merry & bright

our Christmas was so wonderful. it was all things i believe a holiday should be; lots of food, too many sweets, staying up really late to hang out with family, snuggling sweet babies, wrestling kids, playing silly games and just being. Christmas is the best!

brian, finally reading "the hunger games" and snuggling cute baby sam in his Christmas pjs.


the lovely Christmas tree.


the cast of the nativity on Christmas eve. it was adorable!


joseph leading the donkey in with mary.


the angel that announced the birth of baby Jesus.


for a little while, mary was more interested in harassing the sheep than in her baby.


but then she decided baby was pretty great.


we finally got meet baby violet. she's so sweet.


and brian & haylen rocked some matching shirts.


i surprised brian with settlers of catan! its hard to keep secrets from him but he was very happy.


Christmas morning madness. this is what it looks like to have more than a dozen kiddos in one room on Christmas morning. it was awesome.


we got to ride & feed the horses, too!






i'm thinking this was one of the best moments of haylens young life.


these two are the best of friends.


and christian (and all kids) love dirt piles. good thing tim has lots of them.


we had a wonderful Christmas with our gigantic family. we love them so!