Christmas Morning

I was the first to wake up, so I got ready and waited downstairs to get pictures of the kids
when they woke up. It was nice that they slept in a little bit because we had a big day ahead of us!

Ronan was so excited to see that "Santa" had come! He noticed that some presents had gift tags with Santa's picture on it. (:

A cool Front Loader for Griffin!

A Hummer for Ronan

A photo book for Josh from me.

Josh got me a new digital camera--nice & small & much easier to carry around at parks, etc.

A new (2nd hand) train table and train set! We bought it from some friends with three boys who had recently outgrown it. Everything was in great shape and I know we'll get lots of use out of it!

Stockings!

Christmas Eve

For the past several years we have hosted a casual Christmas Eve dinner at our house for my side of the family (whoever can make it). This year it was my parents, the Henry family, and my brother, Erik. We had a nice time eating together and just hanging out. Earlier that day Josh was at Trader Joes and they were giving out free gingerbread house kits, so we decorated it that evening. (: This was the first year (ever) that I had all of my gift wrapping and food preparation done before Christmas Eve. It felt so great to be able to have a calm and relaxing night before Christmas!

It was hard to convince the kids, especially Griffin and Finley, that the treats were supposed to go on the gingerbread house!

New jammies from Memaw and Papa!

Reading to my sleepy, rosy-cheeked boys.

Christmas Service and More

12/19/08~All dressed up and ready to go to the EWEB holiday party at the Hilton.

12/20/08~My whole family after the Christmas service at church. It was so great having Erik home for a few weeks around Christmas!

The ladies of the family...

Griffin and cousin Cohen

The Henry Family~with one on the way!

Ronan and Sadie walking arm in arm out of their class. (:

They called us over to watch as they danced together in the atrium at church:

Ronan and Sadie telling "Santa" what they wanted for Christmas. He was dressed up for a part in the drama during the service.

I love how Griffin is looking up to Papa with such a sweet smile in this picture. (:
Griffin Roger and Papa Roger (:

12/23/08~Ronan writing DAD and RONAN on a gift for Josh. (:

Griffin cuddling with Daddy

Santa

12/16/08
We went to the mall to get family portraits, and while we were waiting to view our pictures we took the boys to visit Santa!

Ronan was in awe and Griffin acted pretty shy, but they both were brave about sitting on Santa's lap.

Here Ronan is describing in detail what was on his wishlist. (:

When we got home that evening we took a few pictures by our tree since we were still dressed in our coordinating outfits. (:

Ronan took this picture of us.

And this one...

Baking with My Boys

Another quick post about holiday baking. (: We ate a lot of the cookies from our first baking party, so the boys and I spent one morning making a big batch of gingerbread boy cookies. It was fun seeing how focused they were and how much they enjoyed helping with this task.

Later that week we bundled up and delivered plates of cookies to our neighbors. Ronan wanted to sing Christmas songs as we walked, but then he would get shy when we would arrive at the houses. (: His preschool Christmas program had been canceled that week because of the snow, but we still got to hear all of his songs over and over again...at home and in the car... (: Griffin even learned how to sing Jingle Bells from listening to Ronan, which came out like, "Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, all away!"-then repeat several times. I love their sweet little voices!

Poker Night

December 18th
All of the high school leaders were invited to the Fuller's house for a little Christmas get together. Jill had been planning on giving Eric a poker table for Christmas, so she thought it would be fun to surprise him by giving it to him early and having us all there ready to play. (They were heading to CA for the holidays and it was too big to take with them.) He had no idea until we all got there, so that was cool. We had a yummy dinner together, then played poker for the rest of the evening. We all put in $5 to make it a little more interesting. (: It was a fun night!

The ladies: Lindsey, Jill, Deena, me, and Diane

Eric and Lindsey

Jill and Jason

Check out those poker faces (:

Kaiser's Party

December 17th, 2008

Ronan's friend, Kaiser, invited us to his 5th Birthday party at an indoor playground showroom (Rainbow Play Equipment). It was such a perfect place to have a party, especially for a winter birthday, because there was so much room to run around and there was play equipment for all ages. Ronan and Griffin had so much fun trying everything out and playing with their buddies. They had all been cooped up at home for much for the week, so it was great to get out and burn some energy!
Christian and Kaiser wore their matching Seahawks uniforms.

Griffin trying out one of the football helmets.

Ronan got to wear a helmet, too.

Ronan and John pretending to be on a pirate ship.

Marcus~ such a sweet smile!

Griffin getting started on his gigantic piece of pizza! (:

Present time!