Christmas Morning

"Hey, Dad! DAD! Get up!"

It's Christmas morning! Brayden pounced on us early this morning to get us up. Craig did his own pouncing back. It was a wonderful way to wake up on Christmas with everyone laughing and excited that the day has finally come. 

Once I put our traditional breakfast casserole in the oven, we all met in the front room. Brayden was so excited to see that Santa ate the cookies and milk that he set out for him the night before, especially when he noticed all the extra presents around the tree. 

First things first. We all got to check out the fun treats waiting for us in our stockings.

Then it was Brayden's job to grab the gifts from under the tree and pass them out to their owners. He did awesome. He got so excited with each gift, even when it wasn't for him. He couldn't wait to see what was inside.

Among Brayden's favorites was this "Angry Birds" beanbag toss.

Santa left a new 46" HDTV next to the tree for Craig.

But I personally think that I got the best gift this morning. Craig surprised me with a certificate proving that I am now a Disney stockholder. How cool is that! I own a piece of Disney and I have something beautiful to hang on my wall proving it. I love it!

Now that everything was opened, we had quite a mess in the front room for Brayden to play in.

The last thing to do was wait for our breakfast to be ready. In the meantime, Craig and Brayden played with the new marble run. This was a wonderful morning! I love my little family so much! Merry Christmas, everyone.

Shane Christmas Party

It's finally Christmas Eve! The Shane's Christmas Party was this afternoon. It was so great to get together with family during the day, but still have all evening to be at home prepping for Santa. Jan made us a delicious lunch and once the tables were cleared away it was time to open presents.

This is always Brayden's favorite part. We'll have a lot of fun with his new toys, especially the Optimus Prime Lego set.

I loved watching Bailey play with the new Disney Princess dresses that I gave her.

Erika found a ball that she pushed up her shirt so she could look like me. If only I could get mine out as easy as she got her's out. Anyway, we had a blast and I can't wait for tomorrow morning!

Homemade Gift Exchange

A few weeks ago, Tori approached me with an amazing gift idea for our hubbies. They were simple enough crafts, but I knew that Craig would love it. Tori was so sweet and pretty much took care of everything. By the time I got to her house to put it all together the boys had heard that we were making something for them. Now they were going to make something for us, too.

Today we got together to exchange the gifts. First, we opened the guys' gifts. They were cute glass jars that were filled with my favorite brownie mix. (The thing is, I knew I was missing one from the cupboard, but Craig convinced me that I was merely losing my mind. Thanks, Sweetie.) The best part were the decorations they put around the jar. My favorite was the Mickey Mouse snowflake on the top. I love it!

Now it was their turn. We had been talking this up for weeks, so I had my fingers crossed that they would actually like it and not just roll their eyes at us.

Success! They loved it. You'd have to play the zombie game on Call of Duty: Black Ops to really understand how cool it is to get your own bottles of Double Tap Root Beer, Quick Revive, Speed Cola, and Juggernog Soda. I have a feeling these are going up on the mantel. Merry Christmas, guys! Time to play zombies.

Redecorating the Tree

So, this is kind of a funny story...

This is what our tree looked like yesterday morning. Because we spent so much money on gifts this year (notice the huge boxes) we decided to use our fake tree rather than buying a real tree. I know that Craig absolutely loves real Christmas trees, but he convinced me it was okay to focus our funds elsewhere. "We can always get a real tree next year." Well, the universe had different plans.

Craig's bowling league had their White Elephant/$5 gift exchange last night. The way it works is everyone brings a gift and places it on the back table. Once you bowl your first strike, you can go pick out a gift to take home. One of our friends, Travis, runs the Christmas Tree lot on 90th south and 13th west, so he brought in a tree for his exchange. Craig was so excited! He wanted that tree. He convinced his team to help him out. They agreed and Gary was the first person to get a strike, so he grabbed the tree for Craig and he picked his own gift once Craig bowled his strike.

Now the only problem was getting it home. Our little Dodge Neon isn't exactly roomy, especially with Brayden in the backseat, but we made it work. Can you see Brayden? (By the way, this also goes to show how tiny this tree was. It fit in our backseat!)

Well, we got it home. While I put Brayden to bed, Craig ran over to Harmon's to buy some Sprite for the tree. Then we both got to work taking the fake tree down and putting our new tree up. I know it's only a week before Christmas, but the look on Craig's face made it totally worth it.

All day today, Brayden has been adding his own touch to the tree. I think the clumped clusters of ornaments adds personality and I love it! I always underestimate what a real tree does to spruce up the holidays for both of my boys. I'm so glad we didn't miss out on that this year.

Capizzi Christmas Party

The annual Capizzi Family Christmas Party took place today. I love getting together with the family to visit and open gifts. Everyone is so happy at Christmas. I love it!

Grandma and Grandpa Capizzi had fun gifts for all of the kids to open.

There was even something special for Ella. I can't wait to dress her up in this!

