Christmas, Parts 3-6

Where was I? Oh, yes, I believe I last left after we'd arrived back from St. Louis on Dec. 23. We then enjoyed a quiet day at home as a family on Christmas Eve and Matt's parents joined us for Christmas Eve service at our church that evening. Here are the kids on Christmas Eve night in their new jammies from Luke and Lexi. (A theme in my coming posts will be my utter inability to get a good shot of both of them at the same time.)

The kids woke up at their normal time (7:30ish) and we headed downstairs to open stockings, have breakfast, and open gifts.

We got a video of them coming down the stairs, but I've been loading hundreds of pictures today and didn't have the patience to wait for that to load. Maybe another time...

Not sure what he was upset about here, but it's a pretty funny shot.

I've read tons of blogs/articles this holiday season about Christmas traditions and whether or not to "do" Santa (and again found it interesting/sad how a virtual war can be waged over different parenting styles and philosophies). Matt and I have come to this conclusion: while our goal is absolutely to always have the focus and emphasis of the season to be on the miraculous birth of our Savior and the joy that comes from giving to others, we also don't feel convicted about leaving Santa out altogether. So, on our Christmas morning, Santa brings one big gift and the kids each get stockings and 4 other gifts: "Something you want, something you need, something to wear, something to read." (Stolen from this blog. Love her.) Who knows how this will change and evolve as the kids grow? But we felt it worked really well for us this year. Here's Brooke hugging the book she got. Who knew?

After opening gifts at our house, we headed over to Matt's parents. Where Miles had his second breakfast in about as many hours.

Then it was Brooke's turn to cop a 'tude and refuse to smile for the stocking pictures.

Miles was all about it, though.

 

Then we opened gifts (I didn't really get any good photos of this due to where I was sitting and where the kids were) and the kids played with some of their things for a few minutes.

Bubble Guppies bus! Yessss!!!!

Then we headed over to Matt's Grandma's for gifts and breakfast. 

A Christmas miracle! They're both smiling!

 

Grandma Audie got the kids a roller coaster that we've since set up in our basement and has been a lifesaver through these cold, snowy days. Pictures and videos of that to come, too. Here she is with Brooke and the cookie jar full of cookies that she made for Grandma Audie (a few of them from her Easy Bake Oven - yum!).

So after our third Christmas celebration of the day, we headed home for naps (everyone but Brooke took a nap), then got ready to go back over to Matt's parents for dinner and a photo shoot by the tree.

(Sidenote: I realized after hearing from a few friends on one of my last posts that I've failed to mention on here that we're expecting #3 mid-April. Sorry! We're very excited, aren't finding out the sex, and I'm still feeling pretty great. We're praying as always for a safe and healthy delivery and baby.)

Miles was over pictures. It had been a long day.

"Anybody else ready to go home?" And we were. Because we were leaving for Florida the next morning...

Here are a few more pictures from St. Louis Christmas that Krissi sent me. These kids...

 

As I mentioned, the pictures are all loaded for my post on our vacation, but I just don't have the energy to get that post together tonight. Oh, and the Golden Globes are on and I'm a nerd like that. Hopefully I'll have that one up in the next couple days.

Happy New Year!

Christmas, Rounds 1 and 2

 

Last week, we made the trek mid-week down to St. Louis to begin our holiday celebrations. Tim and Krissi had a "suite" set up for us in the basement, and the kids slept SO well. It was awesome. Of course, they were still fried by the time we headed home today, but just slightly so as compared to completely, which is good as we're heading straight into Christmas celebrations here, then leaving for Florida on the 26th. It's a tough life, I know.

On our first day there, the kids, Krissi, my mom and I went to visit Uncle Joel in his classroom. The kids had fun messing up the room, then showing off for his class when they came in for lunch.

I'm really hoping the boys didn't destroy his smartboard.

 

 That night, the kids made a Cinderella gingerbread "castle" with Tim.

 

On Friday, we went to visit my Aunt Esther and my grandparents, who watched the kids while Krissi and I ran out for some last minute shopping. Of course, I got no photos of that. Sidenote: I think the chaos of all the kids causes me to forget to take pictures. Or take not very good ones. (BTW, thanks for your contributions to this post's pics, Krissi.) That night, we went to watch Uncle Joel coach his basketball team. My grandparents were able to join us for that, too.

The team won in overtime, although the kids did not appreciate the extra time. Or the lack of cheerleaders and mascot.

The next morning, we went to see "Frozen". My mom had promised she'd take the girls when they were together for Christmas and they were both as, if not more, excited about seeing the movie as they were about opening gifts later that night.

The boys were both really good for it, too. And it was a really cute movie. The songs are still in my head. Matt was especially impressed with the new route they took with the storytelling. Not really, but you can't blame Disney. If it's not broken, why fix it?

We had dinner and opened gifts at my parents' that night. It was so fun to watch the kids. Brooke was so ecstatic about every thing she got. I really wish I could somehow bottle her enthusiasm, gratitude and innocence. I almost got choked up watching her.

While Miles was excited about what he got, about 15 minutes into gifts, he wandered back into the toy room and brought in the toy bus he'd been playing with for the last two days. Maybe next year...

Miles got some cuddle time in with Grandma.

 

That night, the girls got a "sleepover".

 

 On Sunday, we went to church with Tim and Krissi, then had Christmas with my mom's family. We also celebrated my Grandpa's birthday. No surprise, Miles enjoyed the cake.

Brooke was thrilled with her My Little Pony set (who knew?!?).

And the gift opening ended with the annual wrapping-paper-fight. Miles got in on the action this time.

It was a really busy and fun visit. Of course we also got in some child abuse - here's Miles modeling the Chewbaca backpack that Matt "won" at his Webster office Christmas party. He was obviously happy about it.

 

 And we got in some quality cuddle time.

It was a great visit, as always, and we miss you guys already!

Santa!

On Saturday, we went to Medinah to have brunch (a word that Brooke found hilarious) and meet Santa.

Matt's parents, Grandma and Jamie all joined us and I think we all had a lot of fun. How priceless is this shot of Miles and Grandma Audie???

The kids were mesmerized by the balloon elf. And he wasn't as creepy looking as this picture makes him appear. Brooke asked him to make her a microphone and he made Miles a candy cane.

Watching the elf in action.

I feel redundant, but they stood there for at least 5 minutes just watching him.

We love Aunt Jamie!

We were thankful for Grandma Audie's entertainment while we waited for Santa. Even at country clubs, Santa's in high demand.

Brooke sat on his lap first. She asked for an Ariel scooter, Sofia walkie talkies and a Sofia castle. Gotta love Disney marketing!

I was sure this would be a disaster, but he was pretty fascinated by Santa, too. He said, "Ho, ho, ho," to him a few times.

I think he was telling her to be nice to her brother here. She should have mentioned the cut on her nose that came from him the day before.

I love Miles' face in this picture.

They also had a toy train that was running in the lobby. He could have watched that for quite awhile, too.

Then, it was into the ballroom where they had a giant inflatable slide. We had to drag them off of it.

Miles playing with some of the toys that were out.

We also tried to get a few family shots. This was Take One. Nice face, Brooke.

This was one of the last ones we took. I don't think the kids could muster up the energy to smile at this point.

Merry week before Christmas!