Christmas Day 2014

Maxwell was really excited about Christmas.  It's been so fun to enjoy it this year with him and also to have our sweet daughter here as well.

Ready to go out and see what Santa brought

Silly faces

I wanted some Christmas flowers so I got this arrangement from a local florist.  It smells fantastic.

Ooh!!

Sunglasses are always a hit with Max

Such a helpful Aunt Kimi

The Mejias

Kait and her haul

Ty and his mom 

(Notice how there are presents everywhere?! Christmas with 11 people means lots of presents)

Thanks Aunt Tawny for the soccer ball!

Patiently waiting for his turn to open another present

Tyler and the present we gave him. 

Max is excited to have Kaity around. 

Kimberly surrounded by her gifts (and getting suffocated with all the scarves she got)

Finished product on the monkey bread

This year Maxwell got a ton of games.  We are going to have fun playing all of them.

Tyler was so sweet with Emmalyn.

Emmalyn took a nap during part of the present opening so she got to open most of her presents later all by herself.

Putting together Max's big present - a zip track with cars

My sweet Ty, he had no fear of babies.  He is getting so grown up.  I wish we could have spent more time with him but he left halfway through the day to go spend the rest of the holiday with his dad in OK.

The typical Christmas morning disaster

Gorgeous sunny weather the kids were enjoying outside

Time for another nap...

Emmalyn got this cute puppy from my dad.  

He sent presents for her, Maxwell, Emmalyn, Landen, and Hayden.  He's never sent presents for Christmas as long as I can remember and certainly not since I've had kids.  It meant a lot that he thought of the kids and made sure the presents were there before Christmas.  Thanks Dad (grandpa!)

Giving kisses to the puppy

Reading with Aunt Kimi 

(isn't it great how much attention she's getting from other people?  it's a nice break for me)

Playing with some new toys

Breaking in our new Jenga game

Busy Christmas days require naps.  :)

Video - Emmalyn has learned how to make the sign for "more" and she shows off her wave

Christmas Eve 2014

Maxwell's first time using a urinal (pic courtesy of Peter).  This is a big deal because normal toilets are so big for him, he's either on his tip toes or has to sit down on the toilet seat.  He thought he was pretty cool.

Enjoying a little holiday eggnog the night before the night before Christmas when we started a little wrapping so we wouldn't be completely swamped on Christmas Eve like we usually are.

On Christmas Eve, we took the kids over to Brittany's so we could get a bunch of our last minute (traditional) shopping done.  We had breakfast at IHOP then got to shopping.

Mmmm hot chocolate

After shopping, I met Brittany at her church we we could go to the Christmas service.

All the kids.

The service was certainly different than what I am used to but it was enjoyable.  Maxwell liked parts of it but it was hard for him to sit still.  Emmalyn was a wiggle worm and I nursed her to keep her quiet and still.  It was nice of Brittany to invite us and it was certainly a big production.

Britt got the kids picture with Mr. and Mrs. Claus before I got there...

Emmalyn, Britt and her boys.  Maxwell refused to be in the picture, naturally.

Emmalyn loves this singing monkey.  I thought the singing animals would freak her out, but nope!

Emmalyn had another tooth pop through on Dec 23 - - this time it was the second tooth on the top left 

We made sugar cookies that the kids decorated for Santa.  I think this was the first time we've ever used those cookie cutters...

It gets late so quickly on Christmas Eve.  We didn't do letters for Santa like we did last year...it was just too late and the adults still had a lot of work to do once the kids went down. 

Kaitlyn was my helper with the monkey bread this year.  She did an awesome job!

Monkey bread fingers

Late night wrapping and prep - - - torture

We got to bed after 1 am

Look - Santa came! (And this year he wrapped his presents in Santa Claus wrapping paper like he had wanted to do for years)

And up close look at Emmalyn and Maxwell's stash

(with the half eaten cookies that Santa enjoyed on the far left)

I love a lit up Christmas tree

...Twas the night before Christmas...