mErRy ChRiStMaS!

Once again Christmas has come and gone. I swear the years are going by faster and faster! :( We had a great Christmas this year as usual. Our celebrating started a couple of days before Christmas up in Logan with a party with Todd's family. It was a blast! Of course we had yummy food and opened presents, but the highlight was the "Amazing Race"! We started this tradition last year. Fortunately, this year there wasn't any blood shed, just some tough competition! We didn't get the traveling trophy, but next year it is ours!!! :) Thanks Kevin and Candace for hosting the party and putting together such a fun race!

The next day, Christmas Eve, we went bowling with Todd's family. It is a Mullen family tradition. Our boys had lots of fun...so did Todd and I!! We had a little competion going and thanks to Todd we won the couples. Todd also won the guys! Bowling must be one of Todd's hidden talents! :) After bowling we headed home to Delta so we could get ready for santa.

The Mullen grandkids at the bowling alley.

Briggs

Todd, Jaygen, Pace

Todd's parents came down to our house this year to spend Christmas with us. Our boys were really excited to have grandma and grandpa with Sage (their dog) here when Santa came. Christmas Eve we had some yummy cheese fondue, decorated cookies for Santa, went and looked at Christmas lights, opened up their new pj's and then ended the night with the Christmas story. Grandpa Mullen read the story while the boys acted it out with some puppets. I love feeling the spirit when I hear the Christmas story. It is such a powerful story! Then before the boys got in bed, I read them a new Christmas book we got this year. While we were reading, Pace was acting a little nervous and asked if the front door was locked. I told him it was but he went and checked anyway. I think he was getting a little worried about Santa coming in our house!

Grandma Mullen helped frost cookies for Santa. The boys made sure there was plenty of frosting on them for Santa!

The boys woke up with an orange by their beds Christmas morning so they knew Santa had come. But holy cow!! I can't believe how late my boys slept in. It was about 8 o'clock when Jaygen finally woke up and then Jaygen had to wake Pace up. What is with sleeping in Christmas morning?! We had a fun Christmas day even though I was sick and did not feel good AT ALL and Briggs was also not feeling good either. The boys had fun with their new toys and we ate some good food. It was really fun to have grandpa and grandma here with us. We are for sure blessed with all we have!!

The boys playing with their new GeoAir.

Opening presents from Santa.

Briggs liked to role his orange from Santa down his new slide.

Briggs having fun playing in a box.

Jaygen's Big Christmas Performance!

Jaygen was sooo excited for his school Christmas program. He has been coming home from school singing the songs for quite awhile now. But when it came the morning of and I got Jaygen's dress clothes out to wear, he started throwing a fit because he didn't want to go to church. It is obvious he is not a big fan of church !! :)

All the classes wore different hats. Jaygen's class wore Christmas tree hats. It was a cute program. Jaygen was making me laugh because he had a huge smile on is face and spent most of the time just watching the other kids and not really singing. But then when he would sing, he would look at me and tell me to clap!

I never really could get a good picture of Jaygen, but notice how handsome he looks in his new glasses. He is used to them now, but that is a whole other story!!!!!

Here Comes SaNtA cLaUs!

This last weekend we had a great Thanksgiving! My family all went to my sister's house in Sringeville for dinner. It was way yummy!! After dinner we went to see the fun Christmas lights that Spanish Fork does...the kids loved it! We all bundled up and loaded in the back of our truck and drove around and looked at them. It was cold but way fun!

After all that fun, the real fun began. My sister, my mom, and me did the crazy Black Friday shopping. This year was especially crazy because we started Thursday night at 10:00 and didn't get back to my sister's house until Friday morning about 7:30. I cannot believe we shopped ALL night!!!! It didn't stop there either. We then went to breakfast and then headed to a craft fair. Wow...we were tired to say the least!!! :) The sad thing is, we didn't really even get any great deals to show for it!

Well after all that, we headed back to Delta for the great and fabulous Christmas light parade (I think it might have lasted about 10 minutes this year)!! After the parade we took the boys to see Santa. I actually look forward to this every year. I love Christmas and this seems to totally start the Christmas season for me. We made it this year without any of our boys kicking and crying when we tried to put them on Santa's lap...I can't hardly believe it!

I could tell Jaygen was a little nervous but he totally just walked up and sat on Santa's lap. I think he is getting to the age where it is exciting and not scary anymore.

It is an understatement to say that Pace was scared to death to sit on Santa's lap. You can tell in the picture that he doesn't have his normal smile...it was totally a forced smile. But, he didn't cry. He walked right up to Santa and started telling him that his name was Pacer Mac and that he wanted more horses for Christmas, just as if he had been rehearsing it!! :) What a brave little guy!

Little Briggster didn't show much emotion either way. He just kinda stared at Santa and then looked at me like, "Who is this guy?!"

We had a great weekend and enjoyed all the time we got to spend with my family. These are great times and I will cherish them all! My boys just keep getting funner and funner. We are all so excited for Christmas to come. Pace is already asking everyday when Santa is going to come. Thank goodness we could finally start our countdown calendars!