Christmas Morning 2013

 Wow!  This is crazy!

In our defense this is presents for 10 people with presents having been shipped from 3 outside entities as well... we saved everything that came in the mail to open it all on Christmas morning.

 Yeah for stockings (that FINALLY got finished!)... I didn't finish Schafers cause well... he's not here yet... :)

Such a great and perfect way to start out Christmas morning... hahahaha Connor's trying to scope out gifts and Vale screaming for me to hold him... sigh... 

He found a toy right away!  Too bad it wasn't his! :)  

Before any gifts are opened, we sit down and read the Christmas story.  We are celebrating Jesus' birthday and in Connor's words, "Jesus is so cool that WE ALL get presents on HIS birthday!!!" :) yup son, that's right! :)

Grandma got her present... holding her newest addition for most of the morning :)

This little cheeser is my face maker... he is so full of personality!

He might have been the most fun to watch this Christmas because he was so excited about every gift and wanted everyone in the room to be excited with him!  It was just darling!

"Look what I got guys!!!"

So our comic relief for the morning was Jimmy... I bought him a whole bunch of underwear that was on clearance and I was planning on just giving him the most modest pair and then telling him there are more in his closet... BUUUTTT he bought me a ton of gifts with the boys so I was going to have more than him so I just wrapped them all up for him individually!!!  Yeah they had some pretty graphic man tags on them and it was pretty funny :)

Connor was so focused on present opening he would hardly look at me!  He wanted to play sooo badly with the toys that you couldn't even get the packaging off before he was attacking it.  This bat cave was a BIG hit... they've been playing with it for days... :)

I'm telling you, for Vale, every gift was so exciting and the best thing ever!!!  It was great! :)

 My little construction workers ready to build something out of playdough.

Then came the Rudolf noses... :) Oh me, oh my...

Connor loves to play the funny guy and got a huge kick out of showing off his nose to his cousin Amelia via facetime! :)

Vale is more of a mustache guy... :)

All in all, we had a fabulous Christmas morning!  We all got spoiled immensely and the boys got so much joy from giving us the gifts that they picked out for us.  It was so cute!  I was soooo happy that we were able to have family here with us and we weren't going to be alone (cause I couldn't travel).  We are blessed beyond measure!

Meeting Baby Emery!

My boys have been so sick the last couple of weeks with this horrible cough and nasty nasal discharge (AKA green boogers...) so we put off the intro to Baby Emery for her own safety.

They were so excited to meet her!!

I think Connor instantly fell in love.

He said, "I didn't know she would be so SOFT!" :)

He really really wants to throw her a party, not sure why but he wanted to do it that night with balloons and streamers and everything.  I promised that next time she comes over to our house we can make a party for her :)

Vale loved her too but was a little bit more unsure... :)

They are gonna all be such good friends!  I'm so excited! :)

Connor's Christmas Pagent

Connor was picked to be a sheep this Christmas for their little awana play at church.

He was not excited about it.

From the moment we told him that he was gonna dress up like a sheep he said 'no sheep' and wasn't thrilled at the thought of getting up in front of everyone and singing away in a manger (even though that's one of his favorite songs ever).

Jimmy tried to take him up on stage but he wasn't having it...

Poor kid was terrified... 

And since he had never claimed he wanted to do it... he wasn't backing out on his word and there's no sin in not wanting to be on stage... we let him sit the rest out.

After that part was over he was happy as a clam!

Vale on the other hand was itching to go on stage and when it was all over, he was dancing and making his own musical production on the empty stage... :)

There has been speculation that since Connor was the only sheep all dressed in white maybe he was scared of being the lamb chosen to be sacrificed without spot or blemish... just sayin'... ;-)

Advent Calendar

 I love the tradition of our advent calendar!  It was handmade by a friend of my dad's from college and it's perfect! :)

Every night we take turns reading the verse that's in the little pouch and someone gets to open up the present that's in there, which is a little ornament to pin on the tree.  They have to listen to the verse before we can open the present.

It's so hard to keep Connor from 'helping' Vale... ha

... and Vale goes so slow... hahaha Christmas morning is gonna be fun... :)

Yeah! He got a snowflake!! 

Now he gets to tell daddy where he wants it.

or show him since verbal skills are a little lacking... 

He has to make sure that daddy put it RIGHT where he said to... :)

Here are some good pictures of the boys that I decided not to use for our Christmas card...

He's such a happy boy, I love his smile!

His eyes are crazy beautiful... 

He's such a sweet kid... 

He's got one of the greatest laughs!!! :) Makes my heart smile!

My niece baby Emery

Baby Emery Love was born on Dec 7th at around 3am.

She was 8lbs 7oz and a little over 21" long!

With a full head of beautiful hair!

She's so sweet and cute!

All snuggled in with mommy and smiling :)

All snuggled up for the cold California weather! (no lie, it's been in the 40's... that's cold for a baby!)

Meeting Aunt Courtney... personally I think she's already decided I'm her favorite... ;-)

Daddy and Mommy definitely love their little girl!!! :)

She's so precious!

Welcome to the breathing world baby Emery were we can love you and shower you with all the affection we can! :)

Preparing for Christmas!

  Ok I know cute towels have nothing to do with Christmas but I just needed to post these... :)

Ok, now on to holiday prep... :)

So we went to look at Christmas trees and I said to Connor, 'Doesn't that smell AMAZING!?!?' and he said, 'no it stinks...' and plugged his nose... kid doesn't know what good stuff is?!?!?  How have I failed so miserably?!?!?

But then we found the perfect tree!! :)

 

He tried to help move it but it was a bit too heavy for him... 

Vale was enjoying family sleep/snuggle time... :)

I wish his eyes weren't closed but Connor was having a blast playing with this nativity set while we pulled out all the decorations! :)

The boys helped daddy put up the lights... it was really cute!  They both wanted to help.

Then we made this ginger bread house which was fun... as long as we could keep Jimmy and Connor from eating the candy... sigh... (Vale was put to bed before this fun...)

The next morning, we put all the ornaments on the tree... the boys really liked this part!  Connor is still asking me if we have more decorations to put on the tree... :)

This is Vale saying, CHEESE!!! :)

He stopped hanging ornaments and started removing the hooks and making a nest out of the balls... it was really funny... 

We got some cute picture with the boys and Nona when we were done! :)

They were having fun shaking their jingle bells! :)

So we aren't quite ALL decorated for the season but we are mighty close!!  I'm so excited for Christmas!!! :)