Life in December was VERY busy-- lots of ward Christmas parties, school things, gifts, shopping, but there were two highlights this year. One was that were able to take the boys to Disneyland and the other was that Ashley's youngest brother Dane got engaged to his fiance Brenna. They are getting married on June 3rd in Boston.
Ashley's mom and dad are the activities chairs in their ward in Provo, so they invited Ashley and the kids to their ward Christmas breakfast and it gave the kids their first opportunity to see Santa this year. Pictured above is Daniel trying to decide if he's been good or bad when asked by Santa. He looked to Ashley to an answer and she said "It's been a toss-up this year".
Lizzy was terrified of Santa the first time she saw him. She pleaded for Papa (ashley's dad) to take her into his arms and save her!
Ashley & the kids at the breakfast (Rachel was home w/ Dave)
Papa Heilner
Ashley was so busy and stressed this Christmas season, she just could not get the Christmas tree decorated. After the kids repeated begging, she finally let them decorate the tree mostly themselves. It was actually very interesting to see which ornaments they felt were the most important to put on the front of the tree-- preschool decor, named ornaments, etc. Ashley originally intended to rearrange the tree, but it was so special seeing what they chose, she just left it just they way they did it.
Nathan was SO excited about Christmas this year. At almost 4 yrs. it is really starting to make more sense to him!
Lizzy pictured with McKenna our favorite babysitter.
A week later we attended our ward Christmas party. It was kind of a let down this year, but it did have some highlights like the Bishop dressing up as a reindeer dancing while the Primary children sang....
A quick pose with Santa before all the chairs were put away!
Nathan absolutely in love with Santa. He just wanted to sit and talk to him all day!
Mimi (Ashley's mom) came along..
Ashley w/ the kids....
Months ago Daniel drew a picture of his dream birthday cake. Dave was so impressed he told him that he would make it. He hid the picture and baked it for Daniel's birthday. Daniel was THRILLED to see him dream come true.
Now that Daniel is in kinder garden he had an official holiday concert. He was dressed up as a reindeer and got to sing lots of fun Santa songs.
For months, Ashley had the dream to take the boys to Disneyland for Christmas. So, earned extra money to take them (selling stuff of KSL & ebay) and got some airline miles from her dad... It seems like every friend the boys have go to Disneyland regularly, so they desperately wants to go. Dave and Ashley kept it a total surprise until the 2 days before they left. When the boys unwrapped the gift that told them they were going, they were so excited. They couldn't believe it. Nathan asked at least 100 times in 48 hours if he was really going to Disneyland!
They were SO excited to ride on an airplane!
We had so much fun at Disneyland. They boys were fearless and Nathan was tall enough that he cleared all the rides. So, we went on lots and lots.
Nathan was so excited to see his "Disney friends" and gave Mickey a big kiss when we left!
Dave wanted to take the boys on the jungle river cruise.
Nathan was pretty ticked off he couldn't ride in Lightning McQueen. He thought posing for a picture was a low blow!
Christmas morning. Santa brought Lizzy a new doll....
It was actually a wonderful Christmas morning for a change. We actually started opening presents at 7:30 AM !!! And slowly took our time. It was just great.
Our Baby Rachel's first Christmas at 7 months.