Holly Jolly Christmas!

Just a warning... This post is out of control for two reasons, the first is that our lives have been crazy for the past two weeks and the second is that I took 123 pictures over Christmas so I squeezed in a ton of them into my Christmas post. I hope it's not too overwhelming. This is also my third post today so hope you enjoy my novel!

Tyler's birthday was the 19th... my old man, just kidding babe! We celebrated by going to the Cheesecake Factory with his family and that night we went to the live nativity scene out in Eagle with Ben and Claudia. My present to him was a new rash guard for wake boarding this summer. He can't use it yet but that didn't stop him from wearing it around the house.

On to Christmas. Here is am overview of our holiday:

Christmas Eve we spent the morning lounging and trying on Parker's cute Christmas outfit. Then we did some last minute shopping in the crazy hustle and bustle of procrastinating shoppers.

Lounging...

Parker's cute "My first Christmas" outfit with adorable reindeer slippers.

So Cute!

At 4:00pm on Christmas Eve we went to my family's house for dinner (so yummy!), games and opening one present each.

Spoons! 

Parker opening Present number one!

Our Christmas Eve presents are always pj's. So cute!

Parker with Grandma and Grandpa.

With my brother Jake and sister Kristen.

We love our mom.

After that... we went up to Tyler's parents' house to watch movies and spend the night. Christmas morning, Tyler's younger brother and sisters woke us up at 5:30 am to open presents. We didn't even go to bed until after midnight so we were a little sleepy!

Uncle Jae home from Rexburg.

Tyler and his musically talented siblings playing some Christmas music late at night.

Early morning love. Looking great at 5:30 Christmas morning!

Libby opening presents.

Then at about 9:00 Christmas morning we went back to my families house to open more presents.

Daddy helping Parker stay warm with his reindeer slippers.

He loves opening presents! He seems more interested in tearing the paper than the actual present

Parker opening his book- I'll Love You Forever. I love that book and now I cry every time I read it.

Jake's present. Rock Band! We all rocked out!

One of Parker's many great presents! He is so spoiled. Thanks Grandma!

And our holiday does not end there! We then went out to Tyler's Grandma's house for dinner and more presents! We are so blessed to have such wonderful families and so much love to share at Christmas. We are also so lucky to have the gospel and to know that the true meaning of Christmas is to celebrate the life of our Savior and his atonement made on our behalf. I hope that everyone had a wonderful Christmas!

A White Christmas

One of the most exciting parts of Christmas this year was all the snow! We got about 2 feet out in Eagle! Of course I grew up in Truckee where we'd get 2 feet of snow over night but this was the closest I've seen to that in Eagle so it was a blast! These pictures were actually taken a couple days after Christmas, we were trying to get to Nick and Vanessa's wedding in Logan but we were a little snowed in and it didn't stop snowing until about 2 hours before their reception. Sad! But we made the best of the snow.

Tyler and Parker about to take on the huge task of shoveling!

Parker after Tyler tossed him into the snow. He loved it!

So snowy!

Tyler loves to shovel... not!

Brrr....

Family Pictures

Christmas time means picture time and I thought I would start off the photo frenzy with some family photos we had taken over the holidays!

Our happy little family!

Tyler' not-so-little family! We have lots of fun!

Yay for Christmas sweaters, ha ha!

Babies everywhere! Unfortunately something weird happened to Parker's eye in this picture. Oh well still cute!

It was a blue Christmas at the Pooligan (Pooley + Milligan) Family!

Our Cougars may not have met their quest for perfection but we're still loyal!

They are so gangtsa!

We have such wonderful families and we love them so much. They made our holiday so very merry! Thank you to our parents and siblings for all the joy your bring to our lives. We love you!

Tree Hunting

We finally had a day to devote to Christmas tree hunting last Saturday! It had to be a big deal, especially since it's Parker's first tree, so we made a fun day of it. We went to lunch first, unfortunately we thought we'd be brave and try a new Italian restaurant and it was not very good... oh well. Then the real fun came... Tree Hunting! We went to the lot at the Boise Hawks Stadium first. It was snowing so that added to the fun because it was Parer's first adventure in the snow. He loved it despite it being wickedly cold! Unlike last year ( we went to like 5 tree lots with the Johnsons before we found our tree- fun, we missed you guys this year!) we found the perfect tree right away.

 

Here are my handsome boys sitting in the back of the truck with our tree! In the SNOW!

Parker insisted on helping decorate.

He was in charge of our bows!

Our beautiful, crooked Christmas tree, despite our endless efforts t get it straight. Ha ha. Still beautiful though!

Later that night we had Tyler's work Christmas dinner at the restaurant Six One Six in Eagle. It was fun to eat at such a "fancy shmancy" restaurant as I refer to it. Parker hung out at Grandma and Grandpa and Jake's for the night. He loves his grandma!

Momma's Little Buddy

Now that my semester is over, I have had lots more time to spend with Parker and we have had so much fun! He is always laughing and loves to come up with silly games. I have enjoyed it so much. He is also getting so big. He looks like a little boy in these pictures instead of a baby... growing up so fast. He has gotten so good at sitting up too. 

Demonstrating his mad sitting up skills.

Oh how I love this little smile. Good thing they are in large supply these days!

This is a video (I finally figured out how to get my videos on the computer) of our new game we have to play every time we change his diaper. I love his giggle... so fun!

This is the definition of Joy!

A Thanksgiving to be Thankful for

We had a wonderful and busy Thanksgiving this year. It was full of family, delectable (Tyler's favorite word) food, football, and Parker showing off!! It was great! It went like this.....

Thanksgiving morning Parker had a tasty meal of baby rice cereal for the first time! He wasn't quite sure what to think of it at first but he got the hang of it eventually. Yum!

Next it was off to Grandma and Grandpa Pooley's for Thanksgiving dinner. The food was great and we had lots of fun with Tyler's big family including grandparents, uncles, aunts, and cousins. The guys played football on the Playstation and the girls hung out with all the babies. After everyone left, we hung out with Tyler's parent and the kids and watched Journey to the Center of the Earth. It was a very fun night.

We discovered Parker is quite the show-off. This is his new favorite trick... standing and balancing on Dad's hand. It scares me but I love how proud of himself he gets. He preformed all weekend long!

Here are Lacey with her baby girl Mikaela and Tyler's mom with Parker.

Friday we went to my grandparent's house in Idaho Falls. Once we got there we ate lots of left-overs and had our annual Milligan/Pooley vs. Ottersburg football game. It is an ongoing rivalry every Thanksgiving! No turkey coma or freezing temperature can keep us from playing. Fun fun! That night Tyler and I took all the kids to the movies to see Madagascar 2. Parker stayed with my mom, aunt, and grandma who fought over him all weekend.

My cute cousins with Parker. Kids make the holidays so fun!

Parker and his great-grandma (GG). We love her!

Parker's last trick was sitting up on his own Friday night! He just decided all of the sudden that he was going to sit up and he was going to do it all on his own. He sat up like this for a good five minutes before he got so proud of himself, he fell over. My little boy is growing up. Well, that was our holiday. Such wonderful memories! You can check out more pictures of our holiday by clicking on our picture link on the left side of our blog. Can't wait for Christmas!