!  :)

By the way, our little sweetie pie hit 5 months.

Last year we spent a night at the Grand America, courtesy of Nick's work and took the family and had a grand time (he he).  We decided to do it again.  So, we took the family up to spend the night at the Little America (which is really not that much less grand, but a little more kid friendly).  We had dinner out and then rode Trax to Temple Square:

 We got some cookies at the Blue Lemon and had some hot cocoa before walking back to the hotel.  It was late, and we were all pretty hammered.  Our family spread for the night:

 We were lucky to get a corner room with a window and a balcony, which came in handy when we were woken up at 6 am to sirens.  There were 50+ cop cars parked on 500 S with their lights and sirens all going.  One by one they all pulled out and drove on down the freeway.  Crazy.  We found out later it was thanks to Shop with a Cop.  Cool and annoying all at the same time. :)

We went swimming at the pool before packing up and hitting the town again.

 We went to the Grand to do their window walk:

 Rode Trax to City Creek and checked out the Macy's windows:

 After lunch we stopped back at Temple Square when it wasn't so busy:

 The kids were wiped:

 And when we could hardly walk anymore, we went back to the car and came home.  It was a nice little trip.  I'd do it again.

 I always love going out with my family and all the comments we get.  Lots of looks and counting and lots and lots of "you have a beautiful family".  I don't think families like ours get out much, because we sure got a lot of attention.  I loved two ladies at the hotel who were just smitten with our family, and just couldn't get over sweet Daisy.  Or the older couple who came down the elevator with us to the pool and claimed us as their own because their grandkids couldn't come with them.  Good people that made me smile.  

And two more sweet photos from Sunday morning:

I sure love my babies.