Christmas

 WOW...having four children really brings a lot of gifts under the tree!!

 Let the fun begin....

 Charlotte didn't know what to think of her first Christmas

 but quickly found that the paper and boxes were fun to play with

 What could be in these boxes.....

 As soon as Zhara ripped off the paper her voice raised about 3 octives and screamed "Mckenna!!!" Her and Alyssa were beyond excited to get their very own American Dolls. They have been wanting one for about 6 months and have been saving their money to get one (even selling their own things at a garage sale) but to their surprise and excitement they got one from Christmas.

 Haleigh's favorite gift was a vaccum...just wish it really sucked things up because that would be helpful around the house!

 the aftermath

 We went to Christmas Mass with my parents

It was a wonderful Christmas. It's such a gift to have my family close enough to spend holidays with.

Christmas Eve in Page

We headed up to Page to spend Christmas with my family. Grandma's house is always full of laughter and fun. Haleigh enjoyed piggy back rides...Grandma's hips didn't feel so good later.

She also enjoyed Charlotte's chair

And what's more fun than playing in the leaves???

Haleigh would say playing in Grandma's cabinets is and Charlotte enjoyed tasting Grandma's toys.

 Christmas Eve always brings setting up the Christmas tree. This is the same tree that I decorated every Christmas Eve when I was a child.

 And it brings the reenactment of the true meaning of Christmas...the birth of Christ. This year Alyssa was Mary and Uncle Glenn was her donkey.

Haleigh enjoyed the show on the potty chair

Charlotte had had enough

Opening a Christmas Eve gift

And of course...leaving a note and some goodies for Santa

Christmas begins with a tree

Thanksgiving means one thing...time to get the Christmas tree! After a trip to a few tree lots..one even had a petting zoo..we found THE ONE!

Everyone was excited to get out the decorations

 We did a little dressing up before we decorated. Then there was A LOT of decorating!! Charlotte decided to decorate herself since she was too small to help with the tree.

I love this time of year and the joy it brings into our home and our lives as we celebrate the birth of our Savior.

Thanksgiving

Our friends the Robert's were supposed to come visit us for Thanksgiving but the day that they were supposed to come they went to the airport and couldn't check in because they had bought their tickets for the wrong week!! Needless to say we were disappointed but that is how the Gould's luck tends to go so we played at the zoo without our friends but had a great time anyway. For the first time in 10 years we spent Thanksgiving with just our family. Even though there was only 5 of us we still made the traditional Thanksgiving feast and we enjoyed our quiet time together.

And  Charlotte joined us by eating her first kids biscuit...and a bit early I might add because she was choking on it!