first

This was our first Christmas with our own little family. Tyler gets the week between Christmas and New Year's off, so we usually take off to spend that time with family that we don't see very often. This year we decided to stay here, and get projects done on the house. We painted a bathroom, our bedroom and one of the boys rooms. It's nice to have that done! One more room and the hallway trim to paint and we can move on to decorating. 

So Christmas was definitely different this year. It was nice. Quiet and relaxing (well, as quiet and relaxing as 3 boys under the age of 6 can be). 

 

The traditional Christmas Eve jammies. Thanks Grandma!

 

Aunt Michelle gave us some Nativity clothes, so we read Luke 2 and did our best at having our own live Nativity.

We had the cutest little shepherd I've ever seen.

And our three wise men. :)

Christmas morning was good. The boys played with their toys from Santa, we had breakfast (coffee cake/scrambled eggs) and then opened presents.

They have loved these trucks -- Jaren saw them in a magazine we got in the mail for this site and wouldn't put it down. So I got online to order them and it said, "Out of Stock". I was panicking. Which sounds silly, but it's true. So I sent them an email and they replied saying that their stock was low so they took them off the site, but I could still order one if I called, which I was able to do. Crisis averted. :)

 Clayton liked opening presents, but he wasn't really into it that much. He played with these packing peanuts for almost 30 minutes. Dumping them out, and cleaning them up. Or "nean up?" as Clayton says it.

I look at this picture and think, "where did my baby go?! I want him back!!"

Will the table refinishing fairy please come and visit my house? pretty please??

Playing with some new trains that were added to the set.

We made some time to get out to the mountains and play in the snow, amidst all the painting. The sun was shining and even though it was cold, we bundled up and headed for the hills. We got there to realize we forgot Clayton's snow boots, so we didn't stay long. Maybe an hour and we were done.

I am grateful that we love each other and enjoy being together, especially during the holidays! It's one that I won't forget.