We Love the Holidays!

I absolutely LOVE the holidays with these kiddos!  I try to savor every moment!  I try to get all the Christmas prep stuff done early so I can just enjoy all the fun activities with the kids stress free.  Once again we had wonderful holidays!  Here's some of our fun.  

The boys thought it was funny to put the tree skirt as Eddie's dress, he did too for a minute:)

Tree's ready, and B's off being his wild self as usual..

Grandma Corts sent us a super fun Christmas Countdown, here's the boys reading her letter.

Gluing kisses on their tree's...

Oops, someone snitched one..

There's our trees all set up and Eddie begging for another one:)  

B stays up a little later than the other kids and reads books in my room.  One night when he came down for me to tuck him he had a cheeky smile on but wouldn't tell me why.  When I went to bed that night I found this sweet note with a necklace he made me on my bed.  Oh how it warmed my heart!  It's tough being a mom sometimes, and if you know my intense B you know how touching this was to me!

Couldn't forget our tradition of going to the Gingerbread village then building our own.  

He never misses a moment to be mischievous when mom's busy baking.  

Ward Christmas Party

We finally got out on the lake!  It's been so warm this year so I waited for a cold week before I felt comfortable out on the lake.  Another reason I'm going to miss Alaska!  They upkeep so many lakes here and I just feel so free out there in the middle of nature skating to my hearts content!

The boys love coming with me, but they don't quite share my intense love of skating with me.  In the sled being pulled around the lake is their favorite place to be.  

It's been such a long summer that they forgot how to skate for a minute.  They spent alot of time on the ice:)

And, lucky us got more homemade biscotti from Parker's sweet Aunt Joanie!  It's always a treat to eat it with hot chocolate after skating!

Parker got Christmas week off which is super exciting for us since he has to work many holidays!  So we took advantage of it and had lots of fun including going as a family shooting at the range.  Never too early to learn gun safety right?  The boys were thrilled!  They were so responsible and felt so big being able to learn how with Dad.  

I love Henry's thinking face!

They fun didn't end!  Parker got Julia Child's cookbooks from me for our Anniversary so he had been studying up on how to make lobster well.  He had so much fun with the boys watching how to videos, picking it out, and cooking it.  Henry is our little seafood boy and kept begging daddy for more bites.  Parker says next time he'll get two so Henry can have his own and he won't have to share:)  The rest of us did try it, but we weren't begging for more like Henry:)

While Eddie was napping Parker put up his childhood train his uncle Eric had gotten his family.  As you can tell he was very excited when he came down and saw it.  

Ready for Santa as usual only this year B was a little overly excited!  Starting at 3:30am he came in every hour to ask if it was time yet and my answer stayed the same "does your clock say 7:00?!!!"  

Fun with Daddy before bed Christmas Eve.  Doesn't their smiles just bring you joy!  These boys are my everything!  

Trying to be brave and do it without holding Dad's hands.  he had to look to me for support:)

And Christmas morning came and went.  The boys got what they wanted.  An art jar and enough Star wars clothes and legos to last a while.  My favorite part of Christmas day is spending time together playing with all the new toys and games, and reading all the new books.  It was a peaceful and lovely Christmas day with my sweet family.  I love them!

They got spy glasses from Grandma and Grandpa Corts to go on a secret mission.  I downstairs cleaning in peace for quite a while and was just about to go check on the boys when I could sense I was being spied on.  I turned around to see them all dressed up in the spy gear they could scrounge up.  

And look at US!  Parker's Aunt Joanie made these amazing sweaters for each of us, yes including Parker and I!  I couldn't believe how perfectly they fit all of us!  We love them and it made for the perfect Christmas Day family picture!