Having ourselves a Merry Little Christmas

Alright... I official deserve the "attagirl" reward.  After being behind on the blog all year long, I am officially caught up!!  (yes, I am patting myself on the back as we speak) :)

As mentioned previously, we took our last long Christmas Break ever!! to head up to Illinois to spend Christmas with Justin's family.  This was the first Christmas that Jordan has been home from his mission, and probably the last time the entire family will be together for Christmas.  We really enjoyed it other than the sickness that made the rounds.  (Yes literally every one caught it minus Justin, Jackson, and Brooklyn) 

Christmas Eve:

Opening up jammies and ornaments from mom and dad

Matching football jammies!! What could be better?!

Along with every photo "session"... a silly one! (I love it!)

Traditional Christmas Eve reading of the stories.

Ella and I became good friends.  She likes me, her parents(obviously), grandma & grandpa, and Holly(the dog).  I am so happy I would be the one that she would come to every now and again!

We went to the mall that day and the kiddo's got to visit Santa again.  Here they are coloring their coloring books that he gave to them.

The building of the gingerbread's didn't go to well for Justin and I this year... our idea of a pointed roof failed us.  I think its because we got the first batch of frosting and it was a bit too runny.  We tried many attempts to making it work, such as the blow dryer... didn't help. We finally just threw something together that would stand.  I don't have any photos of the final product... but don't worry, your not missing out on much.

And the 17 stocking were hung by the chimney with care, in hopes that St. Nick would find all the grandkids at Grandma and Grandpas that night!!

Christmas Day:

That Santa never fails!!!  We were happy to see that he knew right where everyone was!

The boys got to open one present before church.  Grandma and Grandpa Blake got them their adorable Christmas Church clothes to sport.

All the cousins looked so cute in their Christmas Outfits, and we didn't even have it planned for them to all match!  

After church, we came home and enjoyed the chaos of opening presents.  The boys opening G&G presents.  (Poor Donna had to get the sickness on Christmas Day.  She spent the morning resting while we were at church but at least was able to manage to come out and enjoy the present time)

Other happenings:

We did a lot of this... lounging around!  It was so nice.  I loved the picture of Jackson snuggled between his Aunt Jamie and Uncle Jordan.

After most everyone headed back home, we stayed a few days later.  Donna took us to the Children's Discovery Center one afternoon.  It is such a cool Children's museum and we all really loved it.  

Their was a sports section and we had to get a picture of our football player in his uniform!

Jonah learning how to draw the "snoopy" character.

There was also this cool thing where you could stand in the middle of a bubble.  

Look closely at Jonah's reaction... it was priceless!!

We finally decided to head back to Memphis after 10 days of fun.... Jackson somehow got a hold of the camera on the way home and amazingly took these crazy weird self portraits.  I am not even sure how he could do this... thats talent right there people!

I snapped this random picture when we got home of the boys in their Jackson Hole Jammies from G&G Blake.  I love them... so cute!!