Christmas Day (a little late:-)

In my usual fashion, I am posting a million pictures. I just never can decide which ones I like the most so I just post them all. Have fun deciding which one's you like. :-) Christmas was fun and crazy. Now that we have 5 kids, it seemed like we had a ton of presents under the tree. It was very festive feeling this year.

David and I got up at 7:30 that morning and our kids were still sleeping. We were laughing about how are kids have never woken up before us, and how not normal that is, and what is wrong with them etc. The rule in our house is that if they wake up before us, they can only look through their stockings. The stockings were still sitting exactly where Santa had left them. It seemed like everything was the same. When I came downstairs to talk to David he asked me what had been at the top of Joelle's stocking? I said I couldn't really remember how Santa had packed it. He thought it had been looked through. I said "really? Everything still looks so perfect?" He said "I don't know that just kind of how it looks." Well after they all woke up Joelle admitted that they all got up at 2:00 in the morning (they were all sleeping in the same room) and looked through their stockings. Then she made sure everything was put back perfectly. It was so funny. They were all so tired. David and I just laughed and told them it was a good thing they woke up after Santa had come or he might have been upset and not come. ;-) We really had a great Christmas morning.

Jake got a geo tracks train from Santa. He had been wanting one forever. He was quite happy.

David and I can't actually remember what Katie got from Santa. Isn't that sad????

Now I remember, it was a book shaped like a turtle that plays music and games and says letters..... Not that exciting which is why I couldn't remember. :)

Ben got a King Arthur Castle that he wanted for months. David and I didn't know that it was all tiny little lego pieces that had to be put together. If we had taken the time to read that we might have asked Santa to bring something different. Just kidding. It has been a fun time for Ben to spend with his Daddy.

Emmalee got an I-pod shuffle (instead of a lap top or video camera that she asked for) with a David Archuleta (her 1st heart throb - she voted for him 12 times that American Idol season) cd. She loves it. She is a technology girl. She is always walking around with her earphones in. Funny little thing.

Joelle had been asking for a Swim to me puppy which she happily opened but was also surprised to find a little box with it. Inside the box was a real silver locket that had a real diamond in the center. She didn't care that the diamond was the size of a pencil point she just loved that it was real. Way to go Santa! Way to know that she has wanted a real locket for years, but never remembers to put it on her list. She loves Santa more than ever.

David got his first gun.... It was a shot gun. He broke it in on his birthday a week and a half later. He is definatly a gun guy. Can you say that?? I mean ..... he just likes guns. That doesn't really sound good either I guess. Anyway, he was quite happy with his Christmas.

The funny thing was that I bought and wrapped the present while he was out of town. I went with my brother to get it because I knew he could tell me what to buy and David would never guess that I would buy it for him. Well when he got home he was shocked and excited, and had no idea. I had also wrapped a box of bullets and put them under the tree. It was when he picked up that small heavy box that he figured it out. I mean seriously. I should have just stuck them in his stocking. Although they are so heavy, I don't think that would have worked. Oh well, he still enjoyed it on Christmas day.

Katie was just happy to be in the middle of all the chaos. She didn't really get into opening her own presents just watching every one open theirs and then trying to take it. She was fun to watch. The only thing she really wanted to play with all morning was the tub of batteries. She played in that little box of batteries for hours. It was great. If we had know that's what we would have gotten her for Christmas.

The love of my life spent the rest of the morning making his awesome crescent rolls for Christmas dinner. They are really heaven on earth. He is the Best. Isn't he handsome in the apron his mom sent for Christmas. I love when David is in the kitchen because I know something incredibly yummy will come of it.

Nana also sent us some fun Christmas pancake molds for Christmas, but when we asked our kids if they wanted pancakes they declined and asked for cereal. I mean really, what kind of mother am I. My children prefer cereal to a homemade breakfast. That is just wrong. At least I had Christmas Captain Crunch. I did that much right :-).

This room wasn't even where we opened the presents. It had been perfectly clean that morning. Crazy kids.

Samson of course was still a novelty at that day. We had only had him for 4 days. He is the best little puppy. If you look in the left bottom corner of the picture you will see where Katie spent half the day. We couldn't get her to come out of Samson's crate.

