Christmas!!!!

The kids asked us what time was the earliest we would get up on Christmas morning and we told them six.  The little boogers all set their alarms for six!  Oh, well.  I think I was just as excited as they were and I was awake anyway!

Logan and his new skis from Santa.

I think Jensen's a little proud of his new skis!

Holden got an awesome John Deere tractor!  He really had fun opening presents this year, but he totally did NOT get the whole Santa thing!  I think he just didn't like him, so he didn't want to think about him coming to our house or something.  There's always next year!

Ally got a new bedspread and some curtains from Santa, but I don't have a picture.  I'll have to take one of her room later because it turned out cute.  Grandma June gave her some coordinating stuff to go with it, too.

Because Christmas was on Sunday, and church was at nine, we decided to play things by ear.  We let the kids look at their Santa stuff and then made them get ready for church.  We said they could open presents until 8:30 once they were ready for church.  They got ready SO fast and they ended up waiting on me to get ready!  Anyway, going to church was really enjoyable and reminded us about what the day is really all about.  I almost wish Christmas was on Sunday every year.  Ally and I played in the bell choir and sang in the choir as well.  (Yes, Ally sang!  She has finally come around to enjoying singing!)  And I had my own Christmas miracle that morning.  I had been fighting a cold for a week and didn't think I would be able to sing.  I decided since I was already playing the bells, and we had family visiting from out of state, I might as well sit with the choir and pretend to sing.  I was disappointed when I didn't have a voice for the opening and Sacrament songs, but when we started our program my voice came back!  I was seriously shocked!  It wasn't the best voice (it never is) but at least I felt like I was participating and my efforts paid off.  Thanks Heavenly Father!

Opening presents.  Josh and I got each other snow shoes-funny!  He also went to the mall and got me one of those flat irons that work really good, but are over priced.  It was a fun surprise.

Jensen and his stuff.  He picked an awkward place to display his stuff so it's hard to see anything.

Logan and his stuff.  I think he was pretty happy with everything this year.

Fun times for Ally.  Decorating stuff and food making stuff!  She's growing up...sigh.

Holden loved his haul, but it was scattered everywhere and he wouldn't let me gather it all together for a picture.  It was such a fun morning followed by lunch at my Mom's and then the family White Elephant Party at our house.  It was Ally's first year to participate and we all ended up with great gifts this year (Smith & Edwards gift card for me, Cookbooks and a Wal-Mart gift card for Ally and a season of MASH for Josh).  Our gift of a real (hollowed out) grenade went over well!  It was a great Christmas!

Secret Santas

We started a new tradition in our family this year.  We had the kids draw names and then they all became "Secret Santas" for each other.  They were supposed to do secret acts of service for their person and then get them a present.  It was a lot of fun to watch them do little things for each other.  There was a lot of secret bed making going on!  It was also fun to watch them try to figure out who their "secret santa" was.

I took them shopping at different times to pick out gifts and they each used their own money (except Holden) to buy their gifts.  It was funny because three of them each picked out Pee Wee Pillow Pets for their person!  I was giggling on the inside by the time the third one picked their present!

So Ally, Jensen and Logan all got Pillow Pets and Holden got something he truly loves: a Phineas and Ferb video with some hotwheel cars!

Here he is on Mom and Dad's bed on Christmas Eve watching "Finny Ferb".  It was a fun night and I hope we continue the tradition.

Braegger Caroling

This is another one of our favorite Christmas traditions.  On the Sunday before Christmas, the Braeggers all meet for caroling.  Everyone brings goodies and we make up plates to take to the elderly in the neighborhood.  We all pile on a trailer and sing our little hearts out.  We are not the best singers, but we have fun anyway!

It was SO cold this year!  Logan didn't seem to mind though.

Jensen was having fun, too.  They all love to run the plates up to the doors!

Ally and Kylah love to be together!  Cousins are the best!

Holden was cold so he rode in the pick-up with Josh (I think it was really Josh that was cold) and this is what happened.  Bundle a kid up enough and you can cook him to sleep!  We thought he would wake up when we got back to Grandma's to eat chili, but....

...he didn't even move after we got back!  So funny!  He just sat there and sawed logs amid all the hustle and bustle of the evening. It was a fun night as usual.

Hartley Party

We had our annual Hartley Christmas Party and it was just like every year.  And that's a good thing!

