Christmas Pictures

Jeff had to work on Christmas Eve, so I put all the presents out myself. Here's the tree and stockings. I think I did a good job piling up all the gifts in an appealing manner (just makes you want to jump in and start tearing off the paper, doesn't it!).


When the kids got up and saw the tree, the first thing that caught their attention were the puzzles that were unwrapped and sitting in front of all the other gifts. They played with those for a while before even opening any other presents.


After that, I put the camera away and we just had a great time opening presents. I didn't get any more pictures until after the gift-opening mayhem had ended.

Thomas enjoying his new truck (gotta love the huge mess of gifts all over the floor):


Zaylee showing off her new outfit (in this picture, she looks so much like my younger sister Janelle did when she was little! Right, Mom?):


And of course, gotta post pictures of Audrey! This is her adorable new outfit from Jeff's mom. Still big on her, but so cute!


And here she is modeling the new diaper cover I made for her. I finished it on Christmas Eve, so went ahead and wrapped it and put it under the tree for her.


Isn't she just so precious!


Later, we went over and visited Joy and Jim, visited for a while, had a ham dinner, watched The Christmas Story, and basically had a good time with them. It's fun having family close by (they're only about 10-15 minutes away) that we can go visit and spend time with.

So here's the loot we hauled in: I was excited to receive a rotary cutter and mat from Jeff, now I can cut out several diapers at the same time! He also got me one of those fancy glass cake stands that can double as a punch bowl or trifle bowl. It's something that I've wanted for a while, but couldn't justify spending the money on such a non-necessity. So I'm excited about that, I can't wait to make a fancy layer cake to display on it! And a complete surprise was the massage cushion that Jeff got me - now I can be getting a back massage while nursing Audrey! How cool is that?

I got Jeff new church shoes and a new computer mouse, since his old shoes are falling apart and our mouse was on the fritz. I also got him the third Lord of the Rings movie. We've had the first two for years, but never got around to completing the trilogy. Also some beef jerky and cream wafers, both of which he loves to snack on.

Zaylee got lots of alphabet games and puzzles, and some toy ponies and dolls, and new clothes. Thomas got toy cars, a toy truck, clothes, and new church shoes (he and Jeff opened their new church shoes at the same time, Thomas thought that was pretty cool). Audrey got clothes, the diaper cover, and a beautiful blessing gown that my mom made. I can't wait to put her in it for her blessing next Sunday.

Speaking of Audrey's blessing, I'm super excited because my family will be driving down to spend that weekend with us and attend the blessing! I love family visits, and this one is extra special because of the blessing and also because this will be their first time seeing our new house (mental note: CLEAN and DECLUTTER!). It's so awesome that our house is big enough that all 8 of them will fit and have a place to sleep. It might be a tad snug, but everyone will fit. Try fitting an extra 8 people in the tiny apartment we used to live in, ha!

Hope everyone had a great Christmas!