Merry Christmas!

Christmas is always full of anticipation for me. I love getting excited for Christmas morning and everyone opening their perfect present and being happy and excited. We set up a camera in the Christmas Tree so we could record all the excitement that the kids had when they woke up and ran into the living room without us, but no dice. We woke up first... around 6:30. We heard whispering in the girls bedroom so I peaked in and London was laying there awake, I think she was a little nervous to get up. I told her Santa came and she should come check out her gifts. She was pretty excited.

 The other kids joined us pretty shortly. Macy got a scooter from Santa, London got a Kitty Surprise, and Bentley got a football. They had some small stuff in their stockings but all they really cared about was the chocolate. We called Marie and let her know the kids were awake so she could come over and then started breakfast. We had pancakes, bacon, and eggs. After breakfast we all went into the living room and started opening the presents we got each other. Bentley was really confused about all of this- for a month he's been told NOT to open the presents and now he can?! He sat out of the gift wrapping for a few presents.

The biggest excitement/shocker was Macy opening her Elsa for our Disney Infinity game. She was pretty excited, it was all she asked for.

After all the presents were over I jumped in the shower and awesome Marie did the dishes so we could head off to the valley. We planned on leaving our house around 10am and we headed out closer to 9:30- yay for us! It was a very smooth drive, not a lot of travelers on Christmas Day. 

We got to my parents house in just about 3.5hours- one of our quicker trips. It was nice and cloudy outside so we hurried and took Derek and Alison's engagement pictures. Kyle got a new lens for his camera for Christmas so he was super excited to use it. We got some really good ones- Kyle will have to share  his favorites :) I knew it would probably be too tricky to grab the kiddos away from their toys and cousins so Kyle and I got our own picture this Christmas.

 Then we got the WHOLE family outside. Our first Christmas together in a while!

The next day we really just hung out around the house and didn't do much of anything. By dinner time everyone (including my parents) we gone, so we ventured out to let the kids spend some Christmas money and to get something to eat. They each got $5 from Aunt Steph (Thank you!!) and they each found their very favorite toy with it. London got a Dora backpack thad came with a charm bracelet and a little Dora doll, Macy got a little vet scooter that came with a kiddie, and we supplemented Bentleys a little got him a tool box. Then we ran over to Texas Roadhouse, quite possibly my favorite restaurant in the valley. It's loud, they have great food, and the put all the families with kids in one area. The kids didn't have to be silent and I didn't have to worry so much about them bothering anyone else. It was great. This picture rally portrays how I feel most of the time. :)

The next morning we packed everything up and headed out to Phoenix to watch Kyle's kids perform in the Fiesta Bowl Parade. It's such a fun parade! It's about 2 hours long but full of a lot of fun stuff. Bentley was halarious- he wanted to hug all the costume people. He even got a clown nose!

 These are pictures Kyle got as he was running by...

And that closes out our 2014 year! We came home, enjoyed a whole week off of school, and really didn't do anything that was too exciting. This year really didn't have any big events (well- expect for that one time we drove across the country on the Race Across America) and it was really just a growing year for our family. We are looking forward to what 2015 has in store for us.

Happy New Year!