Someone gets a little excited about Christmas over here...

And that someone is miss Teya Rigg.
You will witness it, at the end of this post, but first a quick Christmas recap:

This year Christmas was extra awesome because my sister Naomi and her family came out from Chicago to spend it with us.

The girls loved having their cousins around for a week and it was cute to see them all in their matching pajamas on Christmas morning.

Matching sisters Teya and Brinley!

Matching sisters Becca and Naomi!

The girls showing off their new shawls that Grandma Karen knitted for them.

Taber and Cam on his very first Christmas!

He loved crawling through the wrapping paper and playing with everyone else's presents : )

Uncle Kevin made Taber this sweet frame for his Hartford marathon medal and bib.

Taber made all my Christmas wishes come true and got me the DSLR camera that I've been drooling over for years.  (do you like how this picture was taken with our old camera and is all blurry? it was definitely time for an upgrade!) I took over 300 pictures the first day I had it : ) I still have a lot to learn to unleash the camera's real potential, but I'm excited to start taking better pictures.

I made Taber 2 blog books to cover all of 2010. Each book covers 6 months and is just under 200 pages long. It was a labor of love that took me many many hours to finish, but it's always worth it to see Taber and the kids pouring over the books and smiling over the memories.

Happy Taber with a little piece of our family history.

So now I've made blog books from 2007-2010. I just need to make 2 more to catch up on 2011 and I'll finally be up to date : )


The highlight of Christmas though was seeing the kids get so excited about everything.

I don't think I've ever seen a kid more excited about Christmas than little miss Teya.

She was so pumped up that she literally screamed/shouted every word she spoke for the first 20 minutes of opening presents.  Brinley was still a little sick from the night before but Teya managed to stir up plenty of excitement on her sister's behalf over her presents. You have to watch this video to witness the intensity of it. And prepare yourself for the 1:16 minute mark when the excitement reaches fever pitch. This is Christmas magic at it's best!

Christmas Eve 2011

We started Christmas Eve off bright and early with a chilly but fun long run. Taber, Kevin and I are all training for the DC marathon in March so it was awesome to be able to run together. 

We ran 13.1 miles on the Applefest half marathon course in Hollis. We wore Santa hats and got lots of honks and waves from all the warm people in their cars watching the crazy runners freeze their tooshies off. Good times I tell ya, good times ; )

Later that evening we invited some friends over for a Christmas Eve dinner and nativity with the kids. We made Cafe Rio sweet pork and Zesty chicken and had a tasty taco salad bar.

After dinner Darby read a book about gingerbread men to the kids to prep them for gingerbread man decorating!

She brought each kid their own personalized homemade gingerbread man with their name stamped into it. She also brought frosting and lots of fun things for them to decorate with. Darby is amazing!

 The kids had a blast decorating their little men.

 When they were finished we gathered everyone up to act out the nativity. Teya's little friend Mia was Mary and she was the most precious and sweet Mary I've ever seen. She really got into the part and held the little baby with so much tenderness. So so sweet.

We had quite a few more girls than boys so instead of 3 Kings this year's nativity had 3 Queens. Teya, Sophie, and Brooklyn (not pictured) Who was actually a Fairy queen with wings. 

Soon it was time to change into jammies and get ready for Santa! 

Teya and the Knutson girls in their Christmas PJ's.

And Cam and Austin working the red and green stripes.

 Brinley had matching jammies too but sadly she missed out on all the festivities as once again she was hit with a horrible round of the sickies. She threw up several times right before everyone showed up and then she passed out at 4:30 p.m. and never woke up the rest of the night. Santa felt so sorry for her that he threw in a few extra presents the next day. Poor sweet girl : (

Things That Make Me Happy

 My chubby little alarm clock, standing straight up to greet me with his toothy grin : )

(Even at 2am it's hard not to smile at that)

Teya and her original fashion creations.

My grocery shopping entourage.

 Brinley in her sassy new hat and black boots.

 My girls

 My Boys

 These sparkly little eyes

Can you blame me for being happy? : )

Gettin' Christmasy

Christmas is coming and the goose is getting fat...

We busted out the Christmas decorations shortly after Thanksgiving and the girls have been SO EXCITED ever since. (I had to use all caps to try and capture the intensity of their excitement.)

