Merry Christmas!

A Christmas Video

Just Getting Started with the Fun...

Gavin came in my room this morning and whispered to me, "Mom, Santa came, but he didn't bring me any coal...why?" I said, "Well, Santa probably knows what a good boy you are." That's when he said, "Well, I've been good except for yesterday, but he still didn't bring me any coal!" (Yesterday was a rough day for him, so apparently he thought he'd been bad enough to deserve coal for Christmas, but he never said a word about it last night! No wonder he couldn't sleep. I just thought he was excited! Silly boy!) The kids got to digging into their stockings and shared some of their chocolate with Aidan.

Gavin sucking on a piece of chocolate and opening his presents...multi-tasking!

Here's Connor telling us that he asked Santa for a train, and he got a train!

Aidan playing.

Getting down to the business of opening the presents!

Christmas Fun

Opening the gifts.

Aidan needed lots of help staying focused on the opening of the gifts...there was too much going on for him to know what he was supposed to be looking at!

Aidan playing like it's nobody's business!

Jason was excited to get a sword from my dad and Laurie. He loves swords and had no idea it was coming.

More Christmas Pictures

Happy Baby.

Jason's mom made some cute aprons for Gavin, Connor & me. Gavin & Connor love helping out in the kitchen...my little helpers!

Gavin wearing a Clone Trooper helmet he got from my mom and Cheryl...it talks and says lines from the movie, or you can push a button to make your voice sound like a Clone Trooper. Gavin looks so funny running around wearing this. He loves it.

My favorite present! Aidan accidently sat on a bow, and I just had to take a picture!

Connor got a new violin stand to hold his music...he was so excited to get the violin out with his new little stand.

Messy Face!

It's amazing how much of a mess can be made from one little piece of chocolate! Sure looks like he enjoyed it! (On a side note, if you look really close, you can see his one goofy tooth up top. He's had it all month, but the other one hasn't come in yet!)

Gingerbread Houses and a Visit to Santa!

We decided to get together with a few friends of mine and their kids for a little Christmas party/gingerbread house making get-together. The kids had a hard time getting the candy on their houses before it made it to their mouths! But, that's the fun part, right?!


The kids got to visit Santa last week and tell him what they wanted for Christmas. Connor said he wanted a train. Gavin said he wanted candy canes! I think he could see Santa's stash of candy and that's all he could think about! Santa laughed and handed him one.

Winter Wonderland

This year, I really wanted to get a real tree and thought it would be fun to cut down our own tree. I think I was thinking there would be a tree farm we could cut from, but it was the real forest we had to go to. It was actually really nice and quiet and beautiful out there, but no good trees to pick from. We tried to find a tree for over two hours and then realized that we would just have to pick something before it got dark, but we really couldn't find anything. Everything was very bare as far as branches and pines go or way too tall to cut down. We just let the kids play for a while in the snow. They had a lot of fun with that...running through the forest in the powdery soft snow. The snow was about a foot or more deep, so Connor had trouble trudging through it, but did okay when he followed the path we made ahead of him. It was a really beautiful day out...cloudy but absolutely no wind and so quiet and white!
Here's an example of the types of bare trees we had to pick from! Once you dusted the snow off of them, there just wasn't much there.

Finally, with almost all hope lost of finding a tree, I asked Gavin to say a prayer to help us find a Christmas tree, so he did. We got back in the truck and headed back and saw in the distance a tree that would work! It's not the greatest Christmas tree ever, but compared to what we'd seen, it was perfect! We cut it down and took it home to decorate. It's so nice to have a real tree that smells so great and is so fresh. The boys were really proud of themselves, and we ended up having a really fun day together as a family.

Here are Jason and Gavin after we found our tree.

Connor and me after we loaded up our Christmas tree!

I had a hard time getting the kids to sit still for a picture in front of our tree...they were too excited to decorate it!

Silly Little Boy!

Aidan does this new thing where he scrunches up his nose when he whines! It's so funny! Jason and I just crack up laughing every time we see it! I know it looks silly and is probably one of those funny facial expressions only a mother could love, but I really do! I love it.

Here's the video of Aidan doing his funny face!

Busted!

So, Gavin came running into my room the other day and hands me my camera with a shocked look on his face and says, "Look! Look what Connor was playing with!" So, frustrated, I take the camera away from Gavin and send Connor to time-out. That's when I do a little review of the pictures and what did I find?!...this picture of Connor! Somehow I don't think he took that himself...so Gavin got to join Connor in the naughty corner! There were several pictures they took of each other and some random ones they took around the house...well, whatever they did, the evidence shows they sure had fun doing it! And, even going to time-out still made it worth it to them I think! HA!

Aidan Crawling

Here's Aidan crawling around after Thanksgiving dinner. Notice how he keeps his left leg up almost in a walking position...so funny!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Here we are enjoying the feast!

My sister-in-law, Angie, brought her cute little puppy, Molly, to Jason's parent's house. Aidan and Molly were very curious about each other trying to figure out what the other one was! It was pretty cute.

Aidan all fed and happy...and face not wiped up yet!

Here's my attempt to get a picture of all the cousins playing together after dinner. And, I do mean right after dinner...they went straight for the trampoline! Only kids would think of jumping right after a Thanksgiving feast! Yikes!

I thought it would be fun to start a new Thanksgiving tradition this year, so I made these little place-mats for everyone and set them on the tables so that before dinner everyone could go around and write what they're thankful for about that person. I had a lot of fun doing it. Gavin and Connor I had to just drag along (to ask them what they were thankful for about each person) because I was infringing on their play time with their cousins, but I think everyone else liked it. Then everyone got to take their place-mats home.

Gavin's Dental Surgery

Gavin was so brave for his dental surgery. We're good about brushing, but not so much with the flossing, so Gavin had a couple of bad cavities between his molars and the dentist thought it would be easier to put Gavin under anesthesia to fix it. Otherwise, it would have taken at least three visits to the dentist to fix it with lots of shots and drilling that would probably scare Gavin into not wanting to go back to the dentist for regular cleanings. I was so nervous, and Gavin was so brave and did a great job. Here he is waking up from the anesthesia enjoying sipping on his soda and watching the Disney Channel. I was so glad when it was all done!