2014 = Fun

I can't believe I am sitting here on New Year's Eve writing the wrap up for 2014!!  What an amazing year it has been.  I looked back through all of our pictures and write ups from the year and I noticed one thing for the year - we had lots of fun!!!  I don't think there is much better we can say about the year.  It was such a great year.  Sure there were hard times and some days that weren't a lot of fun but overall it was great!!  We enjoyed some amazing adventures and had a blast doing it all.  I am so thankful for that.  We were really able to live in the moment and enjoy our time together as a family.  We are blessed with amazing friends and family that joined us throughout the year.  

This year we also got a much bigger picture of our God.  That really was the theme that kept coming up for both Matt and I all year.  We were overwhelmed by His holiness and what a great God He truly is.  Our prayer is that our children also saw that in us this year as we learned and taught them.  

So as we look back and also look forward we are thankful...

East Family Christmas

We had one more fabulous Christmas to celebrate on Christmas night.  The traditional East family evening of fun!!  I love Christmas night at my parent's house.  It has become such a wonderful tradition.  

 My mom always cooks her famous lasagna!!  It is amazing!!  We've been having it for many years.

 The kids then get to open all their presents.  It is pretty much mass chaos but oh so much fun!!

 It was so much fun to see Perry open all of his presents.  He got so excited about them.

 Ben was excited to get some new Odyssey CDs, a soccer goal, new games and lots of history books.  She was in heaven!!

 Kate was in heaven with horse stuff, jewelry and Barbies.  She was happy playing all night!

I just love how festive my parent's house is.  Such special memories!!

 The kids got got on their PJs and snuggled up in Granna and Grandaddy's bed to watch Frozen.  Perry is a bit obsessed with Anna and Elsa.  They were so cute!

 Then the adults got to open all our presents.  It is always so much fun!!  There are lots of great presents but also some really fun traditions and funny presents.  Kelly got me this awesome bacon cookbook from Ben!

 Andrew got this huge mason jar for Matt to remind him of our dinner at Whispering Canyon dinner at Disney.

 And of course there was the mint jelly that has been going around for 6 years.  Yummy!!

 We were up way to late opening presents and having fun.  We all spent the night there.  We do it once a year and it is so much fun.  The kids woke up early to play Legos by the fire.

 We had a yummy breakfast of beignets and sausage!

It is the perfect way to finish up the Christmas season!!  It really was the most wonderful time of the year.  So thankful for the wonderful gift of Jesus.  As Kate said in her prayer "we love all our presents but thank you God for the best gift of Jesus."  So thankful we get to celebrate Jesus!

Christmas Morning

Our Christmas morning was just perfectly magical!!!  Matt and I were both up at 5 am ready to go.  Didn't hear from the kids until 6:45.  Ha!  We enjoyed some quiet time by the tree.  

 Santa left the kids some fun things.  Kate got lots of Sofia things along with the guitar and microphone she really wanted.

 Ben got lots of Legos and the hammock he asked for.

 The kids were so excited when the finally got up!!

 They immediately ran to check out their gifts!!

 The book on WW1 was Ben's favorite thing.

 Matt and I had fun digging into our stockings.  Coming up with stocking stuffers is always a challenge but lots of fun to see what we get!

 We both got each other a lighter.  Ha!

 Kate and I both got fingernail polish and necklaces in our stockings.

 Then it was time to open the presents under the tree.  We do 4 presents for each other under the tree. The kids were so excited about the presents they picked out for each other.

 Matt loved his State of Auburn shirt.

 Then it was time for the big presents.  Kate had been asking for an American Girl doll...

 And she was super surprised when she got it!!!

 Ben didn't have any idea what was in his really heavy present under the tree.  We had told him it was a box of bricks...

 But it was a Wii U!!!  He was so excited.

 We took a break for our traditional Christmas breakfast of cinnamon rolls and pigs in a blanket.  Yummy!!

 Then it was time to play.  We spent all morning in our pjs enjoying our new things!  It was wonderful!!!

It was the perfect Christmas morning - laid back and full of fun!!

Christmas Eve

I know I have been really slow in posting about our Christmas.  We have had such a wonderful few days!!  I think it may have been the best Christmas ever.  Just simple fun with family and friends.  It has been very relaxing and low key which is wonderful!! 

Going back to Christmas Eve...  I started the day by taking my life into my own hands.  I went to Walmart.  I had just one more thing to get.  It actually wasn't too bad.  

 We then headed over to Matt's parents house to celebrate Christmas with them.  We had a yummy ham lunch (only traditional Christmas food we had).  Of course there were lots of presents!!

 Kate was so excited to get the Frozen Lego set.  It was a total surprise and she was jumping up and down.  It was so much fun to watch.

 The kids had a great time putting together Legos while we ate Mema's yummy cookies.

 It was so great to get to spend time with Mema and Opa.  So thankful for them and how special they are to us.

 Then it was off to the Christmas Eve service at church.  It was a really nice service although Kate was a bit wiggly.  We lit candles at the end which is always interesting with kids.  It was a great way to get our focus on Jesus and what He means to us!

 We had to continue our Christmas Eve tradition of getting China Cook take out.  We have done it for 8 years!  Hopefully it is a tradition we can continue for many years.

 We came home and ate our Chinese food and had a Happy Birthday Jesus party.  Matt read from Luke chapter 2.

 Last thing for the evening was putting out cookies and milk for Santa along with a note to Santa.

 I love how Ben said "just in case you forgot."  He was just making sure he got that last chance to put in his list!

Then it was off to bed for 2 kiddos.  They had visions of sugar plumbs dancing in their heads for sure.  So much excitement!  And it wasn't just the kids who were excited...