All of December & Christmas!

I will catch up. I will catch up. That's my motto for the week while the hubs is in China. He's been gone for a lot of the month and I would like to think that I have been productive, but I sure haven't. Oh well!

December was a busy but wonderful month! 

There was a ghetto carnival that decided to strategically set up shop at the local grocery store located right outside our neighborhood and every time we would pass by the kids begged to go to it.  After a week or so, we finally caved in and payed way too much money for two dinky little rides. E & E were so beyond excited and happy that it was totally worth it. 

Ellie is really into dress up and loves to put on different princess dresses all day long. She finds either her play heels or my heels and is so sassy walking around in her dress, stilettos, and a purse on her arm. It so much fun to have some girl stuff in this house.

We made our annual trip out to Bass Pro Shop to see Santa and fully took advantage of all the free games and rides they have there. 

Is it just me or is Ethan's look of determination is a bit frightening! :)

And finally we got to see the big man in red. This years picture is the best so far I think. No screaming kids and Santa didn't even get hit in the face! 

Mason was sleeping so I opted to skip the Santa picture this year for him. 

I think this picture is so funny. I'm not sure if Ellie is lovingly holding Ethan's arm or is about to throw it off of her! Either way, it doesn't look like they were excited to take a picture together!

My parents flew in a few days before Christmas and we thoroughly loved having them in our home for the holidays. They joined us for the Smith family Christmas Eve fireside and then later for a traditional Mexican Christmas Eve dinner at Eduardo and Gladyss' house. 

Mason intently stared at Great-Grandma Chapman for the longest time. He would not take his eyes off of her and showed zero emotion in the stare down. It was hilarious!

Christmas Day and a Christmas Lesson Learned

We are lucky that our kids still aren't quite at the age of waking us up at the crack of dawn to see what Santa brought them, so we woke up around 8am and all went down stairs to see what awaited them. 

Now here is the Christmas Lesson Learned part....

Ethan was making some really poor choices and was lying about everything a few days prior to Christmas. He had been warned about Santa not coming to our house to deliver his presents and also had a few consequences for his actions. He still wasn't learning his lesson so we decided to put our foot down and we told him that Santa had written us a letter telling us that Ethan had been put on the naughty list and asked us what he should do about Ethan's presents. We told Santa to please not bring him any of his presents until he could learn to be obedient, not lie, and get himself back on the nice list. So on Christmas day, Ethan didn't have any presents to open. Well, he got to open one present from G&G Sims, which was a board game, but that was it. Talk about break your heart as a parent! But we were firm and stuck to our guns. 

Ellie however had presents from Santa which consisted of a Cinderella princess doll, some dress up clothes, and a board game. 

All Mason needed for Christmas was some wrapping paper! He was so happy ripping that stuff apart!

We spent the rest of the day playing games, playing in our newly put in backyard, jumping on the trampoline, and swinging on the swingset- those were early Christmas presents. 

Later that day, we went over to the Smith's for dinner and such. Daddy is always so much fun on the trampoline!

Ellie is busting out her best dance moves for us and enjoying electricity in the video below. She sure is a cutie!!

We live in an awesome neighborhood. Have I mentioned that?? Oh yeah, only like 500 times :) At the entrance to the neighborhood is a lake that gets stocked with all sorts of fun fish. These fish loves hotdogs and that is our go to bait! So during the break we all went fishing and fed the ducks. 

My parents were able to stay 10 whole days with us! Dad helped put the swing set together, hung up my curtain rods, helped Justin put up our garage storage system and helped with a few other projects around the house! We were so grateful for his help!

I think Ethan and Ellie ate most of the duck bread but the ducks weren't really that hungry anyways. 

Mason man just chilled in grandma's arms while watching the other kids catch some fish. 

                                            And finally, 3 days after Christmas, Santa decided that Ethan had made good enough choices to earn his Christmas presents for that year and even left him a note telling him how proud he was of him. 

Ethan was one happy boy!

And Mason, once again, was able to enjoy the wrapping paper. So easy to please :)

Well folks, that was our December! We also had teaching moments to talk to our kids about why we have Christmas and the meaning behind it, and how grateful we are for our Savior. We went to the temple lights and enjoyed our time with family. Thanks for coming all the way out to AZ Mom and Dad!