Christmas Day

Happy Birthday Jesus! Our Christmas day was full and fun and filled with lots of good things!!

The annual "wait on the couch til its time to open presents" photo!

A quick game on dad's phone to get the party started...haha!

The Tooth Fairy brought Matthew a gold dollar! :)

Playing with the nativity... they never grow tired of it!

FINALLY!! Stockings!

Snackeez!!

Crazy straws!!

KISSY MAN!! So... we have these "kids crossing" figures at church near the children's wing. For YEARS, when we leave church, Matthew has giving the little green guy a kiss. Hence the name "kissy man". We were at Walmart before Christmas and Evelyn saw some. She immediately said, "I have to get this for Matthew for Christmas!!". I loved her thoughtfulness and her creativity. It was a bit more than we usually have the kids spend on each other, but we made an exception. Let's just say it was a HIT!!

Matthew got Evelyn a basket for her bike, which she LOVED!

They each got a lego set as their "big" thing!

Silly goose...

Peppermint hot cocoa.. a Christmas morning tradition!

Naomi got a special treat, too... milk and bacon!

Breakfast!

Later in the day, Doug's brother and his family along with Doug's aunt came over to spend the afternoon/evening with us. As in years past, I never get a lot of photos, mostly because I am enjoying our time together so much. We always have such a fun and special time together. 

One of the few photos I took... the boys doing what they do!

Thankful for a lovely day with family celebrating the true meaning of Christmas!

Christmas Eve

Ahhhh.. the joys of Christmas Eve. It all starts with trying to get a good photo of the kids in their dressy outfits before church.... which is no small feat let me tell ya!

They both were not really in the mood.. so I got a few shots then put the camera away and hoped to get better ones after church! :)

So... Matthew has had his FIRST loose tooth for a bit. On the way to church IT CAME OUT! :) Thankfully I had kleenex in the car and an empty tic tac container to put the tooth in. Needless to say he was SO excited! The Tooth Fairy AND Santa on the same night.. how cool is that? :)

 And, FYI... he ran into a door frame...hence the lovely marks on his forehead. Sheesh....

Candlelight service is my favorite!  

Evelyn and Juliet looking beautiful as always. Thankful for the lifelong friendship these two share!

My "after church" attempt at photos went just about as well as the "before church" attempt. Sigh.... 

After church we met up with our friends the Bjorge's and headed out to see Christmas lights, a 4 year tradition that we all love and hope to continue for a long time!

Signing the guest book at Storybook Lane

Silly kids of mine... love them so!

Such a lovely evening getting our hearts ready to celebrate Christ's birth! 

Merry Christmas Eve!

Cookie Decorating Fun

We finally got around to making and decorating Christmas cookies today. The kids are bigger and more independent in this task, which makes it more fun and exciting. They laughed and laughed and had such a good time. Just one more reason to love this time of year!

Gotta sample the goods! :)

We ended our day with a pretty epic nerf gun/light saber fight!  Love these three!

Tierney/Harms/Morris/Bower/Johnson/Jeub Christmas

My sister and fam came over from Idaho this weekend to celebrate Christmas. We, as usual, had such a lovely time together. Thank you mom and Doug for hosting!

My niece Abby... she is so beautiful and growing up too fast!

YAY for time with Aunt Michelle!!

My mom's tree is always lovely

We played lots of UNO!

We took a fun walk around the neighborhood. The kids are excited to have Eric as their new uncle soon! :) He and Michelle are getting married in July!

The "little" cousins... not so little any more. Sigh....

Conversation is always fantastic at the kids table!:)

Sweet Cole and E. 6 months apart in age and they just "get" each other!!

  An attempt to get a "cousin" shot... hard to do with this crazy bunch!!

Michelle asked the little girls to be flower girls in her wedding and gave them earings to wear. Needless to say, they both said YES!!

The force is strong with this one...

A Marcus Mariota mini-fig!! He was so excited!

As usual the kids were spoiled by everyone!

My soon to be brother-in-law Eric made this super cool sign for Doug to hang in his shop. We are so thankful for him and excited that he is joining our family!

It was such a special and fun weekend together!