Christmas...In March...There's Still Snow Right?

When I was a teenager putting all my pictures into scrapbooks, I remember finding it strange that there weren't more pictures from Christmases past. As a mother of four little kids, I get it now. It is one of those times when so much is happening, so much that I could be documenting, and yet I don't. I have less pictures from Christmas Break than almost any other time of year. The truth is that it is one of the times when I'm most present. I don't want to be bothered with recording how wonderful and fun and amazing everything is...I'm too busy feeling wonderful, having fun, and being amazed with how blessed I am. It is a time when I just want to soak up everything around me. My sisters come back into town and I LOVE it! I love my sisters. I love their husbands and my nieces (and new nephew that I'm DYING to hold!). I love playing games, sitting around talking, making memories for our kids that they may or may not be old enough to remember. I love that John is home and around more. I love that there is no school, no commitments to outside influences (almost). I love it. So while the lack of posts from December might cause a person to think that nothing happened, I'll tell you that December was filled up to the brim. It was filled with joy, love, gratitude, happiness, fun, growth....

After that's been said, I do have a few pictures:

Carston got this little snowboard for Christmas (his mother may or may not have bought it thinking of herself :). He wanted to go out in Grandma's backyard and have me help him. I was trying to get Kate to take a nap and that was disastrous. By the time it was accomplished, I was needed elsewhere. I didn't know what to do. My sweet brother-in-law Jared came to the rescue. He went out there for probably over an hour and helped him learn how to snowboard. I cried then and I'm crying now thinking of it. I love you for that Jared. For real. Thank you.

John didn't say it, but he used to be disappointed with our small stash of gifts under the tree when we only had Carston. 3 more kids and things have changed :) And I was very pleased to have almost the entire stash of goods purchased throughout the year from clearance that was 50-75 percent off. I saved us a lot of money when it came to Christmas. John didn't appreciate this until we took on some secret santa families and he saw what Christmas cost when you paid full-price :) It was slightly painful to pay full price for things...it helped that it was for someone else :)

Ho! I love your stinking guts! This is my sweet sister from Texas who now has 3 little kids. Her husband is doing residency and often has crazy hours. I wish so badly that we lived close so I could help her out. I'm so grateful for the good friends from her ward who watch her kids, get up early in the morning to come over because she's in labor, and who do all the other things I can't do from Utah! She teases her husband about his picture taking skills...she thinks he doesn't know how to frame the picture...

Thanks OB! I really wanted to have a picture of Stephanie's bridal photo.

These girls are both so cute and funny. We were happy they were friends with each other this time around. I'm worried that between them and Macy, we might find ourselves with some interesting situations through the years :)

Christmas Eve at Aunt Dicksy's! I have the greatest Aunt Dicksy! I love that we are still close to our cousins. I love that we support each other and have fun together. I can't wait for our Girls' Weekend!

We went bowling :) I liked Macy's face as she watched her ball go down :)