Christmas Day

For those of you who actually still read this blog, I am sorry. I am slacking on my blog responsibilities. I think it has something to do with a certain baby boy who only sleeps 20 minutes at a time. It's hard to get anything done and I feel behind in every area of my life! So though I am dating this blog right after Christmas (for blog book purposes), I am actually writing it on February 19, 2013. Yikes! So let's see if I can remember Christmas from two months ago. :)

The kids slept in until 7:30 am. I woke up before them because I was so excited! I will admit, it was nice to not have Christmas fall on a Sunday this year. I remember last year being so hectic to get up and do everything before Church. This year it was on a Tuesday so it was nice to have a whole day to be together as a family.

  The girls were excited to see which gifts had their name on them.

Let the madness begin!

We had a few matchy type gifts to keep things "fair" in the world.

Lincoln was even happy it was Christmas morning! The girls loved how his stocking had a tie attached!

They also loved being able to help open his presents!

They said he was lucky because he got the BIG presents!

Thanks to a suggestion from a ward member (Thanks Camille!), we started a tradition of having siblings gifts that are handmade. Brooklyn worked very hard on Lincoln's picture and drawing of a bear and a baseball (which she HAD to laminate). She was so excited for him to open it!

My younger kids obviously couldn't do this very well. Eliza made Brooklyn a card with a few pictures. Lincoln was supposed to do something for Eliza, but looking back now I don't believe we ever did what we told her we would do (which was for dad to draw her a picture from Lincoln). Oops.

One of the highlights of our day was Skyping with Grandma and Grandpa on their mission. We saved the presents from them so they could watch the girls open them.

We also had a visit from Grandma and Grandpa Nowling and Facetimed another Grandma.

The rest of the day was spent playing with all the new toys! I swear my house is turning into one giant toy store!

Brooklyn loved her Barbie Princess and the Pop Star themed gift from Santa. A dress, guitar and microphone. She rocked it! :)

Eliza actually got the dress Brooklyn is wearing and both girls got the Barbie dolls as well. Eliza enjoyed the gifts, but not as much as Brooklyn.

Eliza is constantly doing something like this to Lincoln. Today was no exception.

Lincoln wanted to be a part of the singing! It was really loud in our house! I'm not sure what Santa was thinking. ;)

There were boxes and toys everywhere! I only can handle it for about two hours and then I begin picking it up and putting things away.

Marty and the kids went outside to enjoy the beautiful day! It was a white Christmas but we still had blue sky.

Eliza being cute!

Brooklyn enjoyed learning how to shoot her bow and arrow. She really loves the Disney BRAVE movie.

What do you get a baby? Well, I just went through all the baby clothes I had being buying on clearance and "gave" them to him. He also got a new highchair. It seems like a silly gift, but the girls would have noticed if he didn't get anything (though honestly I don't think they could tell you what mom and dad got for Christmas). Anyway, so Lincoln got clothes galore as most of his gifts from people. So much that I thought it would make for a cute picture. It's like playing Where's Lincoln?

We had a fun filled day as a family!