"Phew!"

That is me, breathing a sigh of relief. 

Santa came.

Santa didn't die in some freakish accident.

Santa made it and didn't slip off the roof-- that would just be horrible.

And rare.

And unusual.

It would be like my husband getting a rare illness followed by an even rarer condition resulting in surgery on both legs.  

Boy, am I glad that Santa came and Christmas came.

But I am even gladder that it is over.

Yes, I am gladder.

Family on Christmas Eve

This was taken right before we had our family night lesson about why we celebrate Christmas. 

Of course, Sadie had the answer.."PRESENTS!"

So, we had a bit of a refresher about the true meaning of Christmas.

After reading the scriptures and talking to the kids about Jesus and Mary and the manger and such, we had a little test to see how much the babies had been listening.

Me: "What did the wise men bring to baby Jesus?"

{silence}

Me: "Gold...."

Luke: "and Frankenstein and Murd!"

My beautiful posterity

getting ready to tear into the Christmas Eve packages.

That's right.  No bows this year.

I am seriously lame.

The kids are lucky I didn't hand them presents that were wrapped in a target bag.

Christmas Book and PJ's

Also a tradition..

All children sleep in the same room.

Maddie was thrilled with this tradition.

She had to go to bed with the babies at 8:30 p.m. and got to sleep on about 4 inches of bed.

This is one seriously excited little Sadie.

Christmas morning here at last!!

Unfortunately, this game will be going back to the North Pole.

Stupid Santa, will you never learn??

Todd's walker making an appearance in the background..

That walker is a picture whore..

That is seriously freaky.

I swear that walker moved itself.

Todd didn't move the entire morning.

I am afraid.

And again, with the walker.

From Tanner to Dad

Oh yeah! Santa's the man!

When Luke unwrapped this matching game, he looked a bit perplexed.

"I didn't ask for this matching game.."

Santa knew this would be his reception to this game and so he

taped some Star Wars action figures to the front of the game

so there wouldn't be too much disappointment.

Freaky walker leg and wheel. AGAIN.

Did I mention that Luke received 4 guns.

Which shoot approximately 965 bullets.

Which means I will be picking up foam bullets for the next 14 years and

will yell approximately 122 times for him to 

"PICK UP THESE BULLETS!"

She may never take it off.  

She IS Rapunzel.

Of course, Mr. Claus was responsible for this beast of a present.

A princess jeep for our little princess Rapunzel.

Poor Todd.  Wanted to be involved and so he offered to build Luke's Lego Helicopter.

Unfortunately, Luke wanted to be right by him during the construction.

He looks to be a safe distance from Todd's legs, however, there were about 6 episodes of

Todd screaming like a girl when Luke got over-excited with the process and his little

boy body came in to contact with his legs.

Can you see the nerf gun in the background?

The enormous orange thing?

Yeah, again with Mr. Claus.

He is the best at presents.

Appreciate you giving my 5 year old a nerf machine gun with 965 bullets.

Thank you Santa.

more guns that make noise! super!

and... there's the walker..

Some of our Ashby Peeps

Aren't they cute?

Our girls, plus Jantzen- going on a mission in 2 weeks!

add Tanner and Parker

add Luke and Zany and Sadie

I took at least 49 pictures and not one with everyone looking at the camera.

Of course, the picture wouldn't be complete without the possessed walker..

Angry Birds

My princess is addicted to Angry Birds.

I hope all of you dear friends had a wonderful Christmas and that your New Year's celebration is safe and enjoyable.  Me and the walker may go see a movie & get dinner.  Should be fun.