Here are the classic "waiting to go downstairs to see what Santa brought" pictures. Just ignore Colin!!

My parents and brother came over to see the kids open their presents. (that's who is taking the picture.)
Hayden opening her cash register...one of her faves!Tough man Carson ripping the paper off his presents.
The aftermath.

The rest of the day was spent up at Colin's parents. We ate Crepes for breakfast, then took the kids to see Yogi Bear(pretty lame), then came home took naps and played with new toys the rest of the night.

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve day we went sledding up by Aspen Grove. The snow was really hard and icy, so the sledding wasn't great, but it was still fun.


Audrey, Drew and Jozy.
We spent the rest of Christmas Eve at Colin's parents house. About an hour before dinner Colin took a nap and when he woke up he was not feeling very good. He only ate a tiny bit of dinner and then spent the rest of the night in the bathroom and wanting to die. I felt so bad for him!! When we got home he went straight to bed, so I had to get everything set up for Christmas morning. It was a lot of work, but so much fun. I think getting everything set up is one of my favorite parts of Christmas.
About a month before Christmas I saw this idea in a magazine. I thought it looked so cute and easy, so I decided to make it for Hayden for Christmas.
Made out of card board and LOVE!! :)

December Fun!

The other day we were bored so we went to the mall. We decided to go see if there was a line to Santa and lucky for us there was no one there. Hayden walked right up and asked him if he remembered going to the Christmas party and then told him what she wanted for Christmas...a shopping cart and food.
Carson was pretty thrilled with him too!!
Hayden also found some Barbie wrapping paper at our house that I had been hiding from her. So I told her Santa must have come to wrap presents and left a little behind. She believed every word and decided it would be a good idea to take it to the mall to give back to him.
We got hit with a lot of snow, so we took advantage and built a "snow girl."

Hayden's Performance

The week before the Christmas party Hayden learned the song "I Want a Hippopotamus For Christmas." So I decided it would be the perfect song for her to sing at the Christmas party. We practiced all week and she was all ready to perform. She has never really done anything like this before, so I wasn't sure if she was going to be nervous and sing really quietly or not even do it at all. But when it was her turn, she hopped right up there and started singing like she had done it a thousand times before. The only problem was, she wasn't singing the right song. She just started making up a song that really didn't make any sense and sounded like it was in a different language! :) She does this at home a lot and goes on and on and on and on..... I felt bad making her stop, but she was just as happy to sing the right song. It was a pretty funny/cute moment.

Lyman Family Christmas

December 18th was the annual Lyman family Christmas party. My mom was in charge this year and she did a great job. We had dinner, a cute program, the kids performed the Nativity, we played a bouncing ball game and of course Santa came. My Dad played Santa and most of the kids were not fooled...even Hayden knew it was Grandpa. :)
Not scared of Santa at all.
This is Hayden's first time sitting on Santa's lap. She was nervous at all. We were so proud of her!!
He does this cheesy smile when the camera is on him. He had a blast crawling around mingling with everyone. He is social little boy!

Whats Been Going On...

We went bowling a couple of weeks ago. It was Hayden's first time and she enjoyed bowling but liked playing the arcade games a lot better.

We babysat our nephew for a week at the beginning of December. This is what took place the first night. Poor kid is going to hate me when he is sixteen!!

A night out with the Stars ;) ha ha

My friend Janice and I got each other/ourselves tickets to the Kurt Bestor Christmas concert. I found out a couple days before the show that Jason Castro(American Idol Season 7) was going to be performing as well and I knew I had to go. I had a tiny crush on him during his run on AI and thought it would be fun to see him in person. So I called Janice up and talked her into going with me! The concert was really good even though I am not a huge Kurt Bestor fan. Jason performed very well and then signed autographs afterward. It was a great night!!