MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

Merry Christmas everyone! We had a really fun Christmas this year and we all got what we wanted or needed. It is so fun to have little kids because the magic of Christmas is still there in their faces. Emily was so excited to go see what Santa had brought that she had a hard time waiting for everyone. We woke the kids up at 8:00 so we would have time to play and get ready before it was time for church. We would not let Emily go in the front room until she had made her bed, we had made our bed and changed Colby's diaper. Then Dad had to turn on the Christmas tree lights and get the cameras ready. That was so hard for an excited 3 year old. The whole time I was changing Colby she kept saying "Come on Mom! I have to go see if Santa came." She even tried to sneak a peek before we were ready but we caught her. Then, finally, we all went in together. Emily was ecstatic! She ran right over to her new toys and started screaming "Look, look!!" Emily and Colby both loved Christmas this year and Emily loved opening hers and Colby's presents.

Colby and Emily got what they asked Santa for. Colby got his truck well he got a Little People bus which is close enough. Emily got her jump rope and mermaid doll and she was so excited. Here are a few pictures of all of the kids' loot:

Emily loves drawing with her easel and the art smock protects her clothes. Her favorite gift I think is her dress up box full of princess dresses. We also got some new movies like the Lion King, Cars 2, Pirates 4 and Captain America. Colby loved his new toys too. I think his favorite was his drum and other percussion instruments. He loves making "music" with them. Emily has also claimed the drum as her own because she likes making music too! My brother told me that every boy needs a new tool for Christmas so Colby got his first tool on his first Christmas. He got a little hammer that giggles when it is hit. He loves it.

Russell and I also got a wheat grinder and apple peeler for our food storage. Russell got a sander and an inverter. I got some new clothes and a Yoga ball. I am going to learn some new exercises on the ball.

After playing for a while we decided we better have breakfast and get ready for church. We had our traditional breakfast of scrambled eggs, ham, orange rolls, and of course egg nog. Then it was time to get dressing in our new Christmas outfits. Because Christmas was on Sunday this year, we all got new church clothes:

Don't we look so styling? Colby definitely needed new church clothes because he has outgrown everything he has. I love how handsome he looks in his vest and tie. Russell also need new church pants because his other pants were from his mission like 7 years ago! And of course Emily and I couldn't be left out so we also got new dresses.

Now that we were ready to go, it was time to open the presents under the tree.

Here we got a few more fun gifts. Emily got her new scripture bag and her very own Book of Mormon to take to church. She will be a Sunbeam in Primary next year so Russell and I decided she needed her very own scriptures. She also got a dentist Barbie that we are hoping will encourage her to brush her teeth. She hates having then brushed and it is a fight every night. Russell also made Emily some lace boards so she can practise her sewing. She loves helping me sew so we thought this would be a fun little activity for her to do while I sew.

I gave Russell a radar detector for the car. If you will remember a few posts back, Russell ruined our lucky day by getting a speeding ticket. He is trying so hard to keep his driving record clean for the ambulance agencies. I figured this radar detector would help him with that as well as save us a lot of money in fines! He thought it was pretty cool and went right outside and installed it in the truck.

Russell got me an external hard drive for the computer. Now I will have a place to store all of my pictures because our computer is starting to get a little over loaded!

By this time Colby wasn't too excited about Christmas anymore. He loved rolling around and getting into everything he could because the ground was covered in toys. When we tried to get him to unwrap his gifts, however, he didn't want anything to do with it. He would much rather be playing on the floor than sitting on my lap being forced to rip some paper. It really interfered with his playing. So as you can see he was trying anything he could to get off my lap. He did love rolling under the tree and kicking the limbs though that was pretty fun. Finally he had had enough and crashed. He slept until we went to church at 1:00.

Church was really good too. The choir sang some Christmas hymns and the Primary sang also. I should have let Emily go up and sing with Primary as I played the piano because she had learned both of the songs. Instead sing sang the songs to Russell down in the pew along with the Primary. During Singing Time over the last couple weeks, the Nursery kids have been coming into Primary so that they can get used to coming for next year. Emily loves going into the "big" Primary and singing.

After church, we went home, had lunch, and then headed to everyone else's houses to see how their Christmas was. Our first stop was Russell's family. There we were given even more gifts:

Emily got these fun hair supplies to add to her dress up box. She loves brushing, curling and blowing her hair dry. I also gave her some pretend make up and she sits and primps all day. She loves dressing up and getting all pretty and done up.

Next we headed to my parent's house and met up with all of my siblings. More gifts were given here too. My parents gave Emily a beautiful wooden rocking chair and gave Colby a wooden barn and fence along with some horses. My mom said he was probably still a little young for the gift but he will love it when he gets older.

By this time it was almost 9:00 pm but we still had to got over to Clay's house to give them their gifts. We headed out to Ivins and got to see how the Morwood's Christmas was. Finally at 10:00 pm we decided we had better head home because Colby and Emily were getting so tired. It had been a really long day for both of them and they didn't get their naps. When we got home, we decided to go over to Grandma's house for a little while before turning in. After visiting for a few minutes, and having Taco Soup, my parents, Lacie's family, and Clint came over to our house to see our Christmas. Emily loved showing her cousins all of her fun new toys.

We finally got to go to bed at around midnight! Poor Russell had to go to work at 6:00 am the next morning. Emily, Colby and I were so tired that we didn't even get up until 10:00am the next morning. Well Colby and I got up then Emily slept until noon! We decided the day after Christmas was a pajama day so we just stayed in our pajamas and played with our new toys all day. It was great. What a great holiday.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!