Christmas...

At last it was time to celebrate Christmas, Pyper style. It was a blast! On 'Christmas Eve' we did the Nativity Story. Grandma read/spoke about it and the kids put all of their pieces in the stable. We were going to act out a live Nativity, but somehow that fell through.

Then that night after the kids were in bed, Santa's elves went to work helping Santa wrap the last few remaining items and getting all of the stockings filled before the big day. The new room was temporarily turned into the North Pole! :) It was fun just being with the adults, hanging out and enjoying time together!

After we were finished, we were pretty proud of ourselves:

The next morning the kids were delighted to see that Santa had infact come to Grandmas house!

Taylor eating her chapstick from her stocking...

Beautiful Elia with her new headband:

Kira with her new hat:

For some reason, Taylor was afraid of Uncle Jeremy. She really liked him when he had treats to give her, but other than that she wanted nothing to do with him.

Luckily he has three girls of his own who love him! :)

And Ben with his little man...

After the stockings, was present opening time.

Elijah eating his new shoes:

Kaiya LOVING her new pillow. All this girl asked for for Christmas was a pillow and candy canes. Funny, huh! :) She had a great Christmas! :)

And here she is in her new bling:

Elijah attacking his new elephant. It was so funny to watch him wrestle that thing! :)

Rock Star Josh and his new electric guitar!

Another big hit was Tuckers remote control airplane...

Even the big kids got in on that action!

Still a favorite of the week was playing with the DS...

All the girls singing and dancing to the 12 days of Christmas...

Of course, Christmas Carols were played by grandma and sung by all of us. Taylor was grandma's big helper on the piano...

And Joshy again with his guitar. When he is a famous rock star one day, I will have this picture to brag about! :)

Cousin time...

We left for Alabama on Christmas day for TWO weeks of fun! The one nice thing about Ben's job being seasonal is that he actually gets time to do things like this and we could be gone for two weeks, no problem. The first week we were there all of Ben's siblings were there which means lots and lots of cousin time.

These two are as thick as thieves. I love it. They were playing outside (oh, to be in 60-70 degree weather again! *sigh*) one morning and I told them to look up and smile, and they together, without knowing, made this same face!

Taylor also had a BFF cousin, Kaiya. She is about 4 months older than Taylor and they were finally at that age where they would play together. Here they are in the room that Ben finished for his parents, playing with grandma. They both LOVE LOVE LOVE their Brama-as Taylor calls her! :) This big empty room was perfect for the kids to just run run run around in.

Kaiya loved to feed Taylor...

Aunt Lynlee reading a good night story to the boys...

And Aunt Lynlee also reading to the girls, looks like they were having a good time!!!

Aunt Meg brought these mustaches home from work for the kids to play with and they had a great time with them!

They made random appearances throughout the week...

This year each family was in charge of dinner for one night. On our night we decided to have a hot dog roast. It was a hit! We had so much fun. It's too hot to do stuff like this in the summertime down here, so the winter time it is! :)

Noah & Jonah...

Even Elijah got in on the action...

The grandkids that were there (missing 5)...

Tucker & Jonah...

Here are me and Kaiya. I took their family pictures one afternoon. I love me some Kaiya, she is the cutest thing ever-so social and friendly and talkative. We got along really well! :) And notice what my hair does down there; The humidity makes it curl and frizz!!!

A day in the life of Taylor and Kaiya while we were there. First, run around in just our diapers for a while in the morning after breakfast. Playing in grandma and grandpa's couch...

Next, eating lunch together, teaching each other bad habits. Here they are licking the applesauce off their plates...

Next, watching a movie with Brama (looks like a good one!)...

And finally, after a ton of playing and nap time and dinner time; taking a bath together and getting into matching pj's. We had to take the annual matching outfit picture. This year it was jammies...

We love us some cousin time!!!

Christmas at home...

If you are counting, this is our third, yes THIRD Christmas this year. We had to have one with just our little family before flying out to Alabama on Christmas day.

Christmas Eve we:

Made cookies for Santa:

We read the story of the First Nativity from the Bible: (Crazy hair and all!)

Then while sugar plumbs danced in their heads, Santa came!!!

The next morning was spent at home with our little family and it was perfect!

Ben's contribution to Taylor's gifts included this recorder; thanks Ben!!! :)

Tucker got some awesome Imaginext Space toys...

And the big hit of the day were the Squinkies. They don't really do anything but they are small and squishy and the kids loved them! :) Thanks Santa!

Lots of Presents were opened and lots of candy was consumed, so that pretty much sums up a perfect day in my books! :) I love this time of year!

Dinner with the Enloes...

For as long as we have been friends with the Enloe's, Olivia has led a dancing train at every restaurant we have been to with the kids. So it should have come to no shock to me that when we met up with them in Coeur d'Alene for dinner on the night they got into town that the kids were led in a dancing train around Cafe Chulo by Olivia! :) This time Taylor was able to tag along and be the caboose! :) We were just happy to get to see the Enloe's while they were in town. They got here on the 23rd and we left on the 25th! :) We sure do miss them!

Shopping with dad...

Us girls had a shopping day with my dad for Christmas and had so much fun! It was so nice to get out without kids and husbands and just spend a day with the girls and my daddy! We went to lunch and did some major shopping! :) I am so lucky to have such a wonderful family!