I am so far behind on the blog, but I thought I would actually post something current for a change. We had one of our BEST Christmases EVER this year (maybe even the best...) and I want to journal it all before I can't remember much at all, which is what is happening when I try to go back to my old posts. I think one of the reasons this Christmas was so special was that all of our kids were at such fun ages and everything is so exciting to them, it makes it extra fun and we love it! Even Avery enjoyed ripping into her presents this year. We did a lot of fun activities all throughout December, and hopefully some day I will get them all posted, but for now here is our Christmas morning Marathon! Sorry...there are TONS of pictures and tons of journaling! I can't choose and I don't want to forget!!!
The kids were REALLY excited for Santa this year. Before Logan went to bed, Darren told him he could get up as early as he wanted to open presents. I told him that might not be the BEST idea. He went in to talk to Logan after he was already in bed, and when he went in, Logan said, "What is it Dad?" and Darren told him that he needed to stay in bed until 6. Logan was really bummed that he couldn't get up whenever so Darren asked him when he was going to get up and he said one! Good thing we fixed that! I don't think Santa was even here by one! Needless to say, he didn't come in our room until about 7:15. Then, he was SO excited and got about 2 inches from Darren's face and yelled "It's Christmas Day!" Darren tried to convince him to go back to bed, and his response was "Are you kidding me?"
We got Logan to wait until about 7:30 and then we told him he could go and wake up Rylee. She came in VERY upset that Logan had woken her up. Then we reminded her it was Christmas and there MIGHT be presents downstairs and she was in a much better mood and wanted to go down, too. Here they are waiting at the top of the stairs to go see if Santa came! We tried to wake Avery up for all the excitement, but she was grouchy and she just rolled over and went back to sleep!
Coming in to check out the presents....
Ry got to empty her stocking first since Avery was still in bed. She was hilarious and went through each item very carefully and even held each one up and posed with it before moving on to the next. I loved it! She really took her time and enjoyed each thing. She got lots of candy, a Real Salt Lake scarf, some little food shaped Crazy Erasers, 2 little nail polishes, a little Jessie figure and a cute pink hat in her stocking.
She found the nail polishes in the toe of her stocking after Logan had already started on his stocking and she was SO excited! She had picked out nail polish for her cousin Haley and even for mom and really wanted some, but I wouldn't let her since we were shopping for others. She loved having her own and said, "Now I can paint my nails all by myself!" I don't think we are quite ready for that!
Logan got this cool Aggie banner in his stocking. It says Go Aggies on one side and has the words to The Scotsman on the other. (Like he needs the words...he has had them memorized since he was two!) He LOVED it!
Logan is much more of a dumper than Ry when it comes to the stockings - He does it much quicker. He got a Real scarf, lots of candy, some little jets, a tie, some soccer and basketball trading cards (He was VERY excited about those - especially when he got Kyle Beckerman and Dwayne Wade, some of his favorites!) and some pencils in his stocking. 
Avery came be bopping down on her own around 8, after the kids had each done one present. She was so happy and seemed a little confused what we were doing. The kids were very cute to stop everything and "help" her with her stocking. 
She seemed VERY happy with just the candy canes! She got some other candy, a funny little Princess slap bracelet and a cute little owl hat and lots of fruit snacks in her stocking.
Avery stole someone else's M&M Candy Cane and liked to shake them. It was keeping her quite entertained and she wasn't even really interested in presents. She was even shaking her body and dancing a little. It was so cute!
She has started to be SO cheesy and does the funniest BIG grins!
Rylee cracks me up the way she poses with EVERY thing she opens! Here is a new little Jasmine polly Pocket. She LOVES these, and Jasmine is about the only one she doesn't have, so she was pretty excited.
Logan HATES to open clothes! Santa probably shouldn't bring him ANY, but since Santa likes to keep things even, so he does. Every time he picked up a soft present that he could tell was clothes, he would say, "well, its nothing exciting." At least he found something fun to do with them. He used the wrapper from his new warm up suit as a LeBron James headband. Silly boy!
