Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone! Our family had a GREAT Christmas, but boy, are we exhausted! "We" meaning "me," Jayden is a bundle of endless energy.
Our family Christmas' started out at my sister's house on Sunday, where we celebrated with Dad and Debbie. The boys had a blast playing together, at least until all of the new toys started entering the scene. They received some great toys, and some really cute clothes.

Here are the boys posing in front of Heather's Christmas tree before they were able to open presents.
Ethan played Santa by handing out all of the gifts. Jayden helped Grandpa John open up his Rubix Cube.


Jayden had present opening down, but each toy had to be taken out of it's box before he'd agree to go on to the next gift.
On Christmas Eve, we went to my mom's house to celebrate with that portion of the family. My mom, my sister's family was there, my brother (after work) along with my Uncle Perry, Hanna and George, and Brittany and Jacob. The present opening here was a flurry of paper, and was done in about 5 minutes...you can definitely tell the boys are getting older. Here, they both got a lot of great toys, and were actually pretty much content with their own presents that they didn't bother each other too much by trying to play with each other's new toys.
This is our in front of the Christmas tree pose. We were trying to get a picture with Ethan, Jayden and Jacob, but it's almost impossible to get all three boys to look at the camera, stay seated, and smile at the same time. You can see how thrilled Jayden was by the time this picture was taken.
Ethan and Jayden.
After Christmas at my mom's house, we went to midnight mass. Josh is in the choir, and he organized some people to get together and performed "An Angel Came Down" by the Transiberian Orchestra. They did an awesome job, and if I can somehow get a video of it on my computer, I'll post it. They all sounded great, Josh especially. :)

Christmas morning we opened presents from Santa. He brought Jayden some really cool toys (if I do say so myself), and luckily, even though it wasn't wrapped, he didn't notice the best present until the very end. It was a four wheeler that was still charging, and since he's gotten that, it's pretty much been in motion the whole time.

Here is Jayden in the middle of opening, he received a couple of more dinosaurs, a camera, a Buzz Lightyear, and some more trucks. Santa is nice enough to put together all of the toys that he's received for Christmas so far so Jayden can play with those too on Christmas morning.
This is the way Jayden got a start on most of his presents, he had to bite off the corner of the paper.

In the middle of it all.

Finally, mid morning, we had the Steven's family over to our house for the Christmas celebration. The kids were starting to get pretty worn down by now, but they perked up quickly enough.
We started the morning with some homemade donuts. We all teased Josh because he wanted to make 50, which seemed like way too many. But, we only had 1 left over, so he had the last laugh. Josh had to recruit Joe and his frosting making abilities, so they both pretty much were in charge of breakfast. We also had a braided bread roll, and some fruit.
Two hours later, we had lunch. I knew if we started presents before we ate lunch, we wouldn't be eating until mid afternoon. Thankfully, people were still willing to eat.

Joe and Josh making their famous donuts.

Jayden opening more and more gifts! We had a rule here, no opening up the toys until all of the presents had been opened. It was really difficult when we was getting guitars and other cool toys, but he made it through. In addition to the toys, he got some great clothes, so he's going to be totally stylish for the rest of the winter.
Jayden and Taylor have been wrestling a lot lately. It's hilarious, because they both love it, and they actually don't annoy each other when they're in the middle of a good wrestling match.
Here they are, taking a quick break to pose for the camera.

Here's the newest family...aww....aren't they cute?
Here's a shot of the mess, while Taylor is opening up her gifts.
One gift that Jayden received from Hanna and George at my mom's house was a whoopee cushion. George was disappointed at first, because the boys weren't all that thrilled. By the end of the night, Jayden was having a great time with it. But then again, he is ALL boy, so he would think that it's hilarious. What I didn't expect, was for Taylor to have such a great time with it too. Who knew?
Well, that pretty much sums up this years Christmas. I think I could have written much longer chapters, but I'm sure you all get the gist of it. We had such a great time...it feels like every Christmas just gets better and better, especially with so many new additions to the family.
I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas, and will have a great new year!

ps. Stay tuned for a house update post, whenever I get another chance to sit at the computer undisturbed again. I'll have some pictures of the babies room, and maybe a year end update of what's been accomplished this year.

1 Response to "Merry Christmas!"

  1. Anonymous Says:

    what a wonderful picture of me!! haha....thanx for letting us come over for christmas, it was a blast definitely...despite the fact that i was sick :( but i managed...enjoy the family guy dvds :)