merry Christmas!

posted by mommy and daddy

the scene all set for Christmas morning...yule log on tv with music, 
candle lit, warm vanilla milk ready, and coffee brewing.
(grammie is still working on everett's stocking, so his is a stand-in)

goodies left out for santa and his reindeer

a thank you note from santa and his thank you gifts to the boys

the sausage cheese ball never left everett's hand, 
even when it was his turn to open his gift from santa!

owen opened his santa gift and everett just kept
holding his sausage cheese ball!

finally a reason to put away that sausage cheese ball

stockings full of toothbrushes, movies, playdough tools, 
trains, zoo animals, and phones!

and new sandwich cutters - fun, fun, fun!

santa during Christmas

posted by mommy and daddy

we wrestled with the whole santa thing for quite some time until we decided that we wanted to figure out a way to incorporate the magical idea of santa along with celebrating Christ's birth. we both remember how magical and fun it was to wake up to gifts delivered by santa and how special it made Christmas. so we didn't want to give up creating that feeling for our boys. we decided to make sure our kids know that santa himself knows that Christ is the center of Christmas and that he too understands that Christ is the greatest gift of all. our decision was to have santa deliver personalized bags a few weeks before Christmas and tell the boys that he would like for them to put some of their toys in the bags for santa to fix up and deliver to other boys and girls who don't have much. he would then thank them by putting a new toy in the bag on Christmas day. the bags were wrapped nice and came with a neat little poem (written by daddy!) for the boys to read.

Christmas bags delivered by santa

santa's letter

texas sized thanksgiving

posted by owen and everett

we spent thanksgiving in texas with umma and uppa this year and had a blast. we got lots of new things to play with including the disney planes movies and planes toys. they also got owen his own bed from ikea. it has a fold out bed under it so both of us can use it at some point. while there, we got to visit friends, go to the park and eat lots of yummy food. it was also everett's first plane ride and he did great.

everett enjoying his new toy

owen enjoying everett's new toy

um, shouldn't the older one be pushing the younger one?

no remote needed on this remote control car

owen loved his new cars

everett playing with the doggies

umma helping everett with his snack

ready for thanksgiving dinner

owen especially enjoyed the cornbread

warm hooded towel from umma and uppa

each boy got his very own

everett was not a fan of this furry hat

everett smiling

owen smiling