Avery looking at her cute new ABC purse book. She has really started to like books lately.
Avery got a little grouchy a few turns into opening presents. She sat up in this chair and would push away every present we gave her and scream. I think she was hungry because we found her some fruit snacks and she got her cute new little Elmo and she seemed pretty content. I thought she looked so funny like that!
Ry opening her first Princess Barbie of the day! She looks pretty excited!
Logan and his new Lego Star Wars Darth Vader alarm clock. He has been a little obsessed with clocks lately and has had mine and Darren's alarm clock in his room for a few weeks. He was so surprised with this present and kept commenting on how Santa knows all the things he likes even if he doesn't ask for them. It was so funny! There was also a Ninja Knockout set from Cars that he saw in the ads after he turned in his list to Santa, and he was so surprised to get that present, too. Santa is so good at what he does...hehe!
A Princess doll for Avery - her first! She loved it and couldn't wait to get it out of the box. She was doing the sign for baby over and over and pulling on the box trying to get it out!
Avery was so funny with this new puzzle. She just plopped down on the floor with it. She looked so sweet!
Ry loved this Ariel castle!
Logan was SUPER excited about his Leapster - He had to make sure it was a Leapster 2 first, just like was on his list to Santa. Funny boy.
Avery LOVED this little Elmo - He holds a boombox and microphone and plays songs and you can sing along. She kept pushing the buttons over and over and then she would do this funny little dance where she shakes her upper body and she would clap a lot. I love her happy, cheesy grin, too!
Rylee asked for a pony with a Silver saddle on her list to Santa. We kept trying to find out a few more details about what that meant, but we weren't too sure. A couple weeks before Christmas I was reading a book that the kids really like, and it had a part about a birthday list and the kid put a Pony with a silver saddle. Then we knew where it came from! Santa just tried to find the most fun horse he could, since the silver saddle was hard to find and Maximus was a hit!
Ry was so happy with this castle. It is for her Polly Pocket sized Princesses. She kept saying "now ALL the Princesses can come and visit". She couldn't wait to get it set up!
Another Elmo for A. This one blows kisses and she LOVED it! She would say "MUAH" over and over with him and laugh. So cute!
Ry's BIG present! A set of all the Princess barbies! Rylee asked for about a million things this Christmas - She wanted everything she saw! In one catalog, she circled EVERYTHING on the page, and when I asked her why she circled Transformers, she said "Well, Logan might like that." But, this was the one item that never changed and she was so excited to get it. She might have accidentally found a set that looked just like this one hiding at Grandma's house, and ever since then she has said she wants "a set of Barbie's just like Grandma's". I'm not sure how we are going to explain that Grandma doesn't have those anymore....
Logan was really happy with his Leapster. He got a Toy Story game and a Jedi Knight game. He is such a sweet boy. All he wanted for Christmas this year was a Kinect. We made him put some other things on his list to Santa just in case that was too expensive of a gift, and he could only come up with 2 more things he wanted (Leapster 2 and Hot Wheels...) We talked with him over and over that a Kinect costs a lot of money and Santa might not be able to bring it, or it might have to be for the whole family and that he needed to be happy with whatever he got. When he was through with his stack of gifts, he looked a little disappointed. I asked him what was wrong and he said, "I'm a little sad I didn't get the Kinect. But I am so grateful for all my other presents!" He is a sweetheart! Then, we felt bad and had to get to the stack of family gifts quick!
Avery and her loot! I was so mad I forgot to take before pictures of all the presents set out, but here is it all opened up. She got clothes (pjs, 2 sweaters, a tutu, a hoodie and a little velour sweatsuit), some Little People animals, a puzzle, 2 books, Hot Potato game, Toy Story 3 movie, a little talking Elmo, a blowing kisses Elmo, a phone, a baby Princess, a Sing along elmo and a Princess ball pit.
