Santa is coming ...

I love the magic of Christmas with kids in the house!  Their pure joy and excitement is contagious.  This year was no different.  I was completely ready this year because Jake was gone so long I wanted to be done shopping before he left.  I was able to do that so I wrapped all through the month and had everything organized.  It was so nice.  Santa didn't disappoint either!  Merry Christmas!!

Greece ...

Jake got to travel to Greece the first 2 weeks of December.  He had such an incredible time, I didn't think he would come home :).  He sent home some amazing pictures, can't wait to go back with him some day!

Toothless ...

Jenna has been not so patiently waiting to loose her first tooth.  She finally got to right before Christmas.  She very quickly lost another one, a top one, and is working on her 2nd top one.  The minute they are wiggly, she wants me to yank them out.  She is funny!  I cannot believe she is growing up so much!

Christmas Ornaments 2013

I love these kids!  This year was a hard year to choose ornaments for, they did so many things that they each could have gotten a million of them.  I finally decided on some and had the girls custom made this year.  they turned out SO cute.  Anthony's is a boy in baptismal clothes with a picture of Christ.  JennaMarie's is a little swimmer girl complete with her purple swim cap and goggles.  Lydia's is a cute little blonde runner, complete with medal and race bib.  Owen is a little boy dressed in blue (he love blue) saying a prayer.  He has learned how to pray this year and LOVES to be the one to say the prayer.

Ralphie the Rednose Camel and Santa come again ...

 We are so lucky to have a camel in the family :).  Santa just loves to come ride him each year and let the kids tell him what they would like for Christmas.  It was fun.  Santa's helper, his #1 elf even came this year.  Fun was had by all, even though it was negative degree weather outside.  More hot chocolate got drank that way.

Finding a Christmas tree...

I love this tradition!  We go up and get a tree out of the mountains every year.  This was the first year we actually got it done before the middle of December because Jake was leaving to Greece and he actually had an open Saturday because he wasn't the wrestling coach this year.  We went up to Kelly Canyon again this year and found the 'one'.  It was by far our 'ugliest' tree we have ever had but it was fun to go trekking through the snow with the kids and they like to help cut it down and drag it out. 

Riding a goat ...

 Not sure why, but one day when Jake got home from work and the sun was shining we decided to take the kids down to Grandpa's farm and ride a goat.  Jenna got right on and held on quite a while and then fell off and didn't want to do it again :).  Anthony got on and stayed on for quite some time and wanted to do it again.  The second time, the goat just stayed in place and put its head down.  Anthony held on real tight and just bowed down with it. It was the funniest thing.  They both had fun, but next time we will do it when it is a bit warmer and the ground isn't so cold and hard to land on.  Grandpa just had baby goats too so it was fun to go see those cute little creatures!