Jingles

We had a friend come visit over the holidays. 

Yup, we started the elf on the shelf tradition! 

We had so much fun with this little guy, who the boys finally named Jingles (after many days of debate!)

Jingles got into quite a lot of mischief at our house and he is most definitely part of the family for good!

Most of our pictures are on Jeff's phone...but here are a few of the things Jingles was up to:

Merry Christmas from our family to yours!

Christmas!

Christmas Morning at our house:

Kiddos woke up and got to open stockings right away, then we had breakfast:

Callen thought it was okay:

We tried something new this year and had the kids open 1 gift every half hour. It was a lot of fun because they actually played with the gifts in between. We loved it!

My parents made the boys these AWESOME sling shots and angry birds.  Seriously, they are the coolest things. I am so impressed with my mom and dad's handiwork. Of course they were a  hit and we all had a blast shooting down the pigs! 

We love watching Nonny & Grandpa open their stuff from us:

And Uncle Shawn:

Mckenon:

I think every boy under the age of 7 got the Imaginext Castle this year...all our friends now have it!  It is definitely a favorite, though, and the kids were THRILLED:

My mom made the gift of $ so much fun:

Love my bros:

We were SO excited for the boys to open the trampoline. We waited until the end of the gifting and it was so worth the wait:

Uncle Shawn & Callen:

Since Callen is not old enough to care, we just wrapped a few toys that were the boys at this age.  I hadn't pulled them out, yet, so I could do this. New toys for him, $ saved for us = win/win!  

Jeff and his Christmas/birthday gift, he was happy!

The best part of Christmas is spending the time together playing with everything.  We loved it:

And Merry FIRST Christmas to this little man, we are so glad you are part of our family:

We were too busy having fun and playing together to get a group shot! 

Gingerbread Houses

 We loved making gingerbread houses on Christmas Eve!!

Everyone really got into it and did such an awesome job.  Yay for Christmas traditions!

Jeff helped him with the frosting, but Ryder did the rest on his own:

Grandpa & Tave worked on one together:

Nonny Kare & West

Mckenon working on his:

Shawn adding the details:

Tave & Shawn were in a competition for #1 house, so funny!

I was there, taking pictures and enjoying it all:

Our finished village, pretty darn awesome:

Family Christmas Celebrations

My parents were able to come out here for Christmas!

We were SO excited. Since my parents were coming, Shawn & Mckenon came too, which meant we would ALL be together for the first time in about 4 years, YAY! 

Then Shar & Trav ended up going to AZ (it was his family's turn to have them, after all) and Chels & Rob were going to CA. What?!  What turned into an Abreu family reunion fell short about 10  members. 

But we made the best of it and had a fun Saturday planned where most of the travelers overlapped!

First on the agenda was an activity out, MINI GOLF. It's always a favorite and was indoors since the weather was awful!  

Then we hung out and relaxed! We did dinner, gift exchange, and the reading of the Christmas story. I love my family and wish we had had more time with all of us. It is great to have most of us together (sure did miss Chels and the kiddos)

Uncle Mckenon playing with Ryder. These uncles sure are loved. (and I couldn't get it in the photo, but they were playing princesses...so funny!)

My awesome parents with 6 of 10 grandkiddos.  

I think it's safe to say, the gift exchange was the kiddos favorite part! 

Nonny Kare & Callen:

More gift goodness:

The boys were THRILLED to get Lego Hero Factory guys.  I love that they are legos that stay together really well. And the boys have hours of endless fun combining the guys to make new ones.  

Family time is the best kind of time. I just love the holidays.

We have some family pics we took on Shar's camera that I will post asap.