Christmas

Merry Christmas!! I can't believe Christmas has come and gone. To say our family was in the car a lot traveling is an understatement. I definitely feel like I spent half of our holiday packing and unpacking, as we stayed the night in several different places.

We started off our celebrations on December 17th. We made a last minute decision to head to Marion for the day for the Lindvall Christmas. Yep, that's right...we made a 6 hour trip and only stayed 3.5 hours. We were in the middle of sleep training Connor, so we wanted to be back at home in time for his bedtime. The kids were wonderful in car and Elli was SOOO excited when we told her that morning where we were going! We had a great time and pulled off the surprise!

Opening presents

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We headed to Mansfield after church on Sunday for Christmas #2. My aunt, uncle and cousins were in town for a couple days, so we were able to see them. Elli had a great time playing with Adison. We hoped to make a trip back to Mansfield to see them one more time before they left to go back to Georgia, but unfortunately we never made it.

Connor looking at his brand new truck!

Adison, Grace, & Elli opening gifts.

Sitting on Great-Grandpa Brauchler's lap.

Family picture after church!

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Christmas #3 happened on Friday morning (December 23rd). Scott and I were both so excited for our Christmas at the house. We put out reindeer food on Thursday night, left milk and cookies out for Santa, and read The Night Before Christmas. Elli was extremely excited about Santa coming. In fact, 45 minutes after we put her to bed, we heard her upstairs in her room. We opened up the door to her room and caught her out of bed holding her stuffed animal dog. She immediately started crying and wanted in her bed immediately. Scott and I then spent the rest of the night dealing with our sump pump issue (merry christmas, huh?).

Putting out Reindeer food

Well....Santa kept his promise and came to our house a few days early. Daddy went up and got Elli from her bed, told her Santa came to our house, and she jumped out of bed and started skipping around in circles. We read the Christmas story while we waited for Connor to wake up... then we opened presents.

Opening up her dog

Complete with pink lips from her doughnut in the morning.

Connor loves his new chair!!

We traveled home on Friday after Elli's marthon nap.

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We woke up Saturday morning left to go to Culver, IN for Christmas #4 at Grandma and Grandpa Wamsley's house.

Great-Grandpa Wamsley & Connor. Grandpa Wamsley loved holding and loving on Connor. He wanted to give him his bottle and they both ended up falling asleep :)

3 generations

Elli helped pass out presents.

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Christmas #5 was on Christmas morning at the Lindvall house. We opened gifts and sadly Connor slept through all of the gifts being opened. We went to church after gifts and then had lunch.

Trying on gifts

Elli was scared of Dane in his Darth Vador mask :)

Papa with 3 of the 4 grandkids

Connor trying out his new plane that Papa L. made him.

Vander (7), Connor (4 months), Dane (5), Elliana (22 months)

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Christmas #6 was at the Brauchler house. We went over to may parent's house on Christmas day and put Elli to bed almost immediately after we got there. We ended up opening gifts at three different times which was a wonderful idea. We opened up our gifts first, then let Avery and Connor open theirs, and then the toddlers opened up their gifts after they woke up from their nap.

Connor and I before opening up gifts!

So happy it's Christmas :)

I wish I could have posted a video of this rather than a picture. Amber got Elli and Kensley a barbie horse that walks. Both girls were petrified of this horse initially, but Elli eventually opened up to it and now loves watching it walk around. She would laugh hysterically every time the horse fell on the ground.

Connor (4 months), Elliana (22 months), Avery (6 months), Kensley (25 months)

Getting ready to ride on the wagon and help Papa B. burn all the boxes

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For Christmas #7, Grandma and Grandpa Zurcher and Aunt Carla came to my parents house on Monday, December 26th. We decided to open gifts all together, which was a bit chaotic with the toddlers. My mom then made dinner for all of us.

Kensley wanted to hold Connor many times this past week.

Connor getting ready to open his gift.

Great-Grandma Zurcher and Connor.

Playing Hide-and-go-seek, Elli's new favorite game. The girls were hiding under the tree.

We spent the rest of the week hanging out with family, going to Indy, going swimming, going bowling, and playing LOTS and LOTS of games of Hide-And-Go-Seek!!