Funeral, Birthdays, Christmas, etc

Well here is my long over due update! I will go in reverse order... Hope you enjoy!

It has become our Christmas tradition to visit the Santa Claus on 90th and State St that brings his reindeer with him.  As you can see Mason did NOT like Santa! haha

 Unfortunately this year he only brought one reindeer whose antlers had just fallen off.  Kind of lame, but the kids still thought it was cool.

The Curtis family tradition is to have on of the kids dress up as Santa and when Santa gives you a gift, you give him one in return.  It's pretty funny seeing a little kid in a big Santa suit.

Again Mason, was not a fan. He was hilarious avoiding eye contact...

 He finally got a little brave, then got right off with his gift.

The Sunday before Christmas we visited Mom's grave- it's been hard without her!

My Dad created the tradition a few years back at our Christmas Eve party to race hotwheel cars (which he collects and owns literally hundreds of!)  The children/in-laws have our own competition, and the grandkids have a separate winner. It's pretty fun.

My little angel getting ready for the Nativity Scene

Mason as one of the shepherds.

 Brock as baby Jesus, Sierra as Mary, and Brennon as Joseph

We then exchange gifts. Our family showing off our presents.

Here are the kids in their new jammies Christmas Eve night...

As you can see they were pretty excited and had way too much energy to go to bed!

Christmas morning... I am definitely grateful our kids still sleep in as I'm sure it will not be 8:30 we get out of bed every Christmas. In fact, Mason had to wake Mya up!

As soon as Mya opened her gift she yelled out, "Yes! Santa brought me exactly what I wanted! A barbie horse!" We were proud parents we did so well :) haha

Of course Mason loved the unwrapping more than the actual presents, but he was fun this year to watch and his "Wow's" for everything was great.

Mason LOVES baseball! He actually got two Toy Story bats (one big and one small) which he takes with him everywhere.  I will have to get a video on here to show how coordinated he is at hitting.

Adyson, Mya, Sage, and Sienna in the cute princess tent Grandma Curtis made for them!

 This was our classic present we gave to Russ... haha A shake weight!

Both Mya and Scott share their birthday on the 20th.  Here's Scott opening the present from his Mom and Dad the Sunday before their bday's

 Mya's presents from grandparents and cousins....

We celebrated all the December bday's at once which also included Sienna and Weston. Here's the two girls in front of Sienna's princess cake she shared.

Since I regularly take Mya and Mason with me to work, Mya has become close to a lot of the staff I work with.  Kristin and Lani are sisters that make cakes for a hobby.  Since probably July Mya has admired Kristin's blog of cakes and they have talked about Mya's cake for months! They were so nice to make this awesome cake for Mya!  They created this horse stable which everything was edible! Mya talked about her horse cake for weeks after her bday. She loved it! Thanks Kristin and Lani!

We decided to let Mya have a friends party this year. I didn't know what I was getting myself into with 9 girls! Left to right: Alayna, Eliza, Sage, Mya, Ady, Alysia, Marley, and Abbie. Addison Creager came late...

 The first game we played I had the girls try to pick up cotton balls with a spoon while being blind folded. It was so funny. That got the girls really giggling!

After I calmed them down with some bingo, we then did a relay race. They had to dress up in Scott's jacket, boots, gloves, and hat then race down to the wall and back. Then they had to take off the accessories and the next girl was up.  We were laughing so hard! I need to find my camcorder plug in so I can download the video, but the pictures will have to do for now. Needless to say, the girls didn't do much running since Scott's boots were so big on them!

 Here's Sage trying to stand back up after falling flat on her face- she's still smiling! :)

Mya couldn't hardly stay up so she had to walk very slow.

 Present time!

 Blowing out the candles...

 After all the girls left, I took Scott laser tagging to celebrate his bday.  I had planned for 16 people to come play with us, but unfortunately only 8 came :(  We still had a blast though.

 

In between sessions we sang happy bday to him while he was toilet papered. hehe

 Mya has been taking a dance class since August and they had their Christmas concert on December 11th.  They did a dance to a remix of "I wanna kiss the girl" from Little Mermaid. While they were waiting to start Mya kept waving and saying "Hi Mom!"  It was so cute! She did awesome!

 The finale dance...

 Sage came to cheer Mya on. Cute Cousins!

 haha I love Mason's face LOL

Posing at home before the performance...

 

 

Just a cute pic of the kids having fun together.  I love these two!

Having fun with Dad...

 Here's some pics from my Mom's funeral.  My mother-in-law and sisters-in-law made this awesome quilt for Mom. We all traced our hands and wrote a personal message to Mom, then they sewed it all together. It turned out so awesome! It's now hanging in Dad's entry way at home.

My Mom's cousin from Arizona arranged for some doves to be let go at her burial. It was pretty sweet.

 Honorary Pall Bearers

It was a beautiful day, with an awesome service and a great tribute to Mom.  I still think about her constantly, and miss her terribly! Wish I could just call her up and share some stories and get some advice... I love you Mom!!!