Christmas!

Warning:  I'm posting  pictures and summing up December in one post - it's gonna be a long one!

 We finally got around to making Christmas cookies!  It was great to have Cedie there to help - I rolled out the dough and she helped the kids cut the cookies out.  Even little brother got in on the action...sort of:

 Christmas Eve jammies!  The girls actually got robes this year, which they were thrilled about.  WE had a very laid back Christmas Eve.  Daddy worked until 5, then came home and grilled steaks while I got the rest of dinner going.  We ate, watched the nativity on tv, did our present to Jesus (a box filled with all the good deeds we observed each other doing in December), opened pj's and read the Christmas story.  The kids got their jammies on and we read some Christmas stories and sent them off to bed.

 The girls woke up around 6am, but were good and waited to come get us until 7.  The kids are all thrilled with the trampoline Santa brought them!  They're super excited for spring to come so we can set it up.  In the meantime, they are loving their other favorite presents.  Big sister loves her art kit:

 Little sister got a new camera, which she loves:

 For big brother, Santa replaced the missing Annie figure from his Little Einsteins set.  He was thrilled to find Annie in his stocking!  He's been looking for her for months!  He also loves the real carpet sweeper grandma got him.  He vacuums all day now.  My floors have never been so clean!

 Little brother loved everything.  Including his brother's new cowboy hat...

 On Christmas Day we had brunch with wife's family and then had dinner with husband's family.  Husband's sister made us this fantastic little pillow...

 All in all, it was a beautiful and wonderful Christmas.  The kids had a good time and were very good about saying thank you for everything they got.    They were really good at remembering that we were celebrating our Savior, which makes me one proud mama.

A couple days after Christmas, I freaked the kids out a little when I did this to the bathroom door:

This is what happens when the girls ignore my constant warning of "Keep the bathroom door closed!"  Big brother shut little brother in there, who thereupon opened the drawer, thus blocking anyone from opening the door. After several minutes of trying to close the drawer and having the door just shut on me every time the drawer got close to closing all the way, all the while little brother is screaming bloody murder, I finally kicked the door in. He was also very poopy and had removed his pants, so there was poop all over him. He has a bruise on his cheek and a cut on his ear, but is otherwise no worse for the wear!  Thankfully, my Dad has already replaced the door for us.

In other news, we went through some big changes in our ward.  The stake created a new ward and had to realign boundaries for several other wards.  We have been put back in a ward with our subdivision.  While I am excited to meet new people, we really don't know anybody in our neighborhood.  We moved in about a week before the ward we have been in was formed, so we're basically starting over now.  We've made a lot of good friends over the last 5 years and we will miss seeing them every week.  On the bright side, since nobody knows who we are we can enjoy a certain level of anonymity.  Haha!  For now, neither of us have callings.  Which is especially strange for me since I have been serving in the Relief Society Presidency.  I will miss those women greatly, but I am already kind of enjoying the extra time I am finding that I have!  

And last but not least, we took Cedie up to Utah State yesterday.  We helped her move her stuff in and get settled, and I think she's going to do very well there.  We also took the opportunity to go and visit my grandmother, who is living in an assisted living facility a few blocks away from Cedie.  It was so wonderful to see my sweet Grandma.  Despite being a little confused as to where she's living, she seems very happy and content where she is, and that was good to see.  We had a very nice visit with her and my Aunt and Uncle, who happened to be there also.  Afterward, we took Cedie to dinner and then dropped her off to start her new life as a college student!  It was nice to be together, just husband and I, even if it was just driving.  When we got home we moved big brother into Cedie's old room and he did great sleeping in the basement.  We are starting this new year with lots of changes!  It's already weird not having Cedie around and I keep looking at my phone thinking there's something I should be doing for my calling and remembering that I don't have one.  But it's going to be a good year, I can feel it!  Happy 2013!