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve was so nice and realxing this year. We had my parents, my grandma, my sister Amy and her husband Wade and their 4 children (including the newest editions to our family, my twin nephews), and my sister Julie and her husband Rusty over for dinner. David always makes clam chowder and bread bowls and my mom always makes white chilli. It is such a fun, yummy night. Christmas eve is probably my most favorite night of the whole year. It is just so magical. These little boys are so sweet. The one in red is Justin and the one in white is Matthew. They were prefect little angels that night.

One tradition that we love and have carried on from my family is the chandelier gifts. Every year we all get one small, light weight gift that we tie with ribbon from the chandelier. As a kid it drives you crazy to have to sit through all of dinner and wait to open that present that is just hanging there, right in front of your face. We open them after dinner. That is the fun part, eating and looking at your present trying to figure out what it could be. I'm not sure why I didn't get a picture of this, but it is one of our favorite traditions. This picture is right after we cut them all down, the kids were so excited to get started.

David got me some work out bottoms (what was he trying to say? Hmmmmmm....). Actually I loved them, thank you handsome.

The girls each played two Christmas songs on the piano. I was quite proud.

David played us some Christmas songs he had learned. He sang as well. Am I the luckiest woman or what. There isn't much this man can't do.

Ben loves to sing with daddy when he plays his guitar. He can sing really well. It was fun to see.

Liam and Jacob were pretty much inseparable that night.

Amy and Wade and Abby were enjoying the lovely performances by my children and husband ;-).

I'm pretty sure Julie and Rusty liked the performances too, but I think they were a little more taken with these sweet little babies. Nothing reminds you of the birth of the Savior more than brand new baby boys at Christmas time.

Meet Samson

Meet the newest edition of our family. This is Samson. I know I said my heart couldn't take it any more, but David asked me for one more try. And when you are face to face with the cutest little Tea Cup Yorkie, how can you refuse. We got Samson from a great lady in Copper Basin. He was her last one left, and her favorite. She was trying to get her husband to let her keep him, but he wouldn't. We lucked out and caught her early enough. She said she had a bunch of other calls on him too (we were all leaving messages), but we were her first (thank you Ashley!). We jumped at this chance. David has been wanting a Yorkie. We had a different dog picked out from the Casa Grande animal control center (neither dog sheds), but David instantly fell in love with this pup. If anyone is interested in Holly (the other dog), let me know. I loved her! She was an awesome dog and in need of a home. She looked like Toto from the Wizard of Oz. But, we were out to get David a dog, not me (although I must say, this dog has won me over big time). I am just so excited. I am a definitely dog person (as long as they don't shed - and they can't knock me over). He is so cute. He has been here for about 3 hours and already he struts, and prances around like he owns the place. That is why we thought he needed a big name even though he is such a tiny pup. If any of you have seen my video camera, it is the kind that fit in the palm of your hand. He is teeeeny! We love him.

Cottage Fair Night

On Monday night we had cottage fair night at our kids school. It's where we go and see all the things they've been learning about this quarter. It was really cute. Ben's class sang some songs for us, one of which was Rudolph the red nosed reindeer. I didn't think much about it when Ben's teacher came up to us before everything started to tell us how cute Ben is when he sings Rudolph. She told us that he loves it, and he always sings his heart out, and when they were done practicing he would stand up and sing it by himself in front of the class. We just kind of laughed about it, but when they started singing, you could totally hear Ben. He sings really well though so it didn't sound bad, it was just funny because you could totally tell it was him. He had a great night.
This was during Rudolph. You can tell he was quite happy.

Emma's class did a poetry reading. They each had a different poem about dinosaurs. They weren't required to memorize them, but most of the kids did anyway. Emma did a great job! I had to tape her afterward though because I was so wrapped up in it I forgot to start video tapping right away. It was pretty lame. But she was happy and did so well.

Katie's Toes

Katie loves anything pretty. She is really into clothes and shoes, so David thought he would try painting her nails and see if she liked it. She LOVED it. Katie doesn't sit still for anything, but she sat really well for this. You could tell she thought she was pretty.