SANTA CAME! SANTA CAME!!!!

One of the best parts of being a parent is watching your kids on Christmas morning. The excitment, the joy, the sparkle in their eyes makes for one of the happiest moments. I love watching the kids on Christmas morning opening their gifts. It really is a perfect moment for me and one that brings me true joy. The kids were very excited for their Santa gifts. Ron was given the perfect brownie pan. He's very excited and i'm excited to see what creations he comes up with. I recieved a Harvest moon game for the wii, I can't wait to play it! Kaeryn had asked for something from an asian store like a kimono or a dress or a statue or something. She was thrilled to see her new asian dress with matching purse and hair pins. Tristan had asked for the Bakugan video game and was so excited to find it. Jaxen had a shriek of joy to open his Buzz Lightyear. It was an exciting moment for me and Ron. We loved every moment of it! Merry Christmas everyone! I really hope that you all find true joy!

Happy Birthday to Me!

I actually consider myself lucky to have my birthday on Christmas day. My mom and dad were really good at making sure I had a birthday and a Christmas. First thing Christmas morning we would celebrate my birthday. We would have it in my mom and dads room so it was away from the tree. I could choose to stay as long as I wanted to play with my birthday presents. Then when I was ready we would form a train with my dad as the engine and follow him into the family room to celebrate Chirstmas. Then I always got to open the first christmas gift.

Ron has been determined to do the same for me. So every christmas the kids are told that they are not allowed to leave their rooms until daddy comes to get them. He brings the kids into our bedroom, they sing Happy Birthday and then give me my birthday presents. I love this part of the morning because I get to snuggle with everyone in my bed. This year the kids gave me the "Pictionary man" game. Ron gave me some art supplies and a painting that he did himself. This one almost made me cry it was so prescious to me. Then they gave me an ice cream maker. I have wanted one for a long time, I am very excited to see what new inventions I can come up with!

Feeding the reindeer!

Tristan had been given a bag of reideer feed. So after we were done reading our stories and right before bed Kaeryn and Tristan went out to the front yard to sprinkle it with food for Santa's reindeer. It was cute! they were too excited and having too much fun to hold still for the camera. I love to see how happy the kids are!

Happy Dreams Jaxen!

On Christmas eve I allowed Jaxen to skip his nap. We were doing so much that day with all the baking and decorating that I didn't want him to miss it and I knew he didn't want to either. He actually did really well staying and of course loved every minute of it. But by the time we were getting ready for bed his little eyes were ready for sleep. His story that he choose was first in the book so I read his story first. He listened intently as he always does asking his questions about the pictures like he always does. But as soon as I started to read the stories that Kaeryn and Tristan has chose, he was out. It was so adorable! He was out like a light! Already dreaming about the days adventures. He looked so much at peace, it was a beautiful moment for me.

Christmas Jammies!

Another tradition we have is Christmas Jammies. We open them on Christmas eve and then Christmas day is our official Jammies day. We stay in them all day unless we choose to get dressed but since we all are jammies folk we all stay in them all day. This is actually one of the kids favorite gifts. They look forward to it each year and have been heard through out the month wondering what jammies they will get. This year was great with Jaxen because it has been his awakening year, he opened his jammies and exclaimed for the first time " oh these are so cute!" He repeated what his brother and sister had said. It was so adorable! All night he said that he thought his jammies were so cute. Kaeryn loves that she got a night gown. Tristan loves his dionsaur Jammies. We had to get him these because they fit his personality perfectly. I love this time of the night because the excitement in the kids eyes really starts to shine. They can't wait until the morning, I can't wait untill the morning! After we all get our new jammies on we settle on the couch for some Christmas stories. I let the kids each choose one and then I read to them. This year I was sick and loosing my voice so I didn't get to do the different voices for the stories but it was still fun and we had some laughs because of the sound of my voice. A few times Ron had to take over so I could get some sound back into my voice. But we made it through and we all loved it.

Gingerbread Houses!

