Christmas Eve

I'm kind of late posting Christmas pictures but as I mentioned the boys have been sick (all at once) and that pretty much required every ounce of energy I had this past week!

In any case, here are some pictures from Christmas Eve. We had such a wonderful time at my parent's house, who live on the east side of the state.

My sister in law gave the boys shirts for Christmas which they ended up wearing on Christmas Eve. I was so thrilled to open these shirts because I'd brought nothing special for them to wear! The boys were actually pretty cooperative for some pictures which doesn't always happen!

Of course, it's still hard to get everybody smiling and/or keeping their eyes open at the same time!

 I was going to then take a picture of each of them alone in front of the tree, starting with Finn. So I said, "Finn, go stand in front of the tree for Mommy and I'll take your picture!" Well, over ran Carter and Everett too, so I went with it.

These guys have a special connection, that's for sure. I marvel at how they have no issues sharing space with each other. None. Then I remember how they were squished together in my belly all those months, always leaning into one another and making room for each other. When I remember that, their unspoken connection doesn't surprise me. 

As some of you may or may not know, one of our boys was recently diagnosed with multiple food allergies. None are life threatening and for that we are so grateful but it's been challenging as we cut out so many foods the boys once enjoyed and hunt for new recipes. Literally days before Christmas I randomly found a woman who bakes goodies for people with food allergies/intolerances. What a Godsend! I'd been scouring the web trying to figure out how to make Christmas cookies that were gluten, dairy, egg, nut and coconut free.... not so easy. Yet I so badly wanted the boys to be able to enjoy a cookie at Christmas! This woman cooked up some Christmas cookies and an apple pie to our special dietary needs and they were delicious!! 

The apple pie ended up being our birthday cake for Jesus.

We had some birthday pie, read the story of Jesus's birth and then went to church. Years past we have skipped Church because we weren't sure the boys could handle an hour service but I'm so glad we made the decision to go this year. It was such a beautiful service and ended up being one of my favorite memories of this Christmas. 

The service was 30 minutes and ended with a candle light rendition of Silent Night. The boys were so well behaved and actually got a lot out of the service I think.

Here is the tree at around 1 a.m Christmas morning, finally ready.

Merry Christmas!

The boys shirts are from Boden. And just so you know,  Boden has the BEST maternity leggings ever. My sister in law got them for me half way through my pregnancy with Owen and I'm pretty sure I wore them every day after that!