Family Time (featuring a couple cute babies)

To me, the greatest part of Christmas is being with my family. Our family's growing but Amy and I try our best to make room in our homes so we can all be together, and I'm so grateful everyone makes the effort to come out.

I finally got to meet baby Lucia! She's a month old and so precious!
 

The kids were SO excited to meet her too:)


Nothing better than a new cousin to love:)
 

I put a sheet down on my couch and took a few pictures before they went back home. She's such an angel...
 

And I just couldn't stop taking pictures of Berkley who is 7 mos, all smiles, and so darling.
 


Yep, she's pretty much to-die-for cute.

Can't forget "baby" James who is no longer a baby.
 

The kids had a lot of fun playing with him:) He's a little chatterbox and Holly kept coming to tell me the cute/funny things he was saying.
 

Eter had a birthday while the were here. We put together a little party...
 
(Love having my mom here :)
 
Happy 40th Eter!
 

We went to the Riperian.
 








Emma wouldn't let me take a picture of her so this all I got...
 




Sad to see everyone leave but I'm already looking forward to hopefully having everyone together again this summer for beach camping at Carpinteria! Woot-woot!

Christmas Eve 2013

Most of my family arrived on Christmas Day this year. We have a tradition of going to a Convalescent Home and caroling to the patients there and passing out either a goodie or cards made by the kids. My mom didn't want to miss it (it's one of all of our favorite things) ,so we moved it to Christmas Day. It actually worked out very well having more time on Christmas Eve for the other traditions- dinner, the Nativity, and the Christmas Eve present. That night normally feels pretty hectic and it was much more relaxed this year. I think we'll probably do it that way for now on.

Here is Christmas Eve:

We did presents first.
 

We got the girls new robes and Eli slippers and pajamas which he needed.
 

I saw one of their pics got photobombed so I have to include that one! HAHA:)
 

Then we passed out parts and costumes and Miranda read the Nativity script she put together a few years back:)
 

We even had a sheep this year!
 

Sadie was determined to be the angel.
 

We had trouble finding a Mary this year but finally Tatum said she'd do it. Seems like people usually fight over that one.
This is the donkey, Joseph, and Mary
 

The Wise Men
 

Then we split up and got busy on putting Christmas together! I was so grateful to have Miranda's help wrapping this year! She's the best :)

Christmas Presents 2013

To start, here is the best Christmas present we got this year.



After a somewhat stressful (but very rewarding) process we have our very loved and much appreciated new van. This has been a "want" for quite awhile, and a "need" ever since summer when we paid $1500 to have our old van's 4th transmission put in. Then we had to fix a $300 power steering fluid leak in the fall, and finally $550 at the Honda dealership for a "major tune-up" to get it in selling condition (and to figure out why the check engine light was on).

As unfun as all that was, finding a new Honda Odyssey here in Gilbert was next to impossible. Hmmm...maybe I should rephrase. Finding a new-ish Honda Odyssey with low miles and in great shape here in Gilbert for what we were wanting to spend- preferably from a private owner (no taxes), was next to impossible. We found a very low priced dealer in Mesa that we were hoping to buy from first, but after time and an experience where we put $ down on a car and had it checked out by our mechanic, we realized they deal with all cars that have been in accidents so they are able get them super cheap at auction. During that whole mess I happened to look on Craigslist and found our van that had been recently posted. It only had 17K miles and was a 2010 in perfect condition. We went and saw it on our way out to Utah for Thanksgiving and offered them $200 down to hold it for us over the weekend. Thankfully, they agreed, and we completed the transaction Monday.

It's weird to be in-love with a car but I am! We're so blessed to have found it! Then just the weekend before Christmas we sold our old van!! Yaya!

Another awesome present we bought ourselves was a new vacuum at the Spanish Fork Costco on Black Friday. It's a Dyson and it's so, so great! Dana's in-love with this one:)

We're not the type to do huge presents for our kids but they were pretty happy this year and I think got most of their Christmas list wishes.

Santa Gifts:
A wardrobe and bed for Sadie and Holly's American Girls.


Voldemort's wand for Eli.
 

Lots of Make-up, perfume, a make up case, and a travel case for Emma. (sorry it's not a great pic)
 

Here are some more photos from Christmas morning:
Rainbow Loom
 


Holly asked for a long skirt:)









After the kids had opened all their gifts we asked them to check to see if the reindeer ate the carrots. When they did that they saw the boxes for the trampoline outside!
Here's Dana putting on the bow Christmas Eve night :)

Yay! They were so excited!

Back in November, we put our rickety, splintery swingset up on Craigslist in the free section to make room for the tramp and that thing was gone within half an hour.
 

The kids are having so much fun on it!
 


And Dana too!