Christmas Morning!!!

Christmas morning was so much fun around our house! I just love that the kids are BOTH old enough to anticipate and be excited for Christmas morning! We had told the kids the night before to be sure to stay in bed till we came to get them up... and then set our alarm just in case we were tempted to sleep in.

I got the video camera ready and took some cute video of the kids reactions... THIS is what Mack saw!

And THIS was for Rhyan!

They were SO excited about the trampoline for sure!!!  It was the first thing Rhyan went to! The way Santa works around here is that the "Big" things are to be shared and the smaller things that are more gender specific are obviously for each kid alone.

Mack was STOKED about his dinosaur!

Ever since Rhyan started Pre-K in the fall, Mack has been allllll about a backpack! He has cried over wanting to carry hers into tracy's house each morning. He's asked for his own big boy backpack. He has checked them out at the store and picked out his favorite 3. Ha!  But we kept telling him to wait for Christmas! (our kids get lots of little treats throughout the year... yard sale finds, etc... so i think its good for them to learn delayed gratification, too). He just HAD To try it on! And of course, he loved it!

We also used Christmas morning as a time to put Mack's wall decorations up... he loved it, too!!!

And Jeff had suggested that maybe we try starting a yearly tradition of going to Waffle House for Christmas breakfast, so I said "why not". I was surprised at how many people were there! Crazy people ;-) haha

And Jeff tried to get one pic of me with my babies (i had forgotten to change lens so he had to take it with my 50mm... too close! HA!). Mack wasnt having it, though. But this pic pretty much sums up how he acted at breakfast that morning anyways. I told Jeff i'm not sure that I'm ready to make going out somewhere a tradition. Christmas morning is hectic enough as it is. And the kids want to stay w/ the toys, obviously. So we didnt get the best behavior from them (well, mack... haha).

We came back to the house to continue to play with the new toys and I started working on organizing the playroom and deciding what was to stay or go :-) This mama cant stand clutter and Christmas is a natural cluttered time!

We were so excited that the kids seemed to really like what they got. Santa tried very hard this year to stick to a budget and limit how many toys the kids got. Last year, there was just TOO much and it literally took weeks for them to get around to playing with everything even once. So this year was MUCH better and the focus on fewer quality items was great!

Then, we read our bible about the birth of Jesus and talked about how fun it is to give gifts and have a great time but that we have to always remember that its not our birthday, its Jesus's. Rhyan kind of gets it. Mack wanted to just jump on the trampoline ;-)

Grandparents came over at different times in the morning to check out the kids loot and we had a great time spending time with them as well! We are a blessed family, indeed!

Christmas Eve Night at Mommies

I know that a month or so ago i was ROLLING with getting caught up with my blog. But life has been crazy. Thats an understatement. And I've honestly dreaded writing these next few posts about Christmas. Because as it turns out, this past Christmas was the last one we will ever have with my Mommie. She went home to be with the Lord on Jan 25th and so its so bittersweet to know that she is made whole... but also knowing that her healing comes in exchange of our hurting hearts...



Christmas eve at Mommie's house is an INSTITUTION. Be there or... be disowned ;-). I like being a part of the family, crazy as it may be, so we are sure to be there every year! This year, we started off around 5pm to do gift exchange with Mama. Normally we go to Mama's house for that but it was a crazy day so we just headed to Mommie's and did it all there.

Mama had a friend of hers make this little truck for Mack. It is so cute and so well made. He loved it!

Rhyan and her typical "i'm putting all my effort into NOT smiling" pose ;-)

But of course when she opened this CD player from my Mom, she was a happy, happy girl! A favorite!

Mack also got this set of disney books with a reader with it (he's figured out how to use it and while we still do it together, it is great on days its just me and him at home and its rainy/cold outside and we read 835 books). Its super cute and i love that it helps him to know characters seeing as how we are going to DISNEY this year!! Whoot whoot!

Mama also gave Rhyan her favorite cd! Its a precious moments bible story songs cd and its super cute!

