Christmas Day 2014

I am almost caught up with all of my 2014 posts.  Just a few more to go!

This year we spent Christmas morning with my family and Christmas afternoon with McKay's dad, mama Liz, and 10 of his siblings.

It was our first time spending Christmas morning at my parents house since we have had kids (the last time we were there we announced that we were expecting Adalyn) so it was fun showing our kids some of my childhood traditions of Christmas Eve and Christmas morning.

The Adalyn and Jensen were excited to open more presents and again, Declin slept through it all.  My family takes turn watching each other open gifts and surprisingly my kids did pretty well with being patient and waiting their turn.

Some of the gifts opened were:

Adalyn- A new doll from Jensen, a cash register from Grandparents, and a few magnetic "paper" dolls.

Jensen- A play shopping cart from Mom and Dad, Mr. Potato Head from Grandparents, and some play tools from Adalyn.  Oh and a Jack in the box that he has been playing with non stop since Christmas (his nursery leaders gave mommy the idea to get him one).  He LOVES it!

Declin- An activity mat from Grandparents and books from Adalyn

Mommy- A Kindle from McKay (I was so surprised!) and a Sewing machine from my parents

Daddy- A new work Calender from me with pictures of the kids (I got him one last year that he loved and so we may make it an annual thing) and the sewing machine from my parents (it was to both of us)

We gave Corinne and Stu a pretty nativity and the movie Maleficent.

We gave my mom new shutters for the outside to replace some broken ones and we gave my dad a microwave for his classroom.  

After presents we ate a delicious breakfast and then we headed out to go visit McKay's family.  

In Evanston we had a yummy Christmas dinner with turkey, lots of delicious dips, and sweet potatoes followed apple pie dessert.  Then everyone spread out and let the kids play while the adults watched babies and helped milk some goats (not at the same time though...).  Then Christmas evening we opened some more gifts.  Grandma Liz did the Movie Frozen themed gifts along with some pictures of Christ and the Temple for the kids to hang in their rooms.  Grandpa had us all listen to a song about "having enough" to explain why he did NOT get us any gifts.  (lol kind of funny, but a good message to hear).  

That night several of McKay's siblings and their families stayed the night and the kids had a cousin sleepover in the living room.

Jensen was not welcome at the sleepover, because with him there would be no sleeping so he slept in his bed in mom and dad's room.  Adalyn was SO excited for the sleepover.  Then she was the last one to fall asleep and woke up SCREAMING in the middle of the night because... she couldn't find her blanket.  Seriously?!  Girl is attached to that blanket!  When she screamed lots of dads came running out of their rooms to see if it was there child.  Nope, just ours who was trying to have her first cousin sleepover.  She spent the rest of the night in our bed.  super comfy :)

Christmas this year was wonderful!  Santa really loved shopping for the kids this year.  He (she) bought lots of fun preschool toys and activities that will hopefully last for a really long time and keep us entertained all winter long!  

  

3 Months Old- Declin

Declin turned 3 months old on Christmas Eve.

His 3rd month of life was fun as he started smiling more and more.  He giggled really well too if you grabbed his hands and did little songs or dances with them like pat a cake.

He could still only roll stomach to back, but tried really hard to master back to stomach, but hasn't gotten there yet!

His hair is getting pretty long now and has definitely fallen out in lots of places too.  I have been tempted to cut it on multiple occasions, but still can't bring myself to do it so it will probably stay long for awhile.  Most days it sticks straight up!

He didn't sleep through the night at all this month, but would consistently wake up 1 time a night.

He insists on being rocked to sleep, but will easily let you set him down after he falls asleep.

Jensen never had a bottle.  Not once.  He hated the idea of one.  Adalyn loved the bottle so much that she stopped nursing early.  I am trying to find the perfect balance with Declin.  So this month I let him have a bottle 2ish times a week.  Many of those bottles were pumped breast milk.  It seems to be working... Hopefully we can keep this nice balance for awhile.

Sadly Declin got bumped around a few times by his siblings this month.  Never on purpose, but both Addie and Jensen stepped on him so I stopped laying him on the floor.  It was just too dangerous with busy feet around.

And once again, just like his 1st and 2nd month he stayed healthy the whole month of December.  Then right after Christmas the little guy started to get his first cold.  So far it has been fairly mild and we hope it stays that way!

Hands.must.be.in.my.mouth.

He loves sucking on his hands or his thumb.  We think it is pretty cute!  

Happy 3 months Mr. Declin!

  

Christmas Eve 2014

The night before Christmas eve (some say Christmas Adam) we went for a Christmas lights drive with my family.  We barely all fit in our van and it was fun that we were all able to be together as we drove around and saw some houses.  We saw one of the houses that puts their lights to music which is always amazing!  I love Christmas lights and actually don't mind putting them up.  The past few years we have not done lights on our house because we don't have a ladder, but this coming year we are determined to change that.  Hopefully we will find a ladder at a garage sale this summer.  :)

During our Christmas Lights tour we stopped at the "tree of life" at draper park.  It is a huge willow tree that is decked out in lights and really does look like the pictures of the tree of life in Lehi's dream from the Book of Mormon.  Obviously it is much more impressive in person.  My camera does not do it justice.

Yeah my photos don't even come close to doing it justice...

Christmas Eve morning brought the beloved Cannon family breakfast with all of my dad's siblings and their children.  Grandma and Grandpa Cannon left a beautiful legacy and it is a special treat to be around those aunts, uncles, and cousins.  The food is DELICIOUS and chatting with everyone is just as fun. So much sweetness in one family.  We always come away feeling loved and appreciated.  That breakfast is one of my most favorite things of the Christmas season.  

