A few of my favorite Christmas pix

I wanted to post a couple of my favorite pictures of Christmas day...

We finished a puzzle.

Hailey practicing on her sewing machine from Santa. She's already made a couple of projects and is ready to make a quilt (her mother isn't quite ready to embark on that project).

Favorite toy EVER. Santa brought Alyssa an Elmo and she is in love. She dances with him, and just laughs every time she plays with him. Thank you Santa!

The kids draw names and Hailey had Carter this year. He hasn't stopped playing Madden since yesterday. I can only tolerate this kind of playing at Christmas.

What a ham. My parents, who are serving a mission in Canada, sent us each a Canada shirt. We love them and wore them all day yesterday. I'll have to wash them all and get a group shot.

Grant got gifts for Hailey.

Andrew drew Alyssa's name. She LOVES the playdough.

What a wonderful day.

Is there anything more painful than family pictures??

I seriously hate taking family pictures. Someone is usually grumpy (usually multiple someones) and there is always the weird expression, blink, nose pick, etc. It is PAINFUL. However, I like seeing a current picture in our house, so we tried once again. Nothing turned out great, but it was kind of funny trying.

This was the closest we got.

Then we tried for individual pictures of the kids. They were totally goofy...

Is there ANYTHING natural about this pose of Andrew's???

At least we're having fun...

Hailey's "tights" are actually women's knee highs and she complained about them the ENTIRE time that she had them on. I hope that they are never seen again.

I feel exactly the same way as Grant.

I'm glad that I saved this one for last. She was pretty amiable to getting her picture taken. Thank goodness for the 2 year old! :)

I don't think I am ever going to try this again.

Worms, and Grasshoppers, and Frogs...oh my!

Andrew is my science kid. He loves it. For his birthday, my parents (with my suggestion), got him a dissection kit. He was a little freaked out at first, but then he dove right in and started with the hardest animal-the frog. He did all of the cutting himself while Hailey and Grant looked on. He thought it was so interesting and was so excited to show Adam (Cory's husband). Adam wasn't quite as thrilled and had to wait "until his food settled" before looking. :)

They all look a little weird here, but they all had a blast watching.

Gingerbread houses

We have an advent calendar with a different Christmas activity for each day of December. For our Christmas craft, we decided to make gingerbread houses/trains. Luckily for me, Cory was here to help. In fact, I got them started and then headed out to a meeting while Cory finished the job. She may never return to our house. The kids inhaled the candy and she had 4 very sugared up children.

Carter was the last to complete his and used up every last bit of frosting and candy.

My little crafter.

Grant's train that he did totally solo.

My sweet sister helping Andrew.

Baby Lily visits

My sister, Cory, came out unexpectedly with her daughter Lily and husband Adam. They only got to stay a few days, but it was so fun to see them. Each of my children was enamored with Lily and we're still trying to cope with their absence. Alyssa, in particular, was thrilled with her new baby-she moves, eats, smiles, and needs to be changed. A perfect toy! Lily was so patient.