Christmas Eve 2011

Christmas Eve came faster than I thought which also means Andy and my anniversary. Nine years. Which means Andy and I have been together 10 1/2 years. That's just crazy yet it's hard to think of Andy and I not being together. Andy is amazing and I am so thankful we met in that smoothie shop 10 years ago. Let me tell you it has been a great 10 years, but the last two have been the best. Alice has made everything better. There is more fun, more frustration, more laughter more learning and a ton of Love. Love we would have never experienced without this kid. So we decided that we would celebrate our anniversary by spending the day together as a family. We started the day by Alice pretending to be a pirate and all of us dancing to Jack and the Neverland pirates songs. Alice even came up with her own outfit. Oh, and Alice loves to such on the toothpaste. Don't worry, we screw the tap on so tight I can't even get it off.Then was breakfast and some more play time. We then did some last minute Christmas shopping had lunch out, Alice took a nap, then Alice had some fun playing with the ipad while Andy and I got ready for christmas eve dinner at my parents house.Don't you love this face. This is what she gives you when she can't get the ipad working. You would think her whole day was ruined. Too funny.That evening we had dinner at my parents house with a couple of our friends, the Durhams

and the Andersons.

we also got the pleasure of having Elicia's mom with us for Christmas Eve. She is super fun and nice just like Elicia. She even let me convince her to come sing with us at church on Sunday for our ladies number. We really needed voices.

Thanks to my dad loving to take pictures, this is the only picture I have of the night. Hopefully I can get my friend Elicia to send me some more pictures (I took a ton with her camera) but until now this is all you get. (I have since received the pictures from Elicia she is wonderful)We had a great dinner. My mom made lasagna and the rest of us brought dessert and sides. It was super yummy. I think Alice would say this was her favorite part of Christmas. Alice and the other kids ran around for three hours straight and had a blast.

I'm not sure if Alice has ever had so much fun and I was proud of myself. I actually just sat back and just let things happen as they happened. Usually I worry that Alice will get into something she shouldn't (which she did)

or she would hurt another kid (which she did a few times) or she would get hurt (which also happened), but I realized she was two. It's time to let her discover the world a little on her own. After dinner we all gathered together to watch some of the new videos the church put together on LDS.org of the life of Christ. They were beautiful and even though it is fun acting out the nativity it was fun for a change to watch it.

We ended the night with a little gift exchange. Andy thought it would be fun to give the kids something to open on Christmas Eve. I thought it was an awesome idea. That was a tradition in my family growing up. We got to pick one present under the tree as well as our jammies to open on Christmas Eve. Loved it.

Elle was my favorite. When Elle opened her present she was so happy she ran over to Andy and gave him a hug. She then told him she loved him and that he was the nicest person in the whole world. So sweat.

After the presents it was time for all of us to go home and go to sleep. You know, Santa wont come unless you go to bed.