We had a wonderful Christmas here in El Paso. It was so nice to relax in our own home and have the kids come down stairs to their presents. On Christmas Eve we had our big feast and invited a single mom from church and her three kids, and the sister missionaries over. I was impressed with myself for cooking the entire dinner--turkey, sweet potatoe cassarole, green bean cassarole, roles, stuffing, Peter made the mashed potatoes (thanks), lime green jello trees with gummy bear decorations, sugar cookies with almond extract, peanutbutter cup cookies, and an apple pecan cheesecake. It was fun to have a full house and eat, read about the birth of our Savior, and get ready for the excitement of Santa. Joseph had fun meticulously placing the cookies on the plate for Santa. The highlight the next morning was the train table that Santa brought. (He got it from our neighbors whose boys are too old for it now--smart Santa is always looking for a bargin). It took Joey about 10 minutes to realize there were more presents beside the train table.


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The car pack-pack he wanted. I guess it wasn't as amazing after getting the train table.

Fun new trucks

Yay, cars! With so many, Peter and I are amazed that they can still fight over who has the most.

Joey and I had our cereal snack in front of the toasty warm fire. It was great!

We continued the Taylor tradition of the big Christmas Day breakfast. We had scones and honey butter (made with Grandma Gurr's honey from her bees), eggs, bacon, and rolls. We were so full and happy :) I was ready to get the big highchair out of the kitchen so Kimball graduated to the big chair on Christmas day. He loves sitting at the table with everyone (propped up by the Bumbo).


I love that Joey says that Jesus came last night! A least I know he understands the true meaning of Christmas!

On Christmas Eve we put the boys to bed really late (9:30) because our guests stayed until then. As I was getting Kimball ready for bed he got a little slap happy from being so tired. I usually rock and snuggle with him for 30 seconds (that's about all he can stand) before putting him in his crib. But on Christmas Eve he sat there for about 5 whole minutes. He had his chubby little hands around the back of my neck and we sat facing each other and laughing. He was hysterically laughing every time I looked at him. It was so wonderful! It felt like heaven having a laughing little angel in my arms! It made me realize again that the three best gifts I have ever received are Peter, Joseph and Kimball!

I love my sisters!

Me, Ashley, and Rachel posing with Edward and Bella

This past summer, after finally getting Rachel hooked on the Twilight books, we made a pinky promise that we would go see the movie together when it came out. Since we weren't able to go to CT for Christmas (Peter only has 2 days off), I decided I better fly to Rachel's house in NC to see the show. We convinced Ashley to come and almost had Karen join us too, but her sick kiddos prevented her from coming.
Needless to say, we had SO MUCH FUN! I just love those girls! Anything we do ends up being hilarious and fun. We ate and ate and ate, shopped, laid on the couch, talked and talked and talked, and watched a great/hilarious at times movie. I can't wait for our next sisters weekend!

Anxiously awaiting the show.

Can you tell we're sisters? We all ended up buying the exact same shirt. Great minds think alike.

Something is always funny

Ashley and I caught the pregnant bug from Rachel while we were there. My baby was really awkward and lumpy.

I love you girls, can't wait to do it again!!!

Reading with Grandma

Joseph was in heaven when he got to listen to Grandma Gurr read him a story over the phone. He misses his Grandmas and Grandpas a lot! Feel free to visit anytime! Cousins and friends are also highly encouraged to come!

Funny Boys

Kimball kept sticking the play dough under his nose--so silly.

Ball waterfall--the boys love to dump the balls down the stairs.

The boys love playing outside: Joey rides while Kimball pulls the lawn mower. They could go around forever! The next video is Joey displaying his need to constantly move his little body. He heard the song Feliz Navidad and went crazy. Meanwhile, Kimball is trying to eat garbage and then finally joins Joey in a little waddle dance.

Boys will be Boys

I am just amazed by how Kimball will do exactly the same things that Joseph did at his age. I was checking my email one day and turned around to see Kimball parking his cars in between the keys of the piano, just like Joey did. I love my boys!

I love that he parked a car on the back of the dump truck.

Santa Baby

I love taking pictures of these cute boys! They looked so cute in the Santa hat. Remarkably, their heads are the same size :)

Tradition

It has become my Christmas tradition to take a picture of the boys in front of our very first tree. I can't wait to look back on 18 years of adorable faces. Here's this years set.

Christmas fun

Santa on his 4-wheeler sleigh with good old roto-rooter.

Right down the street lives a man named Fred Loyola who owns an insurance company. Every Christmas he puts on a huge light show set to music. Then hands out cookies and hot chocolate to all who come to see. It was so much fun! The boys LOVED it!

Kimball was so cute just staring at the lights and doing a little booty dance.

I kept telling Joseph to hold my hand (something he hates to do), so in order to satisfy my need for safety, he grabbed his own hand and said, "I'll just hold onto this other hand"

Joey telling Santa he wants a car pack-pack (back-pack) for Christmas.

Kimball was a little nervous, but finally gave Santa a high-five.

This Santa was hilarious. You can tell you live right next to Mexico when Santa is really tan, has an accent, and smells like an entire bottle of cologne.

Although we will miss extended family, we are enjoying having our own Christmas here for the first time. It was exciting to get our first real tree. Joseph insisted we get a train to run around the tree and the boys love to sit and watch it go around and around. The boys had lots of fun decorating. Joseph was a great help putting all the decorations on the tree. Kimball entertained himself throwing the ornament balls and trying to eat the tree lights--silly boy.

My favorite part of the decorating was getting to put light on our Palm Trees!!

Baby Bunnies

We somehow ended up with two really cute baby bunnies. Probably because we saw them as babies and not filthy, constantly pooping bigger bunnies. We went to bring dinner to a lady from church and her lion head bunny had just had babies. They were so cute that we couldn't resist. They were born October 21st and we brought home Tiger (the orange with black stripes) and Speedy (white with subtle gray stripes down the side) two weeks later and Joseph was in LOVE! He just wanted to snuggle those bunnies all day. Now that they are always covered in their own poop the allure has decreased, but they are still really cute.