Christmas morning

Makenzie:

 Christmas with kids just keeps getting better and better.

 Makenzie is at the age where Christmas is truly magical. I was in the middle of changing Kyle's diaper when she RAN into the room, face full of excitement, exclaiming, "THE PRESENTS ARE UNDER THE TREE!!" 

Justin jumped out of bed and got all giddy with her.

She went through her stocking and then we told her to go wake up Jarom.

Jarom:

Jarom came upstairs looking still half asleep but when he saw all the presents, he was into it in no time flat. He jumped right into the present opening. He majorly improved his stock of BOY toys and was one happy three year old.

little Kyle:

This was Kyle's first Christmas, and since he's only four months old, I didn't expect a lot from him. But I was surprised how much he liked his new toys. He was giving them the super-focused-baby-stare-down  and reaching for them. Makenzie was so happy to "help" him open his presents and show him what he got. She was telling him all about the presents and what he could do with them, it was cute.

So yeah, sorry this isn't a super-inspirational, heart-warming Christmas post. Just some pics of Christmas morning. It was a good time.
We had a wonderful Christmas and hope you did, too!

New do

Got a haircut today.

Went for the bangs.

First time I've had full on bangs since I was a kid.

Not sure how I feel about it yet, I feel different. But it's kinda nice to have a change. And I'm sure I'll just be sweeping them to the side in a few weeks and look like my ole self again.

In other news, Makenzie woke up this morning throwing up. It was so bizarre because she threw up a few times, watched a movie, took a nap, and woke up totally fine. She is now, as you can see in the photo, running around and totally fine. Weird.

I would also like to announce that I did nothing today.

It was wonderful.

Justin is off for Christmas break and cleaned for me while I got my hair done.

I came home and vegged out in front of the computer for most of the afternoon.

So great.

And now Justin is off for some guy time with his brothers and friend Reed (Wendover. So excited about that one.).

So it's just me and the kiddos.

But we're gonna have fun!

On the agenda tonight?...

-decorate the sugar cookies my friend gave me- thanks Sheena!

-drink Egg Nog (I got light egg nog, the regular is so bad for you... well actually the light is so bad for you too... anyway, hope it isn't gross. I will only be having a taster anyway because I'm not a huge egg nog fan, love the flavor, not the raw eggs)

-watch Minnie's Bow-tique (Makenzie has been waiting for this movie from Netflix forever! I know you're jealous.)

-put kids to bed by 7:30 and veg some more 

Hasta luego!

Kyle and Kua

Our good buddies Reed and Tasha had a sweet little baby boy two weeks ago, his name is Kua (which is followed by a lot more since he's Hawaiian but I don't know it yet!). Isn't he cute??

I couldn't believe that 3 and a half months ago Kyle was this same size. Kua wasn't a small baby by any means either, over 8 pounds and 22 inches long! Kyle just turned 4 months old on Wednesday and at his checkup he was 19 pounds 14 ounces and over 27 inches long. Just can't believe the difference 3 months can make!

Lights

I've gotta give credit where credit's due:

Utah is a wonderful place to live during Christmas time.

We get ample snow, have countless Christmas activities around town, and one of my favorites:

The lights at Temple Square.

Out of the millions of members of the church, I feel pretty blessed that it takes us less than 20 minutes to drive up and see the exquisite lights around the Salt Lake temple. 

 (Jarom isn't crying, he had just woken up from falling asleep in the car.)

 A choir was singing Christmas songs in the Tabernacle.

 Makenzie wanted a picture with this statue of the pioneers.

 

Glowing trees everywhere.

 

New-ish exhibit in the visitor's center- around the other side it's almost like a dollhouse, showing what the interior of the temple looks like.

 

Loved how the lit branches made canopies to walk under around the temple.

 Such a beautiful place and nice way to spend a Sunday evening before Christmas. Helps me remember WHO Christmas is all about!

Okay, okay

We were having way too much fun goofing off with photo booth this morning. We were in tears laughing at those pictures. There were many, many more. But those were the ugliest. Love that thing.

This afternoon I took Makenzie and Kyle out for another practice round with my dad's camera. Jarom had just woken up from a nap and didn't want to go out in the cold so he watched from inside. :)

And in all seriousness this time, I really do have a beautiful daughter.

 

 

And I got one quick one of the boys inside before Kyle was way too tired for pictures.

Okay, that's all!

I don't mean to brag...

...but my daughter is really beautiful.

And I'm pretty sure I know where she gets it.

Try not to be jealous.

Princess Party

 This year, Makenzie asked to have a princess birthday party. I consented and ate the words I said long ago:

"My daughter will NOT have princess stuff."

Ha!

I will admit that through this process, I learned that princess parties can be kind of fun, and I actually got into it.

First, the decorations:

Makenzie and I drew up this castle mural last night before bed.

As previously seen, the pin-the-lips-on-the-frog-prince game we painted.

A little pink archway made out of the sheer pink fabric that was in Makenzie's room as a baby. Kinda silly, but kids like silly.

 

For the girls, princessy pink place settings with tiaras.

 

For the boys, kings...

 

and knights. (Thank you, Target dollar spot!)

 

Girls' table (mostly).

  

And a boys' table, too.

Next up - The food:

 

Peanut butter and jelly castles (and chips).

 

And lemonade with ruby-red jewels (or frozen cranberry juice, as Makenzie informed her friends).

And here is her barbie princess cake. Way easier than I thought it would be.

Okay, one more time because it's pretty.

 

Fairy-tale chocolate lollipops for favors...

 

Here's a little better view. Easy to make and I think the kids were pretty stoked about them.

And I wish I could say this is a big wow-I-love-my-cake-and-everything-you-did-to-make-it-look-so-magical-in-here kind of smile, but really she's just laughing at Justin dance around the kitchen. Not to say she wasn't grateful, it's just that Makenzie hasn't quite mastered smiling for the camera yet so I take what I can get.

Okay, so on to the actual party!

 My sister Tiffany came to help. Kyle was giving her huge smiles, it was so cute.

 

We set up The Princess & the Frog on Justin's laptop for the kids to watch while we waited for all of the guests to arrive. So glad I did that, it was much calmer than the usual mass mayhem that ensues when that many kids get together. 

 

The frog got smooched.

 

And then redecorated when the blindfold was gone.

The kids also played a game where we put pictures of Disney princesses on the floor in a circle and they walked around it while the music played. When it stopped, they stood on the picture and I pulled a matching picture out of a hat. Whoever was on that picture got to pick a prize. Didn't get any pictures because we needed all adult forces on that one. :)

Then we lit the candles and sang Happy Birthday to Makenzie. In her moment of limelight, she succumbed to silly faces, bashful smiles and giggling, as seen below:

Last, she opened gifts. She got so many nice gifts from her friends, thanks everyone!

And here are some cute shots of some of our guests!

Whew! Those were a lot of pictures! It was a good time, glad so many of her friends could make it.

And Happy 5th Birthday, Makenzie!