Christmas Day

We had another wonderful Christmas Day in the Monsen household. One that passed entirely too quick, but was everything we hoped for. We had a magical, happy, joyous, relaxing time together, just how I wanted our last Christmas in Texas to be. This little family of mine is just amazing and any Christmas morning with them is a perfect one. 

Wes miraculously woke up before Thad and came into our room at 5:08 a.m. I thought Thad would be up waiting all night for that clock to change to 5 a.m., but after Wes went and woke him up a little while after hanging out with us in our bed, he came in so happy saying, "I slept a lot!" He was so excited that the night didn't drag on and on for him!

We had to drag little sister out of bed and try to convince her to wake up, but it didn't take too much from those brothers to get her excited about what might possibly be waiting for her downstairs!

Brian of course headed down to make sure all was in order while these cuties hung out on the steps and waited a little longer- 

And before they knew it, the were checking out there Santa haul and excited about everything they got!  

Wes got that Megalodon monster truck he asked for, Eve got her pink princess dress (along with a few others), and Thad was a little worried about getting the robotic dog instead of that fitbit he asked for... 

But Melvin pulled through for him and let Santa know he had changed his mind! He ended up getting a Garmin Vivofit Jr so that he could have a Garmin just like dad. It is a couple weeks post Christmas and they still compare their steps every day! Thad knows he doesn't have a chance when dad goes on a run, but he gives it a good effort the other days, even if that means swinging his arm and walking around the kitchen table to run the number of steps up!

Dad set up the app on his phone right away so they can keep track and compare all of their stats.

Stockings were a success-

And Eve finally got a princess crown that has a chance of holding up under her insistence on braking most of her fragile things. It is still not broken, but I'm not sure it will last.

We had fun opening some more presents and playing with them in between-

Opening gifts from grandparents-

Thad and Wes got these adorable signs (and some cash and candy) from Grandma Cindy and Grandpa Kent and they both loved them!

Thad opened his up and looked at it for a minute and said, "Mom, we always say that!" It was so cute to see it dawn on him. Love that boy!

Eve got some goodies along with this adorable art display board. We can't wait to hang it to display all of her creations for Grandma Cindy and Granpa Kent to see when they come visit!

We had told Grandma Teresa that we got the family tickets to attend the Utes game the next day so she and Grandpa Russ hooked the boys up with new t-shirts to sport and they were not disappointed about that. Also, they how much we love Star Wars! 

Thad is looking at a Star Wars dot-to-dot book (some of the pictures have over 1,000 dots and they all have at least a few hundred) that has been a huge hit at our house this Christmas break! 

We have all done a few and love watching them come together. We even ordered another book with famous landmarks from cities like Paris and London so that we can have two dot-to-dot books available at all times!

The boys have also loved these Nerf guns and all the ammo they got from Grandma Teresa and Grandpa Russ and we have had multiple wars since Christmas. So much fun! 

  

Eve got this huge box from Grandma and Grandpa Whitehouse and has spent lots of time singing Let It Go and making obnoxious noises into the microphone!

New and new-ish bikes from mom and dad-

Thad had grown out of that green bike and shredded the tires on it, so we got him a new, bigger bike that he fit on better and cleaned up the green one for Wes and dad put new tires on it making it pretty dang new! The boys are excited to be able to bike instead of scooter to school when it starts back up again. 

Wes' helmet was in bad shape so he got a new one and looks adorable in it. 

Eve also looked adorable in her Princess Elena dress and was super cuddly on Christmas and I loved it- 

One of the last gifts the boys opened was a box full of blog books-

I told both sets of grandparents that I wanted money to print past years of our family blog so my kids could look at them. It was quite the project for me to get 2011-2014 edited and fill in a bunch of blanks (like the summer of 2013), but it was worth every minute and ounce of effort. I knew it would be a lot of work and I was hoping to get 2015 and 2016 done too, but I ran out of time and was so happy to have the ones I did get done.  

 My boys loved them that day and there have been several instances over Christmas with them doing just this:

It makes my heart swell to watch them read and remember so many fun memories we have made over the years! It is my New Year's resolution to get all caught up and get 2015, 2016 and 2017 printed by the end of March. Please ask me about it to keep me accountable!

The rest of the day was spent enjoying gifts, eating yummy food and getting ready to head to Waco with cousins.

It was a little too cold for Wes to find and catch any bugs with his new bug catcher. Bummer.

Brian worked on this X-Wing Fighter Jet for a solid hour while I was napping and got 'er done!

 It was a chilly day, but they got a good hour to play outside and try their bikes and see some friends.

After Eve got ready she totally zonked while we were packing to go to Waco and stay over night.   

 Sweet little Sleeping Beauty!

She got some more Zs along with her brothers on the ride north-

And we enjoyed a delicious dinner and evening with our favorite Texas cousins! June got the same karaoke machine so the kids were super excited about showing off their skills and it was adorable...for a little while. I'm sure can imagine what it turned in to so I won't elaborate.

We stayed over night because we were heading to Dallas the next day for the Utes football game and had a blast ending our day with family. That's what it's all about, right?! I love this little family of mine and everything they are to me. I am so glad I get to spend all my Christmases with them.

~Merry Christmas 2017~