I didn't take any pictures at this year's breakfast, but I did snag this picture from my cousin's blog (Thanks Betsy!).  Here are the 3 youngest Cannon family members.  Declin, Kimball, and Peter.  Three handsome little boys all born within a couple months of each other, held by their mothers.  I have some pretty impressive cousins that I look up to.  Cali and Betsy are definitely two of them.

  

After the breakfast we gave the kids naps and then headed out for a late lunch at The Pie Pizzeria.  It was yummy and pretty light which was good after our big breakfast.

Oh and I must mention that our little family (McKay I and the kids) were mildly sick the whole vacation.  We each had our moments of feeling quite sick and the kids each ran a fever one of the days after Christmas while we were in Utah.  Luckily it didn't really stop us from doing much (maybe it should have) but it did often leave the kids with some cranky attitudes off and on.  Luckily Christmas Eve was a fairly good day.  It was so nice to have pleasant children. 

The evening of Christmas Eve Corinne and Stu joined the rest of us for a light dinner (we aren't really into the whole Christmas dinner thing, we usually just have appetizers and the many goodies that people have given to us) of meatballs, cheese ball, sausage biscuits, and fruit.  After dinner we had a very small program and opened our new jammies from Dad/Grandpa.  Part of our program this year was playing some new bells that my mom had gotten.  Pretty fun, my dad took his part very seriously.  Adalyn also sang jingle bells and Uncle Stu read Luke 2.

And the traditional Christmas jammy photos 

Then off to bed!

  

     

  

    

Our Idaho Christmas 2014

(I am writing this on January 4, 2015 but am going to back date it so that it makes sense in our blog book).  We just got back last night from our Christmas vacation in Utah and Wyoming.  We stayed in Utah for 10 days and had lots of fun with family.  It is a huge blessing that McKay was able to take that much time off work so that we could see everyone that we wanted to see over the holidays.

Since Sept I had tried to come up with the perfect solution to how we would do Christmas this year since we would be traveling on Christmas Day.  I debated and debated if we should bring some of our gifts with us, should we bring ALL of the gifts with us, or should we bring none of them.  Oh and when should Santa make his appearance?  I hated the idea of opening them ALL before because that doesn't make the actual holiday very fun so we at least had to save some of the gifts for Christmas.  But with 5 people in the family now there wasn't a ton of room for gift storage in the car.  Those were a few of my thoughts as I debated about what to do.  McKay wasn't much help because he just wanted us to only buy one small gift for each person and call it good.  Boring!  This is all coming from a man who had HUGE Christmas's as a kid.  lol

After lots of thought I decided that like last year we would do our own little Christmas at our house on the Dec. 23rd and then pack up and head to family's house and we would bring a few gifts with us so that we each had something to open on Christmas too.  We explained to Adalyn that santa would be coming early to our house since we would be at Grandma's house on Christmas.  Ofcourse she was just fine with it and was excited to see her presents.  She was just sure that Santa was going to bring her an Elsa Dress, just like she had asked for.

Santa and his wife stayed up super late that night to finish packing and set up the tree for in the morning,  Oh and Mrs. Claus decided to go to Zumba that night too so the last minute things got a late start...

But it was all worth it in the morning when the kids woke up.  Here they are waiting for mama to get ready to so that they could go look at the tree.

Adalyn was pointing because she was just remembering that Santa had come.  :)  So fun having a child that actually/sort of understood what was going on.

Checking out the presents...

The sled was a big hit Christmas morning.  They still have yet to go sledding for reals though so we will see if they like it then.  

For their "big gift" Santa brought Jensen some wooden blocks and Adalyn got her beloved Elsa dress.  Funny story, when she pulled the Elsa dress out she told us that it was a Cinderella dress What?!  Since then she has been convinced that it IS an Elsa Dress.  

She ofcourse had to try it on right away.  

Jensen's favorite part of the morning was the all you can eat candy and snacks in the stockings.  

Declin slept through the mornings festivities so the others helped open his gifts.  His big gift from Santa was the fisher Price Nativity.  Mommy was excited about that one.  We think he will enjoy it next Christmas.

After a while Declin made his appearance and we all helped him open his last present.  

I feel like these pictures accurately show my life with three small kids.  They are always surrounding me and "helping" me with everything that I am doing.  :)

After all the presents were opened upstairs Adalyn had one last gift that was downstairs.  It was from Mommy and Daddy and it was too large to move.  So we tied a string from the present downstairs all the way up the stairs.  She had to follow the string to find her gift.  

Her gift was new to her dollhouse that we refinished for her.  Yes it is massive, plenty of room for all of her dollhouse friends.  

McKay and I had fun decorating it and "remodeling".  

We put in new hard wood floors and tile in replace of the dated pink carpet that was there before.  We also painted the outside of it, and added new girly handles and shutters to the side windows.  The inside walls are still pretty bare, so we may add things over time.  But this was about all we could handle this year.

After the gifts we ate a yummy breakfast of bacon, eggs, and Rhodes cinnamon rolls (which are just as good as homemade in my opinion).  After breakfast we packed up and headed to Utah.  

Christmas 2014 #1 complete

p.s.  After experiencing Christmas this year.  We I decided that I want Santa to come on Christmas from now on.  So we will probably not be having 2 Christmases in the future.  Just one on Christmas day (wherever we are).  If the kids are given a gift that is too big to take with us like a bike then they will be given a token object (like a helmet to go with the bike) on Christmas day with a note and picture telling them about what is waiting at home.  I think this will be better then trying to divide the fun and excitement between two different days and simplify things for us parents.  They don't ever get to really play with their gifts while we travel anyways since we don't want to loose pieces so I think it will work out ok.