A Perfect Christmas

Having our kids the age that they are has made this Christmas so much fun. The girls had so much faith in Santa Claus to provide for them all of the art supplies needed to keep them busy. The boys had enough faith in themselves that they were good enough to receive guns for Christmas this year. Mayci was young enough to know that as long as you are excited, everyone will laugh and join in with your excitement.

I don't know if Austin slept much the night before. We had all of the kids sleep downstairs (due to us remodeling the girls room for their gift) and we didn't want them coming upstairs during the night and snooping. We gave the kids a phone and said if they needed to come up and use the bathroom, they were to call us first and we'd make sure they made it to the bathroom only and then back down to bed.

Austin called us at 4:30 am due to one of the girls needed to go to the bathroom. I think he was up the rest of the night. At 5:30 he texted me and asked if we could open up presents at 5:45 instead of waiting until after 6 am. We texted back that they should watch a movie until we wake up. That didn't go over so well. We heard them giggle and squeal for about 20-30 minutes. We decided that we better get out of bed and let the fun begin.
This little Miss got the baby on the left. It makes a kissing sound and then laughs. Mayci struggled opening up any presents due to being a mother to her new baby. She also received a playpen, stroller, bouncer and playmat for her baby. They all got well used for that hour of opening up presents.

(Kind of a funny thing I noticed in this picture. She doesn't have slippers on but she went and found her crocs to put on just after she got out of bed. She loves to wear shoes and I am so the opposite! Slippers, yes. Shoes, no. Mayci loves having shoes on though.)

Justin and I decided to get the girls new beds for Christmas. As we did some looking, we thought that loft beds would be so much more fun than a regular bed. My amazingly, talented husband went to work on the design of the bed and with some help from the boys, they got them built in about 1 1/2 days worth of time. Austin and I spent the week sanding and painting the beds. They turned out great and the girls were more than thrilled over them.

They have all kinds of room in their room now. They each have a school desk under their beds and we will eventually add some bookshelves and we are going to have curtains on the one side or their beds. I think that these will make THE best forts for the kids to play in. I think that the girls spent most of Christmas day in their room. I'm sure there will be many memories created with these beds.

Mayci even had some time in their room and loved hanging out with the big girls on their beds.

Madison couldn't get over all of the art supplies she got. She had asked Santa for lots of paint and paint brushes and enough paper to draw on. I think she'll keep herself busy for sometime.

Here are some of the masterpieces Madison created before Christmas. The one on the right was pretty cute. It's a picture of what she asked Santa to bring her.

Mayci also got this fun Aquadoodle. What a creative thing. I couldn't get over what a perfect gift this was for Mayci. She loves to be creative just like the girls but the girls don't always let her in on their fun. She spent lots of time drawing on this! Thanks Braylynn.

Yes. Both of my boys did get guns! Justin also did too. He just got his earlier than the boys (and he already put over 100 rounds on his gun!) Justin got a 12 gauge and the boys got 2o gauges. This whole gun thing is new for me and I'm slowly getting used to the fact that we have guns in our house now. The boys don't mind it at all.

Justin took some time and taught the boys how to clean their guns and how to care for them.

The boys even got gun cases. Oh, I didn't get a picture of it but the boys also got a clay pigeon thrower. Justin took the boys (and my Dad) shooting that afternoon and I think they are hooked. I'm going to have to go with them to practice my shooting. I think I've shot a gun maybe 5 times my whole life. It should be fun to go shooting as a family on some lazy Saturday afternoon.

My parents came to our house around 11 am to spend the day with us. My grandparents from Rexburg came also. We had the privilege of getting online to Skype with my little brother, Chris, in Brazil. It was so good to talk to him and he looked great. He's loving it down there. That Skype is pretty amazing. We had all of my sibling online while we talked to him and it was just amazing that we could all be online and talk to each other without leaving our house. I love technology.

Christmas was a great day and I love that we spent it together as a family. Our kids are everything to us and watching them and their excitement over simple gifts was the highlight of our day. Even seeing their excitement over what others got was fun to watch. Then as they played during the day with each other and the love they showed to grandparents and to each other was the best gift I got all day. To watch my husband play with the kids and spend time with the boys and their guns left me in wonder of just how lucky a person I am. It truly was the perfect Christmas!