Merry Christmas!

christmas was a blast this year. the excitement of a three year old makes the holiday so much fun!  it was hard to not be with family, but we had a lot of fun with some great friends!

on christmas eve, we met up with a few good friends and took the kids for their first bowling trip.  i wasn't too sure how mae was going to do, but she didn't do half bad!  it just took the ball like 10 minutes to make it down to the pins!

they even had little bowling shoes in their sizes!  

 i've said this before, but one thing i love about kids, is experiencing things through their eyes.  i've been bowling a thousand times, and i have fun, but when you get to experience it with your kid for their first time, it's so much fun!  these little creatures bring so much life and joy into the world.

 izzy did pretty good!  and daddy won the game!  he always talks about one of our first dates when we went bowling with my family and he scored 180.  he STILL talks about that...and now he talks about this game. 

 mae and her sweet little friends.  this year she and i have both made some wonderful friends, we're so lucky!

 after bowling, we went home and i made our traditional scholz christmas eve dinner of curry wurst and german potato salad.  per cody's requests.  gotta keep the tradition alive!

christmas morning was fun.  the first thing mae noticed was that santa had eaten her cookies...and taken her snowman plate.  she was very worried about where the snowman plate had gone...santa took the extra treats to the reindeer.

we only have two kids and i feel like there was wrapping paper and boxes and bows and ribbons everywhere, but it's all part of the fun.

izzy didn't care much for what was inside the gifts, she loved the wrapping paper the most.

 mae's present from santa this year was an art easel.  it has a chalk side, and a dry erase side (what the heck was santa thinking giving a three year old markers?!)
she's been having a blast drawing and playing school.

 she also got this ballerina dress up from my sweet aunt and cousins.  that thing did not come off ALL day. 

 we have so many wonderful people who love us and helped make this day so special for us and our girls.  thank you thank you! 

 she has got the opening gifts thing down.  except she had to get every. single. piece. of paper off before she would look at what she got. 

 for quite a while, mae had been asking for a stage.  seriously i have no idea where she came up with that.  so my mom said if we could figure out how to make it, she would pay us back and it would be from gram and gramps.  cody figured out how to make one!  he spent a lot of time putting this together, and i think it turned out perfect!!  many a show have already been performed on this bad boy.

i'm so very grateful for our Savior.  and the chance we have to celebrate His birth.  this time of year is so wonderful and magical.  and i hope that as my kids grow older, i can help them to understand that the magic and wonder of the season is because of our Savior.