Christmas 2016

This Christmas was a special one for us--Brady's first Christmas & our first Christmas in Las Vegas! My parents ended up being able to fly out here to spend Christmas with us, but we kept their visit as a surprise to the girls. My parents got in super late on the night of the 23rd, so when the girls woke up on the morning of Christmas Eve they had quite the surprise!

Since we knew my parents would be exhausted on Christmas Eve after their long day of travel & late night/jet lag, we attended an early Christmas Eve service on the 23rd and then planned to stay home on Christmas Eve. We kept busy making cookies for Santa, decorating our annual gingerbread house & people, and enjoying our time with Grammy & Grampy!!

Making cookies for Santa!

Decorating our gingerbread house & people. We've done this every Christmas since Shelby was two I think. This year was by far the most fun we've had doing it together as a family. In previous years, the girls were more interested in eating than decorating...but this year, they really got into it! I can't wait for next year!

Love the look of concentration on Shelby's face!

Before bed on Christmas Eve, we always let the girls open one present under the tree before reading Twas the Night Before Christmas & setting out treats for Santa and his reindeer. The girls selected to open their presents from Aunt Maleah, Uncle Lucas, Elly, & Leland--boogie boards!!! I'd never heard of these before, but I guess the best way to describe them is an electronic white board? The girls LOVE LOVE LOVE them! These ended up being one of the biggest hits from this Christmas for both of the girls!

Aunt Maleah, Uncle Lucas, Elly, and Leland did good and got Hadley's favorite color!! She was so excited to have a blue boogie board! I have never known a child to be more into a color than Hadley is. For those who don't know, Hadley's eyes are blue which is why her favorite color is blue. Blue is everything to this girl.

Grampy reading Twas the Night Before Christmas to the girls :)

Shelby's note to Santa :)  The carrots we left out for the reindeer were the ones we picked from our garden & Shelby was worried the reindeer might not like them ;)

Everything is all set for Santa!

Santa came!!!!

Here's a quick video of the girls' reaction as they were coming down the stairs Christmas morning.

Brady checking out his new seat at the kitchen table from Santa for the first time!

BooBoo gave both of the girls their name puzzles for Christmas when they were younger, so they were super excited for Brady to get his very own puzzle!

Of course they had to play with it right away :)

Hadley showing off the present she made for us & wrapped up at preschool

Shelby got to shop for presents at her school's holiday shop. She picked out the BEST presents for each of us. Hadley is obsessed with the color & sunglasses, but she's always losing her sunglasses. So these new blue sunglasses were seriously the most perfect gift!!!

Shelby made this popsicle stick snowflake for me one morning when Derek was home watching them while I went to the dentist. It's hard to tell, but she wrote each of our names on one of the sticks so it's family snowflake!

Can you tell Shelby was excited to get her new Trolls calendar from Grammy & Grampy?!

Opening Christmas presents in her new shades :)

In the midst of our whirlwind morning of opening gifts & playing with new toys, the girls took a break to read their new books. They did this last year, too. It is so them.

Along with the boogie boards, the girls' scooters from Santa were another big hit!!! They had so much riding them around the house on Christmas morning!

Brady with his favorite Christmas gift!

We had such a wonderful Christmas!! I've still got a few more pics of our visit with my parents to share, but this post is already long enough. ;)  I'll save those pics for next time!

Hope y'all had a great first day of 2017! We spent the morning checking out a new park and then had a family date night hitting up some after Christmas sales & eating dinner at Cheesecake Factory. It was a great day!! Happy New Year to you!!!

Terrible lighting, but I had to include it--Brady's first time swinging!