Merry Christmas!

Christmas was a little more quiet this year with no family over on Christmas morning. The morning went as expected with myself, Cammy and Brielle up bright and early and then the girls waking Hailey and daddy up at 7am (the time they are allowed to wake them up at).

The morning seemed to just be one big blur with stocking and present opening and new toys everywhere, but the girls seemed to love every moment of it (and the parents, we got to clean up all the mess).

Clearly we forgot to get carrots...

Cookies and milk for Santa

Santa came!!!

The girls with their stockings

Coda and his stocking

Keela and her stocking

Cammy helped take a picture of me and Jason

Ready to open their presents from Santa

Hailey got a Hatchimal, Cammy got a kissing puppy, and Brielle got a Spirit Horse and Lucky doll

Traditional family photo

Later in the afternoon my parents came over to open a few presents and have dinner with us. It was nice to be able to spend a few hours with them, even if it was a little harder with my dad this year. We have learned to appreciate every moment we have together, no matter how easy or how hard those moments might be!

My dad always wore this hat when I was a kid, so we put it back on him 

My dad opening presents

My dad and his girls

Merry Christmas!!

Great Wolf Lodge for Hailey's 5th

I asked Hailey over and over prior to her birthday what she would like to do to celebrate...birthday party with friends or Great Wolf Lodge (she talks about going back there ALL THE TIME). And everytime she answered that she wanted to go to Great Wolf Lodge. She is definitely not the type to have the attention all on her, so a birthday party would probably be a bit stressful for her. She prefers a party with just her family and that's ok by us!

So we planned to go to Great Wolf Lodge the weekend right after her birthday. Come the night before we plan to leave Jason comes down with some sort of stomach bug. He was trying to find any way possible to still be able to go the next morning, but sadly we had to reschedule for a different weekend. The girls were so upset and we felt awful. So I tried to distract them with a trip to Chuck-e-Cheese that day.

We ended up rescheduling for the following weekend, which happened to be right before Christmas Eve. We wanted to go Saturday the 22nd and come home Sunday the 23rd, but the room we wanted was not available. So the other option was going on Sunday the 23rd and coming home on Christmas Eve. We booked it even though we knew it would be a little crazy with Christmas the next day.

We ended up having a blast as usual! We spent lots of time in the water, enjoyed a few of their holiday activities and even managed to get a picture of the 3 girls with Santa and Mrs. Claus (with NO TEARS or hesitations!). Hailey loved getting to spend her birthday here and of course is already planning her next birthday back at Great Wolf Lodge next year!

These girls don't waste any time!

Her favorite part of the room is the bunkbeds!

Family photo with Santa and Mrs. Claus

Successful picture with just the 3 girls

She's 5!

Christmas at Great Wolf Lodge

We love the snowfall in the lobby

Free cupcakes!

Water girls

And as for coming home on Christmas Eve...it was a bit crazy, but we still managed to make it to the very last Christmas Eve service at church at 7pm and eventually ate dinner (whatever we could find in the fridge since everywhere except Asian food was closed that late) by 8:30pm, with kids in bed by 9ish!

Santa Pics 2018

No Christmas season is complete without Santa pictures and this year there was no bribe big enough for Brielle to sit on Santa's lap or even near him unless we were in the picture too. Thank goodness for the pictures we took before we saw Santa so we at least had something with just the 3 girls in it.

Pictures before we saw Santa

The whole family with Santa

These two still wanted a picture without us parents

(thank goodness Hailey does whatever Cammy does these days)

Annual White Elephant Party

On Dec. 14th we hosted our annual "Ugly Sweater White Elephant Gift Exchange". Throughout the years this party has evolved from just a small group of us newlyweds to now a party with more kids than there are adults. What were we thinking?!

We have complicated this gift exchange and simplified it over the years, but we always manage to have a good time and the kids love to add a chaotic element to the party atmosphere (but when do they not do that anyway?!). The funniest part of this party is when the kids get to do their ornament exchange and at least one or two end up in tears when they don't end up with the one they brought. I tell ya...there's never a dull moment when you party with kids!

We found some good outfits this year, don't you think?!

Kids ornament exchange

(obviously this is at the beginning when everyone is still smiling)

The girls in our sweaters

The kids in their jammies

The guys in their sweaters (and suits)