Christmas at home

After a fun filled, action packed week in Houston we headed home to see some of my most favorite people- my sister and brother were coming to town for Christmas!  It seems like the last 2-3 Christmas's something has always come up and my family couldn't all be together for Christmas, so this year it was such a joy to have them all near by!

Me and sister the night she got in

Brother bear and big sister  :)

love him!

after a busy week in Houston the kids had fun just vegging out  :)

This is what I found Ezekiel doing on Christmas morning...fishing in the toilet. haha

chopping for Christmas Eve dinner and then there's creepy Liz.  :)

Snuggling with Papa

Pictures by Grandma and Papa's ginormous Christmas tree!

The Malachi face  :)

My favorite boys in the entire universe 

They best we could do....  haha 

Grandma and Papa cooking away

Snuggled  up with Aunt Lizzie and Uncle David

Nap time  :)

Fun times with Papa

The kids about to receive their Christmas eve presents- their new PJ'S!!

Papa on Christmas Eve finishing up some last minute presents!

Eagerly awaiting  :)

What could be better than Spider-man pj's?  Spider man sun glasses of course! :)

My three musketeers on Christmas morning :)

All he had been asking for...power ranger stuff!

The boys were VERY excited about getting daddy's presents- new toy guns that light up and make crazy cool sounds

Annabella getting her first camera!!  She is always wanting to come with me to my shoots, so I figured I might as well get her started so I can start putting her to work!  :)

Annabella has been begging and pleading for this doll for Christmas.  I'm sure you've heard of it..it's the one that pees and poops.  Wow, sounds like a real keeper! haha Charlie tried to convince her out of it by saying, "Annabella, we will happily let you change Ezekiel's diaper!" She then looked disgusted and said, "Yuckk! No!  This doll doesn't smell bad like Ezekiel!!" haha  I guess she has a point.  All that to say, we gave in and got it for her.  And she really does love it as much as she said she would.  She's a little mommy in training.

Annabella has really bad luck when it comes to music globes.  She loves them SO much but she has had 3 so far and they have all broken!  Now, in her defense none of them were really her fault.  She was always being super careful and something would fall or trip and it was brake everywhere. So we decided to try again and get her a ballet globe that plays the nutcracker song.  She was sooo happy and thus far has taken such great care of it!

What my family eats on Christmas morning- Blueberry muffins with strudel topping and cheese eggs. It makes me happy just typing it!  :)

Annabella told Malachi to watch out for her doll and Malachi just started poking her eyes..haha

After spending Christmas morning with just our family...we walked over to my moms and had brunch and Christmas with everyone.

Malachi playing with his big present...his fire house.

Christmas night my dad watched the kids so the rest of us could do our tradition and go see a movie (this year was the new Missions Impossible movie).  After the movie we all went to Denny's.  We had our big dinner on Christmas eve and there was nothing else open for 30 miles, so we didn't have too many options. :) But good company over rode the ridiculously greasy food! haha 

I felt so blessed this Christmas having such amazing people in my life to live life with!

Christmas in Houston

Houston, Texas....Oh how I have a love hate/relationship with you. When I lived there oh how I cursed your hot humid weather..and how I resented your bumper to bumper traffic at 2 in the afternoon!  BUT the family we have there is so precious,  the friends we made there are friends that we will treasure forever, and although I'm not a big city girl, I'm gonna have to say I loved all those malls!!  :)  So when we visited this past Christmas all I seemed to remember about that busy, hot city was the beautiful faces that I missed so much!

The trip started out with a 17 hour journey in the car with a 2,4, and 5 year old...definitely not my most favorite thing.  But before we left I searched Google for every idea out there on how to keep little ones busy on long car rides and I found some great ideas that I had never thought of before.  So the night before we left I packed my Mary Poppins bag with lots of goodies including: scotch tape, post it notes, coloring books, stickers, ect... and boy did they enjoy themselves!  :)

We were celebrating Christmas with family the second half of our trip; so the first half of our trip was dedicated to seeing all of our beautiful friends!  :)

Just can't get enough of these girls  :)

Bellabear and I hanging out at the park

Me and my Kelsey

Our old home group had a Christmas party while we were there and I got to see all of my amazing friends that I missed so much! {My Lauren and Heidi}

Playing games with the homegroup...some of the people couldn't be there but I was happy to see every body and their growing children

I can't believe that when I first met these ladies all of our kids were practically babies! 

Annabella and Caydon (Lauren's son)

Crystal couldn't be at the Christmas party since she just had her little boy so I went to see her.  That baby was ridiculously handsome by the way!  :)

Charlie's parents watched the little bits one night so Charlie and I could go out with friends without any munchkins...

Really?! We order an Oreo Sunday dessert and this is what we get..one Oreo?!  Lame.  :)

Sunday night we settled in and started our Christmas festivities with the family.  Sunday the Ullah's came over (Charlie's aunt and uncle and cousins) and we celebrated Christmas with them.  The kids thoroughly enjoyed Zachary, Lorena, and Holly (Zachary's new fiance!!)

The kids enjoying some new gifts

It was so fun watching the boys play together...they played together before but now I think they are all old enough that they can just play without the adults intervening all the time.

Sweet Addyson

Annabella and Addyson were two peas in a pod. Annabella LOVED having a little girl around and I think Addyson enjoyed hanging out with the big kids!

Me, Ricki, and Jaime (my pretty mother and sister and law)

The morning we celebrated Christmas together.  And it couldn't be complete with the yummy cinnamon rolls.

My favorite people  :)

Charlie and the kids getting ready to open presents

Nana and Addyson

Annabella very excited about her new horse for her American girl doll.  Although since she has received it she has tried to ride it way more than her doll. haha :)

This picture makes me laugh...oh malachi.  :)

coloring with Nana

This is SO crazy!  Texas has been going through a drought and all that sand used to be high water!

There was water covering all that grass and sand and it went up to half the dock that they are standing on.  That's nuts!

Ezekiel riding one of the baby deer  :)

longhorn  :)

Cooking with nana

Annabella and Addyson modeling their matching outfits

We had such a great trip and even though the car trip was long..veryyy long...haha....it was way worth it!