Christmas!

Everyone but me was feeling much better Christmas morning.  I felt better, but still just not really great.  But, nothing can stop Christmas morning!  The kids were so excited!

By the afternoon I was feeling a lot better.  My mom and I decided to give Christmas dinner a go.  We cooked and baked all afternoon.  It was good to finally have a little bit of an appetite again!

This little one was happy to eat!

 

 We are so blessed - what a wonderful (mostly) day!

Christmas Eve

Well, this Christmas Eve was not fun!  Bristol had gotten sick Saturday and was throwing up.  I have never been puked on like that before - it was really gross.  I was laying on the couch holding her, she lifted her head up and I just saw all this green stuff spewing from her mouth.  I turned my head just in time so it didn't get on my face, but it was all over the side of my neck, down my back, in my hair - it was disgusting!!  Poor baby.  Then she just kept throwing up after that every hour or so.  She was fine by later that night.  I stayed home from church with her on Sunday, and she was fine all day.  I figured it was all gone by Monday...wrong!  Tj and Brena started saying they didn't feel well Monday night.  I had gone to the store to grab a few things and TJ called me and said I had to get home RIGHT NOW!  He was throwing up, Brena was throwing up and Bristol was crying.  UGH!  I didn't even get any shopping done at all!  So, I rushed home.  I also had to drive to Roanoke to pick up my parents who were flying in at 10 Monday night.  Tyler was going to go with me, then I found him in the bathroom throwing up too!  Good grief - will it never end?!  Little did I know how bad it was about to get!  I left to go get my parents and called them on the way with the bad news.  They weren't too thrilled to hear about what was happening here! We got home late and went to bed.  Tuesday morning most everyone was feeling a little bit better.  Then, my stomach started feeling weird.  Yep - my turn!  I was so sick - it was miserable!  I haven't felt that sick in a loooong time.  So, Christmas Eve was not much fun around here!

The kids did manage to unwrap their one gift that night though.

Tree Decorating

Brena wouldn't leave us alone about putting the Christmas tree up - that kid sure knows how to be a squeaky wheel!  She loves decorating for holidays.  We got Bristol a babysitter and then the rest of us went and saw Frozen.  I really liked it - especially the music.  It was really good.  A few cheesy parts - but mostly good.  Then we got home and decorated the tree.  I love Christmas, I love everything about it.  The decorating, the baking, the spirit of goodwill that is everywhere, and the cold (kind-of) because I like to bundle up in sweaters, boots and scarves!

Trying to get all the Christmas stuff out!

 They love each other so much ;)

 She loves to decorate!

 Bristol was sleeping, so it was just the 4 of us for this picture.

Christmas

We left our house at 4:30am Christmas morning to get to the airport.  I was mad loading all the suitcases into the trunk at 4:30am because I was sweating!  Yes, sweating on December 25, did I mention it was 4:30 in the morning??!!  I just kept thinking, I can't wait to get to Colorado to get out of this danged heat!  It was an easy flight.  We got to CO about 11am.  The kids had written a letter to Santa asking him to drop their presents off in Colorado.  They were excited to get there and see what Santa had left them!

 

 Brena got lots of fun presents, including a new Udraw for the Wii.

 She'd been wanting a robe forever, so I'm glad Santa remembered that!

 The 3 little girl cousins.

 Brena loves Little House on the Prairie books.  Grandma made her her very own Little House on the Prairie dress!

 Complete with bonnet :)

 Tyler was excited to get the Guinness Book of World Records.

 And his Aaron Rodgers jersey!

 He and Derek spent a lot of time on the Wii.

 We went down to Tj's parents and had fun playing with cousins down there.

 The kids visiting g-pa

 and gigi.

We had a wonderful Christmas and it was nice to spend it with family.  We really miss Tj, and look forward to spending next Christmas with him.

Christmas Tree

We went and got a little tree to decorate for Family Home Evening Monday night.  I knew I'd be the one cleaning everything up after Christmas, so I wanted to get a pretty small one.  This one was just right.  I'm glad we got this done with TJ before he left.

Pinterest

Have you heard of Pinterest?  I had been getting invites for months to that site and I kept ignoring it.  One night I finally got on it and got hooked.  It's a good thing and a bad thing.  Good because of all the fun ideas on there and bad because it can take so much of my time!   Anyways, I saw this really cute door hanging and wanted to make one of my own.  It was fun, easy and cheap!  I really like it.

Christmas Day

We had a wonderful Christmas.  I was sad we didn't have any family visiting, but it was nice with just us.  We had told Tyler on Christmas Eve that he wasn't allowed to come wake us up before 0630 on Christmas morning.  He came in at 0630 on the dot and said he had been awake since 0438 - yes, he's very precise with time!  We talked him into snuggling with us for another half hour (and so Brena could get some more beauty sleep!) and went and woke up Brena at 0700.  Here they are waiting to come down the stairs:

 Tyler was beyond excited to see his DSi XL from Santa that he had been begging for for months:

 Brena needed a bigger bike really bad, so I'm glad Santa realized that and got her one!

 And she got a V-reader, she loves it.  She calls it her Kindle like mommy's.

 Tyler also wanted all of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid books:

 Brenalee got a Wii Just Dance Kids game and everyone is enjoying dancing with that game:

 Brenalee also got this Fur Real dog - it barks, walks, pants, etc.  Cesar was so confused by it!  It was sad and funny at the same time.  He would bark at it and watch it wearily wondering if it was taking over his territory.  I think he's finally figured out it's not real.

 Riding on a beautiful Christmas day.