Christmas 2011

It was somewhat of a crazy Christmas for us this year.  Besides seeming extra busy, we had a lot of upcoming things after that had our minds a bit occupied.

I admit that I didn't take a ton of pictures this year.  I've started to realize that the more pictures I take, the more I miss the little things that happen trying to get that "perfect picture."  So I took it easy this year and just enjoyed watching the kids and snapping an occasional picture here and there after the excitement died down.  To be honest, it was great!  I loved not having the camera in front of my face the whole morning.  So excuse the random pictures, it's more of a small summary of a very fun day.

Probably one of Tate's favorite gifts was the Mickey Mouse he got from us.  He kept hugging and loving it and carried it around pretty much all day long.

Zach and Hailey were pretty excited about the Mario Kart Wii Game we gave them - they just couldn't wait to play it!  Notice the colored steering wheels we got them - they were so fun I just couldn't resist, Tate even got a green one to play with now and use later!

Another favorite gift for each of them was the pillow pet and blanket that Santa brought them.  They all had to test them out right away.  Here's Zach with his cars blanket and puppy pillow pet.

Hailey got a princess blanket and unicorn pillow pet.

And Tate got a Mickey Mouse blanket with a monkey pillow pet.

The big gifts from Santa this year were a little hard to use right away, so we waited until after church to get those out and set up.  Zach got a remote control crane, Hailey got a new scooter, and Tate got a sports climber slide.  I didn't get picture of the other two, but I did get the 3 of them to stop for a quick second to get a picture with Tate's present. 

Santa was worried that Tate might not like the new sports climber slide, but boy was he wrong!  Tate absolutely loved it and played on it the entire evening after we set it up.  It was the perfect height for him to climb up and slide down all by himself.  He started by sliding down backwards until he got the hang of it, then moved to sliding down frontwards - so cute!

He can even dunk the basketball!

There were so many fun pictures that I caught of Tate on his slide.

While I was taking pictures, Zach and Hailey decided it was time to pull out their cameras to take pictures of Tate as well.  They got the cameras from Jeremiah and I and they loved them!  In fact, I think they had both taken close to 200 pictures by the end of the day.

After we opened all the presents under the tree, we decided to give the kids their final present.  We had set up a scavenger hunt around the house and they ran from clue to clue with so much excitement.  When they finally found the last one, they found a wrapped present to open.  Inside was an envelope full of money and a note from us telling them that 6 days from then we were going on vacation to California to see Nana and Papa and going to Disneyland.  At first they were a little bit stunned and didn't know what to say.  They just kind of sat there.  I caught this on video and it was hilarious!

I turned off the video and had them both look at me and said again "we are going to Disneyland!"  Finally it sunk in and the celebrating began:



That's the reaction I was expecting.  They were so funny.  Even Tate started jumping up and down and squealing, although he had no idea why.  We had been planning this trip for quite a while and had somehow managed to keep it secret until Christmas day.  I had almost given in and told them at least a dozen times, but I'm so glad I didn't.  Telling them on Christmas was the best and well worth waiting for!

Yes, it was a fun Christmas.  Watching all the kids open presents, get excited, and love everything they got was definitely a day full of memories I will never forget!