Christmas 2014

On Christmas morning, our house was filled to the brim with family and fun. Surprisingly though, it was still and quiet until six-thirty. I know, I know, six-thirty! Still cringe worthy, but based on the boys' excitement the night before when we tucked them into bed, I had expected them to be in our room around five, so six-thirty felt like we were gifted some time to "sleep in". Our days of waking up late on Christmas morning are apparently long gone, but those cute, happy faces and the energy and excitement they bring long make up for the early Christmas mornings!

 Because the boys were up bright and early, the rest of our slumbering guests were asked nicely to get up also. Oh wait. That's not how that happened...they were bombarded by little jumpers bouncing around on each of their beds! Oh, the joys of spending the night at our house! Anyway, we always tease that Emmie is just not a morning person (just like her Momma), but these two pictures were back to back on my camera roll and had me laughing. Elsie: morning person....

....Emmie: not-so-morning person!

We always do stockings together before breakfast and the tree. Apparently the little boys' gifts were more appealing to Nathan than his own. Chameleon goggles, anyone? ;)

Christmas morning was a whirlwind of presents and playing.

There were happy dances danced...

...new toys shared...

...and plenty of practice bike riding...

...up and down the hallway!

If you didn't know this already, our family's name is just about synonymous with "coffee". My parents have had a fancy pants espresso machine for as long as I can remember and have passed on that love of (addiction to?) a good latte on to each of us. The only problem is, unless you have the fancy pants machine, the coffee just doesn't turn out the same way. Well, this year, my parents gave Jenn and Burke a fancy pants machine. I'd say Jenn was just a little excited about it. 

Eventually (you know, like when the sun finally came up...) we went outside to try out all the new bikes.

And of course Auntie Kell had to show off just how cool she is compared to the rest of us non-skateboarders.

Thanks Pop Pop for fixing my bike seat!

See what I mean about Nathan loving the boys' gifts more than his own?? I mean really, we let the boys out for five minutes and he had already snatched Drew's new bike for himself!

Tanner kisses for Emmie

"May May" as the boys typically call her

Elsie even got in on the "bike" action this year!

By the afternoon, our kiddos were napped and happy and ready and excited to go play at Grandma and Grandpa's house.

The boys and their cousin Tallie

Grandma and the boys

Grandma and Grandpa can find just about anything in camo and the boys love them for it! This year they managed to find shirts that were....get this...Lego Batman Camo shirts. That's a whole lot of favorites combined into one!

I'd say something cheesy like this photo is my world, but you'd all gag and tell me how sappy I am. ....But really, if you asked to see my heart in pictures, I'd probably show you a photo like this. :)

Grandma always snags the boys for a day at some point before Christmas to put together a gift from the boys for both me and Nathan. They are always some of my favorite gifts. This year, Drew did his own wrapping....and tag writing. Be still my little heart.

Remember how I said that Grandma and Grandpa can find just about anything in camo? Well they can also track down hunting gear in sizes so small I didn't even think they existed. This year, Drew asked Grandpa for Camo Waders just like his. I have no idea where, or how he found them small enough for Drew, but he did...and you should have seen Drew's face when he opened the box and realized what was inside. "YESSSSSSSSsssssss!!!!!"

Tanner and his giant Olaf...who has now eaten dinner with us, driven everywhere with us, and slept with Tanny every night since his arrival.

When Christmas was all said and done, and family had all gone home, we spent a week of "detoxing" our kids off of Lala and their Auntie's constant "yes" answers to everything the boys asked for. No sweetheart, you cannot have chocolate for breakfast anymore....even if you eat an egg with it! ;)

And by New Year's Eve, things had for the most part, returned to normal. We spent a really mellow evening ringing in the New Year, East Coast style...at nine o'clock! 

All in all, a busy, fun month, filled to the brim with family and friends, which I love! It's no wonder December is my favorite time of the year!

December 2014

The December Post. ...At the end of January, of course!

This year though, I have oodles of Christmas/December photos (however many that may be), so instead of posting endless Christmas posts with a mind numbing amount of pictures, I think I'm going to just share the highlights...and even then, bear with me, there were a lot! I'll save Christmas morning itself for another post though.