Rylee's PINK pile of presents! Ry got clothes (pjs, 2 sweaters, a tutu, a hoodie and a velour sweatsuit), Princess Yahtzee Jr, Tinkerbell and the Great Fairy Rescue movie, Fancy Nancy book, a Princess Bedtime story book, big set of Play-doh with all the colors and a Playdoh Ice cream maker, a Jasmine and Rapunzel Polly Pocket size Princess doll, Toy Story 3 Barbie, a little Ariel castle and a Big Cinderella Castle for her Polly pocket princesses, Maximus (the horse from Tangled), and 8 Princess Barbies. She was in Heaven!!!
Logan and his pile. He got clothes (Toy Story pjs, 1 sweater, 1 fleece pullover, 2 longsleeve shirts and a warmup suit), Dinosaur Train board game, How to Train Your Dragon movie, 3 nature books (one about sharks, one about wild cats and one about dinos - he loves those kind of books!), an R2D2 action figure, an Iron Man action figure, a Marshmellow shooter, a Darth Vader Lego Star Wars alarm clock, and a Leapster 2 and case with a Toy Story 3 game and a Jedi Math game.
Avery is getting pretty good with basic commands that we tell her to do now. She can bring us a diaper or her shoes and a few other things. We told her to go throw away the wrapping paper and she was trying to do it, but the lid was stuck up against the counter and she couldn't get it in. We were laughing so hard watching her try!
Then, she gave up and started wrapping herself up in it. It was hilarious! I think she really liked the shiny, metallic paper. It was the foil kind and she was having so much fun with it!
So, these next few pictures are some of my VERY favorite. They didn't turn out the greatest, but the totally capture Christmas for me. If I was more tech-savvy, I would post the video of this, because it is great! After the kids finished their seperate piles, we cleaned up a bit and we were going to have breakfast, but we felt a little bad about Logan and his Kinect that he had been dreaming of for WEEKS! So, we decided to do family gifts before we ate. Rylee opened the Disney Scene It game and then Logan opened the Kinect and he went CRAZY....
Love this face!!!
Finally, a REALLY happy boy! He really was doing well without one, but I felt bad since he wanted one SO much and we couldn't wait anymore to give it to him. Santa is so good to us around here! After getting the paper off, he started jumping all around and screaming and yelling - He told some people that his head exploded! He also was so happy that he got everything on his list and must have been on the good list this year.
Dancing around and yelling - I wish you could see his face! it is SOOOO excited!
One happy boy! Logan LOVES video games and has been obsessed with the Wii for a long time. However, he has never put together that he could actually ask for one and have one at our house...until this year. He started to ask for the Wii, then he tried the Kinect at Sam's Club and LOVED it and wanted it instead. We have never had a gaming system before, so we will see how this goes. I actually am liking it a lot so far. The Kinect is easy to play for people who are retarded at video games...like me and is super fun, but a little addicting!
This is the aftermath! We got a few other family presents, but once the Kinect was open, Logan didn't really care, except for Kinect Sports, which he was excited for and a Star Wars Lego game. We also got Kinectimals, a Cars racing game, the movie the Blindside, a Ratatouille game and Band Hero!
Little Miss Cheesy got into some chocolate! She LOVES candy and was asking for "M" all morning, which are M&M's in those plastic candy canes. She was in heaven with all the sugar around!
Rylee wanted all of her toys opened right away! She was handing item after item to both me and Darren. Once her Princesses were all out of the box, (which was quite the feat! They stick them in there a little TOO well!) she disappeared for awhile. I finally found her upstairs attempting to cram all 8 Barbies into her Barbie car...
She came downstairs a few minutes later and she had done it! Pretty amazing!
Playing Kinect. If you don't know, Kinect is the new motion sensor system for Xbox, but there is no controller at all. It is pretty awesome and I love that even Rylee can play. We have had so much fun with it so far! We played it all day that day...and the next...and the next.... It is awesome!
