Christmas 2014, finally

Now that it is almost Valentine's Day I will blog about Christmas.  

But this should be my last catch-up post.

I feel good about that. 

We started out with matching Christmas PJ's.  I asked Madison's permission before I bought them all matching pajamas.  I'm not sure when she will stop thinking it's cool to match her brothers.

We spent Christmas day with our own little family.  After the chaos of past Christmases we were glad to have just the family.   It was fun to sit and open presents quietly at our own pace.  

Colton got these cool duplo cars. 

The main gift this year for everyone was bikes.  We got Jaxon a new bigger bike, Colton a scooter, Chris and I got bikes, Hudson got a bike trailer

and Madison got roller skates. Now we can go on family bike rides and keep up with our big kids who ride two wheelers much faster than I can run with a double jogging stroller!

Jaxon got this ninja costume and this awesome Samurai lego set, which he put together himself.  

And Madison got the rainbow loom, like every other kid in the U.S.  Obviously the whole family has had fun with that one!

We also got to Skype with Seth in Brazil!  It was fun to talk to him!  He's doing well.  I think it's so awesome that we can Skype with missionaries these days!  

As far as the rest of Christmas break goes, it was busy.  We spent a lot of time cuddling Mr. Hudson

Grandma and Grandpa Wise, Nathan, and Sean came to visit a couple days after Christmas.  Since we didn't do a fancy Christmas dinner with our little family we had a big Christmas dinner with the Wise family.

lots of fun cousin time

and snuggles with grandpa 

more baby snuggling, every once in a while I get to hold this guy and love on him 

I also got together with my friend Courtney, who I know from high school in Kansas, but who actually lives 20 minutes away from me now.  She has a baby who is about 7 months older than Hudson.  Kind of crazy!

For New Year's Eve we had Heidi and Garrett, Grandma and Grandpa Porter, Grandma and Grandpa Wise, and Sean over to play games and hang out.

Poor Colton had a small fever, so we played a few games with the kids, fed them and put them to bed.  We barely made it to midnight!

Then on New Year's Day we blessed Hudson!  We were so grateful to have so much family come to support us and help us celebrate our new little guy!

We blessed Hudson at home, which is what we did with Colton, too.  I like it better that way.  It's a lot more personal and a lot less hectic.  I feel like I get to sit and listen rather than wrestle kids on the pew. 

Hudson wore the same blessing outfit that my mom made for Jaxon.  We've gotten good use out of that cute little outfit!  

Hudson, 1 month

Colton, 3 months

 Jaxon, 1 month (yes, Jaxon was, and still is, a very big boy!)

Then Grandma and Grandpa Porter stayed for a few more days.  We mostly just hung out around the house and enjoyed some nice weather outside.  We did go star gazing one night, though!  The kids thought that was pretty fun.

And there you have it!  All caught up.  Between Thanksgiving and New Years we had family in town 26 of 39 days.  And we had school only only 13 of those 39 days.  Plus we had a baby, a snowstorm, and celebrated Christmas.  It was a little crazy, a little exhausting, but very fun and happy.  I will admit I was ready for school to start again and to have our routine back by the time it was all over!