Brayden was so excited to get "Hungry, Hungry Hippos" from his grandparents that he wanted to open it right away. Erika, Emma, and Dominik were more than willing to play with him.

Thanks, Phil and Sharon! Merry Christmas! (And I need their Disney Santa hats for next year...)

Friends' Gift Exchange

Rather than our customary "Big Bang Theory" night, our friends got together today for a Christmas Party/Gift Exchange at Jen's place. Deana got there early, so her and Jen were playing Mario. Brayden didn't even bother to take off his coat before he joined them. He loves Mario!

Once we were able to drag him away from the TV, we started with the exchange. Craig got an awesome hooded blanket from Jen. This "Angry Bird" suites him perfectly. 

Deana gave me a wonderful Mickey Mouse clock! I absolutely love it. I can't wait to take it home and put it up. This is too cool to worry about preserving in the box.

Jen gave Brayden a cute stuffed toy. Brayden calls him Angry Yellow. He had to work to keep it away from the dogs, Teeko and Lucky.

Deana's gift to Brayden was extra thoughtful. It is a personalized "Toy Story III" book. It has his name, the names of his friends, and his address embedded into the story.

We finished off the night with Jen reading Brayden's new story to all of us. It is so cute! I love Christmas. I'm so excited to have a little girl join us next year with the festivities.

Downtown Lights

We spent this afternoon/evening downtown with our friends, Tyler and Tori. We started at the Gateway Mall for caramel apples and to check out this ginormous tree. Then, we caught a ride on Trax over to Temple Square to see the lights there. I remember then being more beautiful when I was younger, but then I think most things like that are better seen as a child.

It was a fun trip and a great way to help bring on some Christmas Spirit.

Babysitting the Sever Boys

Today I had the opportunity to watch 4 little boys under the age of 4. Granted, one of them was mine, but it was still a crazy day. My friend/neighbor has twin boys, Garrett and Eli, that are a few months younger than Brayden, plus a 10-month-old baby boy. We all had a lot of fun. It wasn't nearly as bad as I had been fearing.

The older boys had a blast playing with all the available toys and games. I really think Brayden enjoyed spending the day with other little kids. I know he will love it when he can finally go to preschool.

After a yummy lunch, we all bundled up and headed outside to play.

We started in the backyard, but the front yard had the swing, so it wasn't long before we made it out there. Next was nap time and it wasn't long after that both dads came home.

I don't know how I would handle that if I had to do that every day, but it was a great break from the norm.

Thanksgiving Shooting

Craig has started a new Thanksgiving tradition this year; rather than playing football, he gathered friends and family to go shooting. I wanted to come, but I wasn't sure if it was the best idea with me being pregnant and all. So I stayed home and had a wonderfully relaxing morning while my boys drove down to the west side of Utah Lake to go play with their guns.

 

Brayden had a ton of fun using Craig's old BB gun. Last time he went, he was a little too young to understand what he was allowed to touch, but he had no problem this time. And he had Dad's and Grandma's help all morning.

Meanwhile, the rest of the adults got to play with the big guns. Here are my dad, Dean, and Tori shooting at clay pigeons. Charles and Joe are off to the left with their own little hand gun set up.

Finally it was time to come home so we could get to Craig's mom's house for Thanksgiving, but it looks like the boys were ready for the morning to end. Hopefully next year I'll be able to go with them.

Trick-or-Treating on Halloween

Yay! It's finally Halloween. Time to gather the candy! To start out our trick-or-treating, my mom met Brayden and me at South Towne mall.

Almost every store had someone out front that was dressed up and handing out candy to the kids. Brayden had a blast collecting as many Dum-Dum suckers and Tootsie Rolls as he could get his hands on.

Once we all get tired of that, we went home to meet up with Craig, Deana and Lucky. After a quick dinner, we bundled up and went trick-or-treating in our neighborhood. I was surprised at the quality of candy that these neighbors passed out. I've never seen one little kid with so many full-size candy bars.

As it got later, we drove over to the Matiyasic's (where Deana stayed) and the Shane's to show off Brayden's costume. Our final stop of the night was my friend, Carissa's, in-laws. They live in a beautiful neighborhood that goes all out for Halloween. There were so many visitors, so we had to park out of the main road and walk to the house. Their entire yard was decorated and Carissa's husband and brother-in-law were in costumes on stilts. It was awesome. It was ridiculous how many people there were though. So many houses had already run out of candy before we got there. Looks like this will have to be out first stop next year.

Even though the last neighborhood was almost a complete bust, Brayden still made out like crazy. We have enough candy to keep our little family very happy for a while.

Happy Halloween!

Craig's Bowling League

At the end of August, Craig's bowling league started up their 2011-2012 season. He joined the Matiyasic's team again since Deana still isn't interested in bowling. They get together every Sunday evening (minus Christmas and New Year's) until May when they'll finish up the season in Vegas. Last year, Craig learned a lot about bowling, but this year he has really gotten comfortable with it. He loves the game! Someday, I hope to be able to do this as a family.