Christmas afternoon

Our last Christmas celebration of the year was at Gma Cindy and Pop's. It's always a relaxing way to end the 500 festivities with yummy food, watching the kids play and usually watching "A Christmas Story." Thanks guys for all the wonderful food and gifts. :) We are truly blessed (and spoiled) by our entire family. sheesh!

The "ultimate" light saber

Yah, some more lego duplos so we can all build. :)

Ethan loved his new pillow pet and gave it a try :)

More star wars undies! Now Mom can throw those size 4's out that I've been squeezing into. ha!

*Shoowee, Christmas is over! I'm always a little sad when it's all over. The trees, the lights, family, gifts all of it. :) I love it all and of course love remembering and trying to teach my kids the true meaning of Christmas. It's such a fabulous time of year and I don't want it to end. But give me a day or two and as usual, the clutter will overwhelm me and I'll happily take down the decor. ha! Thank you SO much to everyone that helped the boys and I have such a wonderful Christmas. We are so blessed!!!!

Christmas morning

Christmas morning Braden woke up at 5:30 so I made him get in bed with us and go back to sleep. I know as a kid we were up at 5:30 or 6:00 for Christmas morning but while they're still little, we're not doing that. ha! So it was more like 7-7:30 before we all headed downstairs to see what Santa had left.

Braden was amazed the cookies were nothing but crumbs. wow!

Most presents were wrapped but the batman house and Elmo were left out by Santa (and mom's finds that didn't include boxes because they were hand me downs. hee hee!).

Ripping into our gifts.

Ethan got a couple "choo choo" books

Wow! A wii for the family. :) Good thinking Santa

New Star Wars undies! Braden was dancing up and down putting the package of underwear, um I guess where he'll wear them. crack me up!

Ethan loved his new playdough kit

*The rest of the morning we ate a big breakfast and played with our toys before we headed up to Gma Cindy and Pop's.

Christmas Eve night traditions

We got home from Spencer pretty close to bedtime but I was determined to do a few traditions before bed and Santa's arrival. :)

Chris attempted to read the night before Christmas...they weren't really having it at this moment. ha!

We put out some cookies and milk for Santa

and sprinkled our reindeer food so Santa could find our house. Then off to bed we marched!

Christmas Eve

On Christmas Eve morning we headed up to Spencer to see the family. The boys always have a blast in Spencer because there are so many kids to play with...lots of cousins. I don't get to see my whole family all together that much so it's always such a blessing to be under one roof together. My dad comes too which is nice to all be together. :)Thanks Mom for all your hard work...a yummy meal, great company and more fabulous presents for all. :)

Star wars central this year!

Who is this? :)

My sister in law, Heidi with her new baby girl Claira....ahhhh, just sweetness! And the tutu-love it!

Ethan woke up from his nap and had a pile of presents waiting for him. New clothes! He got excited over every single thing he opened. :)

Elmo and Barney...good friends of Ethan's

*My dad got the boys a fish tank but I didn't get a picture since it was in my trunk. He thought he'd help us out on the major pet wanting problem in this house. :) Thanks Dad. Maybe they'll bark?

Christmas Eve Eve

We started out the family Christmas celebrations on the 23rd at Papa T and Mimi's. The boys were super excited to see everyone and of course get their presents.

Ethan, with his new eyes closed cheese, gets ready to unload some of our presents.

Cute boys

Cousins

More cousin pictures...too cute!

Our attempted family pic...had to put this one because look at the boys' faces. ha! We're smiling away and the boys are doing their thing. :)

Oh my oh my!!! Braden got his DS. This is ALL I've heard about for weeks...maybe months. He told every Santa we saw he wanted a DS and nothing else. Papa T thought he needed it. :) I guess he was right. Braden absolutely loves it!!!

"A DS"...the excitement!!

Ethan was adorable this year opening presents. He was really into it and loved everything he got, even clothes. He'd say "my pants! or my shirt!" Here he got a huge train/truck system dealio and both boys are loving it.

Crack me up! Braden opened some coal...hee hee!

Ethan tried on Papa T's new jeans!

Izzie got a new karaoke machine so she and Ethan were trying it out. Ethan is really getting into it!

Mimi and Papa T with their grandbabies. :)

*Thanks everyone for such a fun night, yummy dinner and fabulous gifts. :)

Dinner Party

The McAfee's have an annual Christmas dinner party that is just fabulous! They cook a huge, delicious meal and have it all hot and ready for 20 people!! Just amazing. :) She always decorates the tables so cute and even had little ornaments for each couple to take home. So cute!! Thanks guys for having us! So fun! Oh, and this year's theme was "ugly sweater" so we whipped out our bad boys again!

Looking fabulous again! :)

The guys...Chris is trying to look sexy. hee hee!

The gals

Lights Under Louisville

The megacaverns is something we've never done and I've always wanted to. :) We talked about it this year but didn't really want to pay for it or fight the bridge until one of my students at preschool gave me a free pass to go! It was meant to be so we headed over. I didn't tell the boys what we were doing so when we started going into the cave and I explained it, Braden kept asking when we were getting out? ha! We thought it was pretty cool...especially since it was free. :)

LOVED how they had several references to the true meaning of Jesus! Way to go megacaverns. :)

Pretty excited!

Ethan was waving at the lit up Santa...or "Seenta" as he says.

Ethan's favorite....choo choo!

Another message from Santa

Both boys had already received their message from Santa and heard Santa say they were on the good list. :) however....a week or so later, Braden's behavior was so stinky I decided to have Santa send him a new message (mean mommy!). He was nervous, suspecting he might not be on the good list anymore. His face below is priceless as he sees the red light flash. ha! I seriously was cracking up over his face. Santa said, "there's still time Braden." Not sure it phased him a whole lot and I guess he moved over to the nice list because we are swimming in toys. :)

Cake Pops

Yesterday I baked my little heart out making 95 cake pops for teachers, friends, our sitter and the childcare worker at the gym. :) They are not hard, just time consuming. :) This was my second time making them and it was pretty successful. It's one of those things that you get better with practice so I guess I'll need to practice some more because they are pretty yummy!

All wrapped and tied with ribbon


Then I put them in these cute little baskets from the Target dollar bin and attached a note. They turned out pretty cute and Braden had fun delivering them to all his teachers at school. :)

Just precious!

Last night Ethan put his Santa hat on and was saying ho ho ho from the kitchen. As if that wasn't cute enough, he kept saying "sit mommy, sit lap!" He wanted me to sit on his lap like he was Santa. Seriously!?!? How cute are you Ethan Noble?!? Love it!

Granny's Family Christmas

On Saturday we partied it up again with Granny's annual Christmas party at our house. Can you believe it...Santa showed up again! He must really like visiting our house. ha! When he walked down the stairs Braden looked at me and said, "That's 4 Santa's mom." :) I guess he means he has seen Santa 4 times this year. He later told me this was a "mask Santa like the movie we saw where a man dresses up as Santa." I wonder how much longer this observant child is going to believe. :(

The 4th Santa or not, Braden was front row ready to hear what he had to say. :)

Ethan hung back and kept his distance again...check out his hand in his pocket-too cute!

Such a big boy!

Braden tried to wait patiently for Ethan to open his gift but really wanted to help him.

The kiddos...cousins, distant cousins, and new little friends that came with family members. I was proud that we got Ethan to sit this close (he's cheesing by the way...he closes his eyes now when he cheeses). :)

Chris tried one more time to get Ethan to sit. Nope, he is very sure he wants no part in that.