Christmas

We woke up Christmas morning, I had actually set my alarm for 7:00 (Jason thought I was nuts, I just wanted to be up before the boys and turn on the Christmas lights and make sure things looked fun for them when they woke up) I turned on the lights and then we laid in bed just waiting for them to wake up, the longer we laid there the more excited I was getting for the boys.  They finally woke up around 7:45, Ashton was so excited and totally knew that it was Christmas and that Santa had came, Noah woke up a little grumpy and had to be talked out of his bad mood. 

We made in to the living room and had to check everything out.  Jason made me open one present first before we did anything else.  He had gotten me a new point and shoot camera.  I had used our other one the week before and was complaining how grainy the photos were and how slow the camera was.  I guess he was listening to me :)  So we put in a SD card and proceeded to take pictures of Christmas morning with the new camera.  It wasn't the best idea there were some funny settings so we have a bunch of blurry pictures.  It makes me kind of sad but oh well, I could of used the big camera it was sitting there waiting but i thought it would be fun to use the new one. 

We made the boys wait until we got all the present all in our own piles then we opened them one at a time.  Noah's Christmas had a total theme this year, Thomas the train and he was thrilled with that.  Ashton's Christmas had a bunch of Lego's, some transformers and a camera along with other misc things.  We got to open presents and hang out and play with the new toys for a while which was really nice.

Noah was pretty happy about what he got in his stocking, so was Ashton

And yes I let the boys eat chips and Pez from their stocking for breakfast, (I know mom of the year here) we were having brunch at my dad's house so I didn't plan anything for breakfast, but they wouldn't leave the living room anyways to eat, so I figured it Christmas they can do it once right!

Merry Christmas little Grey

 Mommy is pretty excited about this new present, now I just have to find room for it!

Seriously mom, I am done with pictures being taken

Mom stop taking my picture

It wouldn't be christmas without the custom picture with your pile of new presents

We had to be at Dad and Val's at 12:30 for brunch, we were the first there with Ang and JD right behind us.  We had a yummy lunch of soup and bread, then it was on to the gift exchange.  There was a little more stealing of presents this time but not much more.  I guess people were just being nice.

The boys love to go the Nana's house so that they can go and play with the dogs.  They will get in there kennel and pull out there food to feed them and then climb on the dog houses. 

It was so funny to watch Gage go from one uncle, grandpa, to the next.  I guess he really likes guys and tends to gravitate towards them.  It was so cute watching him make his rounds
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Then we headed back to mom's house for Christmas dinner and we were staying the night there so we could hang out, play games, and just relax.  Noah had fallen asleep in the car from Dad's house, it is only about a 10 min drive, Jason took him inside and laid him down on Mom's bed.  I figured he would sleep for a little bit, if anything, he slept for 2 hours.  His uncles finally went in and woke him up, which made for a not very happy Noah for a little while till he was fully awake.

 The boys all came over and we had Christmas again with this family and then dinner.  I was actually really looking forward to the fact that we were staying and I could hang out in my new pj's and play games.

 Jason and I got a new game from mom and Myron, it was a new version of Ticket to Ride so we played and it was so much fun.  The five of us: Mom, Myron, Jason, Me, and Josh stayed up until 1:00am playing. 

We got to sleep in till 8:00 the next morning, thanks to Ashton and Noah being up stairs by grandma and grandpa.  We had a perfect lazy day the day after Christmas, we all hung out in our pj's all day, played games, talked, ate  all while Ashton and Noah played with there new toys, train games, and watched movies.  Noah did keep saying through out the day he wanted to go home, but then he would get busy playing and forget for a while then he would come and say it again.  I think he wanted to get home to his new toys at home.  We finally decided to head home around 6:30, Jason got dressed but the boys and I stayed in our pj's I figured they were was no point in getting dressed that late in the day.
 

We had a wonderful Christmas doing what was most important and that is being together as a family.

Christmas eve

So we spent Christmas eve at Mom and Myron's house celebrating with Myron's family.  We had salads and a bunch of appetizers for dinner.  Afterwards we did our gift exchange, it was pretty mild this year I think I was the only person who stole a gift.  Either people were loving what they got or they were just being nice.
 

It wouldn't be a special occasion without me wanting to have a family picture taken,  we did it right when we got to mom's house before everyone else got there and things turned busy.  The boys are finally both cooperating with pictures for the most part, but now Ashton does the big fake cheese smile instead of a real smile.  Oh well at least he is smiling right!

