lotsa, lotsa Christmas pictures!!

Our family tradition is to celebrate big on Christmas Eve... thus the large amount of pictures from last night and very few from today.  It might also be because we are still in our pj's at 6 pm and I never even bothered to comb my hair.   Just maybe.

two redheads
and one happy mama

my beautiful babies

we miss Andrew!!

Knowles Family
We always have friends over for dinner and to play games

Elder Baker and Elder King

Adams Family
Piper is the cutest thing.... I think I need to adopt her.

The present game

Kayla not winning
(shea ended up winning)



Singing Christmas carols



The boys.

Christmas morning!!!!



Hello World!



Shea and Braden with their Zhu Zhu pets
this was the first year that my kids didn't want any toys.
That just wasn't right so I got them all fake rodents.
made sense in my tiny brain.

We spent today playing Funglish, Settlers of Catan (I only lost by ONE point to the evil professor!!) and trying out the pogo stick.  Eating leftovers and hot chocolate and having a fabulous family time.

Christmas Lights!!

Everyone came.... didn't you know that
smelly dogs LOVE Christmas lights



Nichols Hills is absolutely beautiful with all the homes lit up.
my camera doesn't really show the lights very well....
but we were amazed!



My family!!!
and yes... it was COLD!

makes me wonder what their electric bill is for December

so beautiful!
the lights and the girl

Chesapeake Energy has the MOST AMAZING
lights around their business complex.

So handsome.
the hubby.
not little Satan.

This was right before Braden jumped back into the car.
only problem was that it wasn't our car.
Pretty sure he scared Christmas right out of that little old lady in the front seat.

animals, gingerbread houses and my new watch

Kayla brought a few hand-me-downs from Charlie, my friends Dachsund

So of course Shea played dress up with all the animals....



Shea and our neighbor Joey




My beautiful Christmas present from Tammy.
LOVE IT!!



Fat dog in a little coat

Sasha the Evil Chihuahua got her Christmas present today.

One more nativity to share

My kids have always loved to play with Legos.  Especially on Sundays....  Here is what they created today:

Love my creative kids!

I love the starry night

The Three Wismen
and their gifts

Andrew made the star & manger
Shea designed everything else

Beautiful Nativities

There was a Nativity Event at our Stake Center this weekend... I LOVE seeing the beautiful Nativities from around the world.  Makes me want to start collecting.  Hmmm... a new hobby?  Something new to obsess about?  Of course!

Oklahoma City Memorial

Andrew flew in last night, so today we went into Oklahoma City to the memorial of the April 19, 1995 bombing of the Federal Building.   Braden was 9 days old and I remember watching the news as this happened, but after moving here and hearing people talk of the tragedy I wanted to learn more.

168 people died, 19 were children (there was a daycare in the building).  Over 700 were injured.  It took weeks to identify all the dead.  The tragedy and heroism were both so overwhelming that I was deeply touched throughout the museum and memorial.

The quote on the wall is beautiful.

as are my children.

Please take a flower

to remind you that beauty still

exists in our world. 

There is a beautiful reflecting pool

and 168 empty chairs...

all with Christmas wreaths.

 This tree survived the bombing.

amazing.

any body know how I can photo-shop Kayla in?