Christmas

Christmas lasted a full four days around our house this year! We are starting to take down all our decorations so I figured I had better write a post about Christmas before I forget it all!
One of our gifts to our girls this year was to finally let them "Build A Bear". Brooklyn has had her eye on this store for at least a year. She never fully understood what happened in there, but she loved to look around. I probably made a mistake showing her all the fun inside. We tried to make it a point that this was one special event and probably not something that will ever happen again. We got a good deal though, which is why we went. We went on December 23rd because Marty had the day off. This was obviously an early present.
The line to stuff the bears was really long! We didn't have a whole lot going on that day so it was fine with us. Brooklyn picked out the blue bear as her favorite! It has peace signs all over it, but she thinks they are dots.
One super excited little girl! We decided to include Eliza in on the party, but she really didn't understand what was happening. She had fun, just not to the extent that Brooklyn did.
They both enjoyed giving their animals their first bath!
Picking out clothes took forever and one spoiled girl got more than she should, but it was overall a fun experience!
Brooklyn introduced her new bear "Love" to her other favorite bear "teddy". She's been trying to steal her sister's dog's clothes to put on her other teddy.
This is Eliza's dog, affectionately known as "Princess Ruff". Both girls named their animals all on their own. Brooklyn even changed her Bear's birthday to Valentine's Day since she named it Love.
On Christmas Eve we enjoyed being together as a family and got ready for my mom's party at my brother's house in Layton. But before we went, we decided to open our Christmas Eve present at home.
Both girls got matching Dora pajamas and slippers! Eliza loved Dora. The slippers, not so much.
Brooklyn LOVES the slippers!
Then Eliza sat and pouted when she realized she couldn't open the other presents under the tree.
Favorite cousins, Brooklyn and Sariah. We decided to have a nontraditional Christmas Eve party and had Mexican cuisine. We had tons of food! We played games, opened presents, watched a slide show of pictures of everyone and had fun together. It was a great time!
Brooklyn got the pillow pet she has been wanting. She had the best reaction once she figured out that the black furry thing actually was a penguin. She loves penguins!
Eliza got a monkey pillow pet. And both girls got a Tinkerbell blanket. Eliza loves "bell"!
The kids enjoyed playing together all night and hiding under the table eating brownies! It's no wonder they had a hard time falling asleep that night. Since Layton is a far distance from our house, both girls managed to fall asleep on the way home.
Then the magic started to happen and everything was ready for Christmas morning.
The girls slept in until 8:30 (remember they were up late), but they were both SUPER excited from the moment they opened their eyes that day! Brooklyn had this energy about her that was contagious. Eliza caught right on to the excitement and both girls were hyper little bundles of joy!
Santa didn't disappoint Brooklyn on the first gift she opened. She got the Backyardigan's movie she wanted!!
Emptying stockings was a little bit of work when you have short arms.
Brooklyn got right to work checking everything out. She quickly figured out which gifts had her name on them and which ones were for others. She did try to claim a few presents that were from Brooklyn. :)
Both girls got right to work opening gifts. Here they are opening some quiet books I made for them.
Then they really got into the action. Rip, tear, and repeat.
Eliza got a train table from Santa so they can finally start using the trains Brooklyn got last year!
Brooklyn got a Leapfrog Tag reading system. She didn't ask for this (she didn't ask for much this year), but she is enjoying it!
Then we had breakfast and stayed home and played with all their fun presents!
Coloring was one of their favorite activities! Eliza got the little couch thing she is sitting on. Brooklyn had to tell everyone that Eliza is going to share that with her because there is enough room for two! Brooklyn has always wanted one of those things.
One of our Christmas evening traditions is to see the lights at Temple Square. I told Brooklyn to pick one nativity to have her picture with and she picked "Mary and Jesus on the water". She loved it!
It was a bit cold, but nothing unbearable.
The girls were still a bit hyper, but they enjoyed seeing all the lights.
It's really beautiful there and always so amazing how many lights they have. I always stop to look at the trees and wonder how long it would take to strand one of those trees. Amazing!
We had a fun night as a family!
Sunday we went to church and then we went up to Kamas to celebrate Christmas with the Nowling's. Marty's mom was in the hospital the night before with some stomach pains so we weren't sure if we would still have the party. Connie had faith and told everyone to still come. Some people made it there early to help with the food prep and Connie was home and ready to party before we made it there.
We had a yummy dinner and opened more presents. The kids received more fun presents there. Spoiled kids!
All the grown up kids got these cool money trees. Very creative!
We also spent the night. Our kids had the hardest time falling asleep there. I did as well. I think I only slept 3 hours total that night so by the next day, we were all exhausted and ready to go home.
We had a great time celebrating with everyone and we are truly grateful for all we have! It was a wonderful Christmas season!!