Merry Christmas!!

What a wonderful Christmas! Tis the Season to be Jolly!! It was truly a joyous celebration! I think Christmas Eve was my favorite! I've noticed many of our Christmas traditions come from either my childhood or Nate's childhood! And sometimes we begin our own! Here is one tradition from both our families: Acting out the Nativity! I wrote a script and had narrators read from Luke 2. The kids love dressing up and being the characters!

Ty was Angel Gabriel...although he was convinced angels were only for girls I reminded him that Angel Gabriel was actually a boy!!

Mara as Mary, of course!

And Joseph was played by Caleb!

Angel Gabriel coming to visit Mary then Joseph.

And then Ty was the donkey!! He some how stole this part from Nate who is always the donkey! But I guess if he had to be the angel he could be the donkey if he wanted!

Here is Mary riding the donkey to Bethlehem!

Then we had a quick costume change and Mara, Ty, & Caleb were shepherds and baby Brooklyn was the angel--she really is an angel baby!!

Three awesome wise men! They look terrific!

What a handsome wiseman!

We sang Christmas songs in between the verses and bore our testimonies of the birth of Jesus Christ. The spirit was so strong in our home! It was amazing! I was so grateful that we could focus on Jesus and remember Him and ponder the true meaning of Christmas. We ended our lesson with this clip from lds.org


A great reminder for us to all seek Jesus and serve others.

"Happy Birthday to Jesus..." We sang Happy Birthday and blew out candles on the birthday cake/pie!

Then it was off to bed so Santa could come! Merry Christmas my little sweet darlings!

Good Morning and Merry Christmas!! The boys snuggling Brooky with Christmas loves!

Papa--or "my puppy" and "Tooky" as Caleb refers to them!!

Caleb found a surprise in his stocking: a Darth Vader candy dispenser! He was so excited!!

Me and my sweet little Christmas Elf!

Thank you Mimi & Papa for the new dress! Perfect for our little princess!

Merry Christmas Nate! Thanks for a great day!!

Sweet little Brooky carefully opening her present!

Having our family down with us for Christmas was so special!

Yay! More tinker-toys!! Now let's build!

Brooky was fascinated with the wrapping paper! She didn't really care for what was inside! She just liked opening the gift!

Wahoo!! Ty's very own Light Saber! Thank you Mimi & Papa! How did you know?! He was thrilled!

Mara loved helping Brook open her gifts! I can't wait to see a picture of her in her new shirt that says, "I love my Aunt!" I loved hearing Brook say "Eeeeee!" So cute!

Caleb opening his new remote control police car from Ty. I love that my kids are so happy with what they get! They are not into the top and newest and latest and greatest techno-gifts! It is wonderful! I know it won't last!!

What a mess we made! It was a lot of fun and seeing those sweet faces of joy and surprise from my kids Christmas morning makes me want to do it all again!

Oh my little Shmooky-Cookie-Tookie-Brooky! I am so glad that Scott and Lorisa and Brook could come visit for Christmas! I just loved snuggling, hugging, kissing, and playing with my little niece! She is so darling! I miss her already and I'm so sad that they live so far away and I can't see her very often! Thank you Scott and Lorisa for coming and being with us for Christmas! Thank you for all your help with meals, and the kids, and hanging doors! We hope you enjoyed your trip! Loves!

The other part that I loved about Christmas was being able to remember Jesus Christ by going to church and worshiping Him!

A wonderful Christmas had by all! The kids snuggled in their new sleeping bags they got for Christmas! We are so excited for some family camping trips this summer!
Merry Christmas to all...and to all a Good Night!!

Home for the Holidays!!

I love the Holidays! I love being in my home for the Holidays! And I love having family come visit during the Holidays! Truly this was the best Christmas ever! We hosted Christmas in our home for my parents, my brother Scott and his wife Lorisa and their darling baby Brooklyn! It was so fun laughing, playing with Baby Brooky, eating yummy food, and just being together.

Ty being funny with Papa!