So this year we began a new family tradition. Our Christmas eve celebration now includes making gingerbread houses. Throughout the month I collected some gingerbread kits and decided that Christmas eve would be a fun time to put them together. the kids loved it, they were so excited. They each choose the one they wanted and then we attempted to put them together and decorate. That's the great thing about the first time doing something, it's always a learning experience. We learned that putting the houses together and decorating at the same time doesn't work out so well. Next year we will know to put the house together wait a bit and then put the roof on and wait some more and then decorate. This is a tradition we will have to start earlier in the day instead of doing it all at night. But we still had fun and lots of laughs. This is one tradition I am very excited about.

Making Ham Bread!

One of our favorite holiday tradition is making ham bread. It it so YUMMY! It is a Venezuelan tradition and I love that Ron has the kids help him make it so that they will know how to do it. We make it every Christmas and New Years. Ham and bacon rolled in a bread dough into yummy goodness! One of the many things we look forward to every year. Happy memories!

Decorating Christmas Cookies!

So one of our favorite things to do as a family is bake. The holiday season is a perfect time to do baking. We love it! Ron's mom had given Kaeryn one of those frosting tools and she was aching to try it out. So I made some sugar cookies and then we all had fun decorating them. I tell the kids they can do whatever they want with their cookies, it's their art. It's so fun to watch them decide what they are going to do. They are so proud and so excited when they are finished. It was fun.

Happy Holidays!

This is the holiday picture I took of the kids. I thought it turned out so cute. They had fun being covered in stuffed animals. Happy Christmas everyone!

Decorating the tree!

Our tradition is that we decorate our Christmas tree the day after Thanksgiving. We always look forward to that. We have another tradition that every year we each get to choose an ornament. The ornaments that we choose gets stored in our stockings(for now until I remember to get our own boxes). The kids love this and they love to hang their ornaments on the tree. We usually watch a christmas show or listen to christmas music while we decorate. It's such a happy time. After we're all done we get to enjoy my favorite part, looking at the lights on the tree with the house lights off. It's so pretty. It makes you feel happy! I love this time of year! It's my favorite!

Snow Babies!

We did have to call the kids in because it was night time and very cold. It was snowing so heavily that it was building up on the kids. They looked like little snow babies covered in sugar. Thanks to Amy for sharing gloves and boots. She had hats but the kids were too excited to put them on. They were out the door before we ould even think about it. It was so cute. I loved smelling the crisp cool snowy air that comes with and after a snow storm in Utah, but I have to say I still love my 60 degree weather right now. I miss the playing in snow, but I love being able to come back to sun shine. We had a wonderful trip. It was so good to see both Ron's and my family. We miss everyone so much. I was happy that I got to see some of our friends as well. It's been along time and it was good to visit. The train ride home was really nice as well. We boarded at night so the kids watched a movie to calm them down and them slept through the night. Ron and I tried to sleep but couldn't very well. It was okay though, I got to see the sun rise. It was so beautiful! the kids were up soon after and we had breakfast on the train. It was actually very good. Kudos to the chef aboard the train! Yum Yum! It was lunch time when we got home. We had a quick lunch for the kids and then had nap time. I think daddy and mommy needed it more but all the kids fell right a sleep and slept til dinner time. It was a wonderful vacation and we can't wait to do it again!

It's SNOWING!!!!!!!

The kids were hoping very badly that it would snow while we were in Utah. On our last night they got their wish. Towards the ending of our family dinner it started to snow. It quickly became very thick snow and with in minutes the ground was covered. It was beautiful! The kids all ran to get there coats and shoes and went out to play. Kaeryn and Tristan ran around with snowballs. Jaxen just played but he soon got really cold and wanted to come in. This was his first time actually getting to play in the snow. When we lived in Washington he was still a baby and couldn't play in the snow. So it was like a new experience for him. I wanted to just stay out there and watch the kids have fun but the snow was coming down so heavily that it was hard to see. But it was still beautiful!