Christmas part 2!

Christmas needed an additional post.  One of the best parts about Christmas is spending time with family.  Easton even mentioned that he wished he could just play with our family EVERYDAY!  I wish we could too!

 The night before Christmas Eve we threw a small party together so that the Orchard's could spend some Christmas time with all of us before they headed back up north.

 The kids absolutely love hanging out with their cousins and I'm sure the kids could have played all through the night. We played the white elephant game and attempted I've never but not every kid understood how it worked.

 Peyton had two of her favorites in one spot.  Her cousin Riley and Grandpa Gene.  Needless to say she was one happy camper.

 After the many hours spent Christmas morning playing with gifts, we finally got all of us dressed and went to visit Grandpa Holt and Grandma Wendy.  It was a GORGEOUS day outside (bordering in the high 50'2 low 60's) and the kids wanted to "see" the horses.

 Of course these are my kids we're talking about and seeing just isn't enough.  So the horses got some passengers.  Peyton LOVES horses and was thrilled to be riding one!

 Easton thinks he is an old pro and kept showing off all of his knowledge on how to get the horses to go and stop.

 I watched Caleb and thought that I was really watching a mini-Mat and it warmed my heart.

 Bailey was just pretty and graceful as always.

We had a blast riding and finally convinced the kids to go back home to play with their gifts more.  We played the wii (which seems to have became a Christmas day tradition) and watched a new movie.  We stayed up late again and once again just felt VERY blessed!

So this is Christmas..

Christmas has once again come and gone in a flash at the Holt house.  We hosted SEVEN Christmas parties among trying to keep every other tradition we have alive.  Next year I think we will be taking a break from the parties all together.  We love having our family and friends over and the parties are always such a blast but I felt a little bad the day before Christmas when Bailey mentioned that it just didn't feel like Christmas.  It didn't, I admit and I believe some of it is that even though we still "fit" everything in, it was just that, "fitted in".  The past few days have been wonderful.  Mat's been home to celebrate with us and Santa treated us well.



The kids were so excited for Santa to come they went to bed at 9:00!  If you know us, that is pretty early for the Holt kiddos.  They must've gone to bed a little too early because at 11:30 they were up and checking out what Santa (who must've been rather quick) left for them!  They wanted to open their gifts of course but Peyton was still asleep and wanted to stay that way.  I admit, I was envious of her.

We gave in and let them open their gifts and Peyton remained asleep throughout the noise.

Easton's big gift of the year was a "ginormous" box!  He told everyone how he had asked Santa for a ginormous box and was sure he was getting one.  After he saw it he came running into our room telling us we MUST see how huge it really was!  All of his gifts were inside the box and he had a blast going in to get each one.  He now cannot stop talking about his box and frankly feels mighty rad to have such a treasure.

The kids must've used their two and a half hours as their power nap because they stayed up until 4:00am playing with their toys and were back up at 8:00 to play some more.

Peyton finally emerged around 9:30 am and found her new bike that she has been talking about for months.

All of the kids were completely spoiled with gifts.  Peyton was especially fun to watch open hers.  She marveled over each one and they all made her so happy.

The best gift given and received however, belongs to me!  My sweet little boys made me a new cedar chest.  Made in my preferred style (shaker style with white lacquer) and made almost completely by their seven and eight year old hands.  Along with the cedar chest I received a packet full of photos showing my boys building it from start to finish.  It filled my mommy heart with so much joy!

We been having a blast with all of our gifts.  The kids have seen mom cry over the season on more occasions than they would like I'm sure, which overall I think makes for a fabulous holiday!  Blessed, always very blessed!



1st Cheer Comp of the Season

Bailey's cheer team had their first cheer competition last week.  This is her 3rd year of competitive cheer.  She loves it!  Not only is she an AMAZING tumbler but thanks to her size (and of course skill) she is an AWESOME flyer!  Her team placed 2nd.  It was the first time I have EVER seen bailey fall from a stunt, much less a pyramid.  Her poor team has had several injuries over the past few weeks and they haven't been able to hold practices where the entire team performs together.  They did great regardless.

After the competition was over and the teams were on the mat waiting for the results Mat and I noticed a mother walk in with 2 sets of Raglan colored balloons.  Smiling to myself, knowing who the mother was, I got out my camcorder and videoed Bailey's "boyfriend" being nudged by his mother to go onto the mat and give the balloons to Bailey.  He finally gained the courage to go onto the mat only to find that Bailey was more scared to receive than he was to give.  Both kids had to be pushed together and then they both hurried away after the transaction was made.  Of course this only made me want a photo of the 2 of them. :)

Peyton LOVED the competition!  She could watch the girls cheer for hours.  Of course once all the teams came onto the mat and started dancing she wanted to be in the middle of it.  The cheerleaders all thought Peyton was as cute as she must have thought she was.