Christmas Eve with the Family

Christmas Eve was so much fun! Everyone graciously agreed to let us host and we loved having everyone over.  The Hardings came, grandma and grandpa, and even Erin and Kike who had just arrived into town about 4 o'clock that morning!  We started with a delicious meal - ribs, turkey, potatoes, mac and cheese, corn and rolls. Yummy!

After we got sufficiently full on the good food, we broke out all the candy and made gingerbread houses. This is always a fun tradition that the kids love.

Olivia had no interest in building a house, but she sure loved having free reign of the candy bowls down at her end of the table!

Grandpa had a full belly and was completely OK with missing out on the gingerbread house activity.

These two love birds decided to pass as well because they were.... busy I guess.

After the kids played and the adults got to visit for a while, we read them the book "I Believe in Santa" and talked about all the symbols of Christmas that lead back to Christ. They were all really into it which was so cute.

Then came the exciting time for them as they all opened up their new Christmas pajamas.

Precious Christmas babies!

All the cute cousins in their new jammies. I LOVE that these kids can grow up together and make such fun memories. As a side note, Bentley and Carson were so wiggly and blurry in all the pictures so I told them to freeze like popsicles, hence the poses from those two.  ha ha  I love all these cute kids.

Now it's time for bed so Santa can come!

Christmas Card and Family Letter

Merry Christmas from the Justices!  Here’s the low down from Brad on 2015:

Olive is our spicy child with sparkle and spunk all rolled up into one.  She’s 21 months and has turned into a real chatter box.  She loves putting on any shoes she can find along with her over stuffed purses and bags.  When she feels she needs extra attention she says “Look it, Mom” and smiles so big her eyes disappear.  

Bentley is crazy into Star Wars—still.  He was a storm trooper for Halloween and wore his costume for weeks.  His favorite books right now are Where the Wild Things Are and Spiderman short stories.  He’s also an early bird—waking up before the rest of the family almost every morning.  He’s a great brother to his sisters.

Eden is a big, bad 1^st grader.  Reading is this girl’s thing.  She reads chapter books and loves to spell her answers to questions.  She’s very good in school and loves her teacher.  Her recent movie love is Disney’s Descendants.  Eden is a major crafter and her creative mind spins out some pretty cool projects.  She takes her older sister responsibilities very seriously and loves on her younger siblings every day.

Lisa has figured out how to truly rock the mom thing.  She’s pregnant with a baby girl—due January 29, 2016.  Unfortunately, we ran out of girl names so the only thing we’ve agreed on is the nickname provided by the kids—Coco.  She has been a very busy and involved mom.  She loves her calling teaching Relief Society at church.  She’s awesome.   

Brad continues to do financial planning and loves it.  He has been wrapped up in the Star Wars mania with the new movie coming out.  He likes planning trips for the family and collecting board games.  Brad is obsessed with our family of box turtles in the backyard—bringing the total to 10.  He’s really, really hoping for turtle babies this coming summer. 

Brad and Lisa celebrated 10 years of marriage this year.  It went by in a blissful flash. 

We wish you and yours the best in 2016!

With love,

Brad, Lisa, Eden, Bentley, and Olive (Ruby and the 10 box turtles) 

Miscellaneous December Pictures

Our elf Tudah likes to cause a lot of mischief. Bentley and Eden come racing down the stairs first thing every morning to find out what Tudah is up to.  Looks like the Star Wars guys won out this time. Bentley loved it.

Bentley and his two best buddies - Abby May and Parker Divett.

Sleepy Bentley - so cute.

Sleepy Olive - precious and peaceful.

Sleepy Bentley, Eden and Olive?? Road trip dream come true!

Surprisingly, Olivia has been very good about leaving the ornaments on the tree. I kind of figured this year would be a bit of a nightmare, especially with leaving the tree as the kids decorated it with all the ornaments stacked on the lower third of the tree. Other than Eden's princess ornaments though, she would point at them and talk about them, but she did great at leaving them on the tree. Yay!

Grandma is the best. They can play in the corn pit and get a story read to them at the same time?!

This is Bentley's latest pose now whenever he requests his picture be taken. Cute boy.

Snuggles and iPad time!

Eden has a bed companion that she is pretty excited about. These two girls snuggle up together most nights.

Cutest little buddies...

Bentley and Olivia really know how to get on each other's nerves, and they like to frustrate each other, but on the flip side, they can be so cute together. I was surprised I actually got this moment on camera, but isn't it precious? They are so cute and moments like these make me feel like they really do love each other.  :)

Star Wars "The Force Awakens"

It was tough to wait, but Brad finally got to see the new Star Wars movie and I guess I was fortunate enough to get to go too. We went to a new theater across town with amazingly comfortable, full size reclining chairs. I may or may not have dozed off for just a minute.... but the movie was great! Right Brad?!

Cliff's Christmas with Grandma and Grandpa!

Each year Cliff's opens up for a fun Christmas celebration, with Santa, lots of pretty light decorations, and of course, the rides my kids love. This year, we were so excited that Grandma and Grandpa could come with us. We had such a fun night together.

Olivia loved all the lights!

Riding the train!

Santa was particularly jolly that night. He was a great Santa. But again, Olivia was a nervous wreck and wouldn't get close. 

Thanks for coming along on our Christmas adventure grandma and grandpa! We love making these memories with you.

Explora Museum with Grandma and Hardings

The museum trip ended up being a little bit more crazy than we were expecting because of the number of our own children running in all sorts of different directions! ha ha Thank goodness we had grandma. I was with my girls for the most part. Grandma was with Bentley and Carson, and Kally was busy chasing her boys and London around. The kids had a blast, but the three moms were exhausted by the time we left! 

The bubbles was the only time he stayed put long enough to get his picture!

Olivia loved this little bubble shoot. It just kept spitting out a stream of bubbles and she didn't want to do anything else. I really need to figure out how to get my dad to build one of these over my kitchen sink.

No surprise that Eden loved the craft room. Poor girl had to be pulled out of there after a while though because Olivia and London were eating glue and causing all kinds of messes.