Christmas Morning!

On Christmas morning we woke up to find stuffed stockings inside

and SNOW outside!!

We were so SO excited to have a White Christmas! “God sent us snow!” Tyler was the most excited!

Then we got to open our stockings.

Tyler said, “Mommy that one’s mine, the one with the gun!”

Coco got one too!

After stockings we ate our Monkey Bread while Daddy read the Christmas story. Then it was time for more presents.

Tyler’s pile:

Kalen’s pile:

And here are the highlights:

We all got spoiled! Thank you for the wonderful gifts everyone!

Christmas Eve

We hope you all had a very Merry Christmas! We had a great time celebrating our Savior’s birth! Tyler and Kalen are at such great ages where it really makes Christmas special. I’ve got lots of pictures so I am going to take a couple posts to recap everything

Christmas Eve we went to Mama Jo and Papa Bill’s house (Angie’s parents) to celebrate Jordan’s birthday and Christmas with them.

Jordan turned 18 this year! Hard to believe!

Jordan works at Baskin Robbins and made his own birthday cake this year! It was GREAT!! (I think I am going to have him make Tyler’s)

Then the kids got to open a present.

Then we went to church for the special Christmas Eve Service. We LOVE this and are so excited that we can have this tradition. All the children are invited on the stage with our Pastor while he reads the Christmas story. Tyler and Kalen went up all by themselves this year. They were right up next to Brother Jimmy! If you look close you can see Kalen, I think she it trying to attack someone with her sparkle shoe. Hehe.

I am so glad our friend Shannon got this picture of us! It is the only one with me this Christmas!

Then we delivered a blessing basket to one of the local fire stations and thanked them for their service to us especially during the holiday season. Then it was home to open one present.

This one present is always something that Mommy picks out and is always the same thing every year.

New Christmas pajamas.

This year I also gave them the The Grinch Who Stole Christmas book and a Grinch doll for Kalen. Then we cuddled up and watched the “old” Grinch and went to bed!

Tyler & Kalen sing Christmas Carols

Tyler and Kalen have really enjoyed singing Christmas songs this year! We were given this cd and have it in the car. We must have listened to it 50+ times now! So Tyler and Kalen wanted to sing a few for you!

Merry Christmas!!!

Sweet Peach–December Reveal

Have you seen the new kits from Sweet Peach this month!! Gorgeous! I received the Sweet Featured kit!

And the Embellishment Add-on.

This kit was more “boyish” so it was perfect to use with some outdoor pictures. Those chipboard stickers are so fun!

Love this picture of Tyler and Kalen in the covered bridge, and how cute is that owl?!

We had two sketches to work with this month! The first one is from Liz Chidester for the December Sketch Challenge on the blog.

And here is my take. These pictures make me laugh!

Then we got the chance to create with a sketch from Sketch Inspiration! This is the first time I have heard about this site! They have a new sketch each week and this week Sweet Peach is sponsoring the prize, a Sweet Featured kit!!!

I love these pictures I took of Tyler a couple summers ago! They went perfect with this sketch and this kit!

A cute little card with some of the leftover scraps!

Head over to Sweet Peach Crop Shop to get your kit today! The Juicy Themed kit is beautiful too and would be great for all your Christmas pictures!!

Second Annual Taylor Gingerbread House!

Last year you may remember we did our first Gingerbread House. So we were excited when a box came in the mail with another one for us to do this year! (Thanks Grandpa & Grandma)

Mike and I assembled the house while Tyler and Kalen decorated little cookies.

These were fun, easy, and yummy.

Then it was time to decorate! I forgot to get the camera back out until we were almost finished!

Tyler did most of the work decorating the house and Kalen decorated the little gingerbread man and Christmas tree for the front yard.

This picture shows how much fun they were having!

So here is the Taylor’s second Gingerbread house! Do you see the bite in the Gingerbread man’s head! Ha! Kalen thought she was supposed to eat him.

I think last year’s looks a little better, but maybe it just shows that the kids did most the work on this one. (Or that mommy cut the hole in the piping bag a little too big Woops!)

Christmas Activities in Full Swing

The Christmas season and activities seemed to start as soon as Thanksgiving was over! With Tyler and Kalen getting older there is just so much for them to do. We are enjoying the activities though. I am going to try and catch you up on what we have been doing.

First we had our Bright Light’s Christmas Party. Here are all the children practicing their singing for the senior luncheon.

And Little Miss Kalen.

Since Tyler is in pre-school this year, I didn’t let him go on stage. I thought we would just let it be special for Kalen, plus he has plenty of activities to be a part of at school. So I gave him a job to keep him happy!   He got to have my old camera and be the photographer!

Then it was time to sing! Can you find Kalen?

Yeah, me neither! She was hiding and actually came off the stage at one point. I did get this one when I did spot her in the lower left.

On Saturday our church did something new, The Bethlehem Breakfast. It was for pre-school age children. Tyler and Kalen LOVED it!

There were people dressed up as Mary, Joseph, a Shepard, and 3 Kings. They went around one by one and stopped to tell us the story of Jesus and give out special treats!

It was a great start to the Christmas season keeping the true meaning of Christmas in focus!

Then today at school Tyler had a Shepard’s walk. He got to dress up as a little Shepard boy!

They got to hear the story of Jesus’ birth.

Kalen didn’t want to be left out! She brought her lamb too.

We hope you all are having a great Christmas season so far!!