A December to Remember

What a wonderful (and busy) Christmas time we've had! We were quite spoiled by both families this year (including Magnolia) and we've loved being with family. Here are some highlights of this year's festivities:

Nolie and me on my 24th birthday, December 21. Having a birthday four days before Christmas was super fun as a kid, but it's gotten kind of lame as an adult as it just gets swept up in all the holiday excitement. Nevertheless, it was a great day this year with family and I was able to reflect on how good 23 was to me. Here's hoping 24 is just as wonderful!


This picture is just for fun, showcasing Magnolia's adorable baby mohawk. This is how my mom always did my hair when I was a baby and I love doing Nolie's like this now that her hair is a little longer. I can't decide what color it's going to be; sometimes it looks like it's coming in super blond and others I think she might be a brown-haired little lady, taking after her Daddy. We'll see....

Again, Miss Nolie with Santy. My kind father-in-law took all of his grand kids to see the man of the hour. We went to Trolley Square, where Santa is free for all girls and boys and you can take as many pictures as you want.


A lovely sleigh ride, sans any actual bob-tailed horses or snow, but fun nevertheless.

Christmas Eve!!! We got together at Grandpa Goates's annual Christmas Eve extravaganza. Following tradition, Magnolia opened her Christmas Eve jammies from her grandma and grandpa, and below she's showing them off:


A bunch of the grand kids and great grand kids in their Christmas pjs.

Rob with his oldest brother Rick, who's family was here for Christmas from Texas. They haven't come for Christmas since Rob was on his mission, and they have four cute kiddos, so it was really fun to have the whole Goates family together.

Rob and I have a Christmas Eve tradition of making strawberry daiquiris that dates back to our honeymoon. We love doing it and I hope it's something that our kids will look forward to every year.

Our Christmas stockings! I'm going to have to make some before our next child arrives but I'm having a hard time committing to what I want to make, so until then these Hobby Lobby cheapies that I embroidered with our initials will have to do.

Miss Magnolia bright and early Christmas morning. You can see that she wouldn't even interrupt her beauty sleep to see what Santa brought.

The Goates home was full of babies this Christmas! Here is Magnolia sandwiched between Kyle who is about two months older, and little Molly who is five weeks younger. Baby Dylan is set to join the group any day now...

This picture is hilarious because it makes the size differences way more noticeable. It's a baby pyramid.

Here is Nolie at her Papa and Gee Gee's house in her other Christmas jammies, showing off what Santa brought her: the Bumbo and Sophie the Giraffe.

As you can see, she already loves her.

Playing with her new fancy play mat. She loves this thing. I don't even think she knows what to begin with, there's so much fun stuff going on here. (Pardon her drool. It's like a hurricane of drool for us these days.)

Magnolia was able to meet her uncle Jared via Skype! This was a really special Christmas moment for us. My brother loves babies and he has been really sad to miss out on Nolie's arrival. She will be almost a year old when he gets home and he can't wait to see her in person, but it was so fun for him to see her on Skype and it was great to talk to him about his adventures as a missionary in the Bible Belt.

I got kind of pictured out in those few days, so I haven't taken any pictures since Christmas really but we've had an enjoyable couple of days relaxing after the hustle and bustle of the holiday. We'll probably stick around for New Year's and then it'll be back to Logan and back to school for Rob. We've had a wonderful time with family, and can't believe how blessed we are.

Happy Christmas to all of you out there; I hope you had a wonderful day and were filled with Christmas cheer!