Christmas 2015

4 of my greatest gifts together under the tree in their new Christmas jammies. 

These cute big sisters wanted to have a picture together. I love how much they adore this little nugget that has joined our family. They are the sweetest big sisters.

This sweet little missy before bed on her first Christmas eve.

 And before we knew it, littles were tucked into bed awaiting the arrival of Christmas morning. Daddy and Mommy may have stayed up just a little bit later, we were pretty excited too.

 Christmas morning arrived and we woke to find that Mr. Claus had arrived and these cute kiddos of ours were definitely on the nice list this year. 

 We also got surprised with a beautiful white Christmas morning. I feel like there isn't anything that makes Christmas morning more magical than a blanket of fresh white snow. 

 Little Hayze man slept in but his sisters were up and so excited we couldn't ask them to wait for him.

 Their favorite place to start is always their stockings. They can't wait to turn it upside down and dump the contents to discover the treasures inside. It seems so odd to me because my stocking was one of the last things that I opened. But there are no rules on Christmas right?

 Miss Mya wrote a letter at school to Santa Claus. She asked him if he would send her a picture of him with his reindeer. We weren't sure if he was going to be able make this wish happen but of course he did!

 Look at these sweet faces in awe of this Christmas magic! Santa left them a wonderful note as well as a picture of himself and Dasher. Pretty lucky ladies!

 It was kind of fun to have Hayze wake up a bit later than the others, then we could have time to soak in each of their reactions. He was a little unsure of why everyone was watching him as he came into the room. As soon as he spied his tool bench he froze, he just stood there and looked at it for probably a full minute. She didn't say anything, crack a smile or anything. It was hilarious. He finally broke and went right to work with his tools. 

 These girls wish lists were dominated by Little Live Pets. They each wanted a new little mouse and turtles to come and live with them and become a part of their little pet menagerie. They were not disappointed.

 Santa also brought each member of the family a nerf gun and extra ammunition.

 Daddy may have been a little excited about the nerf arsenal as well. He had Hayze set up on a rest, practicing as soon as they got it out of the box.

 This was the first year that we helped the girls choose presents for each other and it was really sweet to see them think about what the other one would want and to sacrifice some of they own money to help pay for the gifts. 

From across the world their cousins must have know how much they love these little creatures and sent butterflies. They thought they were absolutely magical.

This handsome guy also got a train set. Of course it was the train from Disneyland and his other was the Monorail.

Christmas morning is always more fun when you are able to share it with family and we were blessed to have both sets of grandparents and aunts and uncles join us for breakfast and presents. We were also able to sneak in some short Facetime sessions with the Makechnie's before they went to bed in Saudi and with Adam, Cami and little miss Abby in Texas. 

Senny snugging with Grams and Grandpa.

Hayzer loved his Baymax from Ty and Brooke. I love listening to his gruff little voice saying, 'Hello, I Baymax, your personal healthcare companion'. 

These guys, some of our favorites. Mya is already plotting how she is going to be able to babysit their future children. 

Megan's prized gift this year... a classy little gem from Savers. 

And these two young pups, all engaged. Trevan is a pretty good sport, he didn't realize that his first major holidays spent with the Hansen's were going to include all of my family too.

I had to take a picture of all the chaos. The wrapping paper, the kids in the midst of it all. It truly is a happy mess. I read a quote a while ago that called this a glorious mess! And it truly is. A mess of memories and love, those should never be cleaned up too fast. 

A Night at Temple Square

We spent a fun chilly evening with my family in Salt Lake enjoying the beauty of the temple grounds and the christmas light. I know that with all the different work schedules and how crazy life is that finding a night when we can all get together and do something like this can be a little difficult. But I honestly never regret a second when we can be together. We laugh, and enjoy ourselves. My siblings and parents are incredible with our crazy little herd of children. And they are even patient when it's me, the mom, spilling water all over the table at dinner. 

 We managed to get a picture with decent lighting of both us and the temple and when I looked at it later and noticed Mya had her hat pulled down around her eyes, just to be funny, I will admit to being a little miffed. I also admit to being a little uptight sometimes, I definitely need to work on that. Lesson learned right?

 Uncle Ty was kind enough to act as Sadie's personal transportation. 

 This guy, I make him take selfies with me because I kinda like him.

 The beauty of the temple. It was really neat to be able to go into the visitors center look at the cross section model of the temple with the kiddo's. The girls were really interested in knowing about the rooms. Mya was especially excited as she identified the baptistry. 

 When did this girl get all grown up? I honestly can't believe how quickly the time goes by and how I feel like I'm grasping to make it slow down. But as hard as it is to see her get older, I'm proud to see the little lady that she is growing into. I love her sweet heart and how she truly tries to be a good girl and she succeeds everyday!

Disneyland Diamond Edition

 Disneyland celebrated its diamond anniversary, 60 years of Disney magic. It was calling to us! It was calling loudly! We had to go and celebrate, there was no question. We hoped that we could convince some of our other Disney loving family to join us. Thankfully we knew it wouldn't be too hard to convince them to join us. So plans were made to spend the first few days of December in the happiest place on earth. It was so magical, all the Christmas decorations along with the beautiful diamond accents. We soaked in every detail and moment that we could. 

 I'm sure you can imagine the massive amounts of pictures that we took. There is an entire photo book that is dedicated to this trip. But there had to be some sort of highlight reel for the blogaroo right?

 These two girls were big and brave and rode Space Mountain for the first time this trip. They are on the fence about how much they liked it. Mya also tried Indiana Jones for the first time, also unsure of her feelings for it. I was thrilled that all of these happened without tears, they are getting the hang of this.

 All things considered little Senny did pretty good. She definitely had some grumpy times, she offended some old people on the train with one of these fussy moments but what can you do. Thankfully we had lots of willing arms to hold her when she just needed some extra love. 

 Hayze was the captain this trip. He was in rare form. He would salute, and say 'Aye-Aye Captain!' He had spent weeks before our trip talking about riding the choo choo train. That was all he wanted to do. I'm happy to report that he got to ride the choo choo train as well as a few other rides. He loved Pirates of the Caribbean, Gadgets Go Coaster and was thrilled to rid on an actual pirate ship.

 The Diamond celebration brought new parades and shows so that meant later nights in the park, but they were so worth it. The new Paint the Night light parade was incredible and the fireworks show afterward was amazing. I might have teared up just a little bit. We also saw the Christmas World of Color as well as the salute to Walt Disney. 

 This guy finally got caught loosening his seatbelt on Tower of Terror. He got a stern talking to from a cast member but was given a chance to stay on the ride if he promised to be good and repent of his reckless ways. We joked that now he was on Disney's most wanted wall.

 And as with any good vacation we ate and ate and ate. We tried new treats all over the park but stayed true to old favorites like Cafe Orleans. Cody and I shared a Monte Cristo and of course we all had to have frites. Those were Hayzer's favorite. When the waiter came to take the basket he reached his arm across the basket and said, 'No, not dees'.  

Too soon it was time to leave. Time to go back to the every day life and the snow. But we had done it, we had been to the Diamond celebration and it was sparkly and wonderful and full of so many fantastic memories. Thanks K Fam, so much for all the great times. We love you!!