CHRISTMAS SEASON!

12/22/2012

This holiday season has been so wonderful! I can't believe how magical it is to have a baby during the season, even though he doesn't quite understand it yet, it sure was a different feeling this year!

 

At Grandma and Grandpa Givan's annual Christmas party Tate got to sit on Santa's lap... and look, no tears! ha ha ha... we'll give it until next year before we brag.

My grandparents are always doing such wonderful things for our family. And the family has gotten HUGE!!! So this year I was thinking to myself... I've never seen grandma and grandpa sit on Santa's lap. So as a family we decided to have Santa bring them a gift this year. Look how cute they are sitting on the jolly man's lap!

Just to tell you how much these people do for us. When all the kids were allowed to open their presents, we were all anxiously awaiting them to open theirs... but they were in the kitchen making root beer floats for everyone. It took multiple tried to get them to let someone else do the work so they could enjoy their gift from Santa.

 

They got a new train for their beautiful village they have under their tree. We had heard grandpa raving about this train set that blew real steam the week before, so we passed the word along to Santa. Grandpa loved it. Once most of the crowd was gone, grandpa and Cory got it out and put it on the tracks and just sat and watched it go round and round. In Cory's words, " Its like a camp fire, you just get lost in watching it."

Here is Tate opening his gift from Santa. Its a toy to put on his car seat!

I was really surprised at how excited he was. He was fascinated with it!

12/23/2012

I had the stuff to do my homemade Christmas gifts since Thanksgiving weekend and they just sat and sat and sat until the day before Christmas Eve, and my family was giving the gifts Christmas Eve. Talk about real Bateman procrastination.

It wouldn't have been SO bad if I didn't have to put 6 together!

But I think they turned out! I got the idea from http://www.athomewithk.blogspot.com/2011/11/haul-out-holly-christmas-tree-twig-art.html

 

12/24/2012

Since Cory had to work Christmas Eve, and we were spending the night at my families and then traveling up to his families, we decided to have our own Christmas together on Christmas Eve. This was the BEST idea ever! We both had so much fun. We seriously woke up at 7 am because we couldn't sleep any longer. The picture above is Stockton with his new toy! He's pretty funny with presents. He unwraps them and everything!

 

I got Cory the same train set that we picked out for Grandpa Givan. If you could have seen his eyes as we looked at those trains you would understand why this was such a great present for him! He had that thing put around the tree lickity split!

 

Cory surprised me as well by getting me my first pair of diamond earrings! I love them! I haven't taken them out since I got them.

Tate and I spent Christmas Eve at my families house while Cory was busy keeping the streets of Springville safe. Here is Tate in his new Christmas jammies! He is such a cutie!

And here are all of the grandchildren in their jammies! Can you believe how many there are now? And look at TAYLOR!!! He'll be 17 this year! CRAZY

12/25/2012

This is what we woke up to Christmas morning! Tate banked! He must have been a really good little boy. There's something he wants, something he needs, something he'll wear, and something he'll read!

Look how excited he was to get his new football! I love this picture!

And I just had to share this picture of Harley. When we told her to go and check to see if Santa had eaten any of the cookies, she got super mad and her exact words were..." I told Santa he could have ONE cookie!!! He ate them all!"

We drove up to Cory's parents and spent the rest of our break with them. We got really spoiled there and had a lot of fun playing a new game called TENZI. I of course didn't get any pictures there, but hey... I am getting better at making sure to take more pictures everywhere I go. Next year I'll make sure to get pictures at every stop. We are truly blessed and enjoyed spending this holiday season celebrating the Saviors birth as a new little family. I hope that you all had a great Christmas as well!