Christmas Morning

This was a wonderful Christmas for us! It was made even more fun by the fact that every time Craig would see a nativity or a picture of Christ he would say "Jesus!". He's getting better and better at talking all the time and true to his character is a big ham.

This is our Christmas tree the day that we got and decorated it...
And this is on Christmas morning... It's looking very worn out from all that standing around and holding up lights and ornaments. I don't know how much longer it will last.
Craig was having trouble sleeping on Christmas eve. (Not so much from anticipation I'm sure... more from diaper rash). So when he woke up with no intention of going back to sleep at 1:30 in the morning, we decided that maybe we should just go ahead and have Christmas morning.

We opened one or 2 presents but he was pretty miserable and even the lion and panda bear that he opened were not enough to get his mind off of it. We finally got him to sleep again and now wide awake ourselves tried to do the same.

He woke again around 6 so we went and got him for the real deal this time... But as soon as I picked him up he fell asleep in my arms. We started opening our presents and waited for him to wake up. It took longer then I ever would have guessed. But when he did open his eyes and try to figure out what was going on, before he had even become coherent, he saw the little snowman poking out the top of his stocking and threw his hands above his head saying "tall, tall, tall!"

This picture is seriously 15 seconds after opening his eyes!

He didn't let go of it for a long time!
We got him several little toy animal to go along with the sounds that he's always making. This was the first one he opened and it delighted him.

Hippo!
Many things may come and go but Hippo stays the same!

A brilliant way to have fun drawing and yet not have to be under constant supervision because of a dangerous crayon threatening everything below 3ft in the house.

Trying it out properly

Then we went out to Hurricane to visit my family in the afternoon, And this is the wonderful scene that we drove through! I love it! Snow at Christmas time! There wasn't any on the ground at our house by Christmas day but it was a wonderful Christmas present to have the snow that we did have before that.

Out at mom and dads we had a wonderful time! This is after we had played our spur of the moment Charades for 2 hours. They just moved and we realized that they didn't have any games so we each wrote 10 or so things to act out on a piece of paper and threw them into a hat. Each of us would then draw out something and act it out.

Mom and Dad even played at it was the funnest thing I've done in a long time!
Mom got Mermaid and so she sat up tall in her chair and began to wiggle for all she was worth. Of course the first thing out of my mouth was "Mermaid!". Then we had to stop for a while because we were all laughing so hard that no one could see.

Another favorite for mom was Pogo Sticking. How you may ask would mom get us to guess this from her chair?

Shear brilliance I tell you. First she did "sounds like stick. which morphed into sticking"
then she grabbed the arms of her rocking chair and proceeded to rock so violently that the chair almost started bouncing off the ground!

We got it! And I will forever wish that I had a video of that night because it was so fun with so much laughter and good times that I never want to forget it.

Of course then my brothers had to sit on mother for some quality squishy bonding time!

I love my family!
Merry Christmas to all!

Tires Be Gone!

What happened here? Look at all of this destruction! How could this have happened you ask? Read on and you'll ask no more...

Craig has a new hobby! Every time I turn around he's chewed another wheel off of something! Chewing wheels off!? Where did he pick that up? The pile that you see in these pictures are just a few of his proud conquests!

The poor little red tractor was one of his Christmas presents and after he'd pushed it around for a few seconds (making all the appropriate noises) he picked it up and systematically worked his way around until all the tires were gone! (Luckily these are a soft rubber and snap back on easily.)

Sadly this is not the case for other of his victims. K.C.'s model Viper... Wheel-less. (that's one of the ones with rims in the picture.)

His little yellow car wheels? Shredded! (They're the smallest most pathetic in the picture.)

Oh what a funny boy!

The Gym

We did it! We got up this morning and went to the gym... (Well not actually this morning because THIS morning just started about an hour ago) Friday morning. It was kind of interesting chasing Craig around and taking turns holding/watching him while the other worked for a little.

It's definitely official though, I am out of shape! I could hardly go 15 min on that bike! Of course it kept increasing the difficulty level on me (or was that Craig pushing buttons) but once it got up to like 12 I was so tired and sore that I basically crawled off the bike and we went and did something else.

I will get the better of it! Just not the first time maybe. Yet another happy benefit to having K.C.'s new schedule. We get to do stuff in the morning instead of late at night! We are truly so blessed.

Christmas Spirit

I think I finally realized today that Christmas is just around the corner. I want to do all I can to make it feel like Christmas for the next 3 weeks. (Can it really be that close?) So in honor of the season, of course a new blog, and also a sneak peak at our family photos! I would put more up but it's 2 in the morning and I'm going to bed!

I also am planning on tweaking the blog layout so that it fits better for smaller screens than mine... But what can I say for a middle of the night project, it was fun and now I want to tear into the Christmas decorations and anything I can find to enjoy the season!

Merry Christmas

So behind!

There are so many things that have happened in the last week and a half that I don't even know where to begin. Some of the highlights have been thanksgiving in Arizona with the Hunts, The very overloaded Exodus home, and then party time with kaylea here (K.C.'s sister) and lots, and lots of pictures. It has been so much fun.

Kaylea has been showing me some pointers on photography which is good and bad. Good because I love it... bad because I remembered how much I love it. Here's one of the pictures that we took while we were out looking for good places. So much fun.More updates and Lots and lots more pictures very soon, I promise!