Christmas Day

Christmas morning was so much fun! Santa came and we were all so excited!  Teagan finally got the soft squishy robe he's been dreaming about for the last few months.  He looked just like Santa!

Eloise and Adeline got what they call their "American dolls" and they have been loving them.  Eloise is now asking for more outfits for hers for her birthday.  She loves to dress and undress them over and over again.  It is the sweetest.  Adeline loves for me to fix her doll's hair and always says, "it is a mess, she needs a ponytail" and then 10 minutes later she pulls out the elastic and says "ohhhh, it's so beautiful."  I think I love the dolls as much as the girls do.  They also got the cute little table behind Ellie.

Teagan had such a fun morning and he was so fun to watch.  He gets so excited about every single little thing.  From the calendar, to the action figures, to the drone to the legos.  He is so fun to buy for!

The aftermath.  It would have been much worse, but my mom stayed in the background and broke down boxes and through out the paper.  She is wonderful in a million ways.

There was an insane blizzard and church was canceled and we could barely get out of the street because the snow was so deep, but we forged ahead to make it to the Daniels' Christmas dinner!  Zac drove beautifully and it only took us 2 hours to get there.  Once we were there it was really fun to see everybody and exchange gifts and eat yummy food and play games.

We gave Great Grandpa Casper a personalized calendar.  He was so sweet.  He looked through every page and even told me later, "that must have taken a lot of work, I really appreciate it, thank you."  That is a saying a lot, that might have been the most I've ever heard him talk in a row and he was so sincere.  We just love Grandpa!

Eloise loved her backpack and outfit!  Her and Zoey loved matching!

 Teagan loved getting clothes too, he is just like his daddy in that way.  Not pictured is addy with her backpack and table and stools!  She was so excited to have a backpack and the table with it's compartments that open is so fun.  They use it as

When the boys were little, their Grandma Daniels (Lavon) gave them a chocolate orange with a $5 bill in it every year and Shelly has continued the tradition with her boys.  It's a fun way to stay connected to the past.

 Teagan and Taylin kept us all entertained all day.  They got watches from grandma and grandpa and made up all sorts of crazy dances to go to the music.  Teagan loves his thug pose when he's photo-bombing.  Gotta love that funny boy.  PS: the dinner was so amazing!

 I don't have any pictures of it, but the 3 little girls obsessed over Quinn all day.  They followed her and tried to carry her and play with her all afternoon.  I could not believe how goodnatured she was!  Quinn just smiled and looked around and followed them around.  It was the sweetest thing!  They would have stayed all night if we had let them.  The kids love being at "grandma's house!"

We made it back home after another 2 hours drive and getting stuck about 30 ft from our driveway (which was so ridiculous that we laughed, how is it that we drove so far on bad roads with no trouble and got stuck that close to home?).  Burke Davis and Josh Newell came and helped pull and push and dig us out.  It was such a fun fun day, but it was so so exhausting, especially 4 hours on horrible roads.  We have vowed to stay home on Christmas day in the future so that we aren't so burnt out the next day for Teagan's birthday.  haha  I guess that is a sign that we are getting old.

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve is maybe even more exciting than Christmas day for me.  I am such an obsessive over-preparer that I feel like I can just relax and enjoy the magic of the day.  We started by going to the Center Twin to watch "Sing."  It was so cute and we all loved the luxury of going to the movies!

Teagan loves to do these "tough" looking pictures, I have to be sneaky to get one of him smiling.  haha  That Santa hat was worn everyday all day this whole month, I think he maybe even started wearing it before thanksgiving.  He is a trend setter apparently, because by the time they got out for school there were a ton of kids wearing them to school every day.  I think Zac was the exact same way.

 After our movie, we met up with Grandma Packer and went out to eat at Smitty's.  I think that it might be our new favorite place to eat.  The food was excellent, the service, was excellent, it was nice and quiet and relaxed and they serve Kraft Macaroni and Cheese.  It was seriously so fun.

 We all had fun coloring and visiting.  Adeline was getting anxious so our waiter took her for a walk around the restaurant.  He was so patient and upbeat.  He told us that he had 3 children at home waiting for him to arrive.

 Zac left a very generous tip and then as we were walking out we decided that it might be fun to leave a little extra cash on the table as well (in case he has to share the credit card tips).  Teagan ran a 20 dollar bill in and snuck it onto the table and we all ran out to the car.  It was blizzarding outside and we happened to be parked right outside the window where we had been sitting so we sat in the van (the waiter couldn't see us because of the snow) and got to watch him just after he found it.  He had the biggest smile and you could tell he was super excited.  The kids were loving it and so were we.  I believe sitting in the van and watching him might be my favorite memory of this year.