Mimi brought a fun art project for the kids to paint.

They all had their own Christmas tree to paint. It's interesting the different levels of painting. Mara did an orange tree with different colors here and there but stayed in the lines...

Caleb did every color in the rainbow--did not stay in the lines and didn't care about Christmas colors...

And Ty was very careful staying in the lines, made sure his tree was green!! It took Ty quite a while to finish his tree since he was so careful!

The weather outside was NOT frightful! In fact it was delightful! We took Brooklyn for a walk around the block and enjoyed the sunshine! Scott & family must have brought the nice sunny California weather with them!

This picture cracks me up: Caleb and Brook checking out the tree--Brook takes a ball off the tree and Caleb hangs it up higher so she can't reach it! Brook was fascinated by the Christmas tree and Caleb made sure she didn't brake anything!

The best Christmas present ever: Service!! Our sweet family worked and slaved away to help us on our house while they were visiting! We had a door party and installed all new doors in our house!

Papa is Mr. Fix-it and was so handy! He fixed all the things in my house that were driving me nuts...well not all of them! But he made a dent! He put a new toilet-paper holder in our new bathroom! He fixed my light on my bed so the fan would turn off! He put grouted the tile in the bathroom....Thank You dad for the nice Christmas present! You can come back any time and keep working on my 'Honey Please Do List!!'

Mimi and her girls! Weren't we surprised when we saw Brook in her purple pajamas! Mara has the some ones! Match-match double-match!!

This was only the first day with family...there is more! Lots more fun with family!!

An Early Christmas!!

Although Christmas is over we actually celebrated Christmas twice! The week before Christmas we headed up to an extended Lewis family Christmas party. It was a lot of fun seeing aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents, and all who attended. We ate lots of yummy food and talked and laughed!

Caleb must have eaten 3 or 4 gingerbread cookies! They were very soft, chewy, and tasty! And every time I turned around he had another one in his mouth!! After most of the guests left we opened presents with Grandma and Grandpa since we weren't sure when the next time we would be up.

Grandpa's boy! Caleb sure loves his grandpa! And I sure love grandpa's hat!!

Speaking of hats...Aunt Marla made this cute black hat for Mara! It looks so darling on her! Thanks Marla!

Ty opened his present from Grandma Lewis and found a beautiful 4th of July blanket! If you can't tell from the picture Ty LOVES it! He sleeps with it now every night and curls up to watch movies with his blanket! Thank you Grandma Lewis!

Grandma Lewis must have been extra busy this year because she not only sewed a blanket for Ty but also sewed matching Christmas jammies for all the grandkids! They look so cute!

Ty's other favorite gift from grandma and grandpa was his new castle that lights up and has sound! Pretty awesome!

Mara loved her little pet shop present! Fun fun!

And Caleb was thrilled with a new game!

After we opened presents some of the family headed over to see the lights at Temple Square! So fun! Cold but awesome! Glad we could go! I love seeing the lights especially with family! It just makes it really feel like Christmas! I kind of felt like Christmas was over since we opened presents and saw the lights all on one night! But we still had a week to go!!

Isn't this awesome?! They put a nativity on the reflection pond along with floating candles! It was looked so amazing!

Two great Aunties we love so much!! Thanks Beanie and Chels for keeping little Mara Lew warm while we saw the lights!!

I love to see the temple...especially at Christmas time with all the lights! It is so majestic and beautiful!

We really packed it in this weekend!! After we walked around Temple Square our family headed over to the Energy Solutions Arena and watched the Jazz scrimmage. It was fun being in the Delta Center and watching basketball even if it wasn't a real game!

From all the walking around and not having a nap Caleb was exhausted! He took a quick nap at the basketball game on Nate's lap! Ty was pretty tired too! But we all still had a good time!

It was a fun weekend! Thank you Lewis Family for celebrating with us! Thanks Grandma Lewis for the cute Christmas jammies! The kids sure look cute in their matchy-matchy jammies!