We had our dinner of Ham and Funeral Pototoes, played Christmas Bingo for dollar gifts and then had a visit from Santa.  Short and sweet!

This is what Holden looked like when I asked him if he wanted to go see Santa. He was obviously not really into meeting him.

 

I didn't think Ally would actually sit on his lap (she said she wasn't going to), but she wanted one of his treat bags.  She wants some decorations for her room from Santa this year.

 

Jensen and Logan both want skis from Santa this year.  After they sat on his lap they helped with the songs. But Holden was far, far away from the man in red!

Decorators

I'm not sure what the deal was, but I wasn't that excited to decorate the tree this year.  We kind of drug our feet a little, but we finally got it done about a week after we brought it home.  I think my Christmas enthusiasm peaked early with all the Christmas shopping I did in October.

Anyway, isn't this a cute picture of my kiddles?  It almost looks like a different camera took it...oh wait, a new camera did take it!  Yes, I bought myself a new camera for Christmas and gave it to my self a little early. :) Wasn't that nice of me?

I just have to throw this picture in because this is a typical Bubsy look.  We get this look ALL DAY LONG!  It usually means naughtiness is about to commence.  Either that or extreme attitude!

He just kept getting higher and higher, the little stinker.

Logan had fun throwing all the "helicopters" off the top of the ladder and watching them dirty up my floor.

We're finally decorating the tree!  Wahoo!

Logan decided to photo-bomb my nice shot of Jensen.

We love our tall Christmas trees!

Christmas Tree Hunters

The day after Thanksgiving is always our Christmas Tree Hunt. This year we had the Kotters with us and it was an adventure as always!

It was COLD this year.  It also turned into a really bad storm.  We watched all morning as it snowed and the wind blew.  The storm broke in the early afternoon so we headed right out.

Holden insisted on getting out of the truck with us, but then turned around and cried while I tried to carry him through the two foot deep snow-fun.

We had a hard time finding good trees in this area so we decided to head back to the cabin.  While Josh was dropping people off, his Dad's pickup decided to break.  He was able to get us all back to the cabin, but then it died completely, leaving us stranded at the cabin. Yay. We ended up having to tow it back home after someone drove up with a different pickup.

Logan and his friend Taden stayed up in the canyon with Shelby and the weather got bad again.  They said trees were falling over as they were walking through the forest!  We spent the rest of the day watching the snow fly horizontally by the windows.

This is the next morning.  We headed down North Canyon road on the four wheelers as far as we could go.  We still didn't find the best trees, but our patience was running thin by this point.

Holden immediately started screaming this time.  I left Josh in charge of getting him ready, and it took me half the time to realize he didn't even put snow pants on the poor kid!  No wonder he was screaming!

The other kids had fun, though!

We loaded the trees on the four wheeler sled and then had Logan ride on top so they didn't fall off.  I took a picture but my camera, being the awesome thing that it is, didn't save it.  I also took a really cute picture of all the kids that disappeared, too.  Someone really needs a new camera!

It took Holden a while, but he finally got warmed up!

Funny (?) story about our ride home.  Logan and I were sitting in the back seat of the pickup and we saw something out of the corner of our eyes.  We both turned around and noticed that the Christmas trees we were hauling had blown out of the pickup!  It took us forever to find a place to turn back around and get back up to the spot.  Sure enough, two 15 feet Christmas trees were laying across the opposite lane of traffic on the two lane road!  We were so lucky no one got hurt, but it was kinda funny too.  We always have strange things happen on our Christmas tree hunts.  The trees ended up being okay, just a little road rashed!

We had tons of fun at the cabin this year, playing games, watching movies, napping and just being with family and friends.  Gotta love the Christmas tree hunt!

Where Have We Been?

So, our computer decided to quit working last month.  The mouse wouldn't do anything and seeing as how our computer was 6 years old, Josh figured it was just dead.  I said "let's just try the mouse and see if it is the problem". Josh said "no way. It's not the mouse. The computer is toast.  I hope you got everything important off of it." (I hadn't.)

So we ordered a new computer and printer and it came in the mail.  Our friend who is our "computer helper" said it would be a week until he could come help us set it up.  Just for kicks, I decided to try the new mouse on our old computer.  Yup, you guessed it. It worked just fine.  

But now we have a new computer, which we needed, and I was able to get all the stuff off that I needed to.

So I guess the moral of the story is "always check your mouse first". (Or "husbands need to listen to their wives", if you want to get technical.) ;)