Christmas

On Christmas Eve, we had the most delicious tacos/mexican food with the Moons and then we sang and had the kids act out the Christmas story. If I remeber right, we had a female Joseph and a pretty reluctant donkey.

She really wanted to play the part, so she ran into the other room and got a baby doll to put up her dress

When we got back from dinner, the kids all put on their Christmas jammies, put out snacks for the reindeer, and set out cookies and milk for Santa.

They're totally nuts, but they're mine and I love them

She was SO excited that Santa got her just what she asked for. This was the first year that we visited Santa and she told him what she wanted. It was pure magic.

The kids got a lot of puzzles and that has been the most popular source of entertainment ever since.

I asked Andrew to get a nice picture of the kids while I finished getting ready. I'll let you decide whether or not he was successful.

Adaline got a doctor kit from Andrew's brother and wife and she spent most of the day giving everyone check-ups

It was a little weird having our Christmas morning before and after church, but I'm always grateful for the opportunity to worship Christ in church on Christmas day.
That night we went to the other Moons' house for dinner and it was nice to be able to spend the evening gathered in a home with family.

 The day after Christmas we drove to Utah! We completely lucked out and the weather was perfect on both sides of our trip even though there were storms just before and just after we went. This was also our first road trip since getting our van, and it really was amazing. While we were packing, we just kept saying "sure, bring it, we have room!" lol I love that all 3 kids fit in the middle row and then we have the whole trunk and back row for our stuff. We put Harry Potter 2 and some other audio books on a thumb drive and just plugged it into the usb port and listened to those most of the way. It was awesome. And it totally reminded me of driving to TX from IN every year for Christmas when I was growing up.

We finally had to wake Michael up so that we could leave at a good time.

There were a lot of tears, but considering that the oldest child is 3, I think they all did a fantastic job!

All three asleep

I have no idea where this whole "holding hands makes us a family" thing came from, but it's pretty cute.

See the blanket and mattress just to his left?

Nate had been in the middle of them, but by the time I snapped the picture, he was gone. The part that cracks me up the most is how confused they both look by his leaving.

She managed to convince her aunt and uncles to play in the snow with her at least a couple times

Papa taking care of his grandsons

I love everything about this picture

We were hoping to borrow a swing, so we didn't bring ours with us. Michael takes all of his naps in the swing, so everyone took turns helping us out by putting him to sleep and holding him while he napped. Sometimes they also put themselves to sleep though ;)

He totally has Nama wrapped around his finger

Cousin bath! Poor Nate is not used to how rough and demanding my kids can be

One day we went to a bounce place and I think the adults had just as much fun as the kids.

Nate was so fancy he went down backwards

Adaline rolled up her pants so they wouldn't get wet, I think. It's hilarious to me how foreign snow is for my kids

See? They're obsessed with puzzles!

and books

Later in the week, we went to the trampoline place, Adaline did the rope swing about 50 times. 

Driving home. So tired and so sad to be leaving family

We are still working on teaching him how to use the bike he got for Christmas, It's pretty funny to watch him waddle along.

That's a wrap for 2016.