Christmas Morning & A Funny Story

This was our first Christmas that we didn't spend in Utah with family but we still had a great time celebrating with just our little family. 

And a funny story for you. The night before Christmas Eve I spent several hours wrapping all the presents and then put all of them under the tree. Bright and early the next morning,  I heard some papers rustling and rushed downstairs to find Liam opening up every single present! I quickly grabbed all the presents and hid them before Gigi woke up. I should have taken a picture of the mess! So I had to re-wrap all the presents on Christmas Eve but needless to say I didn't put them under the tree! :) And when Liam opened up his presents for the 2nd time, he kept saying that he knew everything he got! "I already got this Paw Patrol present, mommy!" Here are some pics from Christmas morning...

And to close out the year, here's my top 9 pics...

Christmas Fun

I helped our with decorations for our ward Christmas party this year, but I forgot to take pics! The kids had fun in the photo booth...

Gigi made a gingerbread house at school...

Christmas Jammies!

Making Christmas cookies, I have such great little helpers!

Cookies for Santa! 

Christmas Pics

Our Christmas card pics from this year. It was cold but somehow we managed to get some good pictures of everyone!

This one is my fave, I just love those little smiles!

Christmas Decor

I used the same Christmas decorations as last year since I loved them so much! But here's a few snaps that I took this year...

little bits of Christmas on the shelf...

And here's our basement will a little holiday decor, some tinsel link garland draped on our gallery wall...

 twinkle, twinkle little tree

Thanksgiving

We celebrated Thanksgiving in Minnesota and we decided to have a home cooked meal instead of going out this year. A quick family photo before the feast (Liam is not amused!)

And of course Gigi wanted to take some silly face pics!

Our turkey was so yummy!

After the feast we saw The Good Dinosaur and yes, Liam is already asleep and feeling the effects of trytophan! He woke up right as the movie started and loved every minute of it!

Fall Randomness

fun at Gigi's school festival

I love switching up my decorations every holiday, so here's my fall/halloween mantel...

Here's some Thanksgiving decorations. I made the gold-dipped feather garland...

And here's the kids being silly!

And making a big mess too! :)

Halloween

I made the kids costumes for Halloween this year. They had a great time trick-or-treating and got lots and lots of candy! Liam was Baymax from Big Hero Six...



And Gigi was blue cotton candy...

The Vatican

After getting off the ship, we dropped our luggage off at the hotel and made our way to The Vatican. We quickly grabbed some lunch and it was yummy - I had pistachio pasta!

And of course we had to get some gelato...

Then it was time for our tour. 

Exploring the huge museum, and you can see Tricia (our tour guide, haha!) in the background with a deer attached to a selfie stick. It did help to keep our huge group together. :)

One of my favorites - The School of Athens

Inside the Sistine Chapel, I can cross this off my bucket list! Although I did almost get kicked out for taking pictures but it was worth it, haha!

We then visited St. Peter's Basilica...

Michelangelo's famous Pieta

And a view of the outside...

We had a delicious dinner that evening followed by some more gelato of course!

The next day we all traveled home. It was truly an amazing trip and we made such wonderful memories together. Thanks to my parents for making it all possible! And huge thanks to Bill and Georgia for watching our kids, we so appreciate you!