Merry Christmas

Christmas was fun this year but a little hurried. It's been a crazy month. I miscarried a baby and had a D&C the day after Kaden's bday. Jesse's grandma passed away the day after his birthday and her funeral was two days after Christmas. I didn't feel like I got to spend enough time with the kids and help them feel the real reason for the season. Good motivation for me to try harder next year. But we still had a very merry christmas...

We made gingerbread houses. We split into teams and did boys vs girls. I don't need to tell you who won :)

Finished products. Girls is on the left.

Tami and her kids joined us for dinner on Christmas Eve. The kids opened the presents they got each other. They all got pillow pets and I could not believe how excited they all were!

After dinner we acted out the nativity which is a tradition from my childhood. It's always my favorite part of Christmas. Jesse makes a good donkey!

Here are the kids modeling their Christmas pajamas.

The kids got Jess a belgian waffle maker. He made us waffles for breakfast. Needless to say, nobody finished theirs!

Here's the calm after the storm.

We went to Malad later that day. All of the cousins got a pillow pet for Christmas. Here they all are sitting on them waiting for more presents.

Jesse and his brother and his dad. They all got those funnel ice scrapers.

Ellie got the Lalaloopsy she was hoping for. She also got a makeup kit and put makeup on all day every day we were there. For some reason she mostly applied it to her chin and nose. What a cutie.

Happy 30th Jesse!

Jess turned 30 years old on the 21st. He actually has been dreading this birthday for the past year. I tried to make the day special to make him forget his old age. He loves to go out for breakfast so we went to Denny's. After work he opened presents then we went to a movie and dinner. (Thanks Tami for watching the kids!) I think his favorite present was the chess set made of marble from Iraq from Nick.

He does have ONE gray hair right above his left ear. He still looks hot to me though! He is always so good to play with the kids and wrestle with Kaden. He is Kameron's favorite person in the world. He follows Jess around all day and dives out of my arms so that Jess will hold him. (Nevermind that mom has been changing his diaper and feeding him all day!) He is so patient with me even when I wake him up at 3am because I had a bad dream. He makes me laugh everyday with his sarcasm and jokes. He would do anything for anyone and does everything for us! Thanks for being you! We love you!

I am a total loser and the only pics I took all day were at Denny's that morning. Here's my handsome boys.

I don't think Ellie ever just smiles for the camera. She's my crazy girl. I look like I just turned 80 in this picture!

Kameron as usual was a pure delight at the restaurant. I'm sure it was because we kept him up all night :)

Happy Birthday Kaden!

Kaden turned 6 on Wednesday! I was realizing the other day how much I depend on him. He is the biggest helper around the house. He does whatever I ask without complaining. He was the perfect child to be the oldest. He's always so cheerful and loves to have fun. He gets so excited for his birthday! He doesn't care about Christmas until his birthday is done.

We went to Craigos pizza for dinner with Tami and kids. Then we went to the Fun Zone which has become quite the birthday tradition around here! Then home for cake and presents.

Kaden as usual wanted vanilla cake with vanilla frosting! I was able to convince him to have the Rainbow chip sparkles this year. That's my boy! Never too adventurous. Doesn't like to try new things.

We sent him balloons at school. When I picked him up all of the kids were circled around him wanting to see his balloons. He loved it. It came with a bag of candy which he didn't even touch. Ellie, however, asked if she could have the whole thing.

He got spoiled with presents! His favorites were his remote control car and his spark scooter. The next morning him and Ellie were arguing about something and he said, "Ellie! You have to be nice to me, I'm 6 now!" Too funny. We love our Kaden!