Merry Christmas!!!

Gracie has been so cute writing letters to Santa.  She made sure to draw a picture of her stocking so that Santa knew which one was hers.  She's been sounding out letters and trying to write words and in her Santa letters she spelled Christmas "KRSMS" and when she made a letter for Kirsten she wrote piano "PENO".  She's a little smartie!

She brought her letters to me and said she needed a card (she meant envelope) and then she asked for a stamp.  She was too cute putting her letter in the mailbox!  Christmas gets more fun every year as the kids are getting old enough to understand.

The girls told me that they needed to make cookies for Santa.  They wanted to bring their little table out to the living room to set the cookies on and in the morning when the kids came out to open presents, Lindsey noticed the plate right away and said excitedly, "Santa ate the cookies!"  Little cutie!

On Christmas Eve we asked the kids if they wanted to act out the Nativity while we read the story from the scriptures.  They were so excited and adorable and Lindsey passed out the Nativity figurines to each person who was playing that part.

We sang songs between the verses of scripture and Lindsey wanted the Primary Songbook and asked me to find the page with the picture of the Nativity.

Cooper looking at Kirsten's scriptures while she read.

We got up around 6:30 this morning and it was so fun to watch how the kids reacted to everything!  They got in the Jeep right away and took off driving and tried to fit down the hallway.  It was hilarious!  Cooper kept going back to the Jeep while the girls opened presents.  At one point, the girls ran over his foot though and then he was scared of the Jeep for awhile.  Thankfully he warmed back up to it later and we told the girls the rules for the Jeep.

When Gracie opened up her and Lindsey's gift from Uncle Matt, she said, "Just what I always wanted!!!"  It was so cute!  Thanks Uncle Matt!  At breakfast she asked how Matt knew what she wanted and Kirsten told her that Santa probably told him.  Then she said, "Yep, Mommy told me that Santa might not have the Dora dollhouse, so he must have told Matt."  She always has to figure things out. Haha!

Tim's parents got him this shirt that says, "Juan's Deere".  Love it!

Our unexpected Christmas gift (we wish it was just that).  Our car's transmission went out and then they found other problems with it so we thought we better just get a new vehicle.  Since we don't know how much longer our Pontiac will last either we thought we better play it safe and get another van instead of a car so that we can all fit in either vehicle if need be.

We didn't need another bill, and now we can't get a storm shelter, but it is a nice van and it has a built in DVD player.  It has remote controlled door openers too.  Gracie was standing by the door waiting for me to open it and when it opened on its own, her mouth dropped open and she said, "Oh COOL!!!" Then when it opened for her to get out she said something about the "magic doors".  So cute!  Hopefully we don't have anymore major expenses come up.  It's always something though when you're trying to get out of debt.  I'd rather have a car problem than a health problem though (knock on wood).

 Lindsey was excited to take a nap with her new Ariel doll.

It was a blast watching the kids drive the Jeep!  Both girls are getting the hang of it pretty quick!  When Lindsey would hit things she would grin all big!  Crazy little drivers!

The best gift we got this year was our sweet little Olivia!  Here are some pictures from the past couple weeks.  We all love her!  She is the best baby.  She hardly cries and she's only been getting up once every night.  Such a blessing!  Gracie has been a good big sister because I usually don't hear Olivia crying and Gracie always comes to tell me that she's crying.  Sweet baby girl!

It's so nice to not have a big belly in my way anymore!  I missed snuggling with my kiddos!

Merry Christmas everyone! Wish we could have spent it with all of you!  Love you!