Christmas!!!

I love all the activities and traditions that lead up to Christmas. The baking, lights, Sea World, Animal Park, and shopping, and gift exchanges with family and friends get us all geared up and in the Christmas spirit.

Our Christmas Eve got a rough start this year and boy was I disappointed, I (Bonnie) got the puking flu! I puked all day and missed the big Nichols Christmas celebration. I cried and cried in between my puking. Desperate to not miss Christmas I begged God to heal me quick. although y healing wasn't quite quick enough to make it too any of Christmas Eve (I was finally able to sit upright and have my feet touch the ground at 2:30 a.m. Christmas morning) it did come in time for me to enjoy Christmas day.

Troy was amazing! He did all of Christmas Eve, bustling the kids and getting them down to bed. He unearthed all the presents (fortunatley I had them wrapped already) and set them under the tree and when I came down the hall at 2:30 he was finishing the last few screws on some of Jacks gifts. He was amazing!

The kids woke up Christmas morning and I jumped out of bed to join the excited looks on their faces. It was so magical! I am so thankful I felt better! Thank you Jesus for your healing power! We had a day of fun and games! It was absolutely wonderful!

I hope you all had a magical and wonderful Christmas too!

Here are just a couple photos!

The TERRIFIC two's!!!

It is hard to believe that our baby turned 2!!! Something about being 2 makes them no longer seem like babies or even toddlers. He is 2 going on 6! What a fantastic little little guy he is. I am so blessed to be his mommy and so thankful that he still loves to cuddle.

He had a birthday party complete with family and friends and although we missed some of you terribly. Being that he is our Christmas baby, there are so many fun things to do for his parties. We made gingerbread houses (thanks to Katies help) and did some crafts and the kids got an early Christmas gift... a BOUNCY HOUSE to bounce the day away.

I have so enjoyed this little man and his life. He is so full of fun and adventure and yet takes moments to sit and cuddle and love you up. He truly is a joy of life and we had such a wonderful time celebrating him. Happy Birthday Buddy!

There were 2 in the bed and the little one said....

We let the kids fall asleep in our bed and this is what we walked into the other night. I think we may need to upgrade to a king.

BaKiNg

What a fun night with good friends. We went to their home and baked some good old fashioned sugar cookies. They have a big cookie decorating party every year and the kids wanted to help get thebaking started. We had flour and frosting everywhere and Mimi was given a very special gift that our friend Terry's mom made for her. It was a beautiful apron. Jack had a great time driving trucks with daddy and Terry.

SQUEEZE!!!!

We made fresh squeezed orange juice yesterday from the trees in our yard. We were out for a little walk and started picking the oranges in the backyard. We had a lot of fruit come in recently.. i didn't know it would come this late in the season. But anyways, we decided to take some inside and juice. The funny part was our juicer is electric (compliments of grandpa) and even though it does most of the work the kids still thought they needed to squeeze and make faces. So here is a couple faces of hard work.

Oh Christmas Tree, O Christmas tree...

We are into the Christmas spirit at the Nichols house. We are loving every fun little piece of this awesome season. Joshua got to make an ornament for school about what he celebrates at Christmas and so of course we made a manger scene. It is awesome to hear him describe why we celebrate Jesus at Christmas. The best part is hearing him say.. "And we get presents because the Jesus got presents from the wise men." LOL. I have no idea where he learned that, but it works for me! Here we are getting our tree with Nana and Jack had his first taste of a candy cane. Don't think he'll try that again. He really wanted to like it but just couldn't. He put it in his mouth 6-7 times and made the same face every time. It was hysterical.

Hope your Christmas is starting off with a bang and full of joy!

Rudolph Cookies

My little girl and our neighbor and Me made the cutest Rudolph cookies to end our Thanksgiving break and welcome in the holidays. The cookies were super easy and cute! Just one package of Nutter Butter cookies, m&m's, chocolate chips, pretzels and frosting. The only tricky part was breaking the pretzels. You have to break off the bottom loop. I loved sitting with the girls and crafting away and nibbling on the snacks. Mimi made some of the cutest comments as she assembled her Rudolphs. We are so excited for Christmas!

Some Family Pictures

We said CHEESE!

These are some pictures taken by Mimi's old preschool teacher starting a photography business. We asked her to do Josh's portraits (posted previously) and Jack's 2 year portraits and then our Christmas photos. We had so much fun and she is so creative. I added her website to my favorites list. Check her out!

Anoither day in the desert..

I think there will be quite a few of these postings this winter season. We are all having fun ripping it up in the desert. This last weekend we went with some friends that have a toy box (trailer) and the kids were excited to take a bath at the end of a very dirty day and I was excited to take them home dirt free. What a blast!

Even Mimi got on a quad a drove by herself for the first time!!!

What a sweet birthday...

Troy and the kids and family and friends gave me such a loved birthday full of sweet thoughts, gifts and wishes. THe kids made me t-shirts complete with coordinating jewelry which I had to wear. I wore Mimi's cute shirt on wednesday with matching pink bangle bracelet and Joshua's cute shirt on thursday with matching blue heart necklace. Troy took me to dinner on Coronado and gave me the day to just do whatever I wanted. Thank you Auntie Patti for watching the kiddos. There were many other wonderful birthday surprises for friends and family and I went to sleep that night feeling very loved and blessed by the wonderful people God has given me to live this life with.

I included photos of the shirts the kids made me and the royal crown Mimi made me at school. Oh and i can't leave out Troy's gift of a new and improved cell phone. I can even watch TV on it. What is that?

a FuN daY tO rIde aNd ReLax

We took out first trip for the year out to the desert (Ocotillo Wells). Troy had the buggy and my bike running awesome we could have stayed for days. J got to drive the buggy himself on a ride, m loved doing donuts and fishtails, and little J loved everything. He would cry every time we turned the buggy off. I finally got to ride my bike. Took me awhile to get used to it, but Troy was patient and it was fun to get out there again.

The sunset on the way home was magnificent! It was the prefect end to a perfect day!

Backyard Birthday Olympics!

This was the party Joshua wanted and planned with a little help from mom and dad. What a fun day. Check out the pictures and read below! It was a blast!

Backyard Birthday Olympics!