Avery wanted to play, too. She is hilarious to watch. She mimicks us pretty well.
Ry playing with her new castle setup. She was in heaven!!!
Ry loves her pony
Avery wanted her picture taken all day! I can never get her to cooperate like this, so I had to take full advantage. 
She is becoming quite the little character these days and is so full of personality! 
Family picture in front of the tree - I had to torture them all for this picture, but I love it!
Kids picture - Avery's CHEESE is cracking me up!!! 
Another try... 
Hugs....Avery doesn't like that at all! 
Next, we did sibling presents and mom and dad presents. Avery didn't want much to do with us though and did her own thing. She is so funny lately - Very independent! She got a cute soft doll from Rylee and a little laptop from Logan. She opened the laptop a few times under the tree way before Christmas, so it wasn't much of a surprise that morning. She was with us when we bought it, so she played with it in the shopping cart, then she was played with while I wrapped gifts, so she really wanted it after I wrapped it and put it under the tree and a couple of times I found her playing with it before Christmas. little stinker! She gave Logan and Ry movies - Ry a 3 pack of Barbie movies and Logan Night at the Museum 2 and a Land Before Time one.
What a cute brother and sister! As soon as Rylee bought her present for Logan this year, she told him it was a Star Wars figure. She was quick to say that she didn't tell him his present though because she didn't tell him which ONE it was. She loves to shop for everyone and had fun doing it. She got Logan some kind of battle droid that he was SUPER excited about and a Yoda puzzle that is like a hologram. Logan got her a Snap N Style doll. They were so cute with each other.
We did presents from Mom and Dad, too. We gave Logan and Ry each a special date night - Logan to a Jazz game and Rylee to Disney on Ice. They are both REALLY excited about that! I also gave them all a book. Avery's was "I Love You Through and Through". Rylee's was one I made about our trip to Disneyland. It was called Rylee's Princess Adventure and all the pictures were of her and the story was all about her and she LOVED it! I was So excited to give it to her! 
Logan's book was a Star Wars book. It is so cool! When you turn the pages, the pictures are animated and move. He LOVED it! 
Logan LOVED Dad's present! A REAL Aggie jersey! As soon as he opened it, he knew it was a Tai Wesley jersey (One of his favorite players- He knows ALL of their numbers....better than even Darren does!) After he put it on and looked down, he was confused and asked if it was Tyler Newbould's because from that angle it looked like #24. It is so funny how much he LOVES his Aggies! 
Dad gave Ry an Aggie cheer dress! She was in heaven!
Avery got this cute beanie, but it was a little small so we might have to take it back - What a funny smile though. 
After we finished we had a little down time and Ry did some coloring. She is quite the little artist and loves to color!
Logan ready to throw the javelin on the Kinect. It is so fun to just watch other people play!
Logan and Daddy doing some track and field - Darren and I were up quite late that night playing all the different sports games after the kids went to bed and I think we were both pretty sore the next day. It is pretty intense! 
Ry trying some Kinectimals. She saw this part on the commercial and just kept doing this pose, even though she wasn't supposed to yet. She really wanted to make her animal play dead!
Once we turned the Kinect off for a little bit, Logan got out his Leapster. He LOVES his video games and electronics!
Daddy and his presents - My favorite present that Darren got was from Rylee. As soon as I asked her what she wanted to shop for for daddy, she said "crayons, so he can color with me". I thought that was so cute. Once we got to the store, she did pick markers, but I still thought it was cute. She puts a lot of thought into her gifts and I love that! Logan got Dad a Real Scarf and was SO upset when there was one from Santa in his stocking, too! Avery got him an Aggie calendar and I got him the movie Life, which is a Discovery channel series. Santa brought him some Sonic gift cards, a Real Sticker for his car, a marshmellow shooter, the Lady Antebellum CD, movies (Bourne movie, James Bond movie and Heroes season 1 and 2), a robe, some clothes, a fire pit and a ladder. 
