Christmas

First I have some pictures that technically weren't from Christmas but close enough. My nieces and nephew have been out since the 17th I believe. We've been going to down and spending time when we can. The kids have been pretty busy with dentist and eye dr appts plus my brother has taken them up to Ogden a couple times to this girl Cresta's. I don't know if that's how you spell her name. I think they're dating. He doesn't talk about it much. So they've been kinda busy but we do enjoy seeing them when we can. One night my mom decided to use up the rest of the candy they used for gingerbread houses and do gingerbread men. Here's the few pics I took:

 Pretty sure you know which one Charlotte decorated

 She was loving  putting all the candy on.... and of course eating it too.

 Those smiles....

Charlotte loves to be with Nolan. She is really going to miss him when he's gone. He's her buddy. I'm just glad she has so much fun with her cousins. I had some good memories with mine but never see them anymore and may not see most of them ever again (sadly). We take in every moment we get with family and try to take advantage of the opportunities she gets to be with her cousins.

Okay so onto Christmas stuff. Christmas Eve was a good day. I couldn't sleep so I went to Walmart at like 6:30am to beat the crowd and finish off my shopping. Yeah of course it was quite crowded for 6:30 am but not as bad as it would have been later! So glad I was up early! I got Scott's car washed and everything ready for Christmas. We went down to my parents for a bit so I could help with some wrapping. I had gone out with my Dad and sister the night before and we got lots of stuff for my mom we needed to wrap. Then I finished up my wrapping. We hung out for a bit. The kids and my brother were gone. They had stayed the night at Cresta's and had gone down to Temple Square the night before and something else. I forget what. So we just hung out there for a bit without the kids. Then that evening we went to Scott's parents for dinner and to watch family Christmas videos. We love watching these videos each year. Scott knows the tapes pretty well and takes charge of them and showing them. Its just fun to see how cute all the boys were when they were little. It's just so funny to watch too. The dated clothes and hairstyles and just how different everyone looked back then. There are some with his cousins and aunts and uncles that are fun to see too. We have a blast watching it all. Love those movies. So glad they took so much video. I love seeing cute little Scooterbug. We were up there pretty late and Charlotte wouldn't nap that day. Once we got home and showered and ready for bed, she crashed while I read her a story.

That was a relief. That meant Scott and I could get to bed at a decent time. I woke up of course at like 5 to use the bathroom and was in and out of sleep until 6:30 then I figured I'd get up because we were going to have almost no time at home Christmas day so I better get ready now. So I had a good hour to get dressed and do my hair and makeup. When I was done I made sure our camera were ready and I went to check in on her. She was just waking up as I came in. So I grabbed her and brought her in our room to make sure she didn't see anything yet. We cuddled for a minute and talked to her about how Santa came to visit. At first I think she thought he was there because she didn't want to go down the hall. She was kind of nervous. But anyway, this was her laying in our bed.

Here is what was waiting for her and the look on her face as she walked down the hall.

She was just in awe at stuff. She grabbed her yo gabba gabba pillow first and then the bear and then started checking out other stuff.

 She loves that giant spider. Such an odd child but she was playing with that all morning.

 We had some Disney movie rewards point and got a Tangled toy tote for her. She thinks its pretty cool.

 She got a voice changer thing in her stocking. She's been playing with that on and off today.

 The other thing I got with the Disney movie rewards points a little Winnie the Pooh pillow pet. She loves this thing too.

We had to get Toby something. Just a couple bones. He loves chewies so I had to hold him to get a pic. He kept trying to run away from me. Once we opened his bone he took off down the hall and left us alone the rest of the morning.

Charlotte got lots of candy and little knick knacks in her stocking and had a lot of fun. She was playing on her slide and we had a hard time getting her changed to go to my parent's. We figured we'd go down for breakfast and get presents opened there. Breakfast was awesome. I should have taken a picture but it was similar to these:

It's hard to see the sandwich but its a Tommie's breakfast sandwich. Mmmmmm... When my brother went to pick up the kids he had his ex pick up a bunch of chili from Tommie's. Oh how I wish UT had Tommie's. We got In 'n' Out so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that Tommie's makes it here someday. So we used the chili to make our own breakfast sandwiches. English muffin, mayo, mustard, pickles, tomato, chili, cheese, egg and sausage for those who choose to eat sausage (not me!). It was pretty dang close to the real deal. It tasted so good. My mouth is watering thinking about it.

