Pinnacle

One of our favorite things to do when we are in Arkansas is hike Pinnacle Mountain. The weather was pretty ugly while we were there, cold, rainy, cloudy, etc. But there was this one day of beautiful sunshine, still cold but just perfect for a hike in the sun. 

Getting all ready to make the climb. I carried Brooke and had Josie and Aaron carried the back pack and helped Camilla. 

Carson was a rock star and didn't need any help. 

She was so excited to wear a pink hat. 

It really is a beautiful hike. 

Along the way. 

At the top we hung out, ate lots of snacks, and Carson fell off a rock and hit his head. He is fine but it scared me half to death. 

Brooke and Aaron at the top. 

You get up pretty high. Its about a mile and a half round trip. It took us about an hour to get up and much less time to get down. 

Our little family at the top. Love this picture. 

All the cousins who came. 

Sweet little Zook fell asleep on the way down. Its hard to tell in the picture but she is holding onto my hair with one hand and sucking her fingers with the other. 

Sweet, sweet girl. 

Christmas take 2

The day after Christmas we drove up to Arlington to celebrate Christmas with my family. All of my siblings, except Stephen and his family, were there with their families. Eric catered the event and it was amazing. He did Mexican food and we all devoured it. Then we opened presents, played, games, ate dessert and hung out. The kids were so excited to go to Grandma's house for Christmas. They kept a countdown for Christmas Eve, Christmas and Grandma's house. It just made the holiday keep going and going. 

Camilla was outfitted in princesses, pink and adorableness. Carson got hooked up with a watch with a timer, a calculator, and some teenage mutant ninja turtles. I opened all of Brooke's presents since she was asleep but trust me, they were all adorable. 

Brooke and her sweet cousin Jackson before bed. Cutest! 

After I finally got the kids to bed we went to sleep, woke up, packed up and headed off to Arkansas. It was a quick trip but we all had a lot of fun. My parents put a lot of work and effort into Christmas and it is always SO nice. Love celebrating the day 2 times! 

Christmas!

Christmas was magical this year. It was seriously one of our favorite years yet. The kids were so excited, we got fun gifts and we spent the day together as a family. I am just loving my kids' ages and know that it won't always be this magical on Christmas morning. Our morning actually started with our friends dropping off blueberry muffins before our kids had woken up. (They had a hard time going to sleep) So we got the room all set up and started drumming our fingers waiting to hear noises in their room. 

Aaron had them wait in their room before they could come out. 

They instantly went to their presents and started playing with them right away. Their reactions were just how you would expect. Camilla beyond excited and can't believe she has a princess castle and Carson acting like what? haven't we always had a wii. 

After that we had our big breakfast with eggs, sausage, OJ, you know the drill. Then it was time to open presents since zook, zook was awake. 

Brookey loves to open presents. 

The big kids immediately wanted to play with their toys. Carson started counting all the money in Monopoly and Camilla started coloring her Frozen coloring book with her new princess crayons. (Crayola is genius)

Even Josie had a gift. She sure loved her bone. 

Then after a relaxing day at home playing with toys, going for a run with my new Garmin in a tank top and shorts (December people!), it was time to go to our friend's the Wyeths house for dinner. We gathered with some of our favorites for a delicious meal. It was a perfect way to finish the holiday. The kids were so happy to play with friends and I was so happy to only prepare a few side dishes. :) 

Then just like that the day was over, it was time for pajamas and brushing teeth but we all went to bed happy, happy for such a fun day. 

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve was officially perfect this year, can't be touched, best day ever, wouldn't change a thing, perfect. The weather was fabulous, sunny, just a little cool, perfect. We started off our day heading to the gym and we played basketball for awhile. We got out the little goal and the mini basketballs and the kids just tried to make baskets. Aaron and I played a little game of PIG. Aaron won.

Carson started to get the hang of it. Oh don't worry I nailed Brooke right in the face while Aaron and I were peppering. 

Then after we delivered our last Angel Tree presents (hey its not our fault they were last minute :) the kids head outside with Aaron to jump on the trampoline and play some steam roller. 

Then after Brooke's nap it was time to go for a bike ride. 

Just chatting with Millie on our ride together. 

We stopped at the park for the kids to play for a little bit. They loved going down the slide all together. Having siblings sure is fun.  

Brooke LOVED it. 

Then we head home to have our amazing dinner. Aaron cooked steaks on the grill. Oh. My. Word. They were so amazing. He got the good steaks and marinated them and they were better than a fancy restaurant. 

Then after baths it was time to open our Christmas Eve presents. Finally Brooke had permission to tear those presents apart. 

Millie could hardly contain her excitement. 

Carson said, "this is not a toy." He warmed up to them after a few minutes. 

Millie couldn't believe it, pajamas with a skirt! 

We got a few adorable ones before Brookey was off to bed. 

Then we let the bigs roast marshmellows in the fire and have s'mores. 

Then it was time to make sugar cookies for Santa. Oh man did Santa love those cookies. 

Afterwards we let the kids watch a show in bed together before they went to sleep. 

I told you, perfect. It was just such a fun day. I hope that we can do Christmas Eve like this every year! 

Gingerbread Houses

I caved and finally bought a gingerbread house kit for our family to decorate. Aaron was in charge of getting this thing together since this is not my forte. The kids were SO excited to decorate this. They asked all day long if it was time for dinner because I told them after dinner we would decorate the gingerbread house. 

Its careful work putting together a gingerbread house. Serious stuff. 

Carson loved the frosting. 

Camilla loved all the colors. 

Carson's gingerbread boy. 

Camilla's side of the roof. She wanted it to say, "Camilla loves Santa." Pretty sure Santa loves her more. 

Carson' side.  

So much fun. 

The kids proudly displayed their house on the book shelf. Gingerbread house making = success!