Merry Merry Christmas to YOU!

We are thrilled to announce...

We couldn't be more excited!!

Christmas fun

Jeff's parents had left their Christmas gifts for us at our house and we patiently waited to open them until a little closer to the actual holiday. We didn't want to haul it all to CA, though, so the Sat. before we left we had a mini-Christmas. :) Jeff was done with school (BYU, not work) so he was actually home on a Sat. morning. It was awesome!

The kids were SO excited to get to open gifts early and even more thrilled with what was inside:

 We had fun playing games together all afternoon.

We went out for dinner and then went to see Santa at the Riverwoods. 

If you live in UT, and have never seen the Riverwoods mall at Christmas, we highly recommend going. He is the nicest Santa and it's fun to actually go 'inside' a little cottage.  And to top it all off, the lights are AMAZING!! It was so much fun and the kids LOVED finally telling Santa what they had been hoping for. :)

It was so cute, the entire drive home the boys kept saying what a great family day it was.  They were beyond thrilled to have Daddy with us ALL DAY LONG!!  

Christmas Celebration in UT

Since most of us would be in CA for Christmas, we had an early celebration with Chelsea & the kiddos!  

We had a delicious brunch at Shawn & Abby's, the kids played, exchanged gifts, and had a great time. 

We don't see Chels near enough, the boys were so sad to say goodbye to their cousins!  

Uncle Shawn is always a hit, the kids sure love wrestling:

Sweet Tanneah, she wasn't too pleased with my camera flash:

Aydrien, Tave, West, & Syanne reading to open gifts:

Ryder & Jeff

Chelsea & Tanneah:

Reverie:

The kids were all so thrilled with their new toys! Gift giving success:

Shawn & Abby

My beautiful sisters:  

(we missed you Shar!!)

What a great way to kick off the holiday season!!  

I sure love family. It is such a blessing to live by siblings.

I want to make sure to soak up as much time as I can with them before they move on to another place!!  

We definitely miss those who are already gone and the ones we haven't gotten to live by yet. 

In my perfect world, we will ALL live close enough to visit each other often, help out when needed, and share in all the fun memories of family. :)  Someday.