Christmas 2011

We woke up Christmas Morning at about 8:00am, ahh it's wonderful to have GOOD sleeping kids!!! Emma was the first awake & because we put the kiddy gate at the top of the stairs she couldn't go anywhere, but into our room. We FINALLY woke up Zachary & Kye about 8:15.

And guess what ... ... SANTA had come!!!So we got all lined up ready to roll, said a family prayer, & unleashed the F-U-N!{yes, that is WHITE printer paper that Emma is so EXSTATIC about in the picture above ... MOST USED PRESENT from Christmas!!!}

---

After we opened Santa presents/stockings & a few more we ate our yummy crepe breakfast & got ready for church.

{I was too busy trying to get breakfast put together/cleaned-up & be on time to church that I didn't get a picture of our gourmet crepe bar ... BUMMER}The kids got new church clothes from Santa.It was fun to go to church.

It prolonged the opening of presents & it was such an amazing meeting with wonderful messages, & musical numbers.

I'm always a little sad once it's ALL over! But it was really fun to have all 3 kids REALLY into the opening of presents & all their toys they got!

After a quick clean-up we had Grammy & Grandpa Madsen & Nate over for lunch & a visit. It's always fun to visit with family during the holidays!

Then it was off for NAP TIME!! {HALLELUJAH!}

After naps & a light dinner we headed off the see the lights at Temple Square as a FAMILY.{We went last year on Christmas Day & have decided that's the day to go as LONG as we go early. It isn't as crowded as usual & I love bringing Christmas full swing!}

After warming up with Hot Chocolate & Toast, we headed downstairs to play our new Wii.

Just Dance was a HUGE Hit!The Cars 2 game is a little advanced for our kids, but they'll "grow" into it!

It's still a fun one to watch them play as they think they are driving really well!!

It was a MERRY MERRY Christmas!

I'm so blessed to have a WONDERFUL husband & kids!!!This holiday season was different not having Al home a lot of it, but it made us all value the time we did spend together!

We were lucky enough to have Daddy stay in town the whole week after Christmas so we got to enjoy LOTS of family time before Emma went back on track.

{Daddy still worked in town, but was HOME for dinner if not before then!}

It was a fun holiday season where ALL of our kids were excited to open presents & reactions to different things were PRICLESS!!!

There were also many FHE lessons where I felt like my kids "got" the true meaing of Christmas & that was an awesome spirit in our home all month long.

It was awesome to be able to spend all month with ALL of my kids doing fun RANDOM things whenever we wanted! Emma was off school, so we had no schedule & nap time was non-exsistent, or we had it while driving to our adventure for the day. {which was actually not that bad considering night time was then a BREEZE!} It was fun to have my Twinster & her hubby around for part of December as well!!

I'm so grateful for my Savior! I'm grateful to know that he did live on this earth. That he died for us all. That he LOVES & knows me & my family. He KNOWS ME! He knows what I can handle & is there to help me every step of the way. I'm grateful to have had this time of year to re-focus my life on him. What a blessing it is to have such a LOVING Savior in my life!!

I hope you all had a VERY MERRY Christmas!!