Merry Christmas!!!

We had such a fun, fun day yesterday! It's so nice to be able to stay home and wake up at our own house on Christmas morning now that we have kids. And especially one that understands it all so well now. Ashton was sooooo excited! Lars was off on Christmas Eve, so I cut his and Ashton's hair, then unfortunately had to go do some last minute shopping in town and get groceries for our Christmas dinner. (I will never put things off so long again!!!) I've never shopped on Christmas Eve before that I remember and I don't want to ever have to do it again! Anyway after I finally got home it was time to get ready for church. We were SO proud of Ashton! Usually church is somewhat of a nightmare with him...he just still will not be quiet and acts up pretty much the whole time either talking really loud or pestering Gunnar or just being obnoxious, but that night he entertained himself really well and even went up front when Father called all the kids up to listen to a story. I had to go with him and sit by him, but he was actually quiet and listened (to part of it). Gunnar did pretty well too...he's getting really squirmy these days now that he can crawl, but he was entertained most of the time eating his cheerios.

(looking so cute in his black sweater) Can you tell he's soooo sick of getting his picture taken?So after church we came home and ate pizza, then opened up our Christmas Eve pajamas & a couple of new books for the boys. I loved the look on Ashton's face when he opened his Super Mario Bros. pajamas! He was so excited...he totally loves them! Then we baked some cookies to leave out for Santa.Last week Ashton told me that "Santa doesn't really like cookies, he actually likes donuts", so on the way home from church we stopped at the gas station and picked up some donuts, but when we got home, Ashton decided that he would rather eat the donuts and make cookies for Santa! In the end we left out 3 cookies and one donut. Then Lars and I both read Ashton's new books to him (which is a treat for him since he usually only gets one of us). And he went right to bed. If only he would have slept all night...he was just way too excited! He woke up about 3 times wondering if it was time to wake up yet. And of course Gunnar was up 3 different times just because he's Gunnar and that's still what he does most nights. Ugggghhh.

So after Gunnar woke up for the last time around 6:40, I decided to just stay up and get somewhat ready for the day (yes I am that person who wants to have my hair and makeup done on Christmas morning), and then I went down and turned on the Christmas tree lights and got the video camera ready to go. Ashton was up by 7:00 and couldn't wait to get downstairs to see if Santa had come. He immediately saw the big playmat with new cars & trucks on it at the bottom of the stairs that was for him and Gunnar, then walked over to see if Santa had eaten his cookies and donut and said

"He even drank the milk!"
Then he looked around and said

"Wow...Santa brought us everything".

Too funny! The only other thing Santa brought for him was the "Pixos" he wanted. When he saw them he said "I told him I wanted these!!" (Santa came to his school last week and the 3 things he told him he wanted were Pixos, tattoos, and Baby Alive) Yeah no such luck on the Baby Alive...besides the fact that Lars thinks one doll is enough for him...I noticed that the Baby Alive's are like $70!!! Oh well...he didn't ever notice that Santa didn't bring him one. For Gunnar Santa got this cute Tonka ride-on toy. (That I knew Ashton would play with a lot of the day). And he did...but Gunnar LOVES it too. Ashton also went over and saw that the baby Jesus had been placed in the manger and thought that was pretty cool. Then it was time to check out his stocking...that was full of tattoos, pens, a notebook, double-sided tape :), M&M's, tic-tacs, a spin toothbrush, a Meet the Robinson's pez dispenser, and I can't remember what else!

Gunnar was happy to play on the playmat with his cute new red car. We'd get to his stocking later. (which had a new bib, sippy cup, teething toy and a toothbrush).

Then I was starving...so I went upstairs and put the cinnamon rolls in the oven (no, not homemade...are you kidding???) and Ashton was excited to start a pixos project while we waited for Grandma and Grandpa Harry to arrive from Wyoming. They braved the storm and horrible roads to come spend the day with us. I'm so glad they made it safely to our house and safely back home last night!

Thanks for coming and for all of the great gifts :)

We spent the next few hours after they arrived tearing into the rest of the gifts. I can't even begin to name everything...I just know that we are all spoiled! It was lots of fun!

Ashton and Gunnar playing with Gunnar's new toy from Grandma & Grandpa in Texas. Gunnar with his new "Big Head Bear" as Ashton called them.
They each got one from Aunt Shelley. She made them with an old pattern and material that Lars' and Shelley's Grandma used to make them with. Gunnar loved rolling around with his on the floor and Ashton just kept laughing at him.
We ate our Christmas dinner of Rotisserie chicken, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, rolls, deviled eggs, stuffing, & jello salad about 2:00. At least everyone besides Ashton. He stopped long enough for a few bites of chicken, then he was done. Way too much other fun stuff to do than eat~! Then we just hung out the rest of the day till it was time for Grandma and Grandpa to leave a little after 5:00. Sounds like they should have stayed! The roads and weather were even worse going home than they were coming down!

I have to mention a couple things Lars got for me...he's been asking me for awhile what I want for Christmas and a couple times I've said that what I really want is a good night's sleep, so he got me a night's stay at a hotel in town and I plan to take all of my scrapbooking stuff and try to catch up a little and get some sleep one night in the next couple weeks (by myself of course!!) I'm so excited! Hopefully once I'm there I can actually sleep. And he got me a gift certificate for a massage at a place in town. That will be so nice too.

He didn't have much to open since he got himself some much needed new waders, but I did make up this little collage of some of our pictures and got it printed for him to take to work. Surprisingly he said it and a picture of me I had printed too were his favorite gifts :)awwww...how sweet!

At the end of the night when it was time for Ashton to go upstairs and get ready for bed, he looked around the room and said "Santa is a very, very good and nice guy." He cracks me up!Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas too!