New Years Eve with Sam's Crew!

Here's Carson playing in the snow with Joe.

Carson and Dixie spent hours with Jacob playing Minecraft on his computer.

On New Years Eve we took Sam and Melissa's family and her parents to see the temple square lights. It was a little hectic and we didn't quite stay together, but we hope they were able to have a good time and see the beauty we have right here in our backyard.

At midnight, I was putting Dixie in bed, Melissa's parents had gone home, and Sam was napping, but these guys rang in the new year together and I joined in as soon as I could!

We got an extra special treat this year for New Years Eve.  Warner, who just got back from his New Zealand mission, is starting at BYU in January 2016.  So, he and his whole family came to drop him off and visit for a couple days at our house.  It was a quick trip, but so great to have them in our neighborhood instead of us being down where they live.  We always love our Southern guests.  

They arrived around 11:00 PM on Dec. 30th.  We offered our weary travelers some leftover spaghetti and meatballs.  Then, we sat around and visited for a while and called it a night to get some rest for the big days ahead.  On New Years Day, Melissa's parents and nephew came to hang out.  Some of the boys went to Rob Thomas's (our neighbor) house to see his amazing car collection, which they could greatly appreciate!  Then, Benji took everyone to the elementary school for some sledding.  It was fun to see how much Joe just loved experiencing the snow.  He was out in it any free moment he had.  Then, Sam, couldn't resist taking a look at our van and it's a blessing that he did.  He figured out what our local mechanics couldn't think of in two days of working on our van.  So, he solved our issue and saved us a ton of money not having to take it to a Toyota Dealership. (Thank you Sam!)  In the evening we loaded up and went to see the lights on Temple Square, then to dinner at In 'N Out burger (per Nate's request) and finally back home to visit, eat junk food and wait for midnight. 

On New Years Day they got everyone packed up again and ventured to Provo to drop Warner off for his first semester at BYU!  So exciting!  

Post Christmas Fun

The day after Christmas we took Paul's crew and my parents sledding at Morgan Elementary.  Ruby was a little stinker and wouldn't even wear a coat or socks for the first while.  

Dixie and Catherine had a blast sledding in this tube together and having one of the dads pull them back up the hill. :)  Catherine was so nervous to go sledding at first, and ended up going off of jumps and loving it.

Grammy and Ruby and I just watched and took photos at the bottom of the hill.

I came down to find Benji being buried underneath an entire playroom of toys by these rascals.

Dixie wanted to dance in her tutu with her daddy!

Dixie and Ruby made "snow angels" on the kitchen floor--much warmer than doing it in the snow!

We got to hang out at the Corbridges for a morning and see Josh after years!  Oh how we love him and his parents.

Benji had to fly to Greenbay, WI  so these two slept in my bed and when I went to climb in I loved seeing their sweet sleeping faces and snuggling up with them!

After this bath everyone wanted to sit on my lap!

Daddy helped Carson build a snow tunnel--so cool to Carson!

Christmas 2015!

Grammy and Granddad and Great Grammy joined us again for a wonderful Christmas Eve dinner and fun.

Here is a cute action shot during our Christmas charades game.

After the fun game we watched the Christmas story on lds.org 

and then wrote our own cards that said "He was born so I ______".  It was a great way to end our evening on a good note.

After our guests left we got into our Christmas pajamas, put milk and cookies out and watched one more Christmas cartoon.  Dixie wanted to put chocolate milk out as well (I think she got the idea from Max and Ruby).

Daddy and I snuck downstairs before the kids woke up (they slept in until 8:30!) so we could get a peek at what Santa left.  Holy cow, Santa was very generous this year!  They all got wiggle cars to use in the Spring.  Ruby got a tricycle (much needed for when she wants to ride bikes with her siblings).  There was doll furniture, coloring books, a princess make-up kit, nerf guns, games, candy and star wars legos!

Their favorite gifts:

Ruby = her wiggle car

Dixie = her Elsa jelly beans

Carson = his star wars legos

Santa left this nice note.  I was quite impressed by his handwriting!  He left some great sentiments and advice for us all.  We love Santa!

Christmas is the best because there is nowhere we have to rush off to so we get to absolutely just relax all day together.  We both helped Carson put the Death Star together.  It's the biggest set he's gotten so far and it took quite a while.

This little doll loved making the rounds between all the new stuff.  These were the Squigz that Grammy and Granddad gave to Dixie--all the kids love these.

Benji made cinnamon rolls and bacon, and I made sausage egg casserole for breakfast.  And, we indulged in Egg Nog instead of our usual milk.  Carson took the picture for us!  

Ruby loved the princess Anna costume that Santa brought!

Since it's snowy, we had to test out our new outdoor toys, inside.

In the evening we headed to Grammy's and Granddad's for dinner with Paul's family.  Grammy got these adorable princess dress-ups for the girls to play with at her house.  They loved them and were so cute.

All tuckered out after a wonderful Christmas day!

Almost Christmas--the Sunday before.

Mary gave me this adorable maternity dress and I love it.  I don't have any maternity dresses so this was a great hand-me-down.

I curled both girls' hair for church.  I wish I could do their hair like this everyday!

I don't think this was on Sunday, but it's a cute picture of them sledding at the elementary school.

During family scripture study Ruby wanted to sit with Carson in the rocking chair!  

Morrison Family Christmas Party 2015

Getting ready to go caroling for their first time.

Here's all the carolers on our way around my parent's block.  My kids could not resist picking up big pieces of ice and snow no matter how many times we asked them not to.  :)  It's just too tempting!

Here I am with the littlest caroler who refused to stop and pose for a picture.

Ruby is getting more and more comfortable with other family members and it was so fun to catch this moment of her sitting with Grammy watching the talent show.

We ended the night with I Believe In Santa from Grammy and Granddad.

Adam loved that Ruby would sit with him!

Dixie got this 100 piece puzzle from Catherine.  And, no big deal, with some minor help from us she did the whole thing before we even left the party.

Here's Kim and I with our baby bumps--halfway there!

The boys all got these neat light sabers from Grammy and Granddad--and immediately they ran downstairs to turn off the lights and see their sabers glow as they had a battle.

Coloring inside the lines

Our budding artist, Carson, loves to color and has really been practicing to stay inside the lines.  He's getting better and better all the time.  He colored this spiderman and then this ninja really fast and did really well staying inside the lines--even on all this tiny webs.  He was so proud he asked me to snap some photos to send to Dad who was working.