New bedtime routine

 We do something special thinking it will be just one time and it becomes routine.  Sophia drinks her bottle while laying with Sara in her bed every night.  Sara LOVES it!  I don't think Sophia really cares as long as she gets her bottle.

Both girls twirling their hair.

Bracelets

 Sophia loves these silly bands!  She calls them bracelets and loves to put them on.  She will usually wear them until I take them off for her bath.  She swiped both Sara and Brandon's bracelets until she finally got some of her very own for Christmas.  Of course she has to wear them ALL at the same time, so it is difficult getting her coat on and off.

Christmas at home part deux

 When we finished with all the presents under the tree it was time to open the package from Grandma Esau.  First we had to convince Sophia to move her cars............

 Sara is very excited about this new toy.  Around here we call it a "sing" for Sophia.  She likes to sing along with it.

 Of course both of the girls got one, so they can be annoying together.

 Brandon got two hex bugs.

 I am pretty excited to get my own I-tunes card.

 Sophia would not let go of this Sprite for anything.  She almost drank the whole thing!

 Grandma sent Sophie Mater and Philmore aka "more more".  She had to watch her movie with all her new cars friends.

When Ben woke up from his nap he got to look at his stocking and was totally excited to get this single candy cane (and another Cafe Rio gift card).  DATE NIGHT!!  We seriously LOVE Cafe Rio!  I took over 200 pictures, so be thankful I was able to narrow it down to these few.  I have decided to have Christmas at home every year!

Christmas at home

 For the first time since we've lived here we got to spend Christmas at home with just our family.  On Christmas Eve we made reindeer food, then sprinkled it on our lawn.

 Brandon and Sara helped me make Oreo cookies for Santa.

 Christmas morning before the kids got to dig into the presents.

 Sophia has been using Sara's old princess couch, but it smells like pee, so she got her own.

 Sophia was so excited to get "Achow" and "King" in her stocking.

 We always look in our stockings first.  Brandon was very excited to get some beef jerky.

 Sophie with a fist full of Jelly Belly's.  The only thing she ate that morning was Jelly Belly's and a few pieces of an orange.

 Santa brought Mac for Sophia.

 Santa brought XBOX 360 games for Dad and Brandon to play.

 Dad got the windshield washer he has been wanting for a long time.

 Brandon got a magic trick set.

 Sara didn't think she was going to get any of these necklaces, so she was very excited when she opened this present from me.

 Sophia loves to jump, so I thought this would be perfect for her.  Turns out it was not made very well, so I took it back.  She will just have to wait until it gets warm again so she can jump outside on the trampoline.

 Ben has to get me at least one present that I don't know about, and this year he got me a cute picture frame-  I love it!

 Ben and I were exhausted after the kids got done opening all the presents.  The good news is we both got to take a nap.

Sophia would have been happy with just one present.  She had no interest in opening her last few presents, so we just waited and she opened them later.

The week before Christmas.........

Pretzels with candy cane Hershey's kisses

 and the house was not clean- everything from our trip piled high- what a mess!  I had baking to do for our great friends and neighbors and cleaning and wrapping will I ever get done?

Cinnamon Roasted Almonds

 Three kids all at home needing something to do, finally one being cute with her pop-tart in her room.

 Wearing sunglasses from sister and the phone from her cousin Sophie kept us all laughing while we worked, worked, worked, worked!

 Finally Dad to the rescue with his patience and time to entertain kids while Mom toed the line.

 The helicopters got stuck only once, maybe twice, in the streamers still hanging down- what a fright.

Sadly Sophia loves mommy the most and when Daddy comes near she screams like she's just seen a ghost.   One day she decided that Daddy's okay and sat by him nicely, while watching her show.  All the cleaning got done and the baking and wrapping we did so much work now it's time for relaxing!

Early Christmas in Utah

 I was so excited to be able to spend time with family for Christmas without having to pack all our presents with us.  We drove to Utah on the 16th after Sara's performance, so we got there pretty late.  Sara loves spending time with her cousins that she doesn't get to see very often.

We met Grandma Esau at the mall the next morning to do some shopping.  One of Sara's presents from Grandma was a new Build-A-Bear with an outfit.  After lunch at Charley's Steakery Sophie was ready for her nap, so Ben and I went back to Aaron and Nicole's place while the bigger kids stayed to ride the carousel.

 Later that night was our family party at Great Grandma Walker's.  The cousins had fun visiting and Grandma now has a whole new generation for her games.

 All the kids got new pajamas.

 Sophia and Paytin had fun playing together and of course Ben joined in the fun.

 Saturday was Grandma Esau's party and she had a nice, short program for the kids.  They liked hearing the story, but couldn't wait to open all the presents.

 Sophia loved unwrapping her presents this year!

 All the grandkids got Pillow Pets.  My kids have been bugging me for one of those for a long time!

 I'm pretty sure Owen liked the hooded towel I made for him and I hope to see it at Bear Lake next year!

 Ben and I got great presents from Rachel and Matt.  Thanks again!

 Some of Brandon's presents from Grandma.

 The blocks I worked so hard on turned out very cute and Grandma loved them!

 After dinner we all went to see Legend of the Guardians.  Sophie did not want to sit still at all, but Grandma spent time with her in the lobby until she fell asleep.

 Sophia and Tristan watching Simon's cat on the computer.

After church on Sunday we packed up the van and went to Monte and Kim's house for the rest of the day so we could drop off some presents and let the kids play.   Kim made two skirts for each of the girls, so we ended up staying pretty late.  The kids were tired and fell asleep before we got to I-15.  Before everyone fell asleep we sang some fun songs for Sophie.  We had so much fun and hope to have an early Christmas in Utah every year!