Elf on the Shelf

Charlie was up to quite a bit of mischief at our house this month...here are some of his best hiding places and craziest tricks! 

 It took Paxton a couple of days to really get into it but once he did every morning he would wake up and go looking for Charlie!

 Charlie definitely had some tricks up his sleeve like the day he toliet papered our Christmas tree!

 They boys though it was so funny!

 On the day that Charlie was sitting on our dinning room light, Paxton worried all day that he was going to fall off.  He was also pretty curious about how Charlie got up there...he kept saying, "Dad did it? No...Mom did it? No...Santa did it!!"

 Charlie clearly prefers the Utes making it a little bit more even with 2 Utes fans and 3 BYU fans!

 Homer (our dog) was being naughty and chewing up his bed so Charlie spent the day watching over Homer to make sure he was being a good dog!

We loved having Charlie at our house this month...after Christmas Paxton kept asking "Where's Charlie"  he was finally satisfied when we had him watch The Elf on the Shelf movie again (for the 10th time) and now he knows that Charlie had to go back to live with Santa to help him make toys for next year!  We are all looking forward to next December when Charlie will find his way back to visit our family again!

Christmas at Grandma's House

Christmas morning the boys slept in until 8:30 (of course they would pick that morning to sleep in!!) and ended up being the last ones down stairs!  

The boys were super excited when they got down there and saw the big pile of presents that Santa had left!  We showed them their stockings and they were thrilled with the juice and fruit snacks that had been left for them!  Paxton told everyone who would listen, "I never had this kind before!"

In our family we have a tradition of opening presents one at a time in order from youngest to oldest so Tegan (and therefore Paxton) got to go first!  Luckily they had a few more presents than everyone else or I think they would have been begging to open their aunts and uncles presents!

Paxton got quite a few awesome presents!

 And Tegan was equally as spoiled!!

Look at that face...new baseball binkies...best present ever!

 The boys helped each other open our big presents from my Mom and Dad which included:

A toolbench and tools for Paxton

A racetrack for Tegan

A home safe for Andy 

and a carpet cleaner for me!!

 It is the best to have little kids in the house at Christmas because they get so excited about every little thing but this year the adults were getting pretty excited about their Christmas presents as well!

Just like last year...the boys had just about as much fun playing in the wrapping paper as they did opening the presents!

Can you spot them in that mess?

After all the presents were opened, breakfast was made, and they were dressed in their adorable matching outfits it was time to break out all of the toys!

My Dad gave my Mom a "garden cart" for Christmas...we joke that it is really a handcart for their trek across the plains.  Unfortunately when they went to put it together it was missing a part...the main axle.  The boys thought it was pretty fun to play in just how it was!

 

The other big hit of Christmas was their new racetrack...they played with that thing for hours that day and even got Grandpa in on the action!

Tegan thought his best present was his new binkie...he just didn't want to get rid of his old one!

Since Christmas we have had tons of car races, played 45 games of candyland, eaten 2 boxes (and counting) of fruit snacks and a 6 pack of blue juice, worn cute new clothes, read new books, watched new movies, are still working on putting together Paxton's tool bench and gotten rid of basketball binkie and loved every minute of it!

Christmas Eve (Part 2)

After celebrating Christmas at our house we traveled down to my parents house in Richfield to spend Christmas with my family.  We had our traditional Christmas Eve dinner with the Crimins, our family friends, and then our little monsters received their Christmas jammies from Grandma!

 This is Tegan's new "smile" or "cheese" face...the whole weekend I could not get him to smile for a picture without his little tongue hanging out!

 In preschool we had talked about leaving cookies and milk for Santa so Paxton was excited to leave a little treat for Santa to eat when he came to Grandma's house.  He drew a picture of Santa and wrote his name on the top of the paper.  He was adamant that Santa only needed "1 gingerbread man" and a glass of water.  I think he remembered the book that we read in preschool about how Santa got stuck in the chimney because he ate too many cookies and drank too much milk...such a funny boy!!  Then it was off to bed to wait for Santa to come visit us again!

Christmas at Home

We woke up before the boys so excited to show them their presents that Santa had left for them...when they finally woke up we kept telling Paxton, "Go look in the front room!!"  He would wander in there look around and come back...didn't notice a thing.  Finally on the 3rd or 4th try we had to tell him that Santa came and to go see if he left anything...the the excitement began!!

Paxton found his pile (yes he is wearing a bike helmet...it is one of the favorite toys in our house!)

 And let the unwrapping begin!!

 Paxton got a Yo Gabba Gabba bouncy!

 Tegan's remote control Alligator car!

 Thank goodness Santa remembered Spiderman!!

 "A baseball movie" nope it's a game...good try son!

 He loves Lightening McQueen...Thanks Aunt Janelle and Uncle Nick!

 Tegan got some cool Sesame Street books from his Aunt and Uncle!

 He was concentrating so hard on opening up the presents just right.  He would rip off a tiny piece and then hand it to Andy or I to throw away then move onto another tiny section.  Paxton was more than happy to help him...luckily after the 2nd or 3rd present he got the hang of it and went to town ripping away!

 Paxton and his loot!

Cars Art Set, Thomas Book and Trains, Spiderman, Nike Outfit and Shoes, Wii baseball game, Yo Gabba Gabba Bouncy, and Jake and the Neverland Pirateship

 Tegan and his pile!!

Car, Backpack, Sesame Street Books, Remote Control Alligator, Outfit and Shoes, and Tool Bench

 We could barely rip them away from their toys to go to church that day!  

We were excited to get home and pack up to go to Grandma's where our next Christmas adventure awaited us!!  The boys were so excited to see Grandma and Grandpa and their Aunts and Uncles, but they were not too happy about leaving their new toys so they packed up their little backpacks with as much as they could and off we went!