So then AFTER Christmas...

the fun continued! The night after Christmas, we had everyone over again and this time we went game crazy. The kids watched a movie upstairs, then later when they all went to bed (a couple of them went home w/ grandma and the rest in various rooms upstairs) we played some more. It was XBOX night. We played Guitar Hero World Tour (band), Lips, and Scene It. It was crazy fun. Everyone really let loose once we got into Lips, and were pretty competitive with Scene It. Peggy and Jeanne are now addicted to Scene It, I think. I wish I had pics from the night, but I only got these ones of all the cute kids getting comfy for their movie....

Dave's Aunt Peggy stayed a couple night with us after Christmas, then we headed down to Tuscaloosa with her to visit Dave's grandparents. They were with us for Christmas, but we went down to have some more time visiting with them. The kids had a great time. Ben had a lot to tell Peggy, it was way cute to watch their conversations...

They live on a lake- it's such a beautiful place. The boys loved hiking around the yard, searching for pinecones, rocks, sticks, leaves.... and throwing them into the lake. hahaha... too much fun.

Then all their noise attracted the ducks and grandpa got them some bread to feed. They called all the ducks "Quack". They kept saying- "here Quack, here's some bread!" and "Quack! Come back!"  They loved the way their calls echoed around the lake, so it encouraged the yelling :) 

Oh, and the Quack thing- it's because we watch Peep and the Big Wide World, which I love as much as they do. It's so cute, and it's narrated by Joan Cusack- she's my favorite. The big purple one is a duck, and his name is Quack. The chick is Peep and the bird is Chirp. Peep is "just hatched", Chirp is pretty young and Quack is just kind of clueless- and they discover all kinds of things about why things are the way they are and how things work. It's really cute.

Jon just loves to be outside :)

A few more shots that I loved....

Happy boy with Daddy...

The boys and Aunt Peggy. They sure love her.

The night that we stayed, we got a couple of new games and played them until we were all too tired to think.  It was a really fun trip. Thanks Grandma and Grandpa, for having us! We had such a great time. Peg, we loved having you visit- you can come back anytime!

Discovery Center

Forgot to finish my vacation week... oops! Well, on the way home from the Smokies, we met Jeanne and Steve and family (Dave's sis+) in Murfreesboro, TN at the cooooolest children's museum. I highly recommend it, for those that are local- it's about an hour and a half from us. The kids loved loved everything. There were so many cool new things to discover and do.

Jon hanging out...

(I know, weird lighting, I should have edited these better)

Ben and Caleb playing on a real firetruck! They had the gear they could put on and everything- these two just wanted to drive it!

Oliver and Chris digging for fossils...

Fixing a car- this was the coolest and I think their favorite thing. There were all kinds of things to fix- wheels with lugnuts to unscrew, a velcro attached muffler, fluids to fill. It was very awesome. For this one they had to don the gear...

Jon was so cute playing with the wooden cars. He's still so little and just learning to sit up well, so it was kind of fun to see him sitting playing with big toys like that.

Okay, actually this might have been Ben's favorite. A market play area. He loves to play store. He was having fun ringing up everyone's produce.

Caleb just liked loading up the baskets and sending them down the belt by turning the big wheel.

Chris got in on that action...

He and Oliver had fun with it...

This was a cool shovel thing (no clue what that piece of equipment might be called) where you worked the "controls" and scooped up rocks with it.

A little reading area with a basket full of books. Chris was very interested in this. He loves to sit and look at books.

A treehouse...

Oliver just bein' cute as usual...

Chris wasn't feeling well on this trip, but this day he was feeling a lot better, especially later in the evening when he finally wanted to eat.

It wore Jon out... :)
Chris reading more books with "Apple Steve" (he calls them Apple Jeanne and Apple Steve... not sure why? My theory is that it's his version of uncle...)

They had a realllly cool water play area. We did that last. They got a little wet :)

It was the coolest place. I didn't get a picture of it, but there was this huge tube slide going from the second floor down to the first. So many fun things for them, we had a great day. 

We ended up with dinner at Fazoli's (mmm, breadsticks) since we don't have any local to us anymore and a stop at the Nestle Tollhouse bakery in Athens, which in my opinion should have been a whole lot yummier.... so no recommendation there! 

