Christmas 2011

The kids had a great Christmas.  I don't think they quite grasp the concept yet, they didn't realize what was going on last night for Christmas Eve or even what we meant when we told them they needed to go to sleep so Santa could come.  The only thing they understood was there were a ton of presents when they woke up and they were sure excited!

Santa left Austin a new TV, he left Gabe a laptop, he left Sebastian a tool bench, and Abby a HUGE dollhouse.  They didn't know where to begin.

I made Austin a book of his football season, he loved it!

Abby was thrilled with all of her princess toddler dolls!

Gabe was super excited to find all of his Charlie Brown characters!

Grandma Marci came over early in the morning before the kids woke up and stayed to spend the day with us.  It was a fun and exciting morning and then a relaxing day.  The kids enjoyed playing with their new toys all day while we relaxed and ate entirely too much!

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Eve...White Elephant Gift Exchange!

After the Zoo Lights we headed over to Nana's house for a yummy dinner and then some fun times with a White Elephant Gift Exchange.  I love having Christmas Eve at Nana's house it always reminds me of when I was a kid.

Nana & Gabe

We gave Nana & Grandpa Jim some framed pictures of the kids and I made some books for them of pictures and events from 2011.  They loved them!

I absolutely LOVE these pictures.  This is what I always did as a kid.  Nana likes to remind me that I did this so I helped Abby out and then called Nana over to see.  The only difference was that Abby wouldn't eat them, she stuck her finger in MY mouth for me to eat them.  LOL

Now it's time for some fun with White Elephants...

This one was great!  When we came up with the gift certificate idea for a gift we thought that it would be funny to see who would get it and what they would say.  We thought it would be even more funny if Mindi happened to get that gift because she is the only one in the family that would actually use it.  When it was her turn to go pick a gift she kept hovering over that one and another one and finally decided on our gift.  To her surprise it was a gift certificate for her tattoo that she has been wanting.  She was so excited and just couldn't believe it!

Another one of our gifts that we came up with was a picture of Vinnie looking "bad" with it made out to his "#1 Fan" and autographed.  We framed it and included a $10 in the back of the frame.  Here is the picture that we used.

Mia was the one that got this gift and didn't look to pleased at what she had received.  Later down the line of opening and exchanging gifts, Noah took the picture from Mia leaving her to open a new gift.

When we were finished opening gifts we made our announcement that Noah needed to open the back of the picture frame.  He was so happy to see the $10 bill in there.  He thought it was great because he was already pleased with his framed picture of his Uncle Vinnie.  :) 

Mia on the other hand felt a little jipped.  Noah made her feel better by handing the $10 over to her...

That makes 2 years in a row that the Almanza Family was voted "Best Gift".

We better start thinking ahead now for next year...

Christmas Eve..ZOO LIGHTS!

It is so fun to be home (Utah) for Christmas Eve.  This year we went to the Hogle Zoo for "Zoo Lights".  We met up with most of the family up there, Uncles & Cousins.  Everyone else was at Nana's house getting dinner ready AND staying warm.  The kids loved the lights and the displays.  It was sure cold though, thank goodness there wasn't any snow or it could have been even colder.  We did stop for some hot chocolate which helped.

Uncle Mark gave the boys shoulder rides, Gabe was a bit nervous and held on tight making it so Mark couldn't see where he was going.  Sebastian loved it.  Abby stayed bundled and warm in her stroller.

The kids thought the gingerbread house was really cool because both Sebastian and Gabe made them at school.

Cute Brothers!

What a fun way to start our Christmas Eve!

YIKES! A TEENAGER IN THE HOUSE!

Is this really possible for me to have a teenager?  When did I get old enough to have one of those?  :)  It really does blow me away that I have been a Mom now for 13 years and have loved every minute of it.  Well maybe not EVERY minute.  Not only is my baby now a teenager but he also towers over me at 5'10.  I am only 5'3.  This makes disciplining a little different when looking up at your son.  LOL!  No matter how big my baby gets he will always be my baby!

Austin was telling me that his most memorable Birthday was is 7th Birthday.  He had school that day and when he came home we had his room completely decorated and had his gifts on his bed.  He was really into army stuff at the time so his birthday cake was full of the little green army guys and tanks.  He said it was such a fun surprise to come home to that.  We decided to try to recreate that for him.  While he was at school we got busy on his room.

I say we got busy because he got all new bedding so I had to first clean up his room and then wash all of his new bedding.

Sebastian was being Austin's little helper...

New basketball shoes!

Of course, a video game...NBA 2K12!

New Nike 6.0's.  (school shoes)

He LOVES Football!  

Happy Birthday Big Guy!