Arizona on Christmas

 I love that my girls don't wake up super early on Christmas morning yet. I think we go out of bed around 7:30 and we had to wait around for the kids until 8:00! It was great.Here, Noni and Lydia are fighting over who is king of the tower. Lydia usually won, but then again, she has 3 big sisters.

 Crazy Uncle Josh and Nan cuddled during presents.

 Lydia cried because I limited her M&M intake.

 They played a tickle game.

 Lydia and my sister Kelsey setting up Noni's present.

 We had some after presents cuddling...

 and modeling...

 and quail feeding.

 We took our traditional Christmas day walk to the pond and fed the ducks.

 Love those cheeks!

 And my dad picked a barrel cactus fruit to show us.

 We took Christmas Day naps,

 and played with new presents.

 (The skates were actually Emily's but Nan LOVES them. So does Emily. This is a problem!)

 We got traditional Christmas bedhead.

 And wore Christmas jammies.

All in all, an awesome Christmas Day!

Arizona Before Christmas

 My parents offered to fly us out to AZ for Christmas because it would be the last time we were all together as a family for a few years, because my brother is going on a mission this next year. We jumped at the opportunity! We bought the cheapest tickets though, which means we left our house at 3:30am...... there was definitely sleeping on the plane. I've said it before, but I'll say it again-- my girls have AMAZING lashes.

 Charlotte's lashes are so long!!!

 All my siblings, all their spouses, my parents and my nephew were there! It was A BLAST!!!!!

 My nephew, Noni, just turned 2 and likes to throw tantrums. It made me laugh.

 The adults stayed up way too late talking.

 We all took turns cooking....

 and Matt cooked this up for me on my birthday. :) What a guy!

 Noni is so cute!

 Matt and my dad were busy planning something and had to draw it out. They were in builder mode.

 My brother slept in really late and didn't like my girls waking him up.

 My sister found a dead scorpion in her bathroom.

 Apparently my bro doesn't appreciate me snapping pictures of him!

 More cooking...and some food stealing as well. Who can resist Lydia though?

 Uncle Dan wrestled with children.

We like food. :)

December before Christmas

  As always, December was a busy month and we did lots of stuff before Christmas.

 We took lots of warm baths.

 Charlotte had her preschool Christmas concert.

 Nathalie had her kindergarten Christmas concert.

 

I got my haircut, for the first time in a really long time.

And we spent many quiet nights reading.

How do you make December less hectic? I feel like it's always totally crazy until about the 22nd, then everything slows way down. I do love the anticipation though!

New camera pics! So nice!

 Back in December I found a good deal on a nice camera on craigslist. It wasn't a dSLR but it was a nice point-and-shoot. Since we didn't have a camera, only our phones, I had been wanting one for a long time and I saved up all the money I had earned watching other people's kids. All $80. The woman had never used it and she gave it to me for $80, which included batteries and a 16GB SD card! All because she had lost the lense cap!

 I'm amazed at how amazing the pictures are, compared to my phone.

 The sharpness.

 The levels of detail.

 Later that day we went to a crab boil with friends and I got some good shots. Did you know the crabs are blue until you cook them?

 I tried taking pictures of the kids for our Christmas card. Some turned out well, others.....well....

 Charlotte was striking all sorts of poses for me!

 Look at those lashes!

I LOVE my new camera. It's exactly what I wanted and I got such a great deal.