Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve day we were at home making last minute preparations for the big day. I'm a huge fan of Christmas Eve. I love the anticipation and happiness of the day. The kids reminded us half way through the day that we didn't have cookies for Santa, so making cookies sort of worked its way onto our schedule. The kids were reminded that Santa doesn't come for kids whose rooms aren't clean, so we had to take care of that too.

That evening we got dressed up and headed over to the Burton's house to begin the celebrating. My kids are the cutest kids ever - and they look even better all cute (and handsome for Brody :) )
Ella has grabby hands...she can't help herself. She won't leave anything alone. If its within reach, and even if its not...if she wants it, she'll find a way.

This is Heidi, or Hannah - depending on the day...she is the best kind of dog, fake. Ella loves playing on her.

Brody couldn't wait to open some presents. He made sure to tell Jack (our elf who reported to Santa each night) that he had been good and what he wanted for Christmas.

Uncle Kevin is such a good sport. He is always willing to wrestle and play with the kids.

Grandpa told us the story of the first Christmas. We love flannel board scripture stories!

Ella's favortie pose. Remember Boots, her cuddly pink giraffe? Somehow his tail that used to tickle her nose while she sucked her thumb turned into her finger up her nose while she sucks her thumb. If you look close you can even see her pointer finger on her thumb sucking hand going for her other nostril. Its gross. We've been working on it, with no luck so far.

Her first present!

Brody finding his presents

Connect 4! He is a huge fan of this game. He was excited to open it and then turned around and hugged it and said to his grandparents, "You've made me so so happy!" He melts my heart - so sweet!

Our gift to Kevin - what will be his infamous Christmas shirt that his future wife will proably despise...gotta love The Christmas Story. I think the shirt looks really nice on Kevin.

Dora legos...just like she wanted

Toy Story legos

Our gift to Grandpa - a personalized sign for their movie room

The 3 brothers with Mark Sanchez prints...isn't it funny that I married the oldest Burton boy, and yet now almost 8 years later he is the smallest?

The gift that was almost forgotten (every Christmas has to have one gift that gets forgotten) - Brody really wanted the Misty Island Rescure train set. He loves this toy!

Opening Christmas pajamas

All ready for bed! We got in the car to go home and said we needed to hurry to make it home before Santa came. We followed Norad on daddy's phone all night to make sure we got home in plenty of time. When we were in the van going home Brody declared - no scriptures, no stories no prayers...we just need to get to bed. He was so intense! We made it in plenty of time though, and we even did scriptures and prayers.