Our Iowa Christmas!

We hope everyone had a great Christmas!

We decided to stay in Iowa this year and we are so glad we did! We really missed family and since this was my first Christmas away from home I was a little homesick but we had a great time with just our little family. This was also my first Christmas without snow! It has been a really mild winter so far and we even enjoyed a few days that were close to the 60's. So unlike Iowa. But one day I showed the girls how to cut snowflakes and they spent the next couple of hours making snowflakes and then hanging them up. So I didn't miss the snow too much.
We loved having Troy home for 2 weeks and we also loved not having to make the long drive home. We were able to go and do lots of fun stuff as a family and the girls especially loved going swimming and using their new goggles that Santa brought them.

It was also nice to be able to see the preschool Christmas program this year.



The girls and their teacher, Miss Stacey. They love her!
Santa even came to the preschool.


We didn't even make Mason sit with Santa, he just started to cry as soon as he saw him.

The girls with Aubrey Webb. We were sad that Brooklyn was sick!



Our Christmas Tree

We wrapped 24 Christmas books (some ours, some the libraries) and every night in December the kids got to unwrap one to read.

We had some fun parties during December. Troy and I went to his work party and it was the most fancy dinner I have been to! We had to dress up and we had a great time.
One night my friends decided to just have a girls night Christmas party. We had such a great dinner and it was fun to spend time together without the kids!

On Christmas Eve we had another party with a few families that were also staying here for Christmas.
Our cute little nativity.
Brooklyn took her role as Mary very seriously. She was perfect.

Cameron - the cutest baby ever to play baby Jesus.


Present exchange with the other kids!

The kids all watching a movie so the parents could have fun playing minute to win it games.

Getting a little crazy. There were a few times I couldn't breathe because I was laughing so hard.
It was hilarious.
Mason and his buddy wondering what their parents are doing. Of course Mason has a golf ball in his hands.

Christmas Morning!
It was so fun to see how excited they were! At 4 o'clock in the morning Katelyn came and got in our bed and was wide awake. She said, "Mom, I think Santa came!" It was fun to see how excited she was. She lay there wide awake for a little while then she then told me, "I better go back to bed in case he comes back." It is so incredibly fun to celebrate Christmas, or any holiday, with kids. I love seeing their excitement, and it makes it so great.
On Christmas morning we had to wake all the kids up to hurry and get them ready for 9 o'clock church. After we got home we had huge, delicious breakfast and then we finally let the kids start on their presents. Thank you family for all the wonderful gifts.