The month of December was busy, busy, busy, but always in the best of ways! Christmas is one of my favorite holidays of the year, so we make sure to make it a full twenty-five plus days of all about Christmas around here!

So, the Highlights:

-Brucey's Foot. This little pooch made the busyness of the holiday season that much easier (ha!) when he broke his foot at the beginning of the month. Trying to keep a six month old puppy on "bed rest" was no easy task. Add in that his foot needed to be wrapped in something waterproof each and every time he went out of the house, and that he needed to be taken in to the vet's office weekly for bandage changes and he quickly became high maintenance puppy extraordinaire. We had been given a four to six week window of time for Brucey to be in his splint and I think out of mercy alone they took it off at the four week mark. I was begging to be done with it. Three boys and a high maintenance puppy was a little more than I had bargained for during the holiday season.

A green splint wrap for the Hulk Puppy, of course.

-We made an Ugly Elf hat! Nathan's office had an Ugly Elf Hat contest this year for their Christmas party instead of the Ugly Sweater Contest as they have done in years prior. The Elf theme went along with a promotional program they did over Christmas, and the boys and I had all sorts of fun helping Nathan look ridiculous! ;)

Of course we made him try everything on the night before!

The boys' request for this? Giant Christmas tree glasses and a hat that would light up. Done!

-The boys also had hat fun of their own....

-The boys decorating the tree (mostly) on their own. They did a great job and were so proud of themselves! We didn't move ornaments from where they had been placed and it took all my self control not to go and even things out. Our tree was bunchy and the ornaments were moved around daily by little hands, but they loved it and for that reason, so did I.

Drew's year to hang the star.

Somehow we never managed to get a picture with all three boys together...

...Coll was the only one who would stick around for the photos.

-Our tree survived the month of December! ...And its a tiny miracle that it did too! Between a puppy and Ninja Tanner who would daily go and beat its branches armed with a ninja sword and a mask, I truly wasn't sure it was going to make it.

-The boys' surprise boxes that came in the mail from my Aunt Ran. There was one box for each of them and they were filled with all sorts of goodies that they played with throughout the month. The boys loved them!

-Annual Gingerbread House making day with Grandma. Always a favorite and Tanny's first since he was old enough to join the big boys this year.

-The inundation of family! Closer to Christmas my parents and sisters arrived...including Auntie Kell; a big deal in our world right now because she is currently living in Australia.

-My Grandma came to visit and we went to see zoo lights (a first for us) with her and all the cousins.

-Walking Candy Cane Lane with my parents and sisters on Christmas Eve and then heading to Jenn's house to have my Dad's tamale dinner. My favorite meal of the entire year. Hands down. My birthday is two weeks after Christmas and I ask every single year for him to have a do-over Christmas Eve dinner for my birthday. I don't think he thinks I'm serious. I am Dad. Take note. Favorite meal. Ever.

We also opened our jammies at Jenn's house after walking Candy Cane Lane.

Cousins

-Baking the annual Birthday Cake for Jesus with Lala.

and looking over to see all of the kids licking sprinkles off of the floor after one of the boys spilled a jar (Ew!).

-Our newest tradition that we started this year (and one that I hope we keep forever): Giant Family sleepover on Christmas Eve. All sisters, all hubbies, all kids. One house. Enough said.

-The Daddy Elf Shirts that the boys received from one of Nathan's co-workers (like I said, Nathan's office did a promotional Elf theme in December). If you look close enough to the left of the elf is charicature Daddy...aka, elf Daddy, on each of their shirts. Tanny wants to wear this shirt every day, which makes for some major drama on laundry day.

-And finally, a trip up to the redwoods after Christmas with Auntie Kell and the rest of my sisters. Short-lived on our side since our kids were crabby that morning. We hiked maybe half way up before we realized the day was just not our day to be hiking and then hiked all the way back down with crying kids. Oye. The rest of the crew kept hiking further on and we headed home. Still pretty, and still fun.

The trees look even more giant when there's a tiny person put in front!