Once there was a snowman, snowman, snowman...

It has been snowing so much that Tyler wanted to build a snowman. He recruited Grandpa Graf for help. Grandpa went and got real coal for the face. Ty thought that was really cool. Ty was really proud of his snowman.

Christmas Day!

Our kids let us sleep until 7:30 am, but I did get up with Jacey at 6:15 am for a feeding. We went upstairs to see what was waiting for us. Jacey woke up around 9 am about 5 minutes after we finished opening all of our Christmas gifts. She opened one present and then wanted to eat again. She left the rest of her presents for later. We enjoyed a nice breakfast, and then frantically packed to drive and stay the night at Santa Clara with my parents. We were expecting a huge snowstorm. It turns out that the storm wasn't bad a all. We are just glad we got to spend time with all of our family. It was so fun to have Grandpa & Grandma Graf with us celebrating Christmas. It was the first time they got to be with us for Christmas morning. Merry Christmas!

Traditions

In my family, we have always decorated homemade sugar cookies every year. I have so far been able to keep up the tradition. However, this year it literally got down to Chirstmas Eve. It was five pm when I finally got around to making the frosting to decorate the cookies I had baked early in the morning. I had such a busy day (loading, deleting, and loading over 100 pics. for a digital frame..one by one), Chirstmas stuff for kids, laundry, nap time, lets just state the fact that is was almost 6 pm before I got a shower. Yes, in the picture I have not gotten ready for the day. I begged Nate not to take my picture, but he wanted proof that I was around for decorating the cookies. I beg to differ, there would be no cookies, if I was around. Pixie( one of Santa's elves) showed up around 7:30 pm, just after I read a Christmas story to all the kids. I never want to cut it that close again. I didn't go to bed until 1 am. I really need to rethink how I go about trying to pull off the best Christmas' ever!

Lights, Camara, Action...

Alexa has been taking a dance class for the last 4 months. She loves it. We were a little nervous about her actually dancing in the recital. When she is put on the spot, she always shys away. But, she did an amazing job. It was so fun to watch her perform. I had a permanent grin plastered on my face, I was such a proud Mom. She wasn't fazed by the crowd of people. Great job Alexa! We are so proud of you!!