Christmas, Friends, Family...

We had our little family's Christmas in the morning. We found all our gifts (and Santa's) under the tree. It was the first year that Damon had asked Santa for a specific gift and was pretty excited for it!

And he got it! :)


After an enormous delicious breakfast, we lined up on the stairs for my family's Christmas.

Ry and Lynnae :)

Awesome face!

My dad wrote the sweetest poem for my mom. She read it aloud for us all,...and I do not think there was a dry eye in the room. My dad also made us kids some very special presents-things we had when we were younger that we can now use with our kids. It was such a fun surprise. Love you mom and dad.

This trip we were a little better with our time management. We got to see our good friends from school, Kyle's mission buddies, relatives, and of course our wonderful families. We had many rowdy game nights, food, and fun just talking with everyone. I got to go to dinner with my wonderful friend Chaleese. It was so fun to take a little break from everything and just have some girl time. Thanks Leese, I had a great time! :)

Damon and Jayce love playing light sabers with these fun water noodles that Bri and Lish made. With capes and bandannas they were all set!

Even Breanne joined in on the fun :)

Our little families. Growing up so fast...we sure miss you all when we are away. Thanks for driving so much and changing around your schedules so you could hang out. We love you!

We are so grateful that we were able to come visit for Christmas this year. We love you all and could not thank you enough for everything that you do. Can't wait to see you again!

Christmas Eve

Christmas eve we spend at the Johnsons. We have a wonderful candle light dinner, music, presents, and fun with the whole family. We love it. It seems like it gets harder and harder for everyone to get together as families grow and move farther away. We are just so grateful we were able to come this year and see everybody.

It doesn't look to bad in the pic, but Da's eye was starting to turn blue and purple.

Fun music toy for Jo...

And a sweet tractor for Da from Grandma and Grandpa Johnson. Thanks! We love you!

Little Accident

The day before Christmas eve, Damon was playing with a metal Tonka truck. He was on his hands and knees driving it across the floor when he ran into something. The truck either came back hard, or the hit was pretty solid and his head flew forward. When we heard that he was hurt we found a gash right between his eyes on the bridge of his nose. He only cried for a minute or two (before I started to work on him of course), so we supposed it was not too bad. When I got a better look at it we saw that though it was not terribly wide, it was deeper than we thought. We debated about whether to take him in or not, and decided that we would just treat it ourselves. Because of where it was on his nose, the area did not get much movement, so it should heal pretty cleanly. He did end up with two pretty nice multicolored eyes for a week or so.

Right after having it cleaned...

Brave boy!

Santa, Scrunchy Faces, Temple Square...

Damon got to see Santa at our ward Christmas party. He decided he wanted a Criss-Cross-Crash Hot Wheels set this year. Kyle had one when he was little and had shown it to Damon at the store. After that Da was hooked. When I would ask him what he wanted for Christmas he'd say, "I want a car car crash and nothing else!"

Jonas has done a funny little scrunchy face every once in a while since he was a few months old. Pictures don't do it justice. When we made it to my parent's house and everyone was taking pictures of him he started doing the face at every flash. Silly boy!

We were able to go to one of my brother Bruce's basketball games. He made the Clearfield High team. I have not been back to a high school game since I graduated, and it was so fun! They did awesome. Bruce is such a wonderful guy, and a great example to my two little boys. Bruce left soon after Christmas to Guatemala to do some humanitarian work for a few weeks. We are so proud of him and all that he is doing. We can't wait to hear all the great stories from his trip!

My parents, grandma, and little sister Breanne came with us to meet Brian, Alisha, Jayce, and Halli at Temple Square. It is so fun to be back in Utah and celebrate Christmas by going and seeing the lights. I really missed it last year.

Da was pretty excited to see the horse drawn carriages in the street.

Jo does not really care for the fur hood on his jacket :)

I do not know if my mom knew I was taking a pic of her,...sorry, but I wanted one of you guys in here!

Thanks Lish for setting it all up! We are so glad we were able to spend so much time with you all-just sorry for all the time you had to spend in the car :)