We opened all our presents. Charlotte got lots of fun toys. Some little people stuff. She's been playing with those on and off all day. She got a Barney dvd and a couple Raffi cds. I loved Raffi growing up and Charlotte knows some of the songs so she's been enjoying that. Scott and I got some great gifts. Scott got new jeans which he was in desperate need of. All his had holes minus the pair I grabbed at DI to get him by. My dad has this big Lakers mug that has special stuff in it so you freeze it and it keeps your drinks cold forever and sometimes makes them slushy. I don't drink soda often but love slushy soda. So we each got one. I got Lakers and Scott actually got 2 Jazz ones. So he can keep one at my parents and one here at home. We got a new set of sheets which I really needed. Now I can finally be holey sheet free! I got a new mini leatherman. Charlotte lost my old one. Love my leatherman! I also got a massive bottle of one of my favorite perfumes. The pink Lucky perfume. It smells sooooo good and will last forever. It is seriously ridiculously large. I didn't know perfume bottle could be so big. I also got a Lakers snuggie (how sweet is that?) and a spa kit with glove scrubbies and all sorts of scented soaps, face wash and little things like that. So nice to have the last bit of my pregnancy. Oh and a shirt that says "We're hoping its a pony." Hahaha... funny maternity shirt. I can't remember it all but we got lots of awesome stuff.

We also planned on doing an early dinner type thing with my parent's. My brother was going up to Cresta's again with the kids and staying the night so we decided to do our Christmas prime rib dinner for lunch. Well that was the plan. It took a lot longer to cook than planned so we got everything else ready in the meantime. We had sweet potatoes and yummy rolls and regular rolls and veggies and mashed potatoes and gravy. It tasted sooooo good. After we ate we pretty much had to take off. We wanted to stop at home to drop off our stuff and check on the dog. We spent about 20 min at home then headed up to Scott's parents. We planned on dinner there and all his brothers were gonna be there so we could all do gifts.

We got more great stuff at his parents. I got some maternity clothes which are so great. I can always use longer shirts. My stomach is really pushing the limits on some of my shirts. Scott got some new shirts too. They'll look really good on him. Charlotte got some clothes and Jackson got a super cute new outfit I can't wait to see him in. Charlotte also got a pop up princess tent she's been loving and playing a ton in today. We got a picture framed from our recent photo shoot (I gotta get those pics up on here too). We actually hung it up today. It looks really good in our living room! Oy I'm having the hardest time remembering it all. Scott's grandparent's came up and his Grandma made us all these really cool tree skirts. I can't wait to use it next year. It's so cool. Then Charlotte got a cute little ladybug necklace from them that she's been wearing around all day. Oh and Charlotte got a Clifford book which she really likes. We also counted Scott's new phone as a Christmas present. He officially has a smart phone. Its pretty sweet. I am amazed at what those phones can do. It's been making his calling a lot easier too so that's been super helpful. Anything that can simplify that for him is a huge help.

So even though I can't think of it all right now, we got a lot of great gifts from our families this year. We do every year though. We are so lucky to have such awesome parents that love us and take good care of us. They do so much to help us out and we're always so grateful for all they do. Charlotte didn't get a nap again yesterday but she had such a great day. She also crashed again while I read to her. She was exhausted. We loved to spend time with our families and it was so great to see everyone yesterday. We have one more party coming up with the Spence side of the family. I think its Friday. Hopefully Scott doesn't have to work late but with him having Monday off we're not sure. He was off early this past Friday and is off today so we're hoping it works out the same. I love this time of year. Just to spend time with family is enough for me and the gifts are a big huge bonus to go with that. Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas!