'tis the season

This Christmas turned out to be pretty great! It was one of those years that you know it just didn't feel like Christmas. I'm not sure why.. but it felt like it today. And that's what matters:)
See today it was all about family. And I am so grateful to have mine! We've had fun AAAALL day long from the tradition of snuggling in (or more like piling/squeezing into) mom and dad's bed to shooting each other with Nerf guns! From non-stop photos to over baking dinner rolls. From finding the "Christmas Pickle" home made ramps. It has been a fantastic day:)
I think today though is best shown through.. PICTURES!! :D (in other words I got a brand new camera and documented today in 254 pictures and figured I might as well use some of them!)
sooo..

Logan still has that Santa spirit which is soo cute! He had so much fun today with his new little puppy (which he lovingly named Softy. The other little MightyBean in his had happened to be a dog. Therefore the Bean's name is Mini-Softy hahaha ADORABLE!!) playing with his legos, discovering his new play castle. He is just so CUTE! :)

Dylan is very serious about his legos. He LOOOOVES building them, and he particularly liked his new Ninjagos (please don't ask me what they are. I have no clue!) He's always very curious and extremely creative. It was fun taking pictures of him because his look is always so inquisitive! He's a sweet kid:)

Kyle my red-headed buddy! Today he got his own video camera which he absolutely LOVES! He and his friends like to do tricks and show off, so he is super excited to be able to film and edit them. He's the cool kid, so he also loves his new Jazz flat bill hat;) (which is unfortunately not shown here:( ) He's had fun filming today and just hanging around with everyone:)

Nate. He loves snowboarding, snowboards, snowboard brands, snowboard thoughts (getting the picture??) and baseball:) hahah He's had fun today wearing his new Burton beanie (snowboard brand) and doing tricks with his ChuckBuddy (more on that later. they were a huge deal in our household this year! But just to clarify, they have to do with boarding:) He's a stud. No doubt;) and isn't afraid to chill and play with his brothers all day. He's been sweet:) family. That's what it's all about!

Mom and Dad (who's 19th anniversary is this week!!) are wonderful:) Mom is the perfect and most amazing example of love for others. She made sure we thoroughly enjoyed this Christmas (with Dad's supervision of course;) and made it special for us all. Dad too made sure this was memorable and wasn't afraid to get down and play with the boys. And trust me HE DID! I have the continuous sound of Nerf bullets ringing through my ears and the joyous sound of "OOOHHHHHHHHH!!!" every time someone made a jump to prove it! haha

My family made this Christmas a special one. Truly. And I love EACH AND EVERY ONE OF THEM! :)
(but of course we're not done. I still have pictures to share!:)

 Some of our favorite things this Christmas:)
[top left] CHUCK BUDDIES! So they're these little snowboarding trick figures. They have little magnets in their hands and their boards so they can show the perfect "grab" and you pretty much build a ramp out of anything (and EVERYTHING! seriously we had everything from left over cardboard to clamps to card tables!) and then you push these little buddies down the ramp and you watch them jump and fly and all this other fun stuff! :) since they're magnetic, that picture was taken on the fridge. Pretty cool, huh?
[top right] Dinner rolls. Family favorite. Except this time, we ran out of eggs. So we substituted. With mayo.. (just so you know, i was a little doubtful, but it worked!) They expanded like no tomorrow! I barely had the chance to roll them out before they started rising! it was crazy! And then we forgot to switch the temperature from 400* to 325* (BIG difference!) luckily we caught it before we burned the first dozen! So this time it was adventurous and fun:)
[bottom left] a friend from church brought us homemade tamales which are POSITIVELY DELICIOUS! oh my goodness I love them!! yum yum yum!
[bottom right] ChuckBuddy:) that one is Nate's. Each of the boys (including dad) got one. Each a different color. So it's been fun to watch them set up courses for their buddies to ride. I may just have to do a photoshoot of them. They are pretty cool;)

Well. That was our Christmas! Hope everyone had a FABULOUS one as well!:)

I just want to take a second to say, the toys and the trees, the lights and the laughs, the fun and the food are all great! But the true meaning of Christmas is Christ. The birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. A beautiful gift from our Father in Heaven. In fact, it's the greatest gift of all! Christ is the reason we can make it back to our home in Heaven some day. He suffered for our sins. He died for you. He died for me. And this Christmas season is the celebration of His birth. He is the King of Kings and our brother. This is the season to remember all that They have done for us. Let us not forget it.

Merry Christmas everyone! <3