Our Family of 3: California Christmas

Since Tyler got home last month from his mission, all the siblings made plans to do a Christmas together in California. We have been so excited for this trip, especially for Leila to meet her Uncle Tyler for the first time!

Leila and I have only flown together but for this trip Daddy got to fly with us! I was so grateful to have another pair of hands. Leila loved watching the planes out the window...and so did Bree (her doll).

There must have been a lot of families going to California for Christmas. This was the family boarding line...Yikes!

We started the flight off well....

We had a lot of things to keep Leila preoccupied (she especially loved putting stickers EVERYWHERE) but definitely not 8 hours worth of stuff. And of course Leila refused to sleep almost the entire 8 hours.

She finally passed out as we were descending into San Francisco.

And she stayed asleep through landing, walking to baggage claim, getting our bags, and getting into the car. I think my face says it all. This is why we don't make this trip often. Ha!

But the next day she was ready for the meeting of a lifetime!

We were staying at Gram and Papa's the first few days but we had to run over the first afternoon there for Leila to meet her Uncle Tyler.

She was pretty hesitant at first and wouldn't let him hold her but they were pretty cute sitting next to each other on the stairs. It was so good to see Tyler after two years and we are happy to have him home!

On the way back to Brentwood we had to stop at In-n-Out because I all I seem to want is burgers these days. (Note Leila passed out in the back. Ha!)

We enjoyed the next few days just relaxing with Gram and Papa and Mayley the dog. Leila is obsessed with this dog but Mayley is not too sure about Leila. Leila always wanted Mayley inside so she could follow her around and get her to play with the chew toy. But when she had to be outside Leila just camped out by the door and talked to Mayley through the glass.

Gram had to work a little bit and both Leila and Mayley were really sad about it.

Definitely Leila's favorite thing besides the dog was the bike trailer. Papa was nice and took her for lots of rides around the block in this thing and she was in heaven.

Since we would be at the Evans for Christmas, I wanted to do an early Christmas with the Rudds and Gram Rox. We had our traditional Christmas Eve meal and Leila even got to open presents!

Roxy has always spoiled me and I love that now she spoils my little girl. Leila is pretty darn lucky!

She got a new Roxy hoodie that is so stinking cute and a whole set of Princess magniclips. She was so excited and I love these pictures of the two of them.

The next day we went to church in our Christmas Sunday best.

Leila wanted to be serious but I wasn't having that!

Look at this family of almost four!

After church we headed over to the Evans' to meet up with the rest of the crew. All five kids and their spouses and all 10 grandkids were staying in one house so it was a little crazy but we had lots of fun family time.

One thing I do miss about California is having it be swimsuit weather all year round.

Leila's a fan too.

On Christmas Eve we took Gram and Papa to the airport so they could fly to North Carolina. Yes we flew from NC to CA to see them and just as we get here they fly to NC. HA! But Tisha just had baby Truman and Mom was going to help so Dad joined for Christmas. (Truman spent a week in the NICU so it was such a blessing to have Mom and Dad there to help.)

(Attempting to recreate an old picture but Leila wasn't having it. Ha!)

That night we did the traditional Christmas Eve party with the Evans, Krumps and Fowlers. It was so fun to do the nativity with so many kids!

Leila got to stay up so late and as the night wore on, the crazier she got. But that's just the nature of Christmas Eve right?

She was having a blast!

Our other tradition on Christmas Eve is to open up the Christmas Eve jammies. I'm not sure if it was the present or just how slap happy she was but Leila was beyond excited!

Christmas morning we were up early (after a long night of Leila sleeping on top of me) to do the Evans' tradition of having a devotional before heading down the stairs youngest to oldest.

Leila being the youngest got to go down first.

Leila was so confused about us giving her a bag full of treats and kept looking at Jeremy like, "Really?"

Santa sure knows what Leila likes!

I had to throw in this Christmas morning family picture of the three of us because it shows just how tired we were. Ha!

Leila loves dogs and she hated that Macey staying in the garage the whole trip. This visit from Macey was one of her favorite Christmas surprises.

The rest of the morning was spent opening presents. Leila was happy with just one present and really just took her time which I loved. It was a mad house but it was fun seeing how excited all the kids were.

My favorite part of spending Christmas with all the Evans was seeing Leila with her cousins. They were all so sweet together!

Scott and Leila seriously the cutest together...I had to include this whole sequence of pictures of the two of them playing cars together.

On Christmas we made a visit to Grandma Evans' grave. This is always a special tradition and sweet to gather as a family and sing songs remembering this sweet woman in our lives.

Of course since we were finally all together we had to get a family picture. It was FREEZING (as it seems to always be on picture day) so we made it quick but we got some cute ones! I think the best parts for Leila were the sheep we found wondering around and all the fruit snacks we were sneaking her to stay happy.

The sisters thought it would be fun to do a girls only lunch with mom and it really was!

We went to Chipotle and then came home for ice cream on the back patio.

We also couldn't pass up a girls only photo shoot! Love this mom and these sisters!!

Jeremy was able to join his parents and all his siblings in the temple one day as well. This was the first time they had all been in the temple together!

Our last day was Sunday and Tyler's homecoming talk at church. Mom had stayed up late so many nights making matching ties from fabric brought back from Samoa for all the boys to wear and all the girls had matching necklaces from Samoa.