Christmas was AWESOME.

We had a beautiful and wonderful and AWESOME Christmas.

Everything is Awesome!!

(I’m singing that extremely annoying Lego Movie song.)

My favorite part of the morning is the look on their faces. 

I love the anticipation we all feel as we walk down the stairs to what lay ahead.

Santa brings one gift to our kids. 

This year he did AWESOME.

(insert annoy song once again)

Little miss got the bike she was asking for.

Isaac got what he always wants for every holiday: Legos.

Stella was completely surprised when she opened he new Nikon camera.

I am hoping that I can share my passion with her already very talented eye for photography.

Jex got what he asked Santa for: an ipad.

This is the first iPad that our family owns.  It has been enjoyed by all.

Once we enjoyed our Santa gifts, they started opening the gifts from mom and dad.

It was such a wonderful morning.  The kids all cooperated and took turns opening gifts. Which is how I love it.  It cuts down on the chaos.

They allowed time for me to take pictures of everything.

We all just enjoyed every minute together. 

It was nice to take a lot of minutes.  We took our time and soaked it all in.

My favorite gift that I put together for the kids was a box full of all the ingredients to put together there own Disney Album.

I printed pics for each child from our recent Disney trip, gave them journal cards, washi tape and an adorable album to put it all in.

What I was most surprised about was how it was received.  The kids were most excited about this gift.

 

They loved looking through the photos.

I’m excited to spend some Sunday afternoons putting these together.

Jonathan and I enjoyed putting a few gifts together for each other too.

I love seeing how adorable his wrapping is.  He knew I had really gotten in to the washi tape.  He enjoyed using it too.

He got me some fun Cardinals attire.  He gave me shirts, earrings, and a new watch all about the Cardinals.

I gave him a fun new clay pigeon thrower, a few new shirts, and a beautiful picture of the Savior standing in the temple doors.

Then Jonathan surprised me with a surprise of all surprises.

He gave me a trip to Hawaii.  I am so excited.  This is somewhere we have never been before.

He is so fun to be married too.

The kids gave us the gift of the Christmas mess.

Christmas for me is not about the gifts.

 

It’s all about the time that we spend together. 

I enjoy giving to our children.

I enjoy watching their manners as they say, “thank you”, and then give us a big hug.

 

I enjoy being able to surprise them.  I even enjoy being surprised.

I realize that Christmas’s with our kids are changing.

I know that the magic will soon change.

I know that they are going to grow up, and soon we will be going to their house to see what kind of magic they provided for their own children.

I am thankful for this day that we share together.  The memories that we create as a family are important.

For example: the memory of this little cutie crashing on the couch on Christmas night.

I am thankful for this blog; a place that I use to record the memories.

I pray that your holiday was magical.  I pray that you found those little moments that made them special.

I found a little magic of my own out on our porch.  Happy New Year!!