Christmas Day

Christmas morning! 

There was a snow storm and a ton of snow (about 6-8 inches) so it was a white Christmas for sure.

Jaina was so excited that she got her Chelsea's Lemonade Stand!

Mara got an art kit.

Xander got a New Nintendo 3DS XL

We gave Mara a Kindle Fire and she was amazed.

We gave Melody a talking Woody doll that matches her Jessie doll.

We gave Jaina a medium sized Minnie Mouse Tsum Tsum.

Because of all the fighting between Jaina and Melody over Jaina's beanie 

baby tiger 'kitty', Grandma & Grandpa got Melody a tiger kitty of her own.

Jaina was super excited for her Frozen Fever polly set from G&G Tolman

One of Pat's former students made him this AT-ST. It is amazing and we're not 

quite sure how it was made, possibly a 3D printer, but it was absolutely amazing.

Here is Mara's haul.

Melody's presents.

I got a new Star Wars shirt by my favorite artist Karen Hallion!

Jaina's pile of presents.

Xander's awesome shirts and presents.

I decided to use my new camera and played around with it's wi-fi features. I can 

set it up that my phone is the shutter button, zoom, etc. So if I have it set up on a 

tripod, I can make sure the shot looks good!! I did a little Inception shot in the car.

Melody enjoying her new Minnie Mouse phone.

These girls were so excited to see each other and talk about their gifts. They all got Kindle Fire's!!!

The only way to make Melody happy: kitty videos on YouTube.

It was the 3rd Annual Mana's Cafe! The kids look forward to this all year long.

We had to show off our new shirts. We had ordered them in hopes that they would come 

before the movie came out, but they were a day late. So we wore them to our 3rd viewing.

Melody sure loves her Aunt Karri.

Karri gave all the kids new REAL Salt Lake shirts. They were excited about it.

We usually go around in a circle and let each kids open up one present, but 

Melody is exempt from that plan, so she just started digging into her gifts.

JD & Chris gave her a stuffed Mike Wazowski. She was so happy and just laughed and hugged him.

One of Jaina's favortie gifts: Inside Out Tsum Tsums from Karri.

Xander got these awesome ties that look amazing!

Mara got a ton of art supplies from everyone and was overjoyed with it all.

Melody got some new play food too.

A new Minecraft book. I think this is #7, but I'm not sure. Either way, he has a lot of these.

Barbie Rock'n Royals Erica doll, she even sings!!!!

Pokemon Pokemon Pokemon

JD & Chris gave Jaina (the family) the new Cinderella and Minions movies and she squealed. 

Wahoo!!! New Amiibo figures for Smash Bros!!

Melody and her new stroller with Mike.

Mana made Jaina her pillowcase and she loves it.

Yay! A new tea set from Karri!!

After all the kids were done, we sent them downstairs so the adults could open gifts in peace. 

But Jaina came back up and decided that she wanted to be buried in the wrapping paper early.

We got Mana some new gloves and scarf.

I got Brent this canvas print of the picture I took in Yellowstone in 2000, of 

him, Dad and Uncle Darren. I was really excited to do this for him and he loved it!!

The end of the presents, and a whole lot of mess.

But where are all the kids?????

Melody really liked the hiding part and wanted to do it again.

Stocking time.

Melody wanted to open up her box of crayons, but ripped the box in the process.

Mara wanted to get Karri a gift and decided to get Best Friend necklaces for all 3 of them. Karri 

was so excited about it. And they were even wearing the color that matched the necklaces.

On the way home, loving on Mike. 

We stopped by to see Grandma & Grandpa Tolman before heading home. 

We spent the rest of the day at home and relaxed. It was a great Christmas.

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve was spent at Mana's house with all the family. 

We got dinner from Cafe Rio and took it there to eat. After dinner, we played some games. 

JD had made 2 huge balls of cellophane with candy wrapped inside. We all had a chance to 

unwrap it while the next person was rolling dice and trying to roll doubles. When that 

happened, they would take the ball and unwrap it. It was really fun and the kids had a great 

time playing it.  Then we played Heads Up! with the Christmas deck. We were split 

into 3 groups and played 5 rounds, then switched teams and played more. I can't remember 

who won each round, but it was a lot of fun and becoming a yearly tradition on Christmas Eve.

Melody was happy just playing in the toy room and coloring.

Then it was time for cookies!!

Pat even made Egg Nog Shakes for a treat! YUMMY!!

All the girls have to do 'sugar lips' after the dough has been rolled. 

Next up was the Christmas Eve jammies from Karri.

Melody is starting to understand what to do with wrapped presents!!

Next it was the hanging of the stockings.

This is what Melody didn't like. So it took a few tries and her 

watching the other kids before she was willing to participate.

This picture makes Mara look so grown up! Seriously, she's only 9.

This was another thing that Melody didn't want to do. Probably because it was the end of the night 

and she was tired. But boy oh boy, these jammies are CUTE! The girls really liked them because the 

pants had pockets! Karri even embroidered the kids names on their shirts!!  I helped Karri with

 Melody's because they didn't come in her size. So I helped cut down a size XS/S into a 2T. 

These kids are so lucky to have an amazing Mana. 

She is so generous, kind and loving. These kids just adore her.

And it wouldn't be a real picture without doing some funny ones.

They were checking on where Santa was on Karri's phone.

The kids were tired and ready to go home so we didn't get a family picture 

at Mana's. So when we got home we were able to get a few of our own.

These 4 make everything worth it. I love them all so much and am grateful to be their mom.

December - Christmas Break

One day during Christmas break we came home and got Melody out of the car while she 

was playing on the iPod. She immediately layed down on the kitchen floor, right in the 

way of everyone that was coming in, and continued to play. We all just laughed.

We had our annual Tolman progressive dinner. We started at Gwen's 

house and this was the only picture that I took the whole night. Melody 

really loves Carter and was so fascinated by Gwen & Doug's new dog.

We attempted a family movie and took ALL the kids to see The Good Dinosaur. Melody 

lasted about 45 minutes, before she just wanted to run around. Luckily there were 

only about 5 other groups of people there, so it was okay that we were walking up and 

down the stairs, running around in the front and through the aisles. She would 

only stop briefly at a huge pile of popcorn that had been spilled on the stairs.

The next night we got together with the Ramey side. We got dinner at 

JCW's, then drove around to see some houses with fun Christmas lights. 

We split up the kids so they could ride with their cousins. We had Xander 

and Max, Brent had Jaina and Finley, and JD had Mara, Conli & Sawyer. 

The end of the night was at the Tree of Life in Draper. 

This tree was amazing and the pictures don't do it justice.

Mom stayed back at the car with Mara because she was feeling 

sick, and JD was the photographer, but here's our group picture.

It's way washed out, but I got a picture with my girl. Luckily she began to feel better on the way home.