love and joy

i know this is way over due, but we have had a busy and exciting couple of weeks.  it all started a few days before christmas.....
we did the traditional stroll through temple square to see the lights followed by some chicken & waffles at bayleaf cafe.

christmas eve we headed up to heber for the pitts' christmas party. we opened gifts, laughed with the family and had some delicious food. plus we saw 2 moose on the way up and that always puts me in a cheerful mood.=)

{sorels from grandma and grandpa!}

{love my cookware! thanks mom and dad!!}

later that night, we read christmas stories to the boys, put out treats for santa and his reindeer and tucked the little ones tightly in bed so that santa could finish everything she needed to do. she eventually got it all done around 4:30am. thankfully my boys are not early risers.=)

{santa felt like peppermint cupcakes...i was just sure of it.;)}

{leaving the carrots out for the reindeer.}

{addy jo's precious christmas card.<3}

we can all pretty much guess how christmas morning went down....

{max and mad loved their gift from skye and sadie.}

{madden's favorite gift from santa was his donkey kong wii game.}

{max loved his space police lego set and his science kits. "why would santa just give us our own suitcases??" -max. hmmm??;)}

{yes, we still play the super nintendo left over from my childhood.=)}

{the boy loves his jerky!}

{then came the big surprise gift from grandma and papa.....a trip to fL!!  the boys were very excited, although you can't tell by mad's face here.}

also leading up to christmas was.....

 {madden's christmas program for preschool that he was very non-participatory in. punk.;)}

 {max's gingerbread house making and polar express days at school.}

{christmas movies morning.=)}

{and lots of loving.<3}