Christmas 2012

Well Christmas has come and gone and now we prepare to start a new year. The month of December has been a joyous one full of tradition and special moments. I apologize for bundling it all in one post but I will claim I was too busy even though laziness played a part as well. Here are our December highlights:

Broderick learned several new tricks this month - clapping, waving, and saying da-da. He has also become a little faster at army crawling.

Tyler enjoyed a train ride at the holiday festival in Cameron Park. The train was also "robbed" by some dirty bandits, it was quite a show! 

Here is our little 12 footer. It's normally several feet taller than this.

View of the some of the decorations. It takes days to put up and days to take down! 

I of course did lots of baking. Here are the reindeer heads I made out of gingerbread  The recipe I use calls for butterscotch pudding mix instead of molasses. Its my fav! RECIPE 

   

Broderick loved the Christmas tree. I had him upstairs with me and he army crawled over to the banister to get a better view. It was so cute! 

I made this cute little elf craft that I saw on pinterest. 

Here are a few pictures from our ward Christmas party where the boys got to see Santa. Broderick didn't quite know what to think of him.

Beard test

I couldn't get Broderick to take his eyes off of Santa. 

Daddy liked to joke that Broderick's hat was a Christmas yamaka. It was supposed to be a "elf" hat which is why it looks so tiny. 

 He was enthralled with daddy's hair. 

Here we are on Christmas Sunday.  It was just the two of us since Deke had to work and Tyler was at his dads. Broderick loves his life sized Santa. See them holding hands?

And then we have Christmas Eve! This is the evening where my whole family comes together for a delicious ham dinner and gift exchange.

Cousins!

Brothers!

Kyla helped Broderick opens his presents while he ate the paper.

This was Tyler's excited face to get the game "hedbanz"

What would Christmas Eve be without an assortment of goodies! 

Santa came! 

Broderick checking out his stocking

Santa brought Tyler his very own camera. 

 Skylander Giants!! 

 Christmas morning is a beautiful mess

What the boys got for each other 

Tyler pushing Broderick around the house in this new Micky Mouse stroller 

Tyler helping make Christmas breakfast

Always have to have puff pancakes! Or what some would call German pancake

And of course we skyped with family who couldn't be with us this year. 

Christmas day was also a milestone for Broderick as he turned 9 months old!

the end

Christmas 2011

Here are some highlights from our festive Christmas holiday

Grandma and Papa with all their grandkids

Tyler with 3 of his cousins on Christmas Eve and very excited I might add

Christmas Eve dinner at the "kid table" 

Dinner at the "adult table" 

On Christmas morning Tyler received a big box from Santa. After opening box after box after box he finally found the gift inside... an Ipod nano 6th generation! 

Here are some happy kids with their favorite toys! 

Rockin' out!

Tyler showing off his ipod and new bear tooth necklace that our hunting neighbor made for him. 

I got a little spoiled this year. I wanted a new bed realllllly bad because the other one spotted in THIS post was so rickety and unstable. Not to mention it put Tyler in the ER once. I'm so happy to have a solid stable wood bed that doesn't feel like an earthquake getting in and out of. Props to my husband for putting it together with the full blown flu!

Here was my surprise from my hubby on Christmas Eve. See what I mean by spoiled!? 

Since I am about 22 weeks pregnant I thought I would document what I looked like on Christmas. I felt good until my doctor told me 3 days later that I'm gaining too much weight. Dang fudge! 

Here is my family - parents and 5 of my 6 siblings. I have one more brother that wasn't able to make it out for the holidays. 

Hope your holiday was as just as wonderful! 

Homemade Snow Globes

We got the idea from Martha Stewart seen HERE. All you need for this project is:

- Mason Jar, baby food jar, or any jar really!

- Distilled water

- Glycerin

- Small figurines

- Large glitter

- Super glue

Directions: 

Glue the figurines to jar lid and let dry completely. Fill the jar up with distilled water, add a few drops of glycerin, and teaspoon of glitter. Lastly screw on the lid and you're done! You could super glue the lid closed but we decided not to in case something needs to be re-glued inside. The kids had a blast making this project and were extremely proud of the finished product.