Christmas wrap-up

Christmas this year was awesome!  The girls now seem to be at that magical age when Christmas is the absolute best day of the year.  We had a lot of running around to do, but I don't mind because it just means we are blessed with a lot of people to visit and love.

As usual, we started out on Christmas Eve with the Egan party which was held at the Deckers this year.  We played the Amazing Race again and Josh's team won - again - likely due to a lot of crazy driving.  And this year, the girls decided to jump right in to the annual program with a couple of performances.  They sang Jingle Bells, but they also sang "Jar of Hearts" by Christina Perri.  Nope, not even close to being a Christmas song, but it's one of their favorites and they ask to hear it in the car all the time. Josie especially sings her little heart out.

Here's another shot of the group singing together.

Christmas morning we got up, but not too early.  Lucky us, the girls aren't yet to the age that they know to wake up at the crack of dawn.  Josh made some sticky buns and we opened the presents that Santa brought.

New princess bikes!

Later that day, we headed up to Bubba and Grandpa's house for the Wathen family gathering.  There was more food and more presents.  Josie and Piper love playing with little EJ.

 Giving lots of love to Conor and Melissa, reading with Grandma Bubba and opening presents.

Then to round out our Christmas day, the Jones family came down to our house.  The girls ran wild in the basement with their cousins, we ate more food, and opened more presents.

Grandpa with the grandkids (minus the Koupal kids).

Jones boys together.

It was a great holiday season and I feel very blessed.

Pictures with Santa

Brynn and I took the kids to Thanksgiving Point this year to get their pictures with Santa (er, Brynn dressed up as Santa).  The pictures reflect their personalities perfectly.  :)  I love EJ's very serious expression in these photos.

Christmas Season

We are having a fun Christmas season this year.  Here's a little snapshot of some of the fun things we've been up to.

Early in December, the girls had their dance performance at Bingham High School.  This is literally the only photo that I took.  We were rushing out the door and I didn't take any before, so I thought I'd get some when they were done.  Unfortunately, there was a complete meltdown after the performance and both of them REFUSED to cooperate.  So this is it. :)  They did a great job though and it sure was cute (also, how cute do they look?).

 All ready for school and wearing some of their new birthday clothes.

 We made some gingerbread men one night.  They ate more candy than they put on their guys. :)

 Cold wintery morning looking pretty Christmasy for school.

 Blue boy got all his fur shaved off. :(  He had mats and needed a big trim.  He was really cold in December, so this is how he coped with it.  Poor little puppy ball.

 First snow!

 First time skiing for the girls this winter.  We went up to Solitude and they did awesome.  It was a night and day difference from last year.  They didn't need us to hold them up at all.

Looking pretty cute for a shopping day.

Temple Square and Winner School Christmas

I am still trying to get caught up on this blog.  I have no idea why its so hard for me to stay on top of it, but I really want to do better this year!

There are a few more things we did over the holidays that I haven't had a chance to write about.  And now its almost too late.

Before Christmas, we took the obligatory trip down to Temple Square to see the lights.  We lucked out and it was a warm night.  But that meant it was crazy crowded.  I admit, it wasn't like I remembered as a kid.  And I thought the girls would be more into the lights.  They were a lot more into walking along the walls around the lights. :)

The girls also had their Winner School Christmas program.  Both of them sung their little hearts out.  I was surprised.  I thought they would sit there and do nothing, but they liked the songs and it was super cute.  

Egan Family Christmas Eve

For Christmas Eve this year, our Egan family party included "The Amazing Race".  While we initially groaned a little bit about the game, it ended up being a lot of fun.  We were divided into groups (no siblings or spouses together) and had to run all over Farmington taking pictures with different things.  My mom, aunt Debbie and aunt Kris were back at the house watching the little kids and collecting all the pictures as we texted them in.

There was a rather heated debate about who actually won and several teams disputed the judges' ruling. :)  Especially Josh who said he pulled into the driveway first.  But we had a good time.  Here are some of the pics we took (my sweet grandma was on my team and had no problem hopping in and out of the car and sliding all over ice to get our pictures).

Some more pics of the party.  Little EJ was a little overwhelmed with all the people.

A Very Merry Christmas

 Just a few pics from our Christmas day . We had a wonderful Christmas, but were terrible about taking good pictures.  Our day included a relaxing morning at home opening presents and eating cinnamon pull aparts, then a fun afternoon at my parents having lunch, then finished with an evening at Jim and Rebecca's house with the Jones family.  The girls were loved and spoiled.