Holidays

May animated gifs never die as long as we find it as entertaining as this. Note: It’s a large file so give it a moment.

After ten years of marriage, we finally decided to get into the Christmas spirit and actually buy a full-sized tree.  Dallas worked some magic:

And before long we had our first (sparsely-ornamented) Christmas tree!

We went to our ward party and saw Santa.  Brooke actually sat on Santa’s lap this time and asked for seven pillows (???) and ponies.

Caroline asked for a doll:

Spencer was a total ham for the camera.  He asked for cars:

Family picture time:

We made some salt-dough ornaments:

We went to Brittany’s studio for our annual Stadelbauer get-together:

On Christmas Eve we went to Dallas’s mom’s house.  The kids found their favorite toys:

We can’t escape Oma’s house without taking lots of pictures.  Here’s Dallas with his siblings (minus Stratton – we missed you!):

And one with Dallas’s mom:

A family picture that Brooke wasn’t too thrilled to be in:

The little boys had fun playing with Oma’s mail slot.  One boy was outside and he’d stick his hand through the slot making the boys on the inside shriek and scream in terror and delight:

We fulfilled tradition by ending the evening at Dallas’s grandparents’ grave, lighting luminaries, and singing “Silent Night.”

That brings us to Christmas morning!  Santa brought a fairy treehouse for Caroline:

A pony set for Brooke:

And a car racetrack for Spencer:

Brooke noticed I didn’t have any presents under the tree so she made me one.  She was very excited to have me open it.  Adorable:

Grandma and Grandpa Thomas may not realize this, but they gave Spencer blocks:And they got Caroline a baby:And Brooke got more ponies, of course:Brooke’s Primary teachers gave her a Christmas book that has stencils in it.  So nice of them:Dallas got Batman Begins:

Here are the kids trying out the block sorter.

Brooke: “Wow.  This is more fun than I ever could have imagined!”The aftermath:I think this was our first time staying home on Christmas day and not visiting family.  The kids had a wonderful time trying out all their new toys and were happy and occupied all day.  We had a great holiday as a family!

I guess my last post should have been called “Third of July” because that’s when we watched the fireworks.  On the actual Fourth of July we went up to my sister’s house and had lots of fun!

The kids lounged in the “hot tub”:

Spencer commandeered all vehicles and made them his own:

We ate a delicious Dutch oven dinner that Jeff and Sarah made for us:

The kids played with water balloons:

The kids were so entertained the adults were able to sit around and chat:

There was much trampoline jumping:

Then we gathered for the slightly dangerous, always a little terrifying home fireworks show:

Just as we finished with our fireworks Sarah’s neighbors started theirs so the kids shifted seats and sat through round two:

Thanks to Sarah and Jeff for planning such a fun evening for us all!