The A Team: Christmas

This year we had a very busy, very fun, and not very relaxing week. Our vacation started the week before Christmas because my sister was getting married on the 19th in Salt Lake. James had a Christmas party at school on the 15th. We loaded up the car, went to see James' program, which was super cute and hit the road. We drove 8 hours to Cortez that night, stayed in a hotel and finished the drive the next day. The first couple of days we stayed with Doug's sister in Orem. The boys loved playing with their cousins and it was fun to visit. Saturday Jordyn went through the temple and it was neat to be there for that. Sunday my parents rented a house and we all moved in.

James at his school party. The girl in the red shirt is his
favorite girl Mikiley. He likes to hold her hand.

Monday was Jordyn's big day. It was an early day and a cold day, but everything went perfectly. And she was so happy. Lucky for us we were able to take our boys to their Aunt Amber again so we were just able to enjoy the morning. It was a good time for the whole family to be together before Chad and Shannon move to Denmark next month.

Jordyn and Ben, the newlyweds

The Family-only missing Alison, Jackson and June

After the wedding things were supposed to slow down for a few days so we could relax. That didn't really happen for some reason. There was still shopping to do and of course bowling! James LOVES bowling. He is obsessed with it. So we decided while we were in civilization we would take the boys bowling. They LOVED it. James was so animated and did well taking turns. He probably would have stayed all day. The only tantrum came when it was time to leave.

James and his "red" bowling

The next few days we just hung out with family. We were FINALLY able to go to the Draper temple. We hadn't been to a session there yet and it was really neat to go back and see the temple Doug had spent 2 years building.
Finally Christmas morning! Since James and Mikey don't really understand Christmas and Santa yet we made sure to send a letter to him to let him know what the boys wanted. Santa brought James a play kitchen and Mikey Backyardagain dolls. Santa definitely did a good job picking out their toys.

James and Mikey playing with the kitchen

Now you will probably notice a slight change in the quality of the pictures from here on out. That is because I got SPOILED for Christmas this year. Doug was really sneaky (having his parents buy, wrap, and bring my present) and surprised me with a new DSLR camera. I was pretty shocked and a little mad since I only got him underwear, jeans and a new frying pan which will mostly be used by me. Not only did Doug spoil me with the camera, but my parents gave me a nice laminator (which I had been wanting but didn't want to spend the money on it) and Doug's parents gave me a Silhouette cutting machine. Yes I would say I was super spoiled this year.

James and Mikey "showing" Billy how to use his toy

Sometime during the morning James and Mikey ran upstairs fighting over a cannon ball that went to Mikey's pirate ship and James gave Mikey his first bloody nose. It really seems like all those two do these days is fight. It got on the carpet but lucky for us my Mom is good at getting blood out of carpet, you would think she raised a few boys herself.

Remnants of the bloody nose

Mikey just being cute

I would say the most enjoyed present of the day was Billy's. He got to have peas for the first time! And oh man was he excited. The first spoonful went in his mouth. He sat there for a minute thinking the got this huge grin on his face and the peas all came right back out.

Billy enjoying peas

After Christmas lunch we went to Doug's sister's again to see his family and have Christmas dinner. Mikey got his favorite toy of the day which was a penguin pillow pet. He was so excited when he opened that. I think because both James and Billy had already gotten stuffed Dogs and he was feeling a little left out.

Mikey with his penguin

Billy and Adam got these teething balls which they both love. They were laying next to each other chewing on their balls. Adam dropped his, then reached over and took Billy's. It was pretty cute.

Adam and Billy with their teething balls.

After dinner we drove back to the house to pack up. The time went way to fast and we had to drive the entire way the next day so Doug could be back to work on Tuesday. The drive went better than expected and our van was so full of stuff there was no room to move around while we were driving. But we made it and this week we have just been relaxing and playing with all our new toys. Me mostly with my camera and it is easy when I have the cutest subjects to take pictures of.

Santa dropped this off on Christmas Eve and James figured out
how he could use the slide Doug made for his bunk bed as a
Bowling ally. He plays this constantly.