Christmas Morning!

The day finally arrived! S and I set our alarms for 6:00am (the girls usually get up around 6:30) so we could have to camera's ready to capture their excited faces. Would you believe they slept in until 8:00??? We could have enjoyed an hour or two of more sleep...

M came out first - of course- and she was in awww at the very large doll house sitting next to the tree. It was something she didn't even ask for, and was completely not expecting! But dad and mom saw it and were convinced it would result in hours and hours of entertainment......we were right :) 

 My morning beauty. I use to be amazed at the different hair styles this girl would have each morning when she got out of bed. Now we are all pretty use to it, but every once in a while I have to laugh....

She opened her stocking and found a  La La Loopsy!!! Personally, these things freak S and I out. They have these weird button eyes that are a little creepy. But our girls LOVE them! And have been fighting over this one ever since Christmas morning. 

Lip Gloss....wouldn't be Christmas without it!

C was a little overwhelmed and eventually asked for some help with opening her presents...

It takes soooo much concentration! She got more and more into it and by the end had no need for any help. She is now a pro at tearing wrapping paper. 

Again...not Christmas morning without lip gloss, and no way could we leave little C out! She got her very own, very small, hello kitty chap stick. She thought she was pretty important. And the owl hat she found in her stocking was too cute to take off. She loves that hat...

When the real present opening began, M went for the biggest she could find with her name on it! Our little artiest was in need of some more supplies and was thrilled!

Mr. Potato Head! Another purchase worth every dime. This guy has been played with more then I thought he would be, and C takes care of him better then she has taken care of any toy before. She carefully puts each piece away each time she plays with it, and has a special place in the toy room where he is kept. It's the cutest thing.

The girls got some dolls for their doll house. C is pretty obsessed with Brave, and was super excited that she was in the package with the rest of the Disney Princesses. 

10,000 beads. Good news is, I've picked up at least 500. So, only 9,500 or so to go!

It was cute to see the girls open a present or two and then work their way back to the doll house. It was all they could do to concentrate on anything else. 

 Dad's favorite part of Christmas morning - opening the boxes :)

It didn't take long for M to make her way to the kitchen table and paint. She absolutely loves to create, and is a pretty artistic little thing.

We had a wonderful Christmas! We spent most of our day in the house together. The girls played and played and played, and S and I snuggled up and read our new books. It was such a peaceful day. 

Merry Christmas Eve...

We love traditions, and one of our favorites is Christmas Eve with the Paynes! 

We always get some good food, find a fun activity for the kiddos, read the nativity story and open a present to get us all excited about Christmas morning. 

This year we found some gingerbread men decorating kits we just "had" to try out. It was definitely less of a mess then our annual gingerbread house making, and the kids loved it!

Maybe too much of the candy from the gingerbread men activity got eaten, or maybe they were just super excited for Christmas, but these kids got a little more crazy as the evening went on. We always try to talk to them about the true meaning of Christmas by telling the nativity story while the kids lay out the manger scene. But we lost all control of the kids and our "spiritual" part of the evening was a FLOP! 

Here's D with one of the wise men right before he knocked his head right off. We had a very headless wise men join our nativity scene which of course ended in LOTS of laughter from the kids (and maybe a few adults....) 

They look so innocent, don't they? Combined, these five children are partners in crime just waiting for their next opportunity to destroy something!

We decided to quickly get on with the evening so we could send them off to play, and on the count of three provided by uncle S, the present opening began.......would you believe they got PJ's?????

Aside from D's headless wise man, L's ice skating adventure in the tub with the conditioner, C's craving for oatmeal (which ended up scattered all over the bedroom), and randomly finding missing credit cards in the closet (have no idea how that happened) I think our party was a success. Definitely one that won't be forgotten...

I have never been more anxious on a Christmas Eve to put the young ones to bed! Luckily the craziness made them super tired, and they were out like a light before we knew it. 

But before we sent them off to dream about Christmas morning, they left a little something for Santa.....

Right next to the baby Jesus.......

Christmas Treat Making...

I have good intentions every Christmas to make goodies for friends and neighbors, but honestly it never happens. This year I vowed that wouldn't be the case! So I gathered some of my favorite recipes and a few new ones to try out, put C to bed and M and I got busy. The first few hours were fun....but by hour five and six we were starting to feel less and less of the holiday spirit! Maybe (like always) mom bit off more then she could chew. But we had fun and ended up with pretty good amount of "deliver worthy" treats. 

We had fudge, chocolate covered marshmallow reindeer, sugar cookies and pumpkin cupcakes to name a few things.....yes there was more. But I loved spending time with my little girl and we had some good laughs! Which of course, is the whole point of making Christmas goodies...right? Memories! 

putting up the tree...

Here are my beauties decorating the Christmas tree. As you may be able to tell - we were still recovering from our two week vacation....

But we got the job done, and the girls were very impressed with their work!

I loved watching the tree change from day to day as the girls rearrange each ornament, putting their favorites down low where they could see and reach them. Some branches were left completely bare while others had multiple ornaments weighing them down. The first couple of days I tried to keep up with it, evening everything out as best I could. Then the thought came to me that someday I would have the "perfect" Christmas tree with ornaments that never move, and lights that don't get pulled and twisted. And I would also have an empty house and probably miss the uneven, always changing tree. So, I opted to leave it just the way it was, and enjoy the girls excitement while I could!  

Once there was a SNOWMAN!

We have been so "blessed" this year with a TON of snow. In fact, it hasn't stopped snowing for weeks!!!!! This blessing is turning into a curse, if you want my personal opinion, but of course it's a blast for the little ones. 

It sounds pretty bad, but this was M's first snowman making experience. Are we awful parents or what??? Truth is, the opportunity just never presented itself until now, and we decided it was time for this to happen!

Mom was not as prepared as she should have been and only had a baby carrot for the noes. But we got creative!! Grab some Oreo cookies for eyes, some licorice for the mouth and we had the best looking snowman on the block! 

Soooooo worth it...

S and I had been wanting to take the girls on a family vacation for quite some time now. We kept talking ourselves out of it saying they were too young to care, we should probably put the money aside for something else, this won't be worth it, etc. But we finally broke down and made it happen! Can I just say, TOTALLY worth it. We've been on trips as a family before, but never just us. It was amazing to have a week together. No interruptions, no distractions, just S and I focusing on the kids. The time together was very much needed, and on the way home S and I committed to do these things more often. I think we forget how important - no matter how young the kids are - to make these special memories with them. Heaven knows we won't have them for long. 

C on the way home from California. All her Disneyland souvenirs in hand! Poor thing was exhausted, but happy. 

The Beach

We spent our last day in California at the Beach. S and I knew it was somewhere we wanted to take the girls before we headed home. They had never been and it was quite an exciting thing for them! Unfortunately, the weather wasn't working with us, but we did have the beach to ourselves :) 

M just stood in total disbelief that there could actually be THAT much water in one place. She was A-mazed!

The cold weather didn't keep dad and M from playing in the waves. C and I opted to just watch. 

Then the sea shell collecting began, and my goodness did we find some awesome shells!

C would find a sea shell she liked, and then yell and M to come get it. For some reason she was terrified to pick the things up! A little out of her comfort zone I guess....

M: Mom! Come look what I found!!! I was playing in the waves, stepped on something hard and decided to reach down a pick it up. It's a REAL LIVE SEA SHELL that isn't opened yet! Maybe it has a pearl inside!!!

Well, no pearl inside, but there was quite the science experiment going on in our hotel bathroom while M and dad  checked it out. 

Definitely the best was to end our family vacation. Now the girls have been to the beach! And they can't wait to go back.