Santa!

I knew I forgot something.... we also saw Santa earlier in the Christmas week. They all did great! 

Christmas Day!

I had to post so much to catch UP to Christmas that I'm just relieved to finally be able to talk about Christmas day itself.

Christmas morning was great. The boys were so excited and cute. Ben was the leader as usual and was so excited, telling Chris to come on and see what Santa brought. Luckily they let us sleep in a little first. We needed it. I think it was a little after 8 when we all rolled out of bed after getting to bed a little late. By the time we left for Grandma's (late) around 11 I think? we still had unopened gifts under the tree. It's not that we had a ton of stuff- it's just that each gift had to be experienced before there was any desire to move on to the next one.

Jon finally opened one after an hour or so. He was more interested in what the boys were doing and what paper he could get his hands on.

Chris was way into the Handy Manny truck. He loves tools and also puzzles. He got lots of puzzles.

Jon got his cool little drum with little instruments inside that his little hands can grab.

The boys were pretty good about sharing their loot. They tend to like the same things, so it's like getting twice as much for Christmas :)

So, as I mentioned, after opening most of the gifts and having breakfast, we got dressed and headed over to Grandma and Grandpa's up the road.

Jon slept for a little bit, then was just happy as a clam to be there. I don't think he even fussed the entire day, he was just loving it. 

The kids went nuts opening gifts and playing with stuff. That's the tricky part at Grandma's- letting them play with (some) stuff while making sure it all comes home with us.

I made my Mommy's rolls for dinner. They were yum.

The babies, Jacob and Jonathan, celebrating their first Christmas. What a difference a few months makes at this age! They were lookin' cute in their little Christmas clothes.

Chris came up all excited when we were taking the pictures. He was saying "TWO!"

We had a great day with Dave's family- his parents, siblings+ their families, and also his grandparents and Aunt Peggy. They are all so generous, and we are so grateful for all of the wonderful gifts and the fun day we had with them. 

That night, we were able to finish opening the gifts and had a little more time to play with stuff before bed. Ben got this "Computer Cool school", which he opened in the morning but didn't get much time on. When he opened it, he said "a COMPUTER!!!" and told everyone all day that he got a computer for Christmas. No, we didn't actually buy our 3 year old a computer. This thing is really cool though. There's so much to discover. He's figured it all out so quickly.

So that was our Christmas. I feel like there should be more to say. It was a really great day. Lots of fun as we relaxed and talked and laughed and played games. Couldn't ask for more.

I am so grateful for the gift of our Savior and this wonderful season of love and giving that we are blessed to experience each year.  I'm so grateful for my family in every sense of the word. My little family is such a joy to me, I've loved making Christmas for them. My insanely awesome family back home who I miss so much and who like to make me cry when I try to talk to them on the phone during the holidays. Dave's family who are so great to be around and are such a blessing to us. Our wonderful extended families, our ward family, and all of our amazing friends who bless our lives each day. I hope you all have had a wonderful holiday season. We are so blessed to have every single one of you in our lives.

Twas the night before Christmas...

On Christmas Eve, we had the family over (minus Jeanne+family) for dinner and some entertainment:

Ben decided to give us a little Christmas concert. It was so cute. I didn't really get pictures that night, but it was yum. We had some Hawaiian food which was good for my homesickness, and lots of good conversation and fun.

The kids all made cookies together, and after everyone left and pj's were donned, we set out cookies for Santa and carrots for the reindeer (sidenote: the carrot thing is a new tradition, only because they had the most adorable cookie and carrot plates at Target). 

I told Chris to carry the carrot plate (least likely to tip and spill) to the fireplace and put it down right here by this Santa. When he did, he said "Hee go Santa".  hehe... so so cute this kid.

All set!!

I took a minute that night to snap a few pics once everything was finally in place, even though it was freaking late (early?) and I was about dead. I sure do love me a glowy Christmas house.

Ahhhh. Christmas is my favorite.

Grandma's Christmas Tree

The Monday before Christmas, the kids had a good ol' fashioned tree trimmin' party. Grandma and Papa had tried to get their tree out of storage (they just moved into their new home after several long months of staging their old home) but the tree was inaccessible. And so, the paper tree was born.