Christmas morning!

Christmas morning was a BLAST this year!


The boys patiently waiting to open their gifts.




Brinley and her new doll house. I had wrapped all the dolls that go with it and she came out and saw the house and said in the most devastated voice, "there are no dolls! Where are the dolls?!" I guess I shouldn't have wrapped them!

Bry with his money book.

After the kids got done opening all their gifts, we had a note in the bottom of their stocking that said they had one more surprise but they had to find the magic room. We had filled up the office with balloons and they had to find the presents. They went nuts with their pins popping all the balloons. They each had 3 boxes. One with an airplane ticket, one with a disney cruise ticket, and one with a pirate outfit. One night on the cruise there is a big pirate party that you dress up for. We are so excited! We leave in a couple weeks. So glad we have something to look forward to! Florida here we come!

We followed it up with a mickey mouse breakfast! So FUN!

Merry Christmas!

December is such a crazy month! I have needed to get caught up on my blog for a while now and just haven't taken the time to do it. So here goes a million pictures! I love Christmas time! I love getting my house totally decked out! It is so much work and every year I wonder why I do it but after it is all up, it is totally worth it. It is so fun to watch the kids get all excited! This year we did the advent calendar and I wish I would have taken more pictures. We really tried to do something together every night. We did miss a couple, but all in all we had a blast! This is our advent village. There is a window or door that opens for every day.


1. Christmas Karaoke


2. Read Christmas stories and have hot chocolate.
3. Watch the Grinch stole Christmas
4.Ward Party
5. Make Christmas cards.
6. Go to Forgotten Carols
7. Family movie night
8. Make Christmas cookies

9. Didericksen family home evening


Every month we get together with the Didericksen's to have a combined family home evening. We love it and the kids look so forward to it. This month we decided to do a service scavenger hunt. It was so fun! We had a list of different things to do, divided up into 4 teams and had 45 minutes to get as many things done as we could. Some of the items on the list were:
*Pay for someone's groceries and help them out to their car
*Pay for someone's dinner
*Ding dong ditch someone and leave a gift
*Take a picture of a farm animal (Have to throw in a little challenge)
*Pay for someone's gas
*Help someone wash their car
*Etc....
One group even sang to everyone in Casa Del Rey! It was a ton of fun and a great way to be of service. It was fun to watch the look on people's faces!

10. Christmas coloring fun
11. Family game night
12.Make bread men and soup
13. Go see Princess and the Frog.
14. Stay at Little America

We stayed over at Little America and had a ton of fun. The kids love to go swimming and it is a nice little break to get away in the hussle of it all!
15. Drive around town and look at lights.
16.Make a Christmas craft.
17. Didericksen family Christmas party.


18. Ginger bread houses.


19. Coon Family Christmas party


I am so thankful for this time of year and for the opportunity we have to celebrate the Savior's birth and to remember all the many blessings we have been given. I have been especially grateful this year. I think with Jay R.'s career it has been an eye opener for me, to not take the simple things for granted. It has been such a blessing for our family and we have felt the Spirit ever so close this last little while. Life is so fragile. I am so grateful for my kids and Jay R. and I hold them all a little closer! What a blessing to know that families are forever. I am grateful for the time we have been able to spend with our families this Christmas. What a wonderful time of year!