Merry Christmas!

This year as some as you may or may not have noticed we did not get around to sending or posting or emailing our yearly Christmas letter. Trust me it was a huge disappointment to me too. I always enjoy seeing what Aaron will come up with year to year. But we were a little preoccupied moving into our new house! We are officially home owners again and to all our enjoyment and those of us whom were housing us we are now all living in the same household 24/7. We really missed not getting to see Aaron everyday although James is still missing the farm life a bit.

We signed on our house the 9th of December and spent every day and night of that week painting and making minor repairs around the house. By the time we unloaded the truck Saturday the painting was done and we were left with minor house repairs that I'm sure we will be working on for months. There's a lot of minor stuff (one of the reasons we got the house at such a good price). Nothing major but lots of unfinished projects that will take time to get to. But you get the point it has been a bust month.

We did eventually find the bottom of the most needed boxes and somehow find the Christmas box and the weekend before Christmas we put the Christmas tree up.

Saturday went to the mall so James could give Santa his annual Christmas wish of a hotwheel car. This year it was modified to a batman hotwheel car.  Madie and Titus sat on Santa's lap as well and were both very please to be there but someone stepped in front of Aaron and he couldn't get the picture :(

We were lucky to spend Christmas eve and my sister Michelle's house with my brother Jeremy and his family. It was so much fun to play games and see the cousin's have fun together.

Christmas morning the James and Madie were up at 6:30 ready to go but we had already told James he had to wait until his alarm went off at 7. He made it until 6:45 before he came knocking on our door where he and Madie cuddled in bed with us while we waited for 7 to arrive so we could wake Titus up. Once Titus was awake the kids were off down the hallway.

Christmas morning was wonderful, all three of the kids had a great time going through their presents although Madie and James were not quite convinced that Titus could get to his fast enough and helped with every one of his presents despite how much I tried to convince them that he really could do it.

 Madie's favorite presents this year a tie between the kitchen set and accompaning kitchen supplies and any thing Frozen. When she got her Christmas pajamas and the had Elsa on it I was afraid she was going to walk into a wall because she just wanted to look down at her shirt the rest of the night. After opening presents Madie spent most of the morning reading and re-reading her Frozen book. She pretty much asked for me to read it to her every chance she can get.

 James was all about cowboys and batman this year. He got a lot of batman cars 6 batman hotwheels from Santa and a remote control batmobile from Grandma Miller as well as another set from Aunt Gentry. To say the least he got his wish. When he wasn't racing around as batman he was rounding up cows on his new stick house. My favorite part all morning was listing to him play as batman but batman was herding cows... Gotta love the farm boy in him :)

 Titus loved everything that everyone got. It didn't matter if it came out of wrapping paper it was awesome but he was especially excited about his ball pit. He couldn't keep his face off of it. Really it was hilarious. He kept trying to eat the balls but of course they were still in the box. He enjoyed it even more after we got it set up.

 Aaron pretty much got one huge gift from everyone giving presents this year. We all pulled together and got him a Treager grill! It isn't here quite yet so he got a certificate instead which was great because when it was wrapped he really had no idea what was in it.

I was lucky enough to get a new camera from Aaron which I am super excited about no more super grainy awful indoor pictures and only look okay after a lot of editing! 

And as well he found me a beautiful snow globe that plays swan lake. I had one growing up with a dancer inside that I loved but did not survive long enough to make it to my hope chest. Aaron spend months searching for one that came as close to the one I described and although this is not the exact same the music and the sentiment it was given with is more precious than the original. Yes I may have cried a little when he gave it to me. So here is a picture of my new snow globe taken with my new camera. 

 Following presents and the annual breakfast of apple strudel, cinnamon rolls and apple cider we found the house under the wrapping paper and then made Christmas dinner. We were lucky enough to have Aaron's sister Gentry over and Bridger and sad because we were going to have his dad and step mom as well but the ended up canceling because they were sick.

 James and Bridger had a great time playing together the rest of the afternoon. They really have such a great time together. While we were able to play some card games as adults while the little ones napped and the boys played .

We had such as amazing Christmas this which was even more precious to us after being apart for so many month leading up it. This year has certainly brought many twists and turns losing jobs, being blesses to quickly have multiple offers of new jobs, setting into a new home only to sell it and move back to Utah to yet again find another home. Living 3 hours apart and visiting on weekend for 3 1/2 months, and yet being able to be able to find home and move in sooner than we thought might be possible.  Unexpected surprises seem to keep coming but we have been so blessed to have the gospel in our lives as we experienced all of them and have the comfort and guidance of a loving Heavenly Father through all of this. All given to us through the greatest gift of his son Jesus Christ on who's birthday we are honored to celebrate.