"In the eyes of children we find the joy of Christmas. In their hearts we find its meaning."

SO I figured it was about time I blogged about Christmas. :) Mark and I didn't do much for Christmas (gift wise anyway...) because we got a couple big things after he got home so we went out on a nice date a few days before Christmas. We went and saw Sherlock Holmes (SOOOOO GOOD!!!) and then went to a nice Italian restaurant on the coast for dinner which was so yummy! We also opened up our presents from our stockings that day with Evelyn...she was SO funny! She kept straining to rip them open and would make these funny faces....silly girl. :)

Evelyn and her stocking

Trying hard to open her present :)

She's at such a copy cat stage right now, we would say, what else is in there Evelyn? So she'd go,  hmm...what else is in there? and stick her head in :)

Time for daddy's stocking!

Being Silly :)

The next day we packed up the car and drove up to Alabama for Christmas with the Erwin fam! Amy and Calvin flew in the day before and Dennis and JoAnn arrived after us so it was a fun Erwin-filled weekend! The best part of it was seeing the kiddos play together. They got along SO well and played the entire time! I barely saw Evelyn sometimes...it was great :) It was fun too cuz we adults got to play a lot too...every night we played games, Mario Kart Wii, Pictionary, and a new fun game called Funglish, which we all really enjoyed! The rest of the time we just enjoyed each other's company and ate lots of yummy food :)

Evelyn joining in on the Wii action

Oh and the first night we were there, we went to Michael and Jessica's ward Christmas party, which was pretty fun! They had stuff for "graham cracker" gingerbread houses on the table and each table built something. This is what Calvin and I came up with, with a little help from the kids :)

I took a better picture later but don't know where it is, but it's supposed to be the SLC Temple

Isabella helping with the decorating

All the Primary kids went up on the stage so Evelyn went right along with and had lots of fun! You can't really tell here but they are shaking little bells. She loved it!

Evelyn and the kids watching the ward's slide show. 

Setting out cookies for Santa!

Christmas PJ's!

Tracking Santa on the internet

Pretty Christmas tree!

Christmas Eve we let the kiddos open a present, which was a pair of pj bottoms for each of them that I made and luckily they ALL fit! :) Isabella's was a bit close but they went on so all was good :) Christmas morning we were gonna get up with the kids to open presents from Santa but we TOTALLY slept in! Evelyn woke up at 6:15 and I checked to see if anyone else was up and they weren't so I got her back to sleep and then didn't wake up til almost 8, I was so bummed! We let Evelyn open a gift from Santa then rushed to get ready for church, which was a really great, musical Sacrament meeting.

Evelyn's gift from Santa!

princess dolls!

these are just some oober cute pics I took of Charlotte! 

She was adorable!

Cutey cuteness!

Amy and Calvin!

Us! Forgive my uncuteness...I had just washed my hair. :)

The Erwin's! 

Grandparents and the kiddos...Evelyn and Jacob wouldn't smile nice...kept making silly faces!

But I snatched a cute one of just her! 

And another cute one of Charlotte in her Christmas dress!

After church we all came back home, took some pics (some shown above), and then opened the rest of our presents! And boy was that tree full! It was so fun to watch the kids open their gifts. Evelyn was once again her funny self but this time had to take off every single piece of wrapping paper, looked at the present, then went on to the next one :) She was so cute! Isabella and Jacob were fun to watch too. Jacob had a lot of fun with his superhero gifts and Isabella got lots of girly stuff! :) The adults got to open stuff too, we just waited til after the kiddos.

Evelyn and all her loot

Jacob tearing it up

Isabella, taking her time :)

One of Evelyn's favorites, a Rapunzel dress! She wore this for two day straight when we got home, I had to hide it on the third :)

More princess gear! 

Big rip!

Checking the other side to make sure she's getting all the paper

Evelyn and Jacob playing with Evelyn's cool Disney figurines!

then she noticed the adults were opening presents so she "helped" Uncle Calvin and Aunt Amy

Charlotte tried to get in on the action too :)

So that pretty much sums up our time with the Erwins! It was so great to get together. We haven't all been together since Amy and Calvin's wedding, which was before Evelyn was born! We really miss Amy and Calvin now that we aren't in Utah so it was great to be with them again for awhile. I did miss being with my fam, but once again Skype saves the day and I was able to Skype during their "Christmas Program" which was so great! I love my fam!

 Unfortunately on Monday we had to head home :( We had a couple presents at home for Evelyn from family and such so here's a couple pics from that! Santa also dropped off a present that she asked him for, a bike! She also got a motorized little Princess bike from Grandpa Michael and Grandma Terrie so she switches back and forth between the two when she plays, she loves them!

Yay more presents!

She got a lot of puzzles for Christmas, which she loves! Just like her Momma :)

Princess time! She got a crown and wand too :)

the Princess in her tower, helping with dinner :)

Driving her new princess car! I can't find a pic of her bike...

So that pretty much sums up our holiday! I hope you all had a wonderful one and a happy New Year too! 2012 is gonna be a great year! :)