We headed home for our Christmas Eve fun.  We talked about the "Light the World" challenge and kind of reflected on some of the things we were able to do this season to Light the World.  Then we read the Christmas Story and attempted to act it out.

They all got fun new pajamas and then they got to open up a fun surprise Christmas Eve present.  It was lincoln logs that Zac and I had had a friend make for us and then we spent hours sanding, painting, and staining them.  They were a huge hit for everyone (especially me and Teagan).

 We loved having Grandma Packer with us for Christmas this year!  She took a billion pictures and just adds to the fun, love you grandma!

Then they all got to have a sleepover together upstairs.  It was so fun, except that they literally spent 2 hours messing around in there before we got them to finally go to sleep (past 10).  They were just so excited for Santa to come.  They spent all evening watching the Santa Tracker on Zac's phone.

Holiday Festivities

The Museum of Idaho had a really fun, free Christmas exhibit so we met up with Angie, Jax and Grandma Packer to take a look.

They loved the non-Christmas stuff too.  The Idaho settlers play area is always a huge hit!  haha

There were hundreds of Santas, nativities and gingerbread houses.   We all loved looking at them!

We have had a record amount of snow this winter already and the kids love to play in it.  Sometimes because the snow is fun, and sometimes because drinking hot chocolate when you come inside is delicious!

Family Christmas Party

I look forward to the Christmas party with my mom and siblings every year.  We have a yummy dinner and then do our music program which is super professional and musical.  This year everyone was able to make it which makes it even more fun!

 The music program gets more and more enjoyable every year.  The kids are so talented!  Teagan and I played Carol of the Bells on the piano and Eloise sang jingle bells.  It was pretty hilarious because Ty got up and wanted to sing Jingle Bells but got stage fright.  He was fine as long as we sang with him though.  Then Eloise got up and everyone assumed that she would want us to sing with her.  She didn't and would have been just fine to sing by herself and you could tell she was a little annoyed that everyone kept singing.  haha  She is such a performer!  I love her!

Another highlight of the performances was when Grant played his amazing piano solo and all the kids went nuts cheering for him, they were so proud of him.  It was beautiful.

Jake and Kai played a really fun Fiddlers type song (apparently it's famous) and everyone clapped along and danced, it was so fun!

I love that we all share a love for music with each other and our kids and that we have so much fun with it!

Grandma Packer made a stuffed animal for each of the kids and they absolutely love them!  They all went down stairs and made houses and rockets for them and were making up all sorts of games.  It was such a blast and was a definite highlight of the night.  

Mormon Tabernacle Christmas Concert

After several years of attempting to get tickets to the annual Choir Christmas concert I finally got some this year!  I was so excited and Zac was a really good sport and came with me.  We went early and went out to eat and then looked at the lights on temple square.

 The music was so spectacular!  Even Zac said that he enjoyed it, and that's saying something!  I just loved it and want to make it a yearly tradition...but maybe it will be more like every 5 years or something.  We were so grateful to Kurt and Shelly for taking the kids for the couple days that we were gone!  Having family close by makes things that much easier.

There is something magical about a weekend with just Zac

and I.  We are able to focus on each other and just have fun together without all the stress.  I know that I can get so worked up when the kids are around and it's nice for me to just simmer down sometimes.  Everytime we get to steal away for a few days I love it so much!  Muah!  Love you Zac!

We got to experience using the UTA trains and that was quite an adventure.  We felt like real city folk.

Meeting Santa

We went to see the fun lights at Freeman Park and as we were driving through we saw signs pointing to the North Pole.  We were so excited because Santa was there!  All the kids were so happy to see him.  Adeline told him that she just wanted a candy cane for Christmas.  Eloise was literally jumping up and down waiting for her turn.  Teagan played it cool, but you could tell he was super excited!

And then we went to Grandma and Grandpa Daniels' church party and a very familiar Santa came out.  The girls were terrified and refused to sit on his lap.  Teagan was totally in on the secret and loved playing the "elf."  I finally told Eloise that it was just grandpa Kurt dressed up and she watched and listened for a minute and then couldn't stop giggling.  "Why would he do that???" She loved being in on the secret and still talks about it.  Adeline never caved and ended up sitting on Grandma's lap who sat on Santa.  haha  The whole thing was pretty darn funny to watch!

Massage Party

I walked in on this adorable scene the other day, Zac teaching Teagan to be sweet and loving with his sisters.  It was so beautiful!