christmas morning

This is what our tree and family room looked like before anyone was awake. Nice and fairly organized.

Then, the kids woke up and could barely hold still for one photo.And then, the mayhem began. We hand out the presents one at a time so that everyone has a chance to see what each person gets. It still gets chaotic though as the presents stack up beside everyone's spot.

And finally, the aftermath of a very, merry Christmas for everyone.

Don't you love how my new couches fit in with the whole Christmas theme of red and green :)

merry christmas!

winter shminter

Yes, it is December 21 and yes, my kids are playing in the backyard, in the water, in their underwear. It is definitely going to take some getting used to this "winter" weather :)

a country christmas

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

dancin' with the taylors

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

christmas garrett

Last but not least, here are the Christmas pictures of Garrett. It is hard to get a picture of him where he has a real smile, and where he is not doing the peace sign with his fingers. He is such a cheese ball.

christmas jack

Of course, Jack had to have his own photo shoot as well. Every picture he yells cheee-eeeese until the camera clicks. And of course he has to look at each picture on the camera before we move on to the next one. Such a funny kid! Stay tuned for a photo shoot with Garrett soon.

christmas grace

Garrett is at school and Jack is sleeping, so I decided to do a quick photo shoot with Grace. She was so funny, she came up with all these poses on her own. She would have gone all day if I let her. Grace definitely has an inner diva that comes out when the camera comes out.

our christmas tree

Here is our glorious Christmas tree. Before we moved we had decided that we would just get a fake tree this year and from now on so we got rid of our tree stand. Well, here it is 10 days before Christmas and we went for a real tree after all. So, two tree sellers, and a tree stand later here is our tree.

I was actually quite surprised how not dry the selection of trees was considering we are in Arizona and most of these trees have been on the lot for several weeks already. The trees on the lots are kept in buckets of water and they are also sprayed down during the day to keep them wet.
Decorating the tree with 3 children is always an adventure, and just for future reference, glass balls break on laminate flooring. We only broke a couple, thank goodness because that is a big mess to clean up. I put up all the really heavy or nice ornaments and I just let the kids have at it. I am not going to rearrange the ornaments unless they fall off. There are some areas of ornament clumping, but that is just how it is going to be. After all, it will only be up a couple of weeks anyway.


I only put out some of the presents even though the kids have been looking at them for a week in our family room. I wanted to have at least some surprise on Christmas morning. I am hoping they will forget how much they have already seen. It is definitely different to have all the presents from grandparents around our tree. It will certainly be a different Christmas for everyone.


When you walk in the front door of our house the tree is straight ahead. On the right is our china cabinet and then the kitchen/dining room. On the left is the family room/TV setup and thru a doorway are the bedrooms. Eventually, I will get everything put away enough to take pictures of the whole house.

the boys

Just some random pictures of the boys in the back yard. They are collecting rocks, just what I need around the house.

These are my fruit trees-orange, tangerine, lemon, lime and grapefruit. That bush thing in the front has the most dangerous looking spikes on the leaves that you have ever seen. The kids have been spearing the grapefruits on them.

some christmas decorations

Here are just a couple of the Christmas decorations that I have put up. The nativity is set up on my antique singer sewing machine. I put an unfinished fallish tablerunner underneath it. The corner is just inside my front door.

These two shelves were already on the wall. They are just inside the front door across from the nativity corner.

I don't really have anything else up in the house at all, but I felt like I needed to do something decorative to break up ALL the unpacking.

loving the weather :)

These pictures were taken this morning at 8:30 am. I know all of you Utah friends and family will be jealous. I hear it it is pretty chilly there.

This orange is from a tree in my back yard, yum!

eating lunch on our back patio