December 2012::Christmas

::Steve & Susie with us

::we announce we are pregnant

::Christmas brunch at Algers

::Luke's first Christmas

Getting Ready for Christmas

I've been starting to make Christmas shopping lists and for some reason I am having a hard time figuring out what the heck to get our kids for Christmas.

There is one gift I am super excited about though - this gift I made for Brookie this weekend:

How adorable are these???!!!
I was so excited when I found the idea online and even more excited when they turned out cute, and even MOST excited that they only cost about $5. Triple win.

Now I just want to find a cute box/bag to store them in.
I'm just in love with these two-inch princess dolls.
I hope Brookie loves them too!

Christmas 2010: O Christmas Tree!

Picking out our tree at our favorite local tree lot is always a fun tradition. We added Krispy Kreme donuts into the mix this year. Donuts + hot cocoa + decorating the tree = a favorite family activity. This year it was especially freezing when we went tree hunting and luckily we found our tree right away. I think this year we made record time in picking the perfect tree. And it actually did turn out to be our favorite tree we've had.

Christmas 2010: Christmas Eve

We had Christmas Eve dinner all together. Clint was a sport and sat at the kids' table. Couldn't pass up taking a picture of that! We had just enough seats (I think) for everyone. There's nothing better than having a house full of people you love!


After dinner the kiddos decorated cookies for Santa. There was lots of licking of frosting and mountains of sprinkles. So fun! Santa sure got a treat this year.

The kiddos all got coordinating pajammies from Grandma & Grandpa Jensen. I'm so glad we got some pictures of all of them together, happy, and cozy.


We were especially excited to meet our newest Jensen cousin, Garrett, and share in his first Christmas!

After all the kiddos were tucked in bed, the grown ups played a few rounds of Bananagram (another gift from G&G/Mom&Dad).


My favorite Christmas picture is all of these stockings hung together. Great-Grandma Jensen has knit all of these herself over the years for each one of us. They are precious to us and I absolutely loved seeing them all hung and stuffed side by side.

Christmas Eve was the slumber party of the year for us. Mom & Dad slept in our bed, Maya in the closet (it's a big closet), all the other cousins stuffed in our girls' room, Clint & Mari & Garrett in the playroom, and the rest of us camped out on the floor in the family room. It was perfect.

It still makes me happy thinking about Christmas 2010. I'm sure it always will. It was so wonderful have everyone stuffed in our house and so perfect to wake up Christmas morning all together. Christmas 2010 will be among our most favorite memories. I'm sure of it.

Christmas 2010: Happy Kids

Christmas morning was a hit. The woke not too early (around 7:30) and they were all patient enough to wait for the parents to clean up their beds from the family room floor. Each kids took their turn trying to sneak a peak as to whether Santa came. There was much discussion as to who Santa left the tricylce for under the tree. Maya was the lucky winner!



Everyone was happy (with the exception of a small accusation of someone being naughty...) with their loot from Santa. McKenna got her trumpet, Katie got her pillow pet, and Brooke was just happy to have anything. Jensen boys got legos and nurf guns, and Maya got the coveted tricycle.

Grandma & Grandpa Jensen got all the cousins coordinating pajammies that were opened on Christmas Eve along with personalized mini-clipboards & family journal pages. Each Christmas we get a page from her with family pictures from the previous year to collect. We look forward to this every year.

The excitment and anticipation of Christmas morning sure is fun with little ones around, and with eight cousins all together this year, it was more fun than ever.

It was fun to have [almost] everyone together this Christmas. We know it's not easy to travel around the holidays - especially when transporting Christmas presents for the family. We are so incredibly thankful that our family was willing and able to make the trek. This definitely will be a Christmas to remember!

Christmas 2009

Merry Christmas

wishing you all a

Merry Christmas

full of love, laughter, joy,

& Christ

Baum Christmas Trees

We ventured out to Baum's in the cold last Thursday to pick out our Christmas tree.

After very quickly browsing the lot, Katie took charge and picked out a good one.
McKenna helped her hawl it to the car.
Notice the steam coming from their little bodies.
It was so cold!

Dave loaded it on the car while we all warmed up in the heated car.

We then had a great night decorating the tree.

That's a lot of lights for that little guy.

It might be a little tree, but we love it!

CHRISTMAS!

We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas! We sure had a great time here. I must say this has been our most fun Christmas yet. It is so fun now that Katie is old enough to really understand what's going on (I say that every year, but I think this year it's actually true!) And even though McKenna didn't quite get it, she sure was excited and loved all the presents. EVERYTHING the girls got was a huge hit which made it so fun. Even though Christmas is not all about the gifts, we feel extremely blessed to have had such a wonderful Christmas for our children. They were very lucky to get everything they wanted and more!

Here are some memories from this year's Christmas:

Christmas Eve

opening presents on Christmas Eve

Christmas jammies & Christmas book!

writing letters to Santa to leave with egg nog & cookies

"Dear Santa, I love you. And I love McKenna..."

so excited for Santa to come!

Christmas morning (7:30 am)

waiting patiently for everyone to be ready...

evidence that Santa was here!

Santa brought a kitchen!
He also brought...

a princess tea set for Katie &

a new baby & stroller for McKenna

fun new games -

Old Maid,

Matching,

Jenga (from the Yuans - thanks!),

Candyland

Katie's craft tool box from Gran Jensen - HUGE hit

the much anticipated Princess Book!!!

Little Einsteins stuffed dolls set - Katie picked these out herself for McKenna and she LOVES them. Way to go Katie!

McKenna discovered candy canes and VERY sticky fingers

new coordinating comforters for the bunkbeds - a very ambitious project for Mom, but she did it!

Princess dolls - Ariel, Snow White, & Belle

(thanks Elena and Grandma Hopkin!)

Elmo Live!!! McKenna's new best friend!

rhythm instruments from Grandma Hopkin - so fun!

beautiful books from GG Jensen - Polar Express & Puff the Magic Dragon

As you can see, we had VERY happy children Christmas morning. We managed to get through the day with only 1 breakdown! Impressive! After we opened presents and played for a bit, we went over to Dave's Aunt Sandy & Uncle Bruce's house for Christmas brunch. It was so fun & sure was fun to spend part of Christmas with family. There we had delicious food and had fun playing Christmas songs on the chimes. The girls even participated - Katie on chime #7 and McKenna conducting!

That evening, after much needed naps for mom & the girls, we went to our great friends Jason & Erica's house for a delicious Christmas dinner. We had prime rib (yum!). We then played Old Maid and the Wii. Very fun night - more time with family :)

The girls then stayed up until almost 10:00 playing in the playroom with all of their new toys. They were playing SO WELL together I didn't dare break it up.

We had such a great day. I love Christmas and love it even more than ever as a mom. It is so fun watching our girls get so excited and happy. That is the best Christmas present for this mom.

And we were SO THRILLED to hear the news that baby Maya Yuan was able to go home on Christmas Eve. What an amazing gift for Amy & Arthur! Merry Christmas you guys!

We love you all and wish we could have spent a part of the holiday with each of you. We hope you all had a very Merry Christmas as well!