Santa spoiled me! I got a new coat, 2 pair of running shoes and lots of really cute running clothes! I also got a punch pass to the gym (maybe that means I should start running...) and some Tommy perfume, a Tim McGraw CD and super cute slippers. I also got a Real scarf like everyone else. My favorite present was from Rylee - it was 2 little bottles of nail polish that she picked especially for me and I loved that (there was a 3rd, but it didn't make it through shopping and Rylee broke in the cart before the checkout counter according to Darren...)
After a little break, it was time for more presents! Grandpa Bill and Grandma Pat came just before 4 o'clock. I didn't get very good pictures of the kids opening these presents because it happened kind of fast and we were getting ready for dinner. Rylee got a little toy laptop. 
Logan got a BIG Imaginext castle. He was a little scared of it when he first opened it, but he LOVES it now. 
Avery got this cute little ride-on bike. She was so funny with it and determined to get on it even though the box was kind of in the way. She somehow mangaed to squeeze her bum in there. Funny girl!
The rest of our crowd showed up just after 4 and we had a really great dinner - My parents, 3 of my brothers and my grandmas all came. We stayed home for the first Christmas ever last year and we loved it so much that we are hoping to continue the tradition. It is so fun to stay home and have the family over! Here is one table - (clockwise from the top... Jeff, Brad, Great-Grandma Mary, Rylee, Great-Grandma Pauline, Kyle and Logan) 
Table #2 (clockwise from top: Grandpa Boman, Mom and Avery, Dad, Grandma Pat, Grandpa Bill and Grandma Boman) We had a yummy big dinner - We made ham, rolls, sweet potato fries, baked potatoes, a cheeseball, shrimp dip, salad, corn and my mom brought a jello salad. It was awesome! My husband is the best in the kitchen and whipped up some great stuff! And, I made an amazing dessert - Triple Chocolate Peppermint Trifle! It was layers of homemade White chocolate peppermint mousse, brownies, fudge sauce and chocoate pudding (3 layers of each), with whipped cream on the top and crushed peppermint. To die for!!! 
After dinner, there were STILL more presents to be opened! You know it is a great Christmas when you are opening presents at 7 at night - that is 12 hours of opening!!! I love to stretch it all out! The kids opened stuff from Great-Grandma Mary - They each had a little stocking full of fun little toys and candy. Avery loved her baby doll!
Ry pulled out each item and showed it all around and posed with it, even though I didn't even have a camera for most of her items. I think this is the last one, so I had to finally get a picture. It was a little choatic at this point, so there aren't many more. Besides the stocking stuff, Great-Grandma also gave them each a gift. Logan got some clothes and a basketball game and Toy Story 3 gun. Ry got a really cute outfit, a Polly pocket set and a doll. Avery got an outfit, a doll and a little animal see and say kind of thing. 
Then, we opened presents from Grandma and Grandpa Boman. Rylee loved her Fur Real kitty and it even walks! She started asking for that big Fur Real puppy close to Christmas, but it was a little too late for Santa, but she seemed pretty happy with her kitty. Logan got a Wall-E Leapster game and Avery got a cute little electronic baby Einsteins book. Grandma also gave them one of those really neat books that has her voice recorded and reads to them. The love that! 
The kids with Grandma and Grandpa before they had to go home. We loved having them come over and share our Christmas!
Logan and his buddy Uncle Kyle. They are 6 years apart and such good little friends. Kyle was so cute to look at all of Logan's toys and play with him. They had a great time playing all day. I love that they are so close!Wow! What a Christmas! It makes me sad to look at all these pictures and realize that I have to wait until next year to do it all again...oh yeah...and put away all this stuff from this year still!!! (It has been busy around here....don't judge!) I hope you all had as Merry a Christmas as we did! The holidays are the best and we had a great time enjoying each other and our family and friends!
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