Zane, Emerson, and Smith: January 2015

This year, it was just the five of us for New Year's Eve. Usually we are with family or friends. This year, we stayed LOW KEY.

We decided to keep our tradition of bowling. We went at 3:00 to beat the crowd. Perfect timing! One game is perfect for our family. I couldn't believe how easy it was this year. The kids are growing up sooooo much. Smith could almost do it one his own (or we thought until he dropped his ball on his toe). Oops.

I love family time.

Watching Dada

We even got Nachos and Icees, a super fun treat for these guys.

Then, we went out to a fun dinner and came home to watch a new movie, Box Trolls. Later that night, we ate cupcakes, did a fake countdown, banged our pots and pans and went to bed. The kids fell asleep about 9:30 and I'm pretty sure Zack and I were sound asleep on the couch before 10. We missed midnight for sure. Haha.

The next day, we decided to spend the day organizing our Legos and creating a Lego City!

And the kids loved the movie Box Trolls so much, we made our own. They haven't stopped playing since. The cutest is when they pretend they get scared and scrunch down into their box so no one can see them. Finding something that all 3 (and 4) kids like to play together is the best.

Happy New Year!! We are excited to see what 2015 brings. :) :) :)

Papa, Zack's dad came to visit this year for Christmas. He joined us for all of our plans. The kids were glad to see him and gave him lot's of big hugs!

For the past LOT's of years, we have all spend Christmas Eve (and more nights) and Mom and Dave's house, but this year we switched it up. We decided to stay home as a family for Christmas Eve. Our kids just wanted to be in their own beds and house. It really did feel good. Then we drove to celebrate with family in Colorado Springs on the night of the 25th and 26th.

We waited until Christmas Eve to visit Santa. Oops. Oh well, better late than never, right. This day, Smith even had Strep and the flu, but we decided that Santa could handle the germs...

Zane felt the most nervous to see him. You can tell by his body language, he wasn't quite sure what to do.

Papa and the kids rode the train around the Orchard shops. It was a gorgeous, sunny day.

Then we went out for a fun lunch. Emmy and Zane made us all glasses out of their Wiki stix.

Later that day, we headed home and relaxed and played more games. The kids all worked together to write their notes to Santa...

Emmy's (Dear Santa, Can I have a Usula Costume? I hope that you have a good time.)

Smith's (Ninja Turtles fight robots).

Zane's (super long, humorous, and detailed)

Christmas Eve story time with Dad

Emmy was so excited about one of our gifts to Molly. She decided to pass down her super fun, favorite doll house that she knew Mol would love. She cleaned the whole thing and wrapped the little furniture and people all separately (20 packages) ALL BY HERSELF. We surprised Molly by putting it straight into her house when she wasn't home. It was fun watching Emmy love giving to her cousin and working so hard to make it special.

Really, probably my very favorite part of this Christmas was having the kids shop for gifts for each other, wrap them by themselves, and exchange gifts to each other on Christmas Eve. It was cool how thoughtful they were and how much they enjoyed giving.
Zane has an auction at school every Friday, and he saved up his school bucks to find the perfect gift for Emmy. He ended up buying her a vase that he knew she'd love and was super excited to give it to her. He drew Smith artwork specifically for him, with his fav colors, characters, etc. SO SWEET!
Smith picked out Ariel stuff for Emmy bc he knew she loved her right now. The two littles got books and Madlibs for Zane. And Emmy and Zane got a new superhero set for Smith. All their ideas.

Here's all their gifts to each other

Emmy wrote most the names for me this year (To Papa, Love Emmy, Smith, and Zane

Their expressions watching the others open was the best. True joy!

Coming down for stockings

Reading Santa's note back to them...

Opening stockings

A little excited about his new big Superheroes from Santa

Thankful

The aftermath of Christmas morning...

I love their faces, so happy for Smithy.

Batman got his utility belt - now he has his full suit!

Taking time to read his new sports magazine

Emmy got a huge Cinderella castle lego set from Santa...

Later on Christmas, we drove to Grandma and Grandpa's house. Here's my mom and Smith enjoying the train Dave got just for the kids...

Just hanging out

The kids made Gingerbread Men. Smith had Iron Man fight his Gingerbread Man and he kicked him straight in half. LOL.

Grandma glued him back together...

Molly watching the train

Waiting for more gifts

Another favorite gift - a new ROBIN costume from Grandma and Grandpa! Woohoo.

Zane got some fighting remote control robots. They were a hit

The fam - and Judi and Bob and Grandma and Pap joined for the day too...

We got Mol a matching nightgown to Emmy's. I think we were more excited than she was. Haha.

Emmy really went to town wrapping this gift for Ben!

On the 26th, we drove to Grandpa Jack's house to have another Christmas celebration!! The kids got such fun gifts. Smith even got to go on a scavenger hunt to find his new Spiderman bike with training wheels! Zane got the new Madden xbox game. He was so pumped. And Emmy got spoiled too.

Fighting superheroes with Grandpa

We played "Head's Up" Zane and Em got a turn guessing people acting out words

Acting out "putting on sunblock"

Um, Emmy may be way to easy to shop for!!

Then, after the kids went to bed, we played a real poker game. I even drank an Angry Orchard Cider. Party animal! It was seriously so fun. Jordan ended up beating us all.