Christmas!!!

Christmas Eve, per tradition, the boys got to open their gifts from Grandma and Grandpa Morrill.  Obviously the Disney Cruise is our big gift but she still sent them ornaments...

 

 ADORABLE Grandma's Camp memory books...

 And new jammies!

We always let them sleep together on Christmas Eve, Tyce was SO excited because he always has to sleep alone, poor guy.  They stayed awake until almost 10pm and looking out the window hoping to catch a glimpse of Santa, his sleigh, or the reindeer...

 Christmas morning they woke up about 7:15 ready to go downstairs!!!

 Tyce was ecstatic about the Pluto stuffed animal in his stocking...

 Santa brought Tyce a Jake and the Neverland Pirates Ship...

Santa brought the twins each two guns that shoot a million discs at a time (yes they're all over my house and yes they annoy me and yes I'm trying to be a good sport about it)...

 I'm thinking maybe Santa brought them each two so that daddy could use one and get in on the fun...

 Josh counting his money from Grandma and Grandpa Bybee, my kids LOVE "dollars"!!!

Tyce loves puzzles and is really good at them, Grandma and Grandpa Barraclough got him a few...

They also got the boys new razor spark scooters which were probably the most popular present they got...they LOVE them...

 Mommy and Daddy got Josh a suit coat he's been begging for...

The boys each bought gifts for each other and I thought it was hilarious that Josh and Tyce got each other the same thing!  A spider-man ball!

 We also got them each a sword and shield...

 Parker and I were spoiled by my parents with See's Candies and gift cards to SHOP!!!

 My mom got the twins new Oregon Duck jerseys...

 And she got Tyce the "awesome wace twack" that he's been asking for...

 We got Jack a Trio Castle...

It was an awesome Christmas, we had the boys each open one present at a time which really slowed things down which I enjoyed.  They were thoroughly spoiled and very happy!

We had our big nice meal on Christmas Eve so I decided to go out to dinner that night, not realizing that most restaurants are closed on Christmas!!!  We had like three options and chose TGI Fridays.  The service was slow and terrible.  The boys were so tired and hungry waiting and waiting and waiting for our food...

 Tyce was in a good mood though...

 Josh cheered up once his ribs came!!!

When we FINALLY got home the boys crashed...

 Parker had to work the next day so I took the boys to the park to try out their new rocket launcher...

 And their new foxtail...

 Tyce hard at work on his ninja turtle puzzle...

Jackson's Christmas jammies were too big so we exchanged them for these...I think he looks so cute in them...

 The boys in some of their new clothes...

Oh so much fun we've had!!!  I couldn't handle the Christmas mess anymore though, last night we took all the decorations down, tree outside, and cleaned the whole house.  Now there's just toys everywhere but I can deal with that one more week (I hope) until they all go back to school! 

WE LEAVE FOR OUR DISNEY CRUISE IN 13 DAYS!!!!  So excited!!!

Cameron the Elf

This year we had an ELF join us for the month of December!  The boys named him Cameron and, let me tell you, they fell in love with him from day one.  I cannot believe the excitement it brought to our home.  Every morning the boys would wake up SO happy, get dressed SO fast, then run downstairs to see where Cameron was that day.  They really were on their best behavior because, as the legend goes, Cameron flies home to the North Pole every night to report the boys' behavior to Santa Claus.  I could not have predicted how much they would enjoy him and how much they would believe in him and his magic.  It was a super fun month, I took pictures of some of the mischief he got into at our house.

 

This was day one...

 

 Eating through our Halloween candy stash...

Pooping Hershey kisses...

 Painting...

 ALL their stuffed animals...

 Caught up in the lights...

 Made a mess in our fridge...

 Surrendering to a toy army...

 Flew a paper airplane into the blinds and got stuck...

 Going for a ride on the garage door opener...

One morning he was hiding behind this hulk mask and Jackson scooted the mask over a little bit so Tyce could see Cameron better and Cameron fell face down, smack on the hard wood floors, it was pretty morbid.  The rules say you are not allowed to touch him for his power will go away so we left him there and Jack wrote him this note... 

 Some other notes they've left him...

 Hanging out in the lights...

 One day he toilet papered the house...

 

 Battle...

 Sugar snow angel...

On his last night here (he goes back to the North Pole Christmas Eve) he left a scavenger hunt for the boys.  Ten clues later they found him...

The night before Christmas they all went downstairs to say goodbye to Cameron.  They were all seriously so sad.  It broke my heart.  Jackson was especially sad, blowing him kisses and saying "you really were the best elf a kid could ask for."  He wrote him a goodbye note...

Christmas morning the boys woke up to individual notes from Cameron, and a picture of him that we will frame...

They still talk about Cameron daily and look forward to next December when he will come again.  While I most certainly will not miss his messes, I will miss him being around because my boys really were on their best behavior knowing he was watching them.  This morning Tyce said, "well Cameron is gone so I don't have to be good anymore!"  Haha, punk!