California Christmas

We had a blast enjoying life around the house in December. Here are a few of our every day life pictures!

Brooklyn started to get really good at standing up on her own. She would get so excited about doing it and loved that I would clap every time. 

 She quickly realized mom didn't say No No to touching ornaments if she was soft and didn't pull them off the tree. Thank goodness they are all plastic and from Walmart so I wasn't too worried about it either.

 Brooklyn was so excited to get her first letter from Santa!!! It was the best. She carried his picture around all day and thought it was pretty great.

 My best friend lives in Alaska and went to North Pole, Alaska to do this for her. It's seriously the cutest letter. We love Aunt Krystal!

11 month pictures with Daddy! Boy was this easier when she just laid there. Now we have to jump around, clap, sing, dance, etc. Anything to get her to just sit still for 2 seconds. 

 

She wasn't sure why I kept sticking this on her and why I would say No No when she would touch it!

 3 days before we left Brooklyn got sick for the first time EVER (other than some boogers). She got croup...BOO! Now I know this happens to a lot of kids, but it was bad. The doctor literally walked in the door and said ya you got my attention. That is NOT good. Let's get her started on some breathing treatments and get her a steroid shot now. He said this before actually walking into the room and listening to it up close. Not what this mama wanted to hear. It was miserable. She hated it all and was just exhausted from it. It was 100 times worse than shots. Seriously I cried at one point because I felt so bad for her and there wasn't much we could do. We did play in the bathroom and hang out in the steam for awhile one night. Luckily the medicine worked so well. She was over it completely in about 4 days and sounded great for Christmas!

Back to Christmas...

 It was a CALIFORNIA CHRISTMAS this year! We were so excited to escape the cold and enjoy some time with the Hoppes crew!

 Every year our family picks out a family ornament. We love this tradition and I was so glad we could all be here. I'm pretty sure the store owners hated having all of us in their tiny shop, but oh well. We chose a ducky this year for Brooklyn's favorite animal.

After being sick, flying, and a lot of "new" people, Brooklyn had some major mom cling going on. Hence why I'm holding her in this picture. Ha ha

Mark hanging out with these two cuties. Both were celebrating their first Christmas this year! We love Jace!

 Brooklyn takes eating applesauce very seriously! Mean Muggin' all the way!

I found these cute PJs and loved that they had them in Haddley's size. They looked so cute hanging out that night matchy matchy!

 We also went to Auntie Lynne's Christmas party! It is always so much fun to see everyone. Brooklyn slept on the way there and on the way back. She loved the singing and dancing, but had no idea why so many people kept wanting to love on her!

All of December was wonderful, but Christmas Eve and Christmas Day were seriously the best. I had no idea how excited I would be to watch her enjoy it all. Brooklyn seriously loved opening presents. She really got the hang of tearing off the paper and pulling out what was inside. She was spoiled rotten and was so excited for all of her new toys!

Shout out to my mom for wrapping her presents in all the cute red and white paper. It made for the perfect picture backdrop!

 Brooklyn loved having presents to push around the floor.

 Christmas Eve we had yummy breakfast for dinner and then opened up a few presents!

 Parker was so cute and loved snuggling up with Uncle Mark. Mark enjoyed reading him piles of books too!

Grandma made sure to have out all of her snow globes for Brooklyn. She would say Gramma and then point to them. My mom of course loved this and they played with them the whole time we were there.

 Christmas Morning! Santa Came!!! She was so excited when we put out her stocking. Also notice how cute the stocking is that my mom made for her! It is all done by hand. Seriously incredible.

 Headed to church in our Christmas outfits

Brooklyn was sitting next to a giant tree of presents, a stocking full of presents and she was just so excited about the candy cane! Little did she know that mom wouldn't let her eat it, but I love her faces here.

 One of my favorite things about being home is watching my Dad with Brooklyn. I always dreamed of watching him be a Grandpa to my kids. He just adores her and is so good to get down and play with her. She had a great time playing with him too.

 Finally opening the stocking! Santa was good to her. This toy also saved us on the plane :)

 We fly back to Utah and were exhausted so we waited until the next morning to do our family Christmas. It was so fun to sit around the tree and open presents together. Daddy had picked out a stuffed snake for Brooklyn and she just loved it. We all got great presents and just enjoyed spend the morning together.

 Jordan, my sister in law, was kind enough and took pictures for us back in September. We used this one for our Christmas card!

 Brooklyn has loved being home and enjoying all of her toys. George was a big hit and she loves when you say, "Where is George? " and she will crawl over and get it.

We had such a wonderful Christmas. I'm so grateful for this time of year and our opportunity to remember the true reason for the season. I'm so grateful for this gospel and for all that I have because of it. I couldn't ask for a better family than mine!