We put the nativity up and hung the stockings with care. Then it was time to pick out a tree. The girls couldn't wait to go with Daddy, but the morning they were supposed to go...

poor Brinley got the pukes. 

She couldn't keep anything down, not even a sip of water. But she was devastated at the thought of missing the tree chopping, and after the most heartbreaking tears and pathetic begging I finally caved and let her go. I know that probably makes me a bad parent but if you had seen her eyes, oh my goodness! The heartbreak!

So Teya and little sickie pants accompanied Daddy to the tree farm and found this lovely pine. They chopped it down and brought it home, along with a car seat full of puke. I guess Brinley was doing all right until Taber put her back in the car and she didn't want her barf bowl on her lap so she kicked it off and then hurled all over her lap. Poor little thing.

We got her all bathed and cleaned up and she passed out on the couch.

Meanwhile the rest of us got to work decorating.

The tree they picked was tall! To get the star on, Taber stacked the stool he's standing on in this picture on top of a kitchen chair and I spotted him while he wobbled around trying to reach the top branch. Teya couldn't even watch it was so nerve wracking! Luckily he got it on without falling, but one of these days we should probably invest in a ladder. ; )

Cam thought it was all very entertaining.

And eventually Brinley woke up, feeling TONS better and joined the fun.

The girls did a great job keeping the ornaments spread out and out of Cam's reach.

Tada!!! We're ready for Christmas!

When it was finished we all oooed and aaaahed over it's awesomeness : )

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Other Christmasy activities...

Our church does an outdoor live nativity every year so we took the kiddos to see it.

They wanted to sit in the very front so they bypassed the chairs and planted themselves right on the ground. I took this picture when it was over and got a good chuckle from Cam and Brinley's faces.  Cam is like, "Can't. Move. Too. Puffy." and Brinley is like, "hehehehe! I'm a pink marshmallow!"

After the show they got to go inside and meet the cast. The nativity was a great way to get the girls focused on the more meaningful parts of Christmas and remind them why we celebrate and give gifts.

Another thing we are doing this year to teach them about giving is the 12 days of Christmas. We picked a family who has been through a difficult trial recently and the girls were very excited to help cheer them up. 

Taber got really excited too. He wanted to dress the girls all in black with ninja masks for ultimate stealth. I told him that this "operation" didn't require quite that level of intensity, but he still had them draw out a map and discuss silent communication tactics so they could stay under the radar and not get caught. 

So far their deliveries have been a huge success. They've mastered the stealth tactics and have taken great joy in this nightly ritual. The best part is that this simple act of secret giving has suddenly switched their brains from thinking about all the things they want and wondering what they are gonna get, to thinking about others, wondering if they will like their surprise and brainstorming what we should bring them next. They always come rushing back, full of adrenaline and excitement. My mommy heart is full when I see them finding joy in giving. I guess that what getting Christmasy is really all about : )

Diva Playdate

The girls have been begging me to let them wear some of my make up.

 I always say no because I don't want them to trash my make up 

and I don't like them looking too grown up. (they grow up fast enough already.)

But they begged and begged, relentlessly. 

So when their little friend came over to play, 

I finally gave in and let them have a makeover diva playdate.

  

Once they were all dolled up, man alive were they happy. 

They squealed with excitement and ran off to find dresses to complete their diva look.

 Something about make up and dresses just unleashes all their sassy poses

 Working it for the camera

 Teya thinks a cheerleader-esque fist pump and pointed toe is the ultimate fashion pose. I think Brinley was trying to copy her but it didn't quite turn out ; )

Fancy faces

Diva life is not all posing for the camera. They like to make cookies too.

And of course everyone must taste test the cookie dough.

Then they requested a dance party.  All of Teya's playdates seem to end with dance parties these days. 

 Kelsey had an umbrella and thought it would make the perfect interpretive dancing prop.

They requested "sad music" (because I guess umbrellas = sadness) and came up with some of their finest choreography yet.

 Kelsey told everyone they had to have sad faces when they danced.

 Teya's sad face

 Brinley's sad face. 

Really. I told her to do sad and this is what she gave me!

So now you know, all it takes is a little makeup, some cookie dough and umbrella music to turn a normal playdate into a Diva playdate ; )