Christmas 2014

This year we sure made the most of our holidays. Starting with thankschristmas! This special holiday was invented a few years ago by my Hurst side as a genius way to always spend Christmas Day together. So in order for this to work, we plan very thoroughly. Decorations galore----> Christmas in the living room and entry while keeping the kitchen full of fall colors and pumpkins and thanksgiving stuff. Siblings arrive Wednesday. Thanksgiving festivities Thursday. This means football in the AM, plenty of set up and cooking and stress, eating, playing just dance and of course LAUGHING! then just when you're ready to hit your pillow... Boom Massive amounts of shopping all through the night and on Black Friday. Then staying awake all day entertaining kids (although I fell asleep flat on my face while doing puzzles and those wild 2 year olds knocked down the gate and ran upstairs. I woke up to find them in a bath with cousins! Haha thanks sisters!) After that, festivities at the village and An amazing amount of time spent sorting and wrapping and the old Santa duties then a gloriously relaxing Christmas Saturday! This year was especially fun. We got to take my niece kylee who is 10 on the grand black event. This is a right of passage of sorts. The girl was my good luck charm! I scored above all scoring. At one point my mother said I should be arrested for robbing Toys R us with the Deal of the century I talked them into. Robbery! Only the good kind. The legal kind. We seriously shopped till we dropped. At one point we got ky new boots because her feet were killing her! But she wanted to keep going. We even got matching outfits. Love her. We stopped and had breakfast at 3am.... Around 630 we got hot cocoa and donuts. It was a truly memorable night full of laughs and things I can't even remember. "Christmas Day" was very special too... My sister took the time to go through all our home videos of Christmas past and create a beautiful DVD of those special memories. I had never seen any of these videos or film of me as a child. It was so wild to see the similarities between me and Bearett. She is so talented and it was sure a highlight! That and probably my sister Ainslee and myself hysterically laughing over nothing and anything because we were so. Freekin. Tired. We annoyed all and I got a massive headache from laughing entirely too hard! The lesson here is to let Sidnee sleep.

We saved (collectively) $632.87 and only spent $410.61

You've got to spend $$ to save $$ !

75% off Gaps entire store

After being up all night and scoring on a playset for the twins. I can't even post the price, it's too sacred. This girl is as sweet as they come. She was such a huge help entertaining my kids and they just adore her. Can't wait for summer when she comes to stay with us!

Celebrating with lots of hugs and kisses and thank you's. This girl is in love with her Papa.

And her cousin Sybil! They love their baby.

Absolutely loved having cousins around. 

The magic of Christmas. This was their nightly routine, they were mesmerized by this tree.

Our ward live nativity is always a highlight. I'm always amazed at the spirit these youth are able to cultivate. Absolutely Loved participating when I was younger. 

And somehow Stephen gets hit on every year!? 

Grandma and Charlee enjoying the choir of angels 

The whole Santa part of Christmas has never been my fav, and we see here that has been passed on in a big way. The loathe the big guy.

Charlee pooped her pants in terror. 20 seconds later she's completely fine and over joyed and the present she got from him! But still no eye contact.

Christmas Sunday is the best. I swear we should listen to the choir bear testimony every single Week. It is so inspiring! 

Winter Garden Aglow at the Boise botanical gardens. So sooooo beautiful. We were completely in awe of all the beauty and magic around us. But boy was it freezing. These kids are definitely a warm weather breed just like their parents...

Hug me, I'm freezing!

This girl!! They both kept pulling off their mittens all night refusing to wear them even tho their hands were freezing. So the minute we put her to bed she pulled off her socks and put them on as mittens all on her own. LOL! Oh and this is their preferred normal sleeping position. Laid back babes.

A magical Christmas Eve at grams and grumps.

This man slaved. He watched endless YouTube videos and read several things about how to smoke the perfect turkey. Uhh... NAILED IT! 

The master piece! 

At the fire station Christmas Day.

Bears got power tools! And boy is Charlee green with envy! He's holding them up saying "thank you" best day ever. Those Goggles tho. Safety first!

Matchy matchy:)

Ohhh the flood of memories I got as my little girl opened her very own cabbage patch doll. Avery Lexi. The smell alone about knocked me over with nostalgia! So cool. I'm glad she loves it. Thanks Grammy! Oh and miss Avery is wearing miss Charlee's crocheted crown from when she was a newborn. More memories! Such a special picture to me. 

Our Christmas Day was so different this year. Very quiet. Most of Stephens family was unable to make it this year. In fact me and the twins were the only ones who showed up Christmas morning. We had a dinner the night before with his sister Tiffany and fam and also his brothers Rob & Jonathan. Then I spent the morning with my dad (my mom was in Maine with my brothers family this year!!) and my in laws. It's a good thing I've got two little kids, I don't know how I would have entertained them all by myself! Stephen had to work at the Fire Station but they put on a lovely dinner for their families. Stephen smoked that beautifully perfect turkey and it was THE BEST EVER!! His parents came and brothers and my dad too before he also had to go into work. Then the kids fell asleep on the way home and I watched the grinch all by myself and went to bed. The next day was probably my favorite. The kids finally got to actually play with the toys they got as we removed them from heavy packaging and put in batteries! It was amazing watching them discover new things. We had a perfect day. I got them some music shakers and they went crazy for them. Their absolute favorite song of all time right now is jingle bell rock! Ohhhh my goodness I put that song  in And give them the shakers and the hop and dance and jump the entire thing! Ending with "yeah!" "Woo hoo" "yayy!" Then begging for the same song again. I will never tire of watching this! Or hearing that song. It will forever remind me of my crazy 2 year olds pretending the floor is some kind of trampoline. Haha. I am So grateful for this season and the opportunities our family had to serve and help families who were struggling or in need of some holiday cheer. There is no greater joy than sharing your blessings and Gods goodness with others. I will forever treasure the memories of Christmas 2014.