We always wait to do gift exchange with mommie till everyone is present but she somehow got a hold of one gift and thought she was supposed to open it. so we snatched it away (lovingly) and said to wait :-)

Mr Clause himself got a giftcard to go eat. mmmm.

Funny backstory... Mack had a bank that he insisted on "playing with" and broke. That was last summer. And I told him from that point forward that he needed to learn to obey and not play with things that were not toys and that maybe he could get a new one for Christmas. So when my mom gave him a DINOSAUR bank... he had hit the proverbial jackpot! ;-)

We gave my mom a new "church coat"

And Rhyan picked out Shlaine's gift this year... a pink scarf and pink earrings. HA! I had warned Shlaine that Rhyan picked it all out and she'd either love it or hate it but please pretend. Turns out, she didnt have to pretend! She loved it! (BTW, isnt she such a pretty lady?! and i'm quite pleased with my manual photography skillz for such a beginner... heads up: a great lens helps! HA!)

Shlaine and I decorate Mommie's tree each year and this year we were mega impressed with ourselves!

Some of the yummy food!

And an example of my not so great photography skillz... forgot to adjust ISO for the bright light in the room.

Again... back to the same room witht the same bright light. Its a slow process to learn to make changes!

Each year we play the white elephant gift exchange and for some reason i think that our limit is $10... although some have spent more in the past and most spend less. But this year I found a great deal on waffle makers at kohls and scored one for $7 on black friday and thought it would be an awesome white elephant gift. Execpt that NO ONE wanted it?! Most families either have one already or "i dont make waffles". Well.

After the game was over, we had Mommie open her gifts. And of course, Rhyan and Mack helped!

Mommie had been looking everywhere for a pair of black boots to wear with jeans with a very small heel... and I was able to find her some! What cracked me up was that Mack insisted that she go ahead and put them on ;-)

And mama and I had bought Mommie some earrings with her birthstone in them for Mothers day, but she had lost one. So Mama splurged and got her another pair because she loved them so much!

Tracy's family

Elizabeth and Trevor

Jonathan and mommie

Marsha and Bobby

Tyler and Lindsey (spoiler alert: they got engaged recently! SO excited for their wedding!)

Lindy and her family

Shlaine and Tyler (Ashley lives in Ohio now and Steve went to his family gathering)

My little family!

And I really, really wanted one good pic of my babies with mommie. But Mack wasnt having it and this is what I got with Rhyan...

Mama and Mommie

And after all of those pictures, I got NONE of me and Mommie together. NONE of my family with mommie. Friends, please take the time to take pictures with your loved ones.

After the main party was over, Shlaine and Elizabeth and Tyler hung around to share gifts with the kids!
Rhyan was STOKED to get Anna! She is obsessed with Frozen!!!

And Mack scored some more dinosaurs!

Rhyan has been asking for these little people princesses for over a year but I thought she was too old for them... but Mommie got them for her anyway this year and she really does love them. She uses them to play with in her dollhouse. Shows how much I know!

Tyler showing off what Mommie got ;-)

And Mommie also got the kids a bowling set. They really do enjoy it!

Looking back on this Christmas, Mommie was not feeling well in the beginning of the evening. She perked up and got to feeling better as the evening went on, but it definitely was not the same as in years past where she was the life of the party.
Jeff was sharing with me one of his favorite memories of Christmas at Mommies recently and its a hilarious one :-). It was his first Christmas at our house and Mommie (who historically had tummy issues from time to time... which she passed on so generously to me) was dealing with some tummy problems. She was embarrassed and literally RAN out onto the front porch (to pass gas) but promptly slipped on ice an busted her tail and then tooted super loud, where Jeff and I  (and anyone else in the livingroom) could hear. Bless her heart! She laughed about it and said thats what she got for trying to save face :-). Thats one of my favorite things about Mommie... her ability to laugh at herself.
And boy, did we share a lot of laughs over the years.
What a blessed Christmas eve we shared.