We hung out for a while and Santa was able to find us at grandma's house to drop off our new jammies.  He is one sneaky man, he was able to leave them on the doorstep and ring the doorbell before anyone saw him.  We all put on our new jammies to go home and get ready for him to come to our house.  But in my haste to get our pj's on and then ready to go home, I forgot to get a picture of us in them.

The boys were pretty excited but they were told that Santa wouldn't be able to come and bring presents until all little boys are asleep.  It didn't take long after that, Santa must of thought that we had some pretty good boys in our house this year.

Merry Christmas

Gingerbread house

 So we were invited to our neighbors house this last weekend to decorate gingerbread houses but we weren't able to make it.  I was a little bummed we had gone last year and it was fun, although the boys didn't help with the house at all they just played.  So I kept meaning to get our own gingerbread house to decorate but just never got around to it.  Then on Sunday our wonderful neighbors brought us over a kit to make one.  It had the board to put the house on the gingerbread that is made from scratch and a whole bunch of stuff to put on the house. The only thing I needed to do was make the frosting to put it all together with. It was such a nice surprise and makes us once again grateful for the neighborhood that we live in.   Well it sat on the table till Tuesday night before we were able to make time to put it together.

On a side note I didn't make royal icing, I was to lazy, but I had made some cupcakes and a cake for a friends son's birthday so I made a little extra butter cream and saved it for the gingerbread.  I was pretty happy with how it all turned out, except for the beak on the bomb, it should of been 3D, but oh well.

 I was actually really surprise at how excited the boys were to decorate the house.  I put the house together and then let the boys go to town and do whatever they wanted to it.  They had a great time and we pretty much used up all the candy that we were given plus some that I had left from the angry bird cupcakes. 


I have to make fun of Jason for a minute, this is what he looked like when we started decorating, he was in jammies and a white t-shirt.  After I took a few  pictures he disappeared and had changed his shirt.  He wanted me to take some more pictures cause he hates being in a white t-shirt in all the pictures.  I thought it was pretty cute. 

Stupid camera, the flash blew everything out so I shut it off but then the pictures turned out blurry.  I think that our little point and shoot camera may need to be replaced, it just isn't working as well as it use to.  (PS notice the wardrobe change for Jason)

Jason even tried his hand at some decorating on the gingerbread house.  He made some icicles, I was pretty impressed he looked like he knew what he was doing.

Noah went a little crazy at the end with just dumping candy on on the yard of the house.  It was right after this that we had to be done for the night.

Our finished house, it isn't going to win any prizes but I love it cause the boys did it and we had a fun family memory along the way.

Lights at Temple square

So I went down to mom's house on Friday to help her decorate some sugar cookies, mom wanted to keep the boys for the night.  I wasn't about to say no to that, I know I have said this before but we are seriously so blessed to have two sets of grandparents close by that are willing to keep our boys so that we can have breaks once in a while.

Anyways they brought them home Saturday afternoon and then we hung out at our house for a while till it was dark then we headed out to see the lights at temple square and to have some dinner.  I put up the third row in our car, can I just say how much I love having a bigger car at times.  We all piled in our car and went and parked at Jason's office then rode trax to Gateway to have some dinner.  We had to wait about an hour for dinner, we headed over to Barnes and Noble to look at books to pass the time, the boys found the Thomas train table and they were totally occupied for an hour, I knew we would be in trouble when it was time to leave, and sure enough Noah threw his classic fit, Jason had to carry him out of the store I could hear him the whole way out.  Sorry to the folks who had to hear that.  We ate dinner at Typhoon, which is Jason's favorite restaurant, we had actually eaten there the night before, that's how much he loves it.  Noah our good little eater tried something new, he had a spring roll.  I have to say I was shocked, that he ate the whole thing.  Ashton of course didn't eat the noodles we got him, cause they don't taste like the ones at Panda, and he only likes those.  There is never a dull moment with those two. 

We headed back to trax to go see the lights at temple square we waited for the train for about 20 mins, we totally could of walked, but I didn't want to carry Noah and if we walked I would had to.   By this point it was getting really late and the boys were cold and tired so we quickly saw some lights then headed back.

 We were going to try to catch a train but decided we could walk back to Jason's office faster.  Well lets say that maybe wasn't the best idea, Noah had to be carried the whole way, that child is not light anymore, we had to take turns between me, Jason, and Myron.  Ashton walked but towards the end he had to pee so we were running/dragging him to make it so he didn't pee his pants. 

I can't believe that this is the only picture I got of my mom, and I didn't get one of Myron at all.  I also forgot to get a whole group shot of us at Temple Square.  Seriously I am losing it these days.
We made it and all was well, both boys were so tired on the way home, especially Noah he was so out of it.  I am glad we went but also glad not to have to do it again till next year!