Christmas celebration #4

We went to visit Papa and Ma Dee-Dee on the 26th and celebrated Christmas with Geoff's side of the family.  The boys love getting to see their cousins and always look forward to playing with them.  Dawson started crying on the 27th when Aidan and Kate were leaving to go home!  

 Sloane's stocking

 We had a little birthday celebration for me while we were there. 

 Setting up toys after we made it home on the 27th.  I'm not sure which or the 3 boys likes this toy more! 

 Hudson playing with his number LeapFrog toy as Gil, Molly, and Bubble Puppy look on. 

Christmas Day

We woke up on Christmas morning to see that Santa had arrived!  It's kind of a funny story about the kids seeing their Santa presents.  We closed the gate upstairs so that the kids could NOT come downstairs before we opened it up.  We heard them wake up and Geoff and I both got up, went to the bathroom, got the camera and video camera, etc.  This process took about 3-4 minutes at the most!  We walked out of our room to discover the boys both standing in front of the presents that Santa brought just looking at them in amazement.  Not touching, just looking!   I guess that Dawson figured out how to push the gate open!  ;) We originally planned to spend Christmas morning at home and go to Geoff's parent's house around 10:30, but we had icy roads here and didn't feel like risking it.  We had a lazy day at home opening presents, playing with the new things that we got, taking naps, and sitting by the fire.  We had kept an eye on the weather before Christmas so luckily I picked up stuff to make dinner for us just in case we were here.  

Christmas Eve

We had our usual Christmas Eve celebration with my aunt, uncles, cousins, and grandma from my dad's side of the family.  We celebrated at our house again this year with about 30 people.  We tried something different this year and brought appetizers and desserts but ordered pizza instead of making the usual ham and turkey like we typically do. It certainly made the day much easier.  No cooking, cleaning, and trying to have all of these dishes ready at the same time that all need to be in the oven.   The little ones opened up presents and the adults played yearly game of dirty santa.  

Hudson and Drake.  Drake is about 15 months older than Hudson.

 The great grandkids, minus Kennedy.  

 Dirty Santa

 Dirty Santa

 After Christmas Eve church.  I used my tripod to take this and was impressed that both kids looked at the camera and smile! 

 Reading "The Night Before Christmas" with Daddy.  Geoff found the same copy of the book that he  had when he was a kid and was excited to read that with them. 

Christmas celebration #1

We celebrated Christmas in Stillwater with my family on Saturday with my parents, Meme, my brother, Jennifer, and Kennedy.  

We did manage to get a family pic....  My mom takes the majority of the pictures likes this.  ;)

 The boys are both crazy about Kennedy!  

 Checking out a Team Umizoomi toy or "Zoomi" as Hudson calls it.  

 Dawson's guitar that he got last year broke a few months ago and he was so excited to get a replacement.  He loves his guitar, drums, keyboard, etc. 

 Me with Meme and my brother

 Daddy and Hudson.  He's recently learned the letters in his name so the puzzle is great for him. 

 This is not a good pic, but I had to include it on here anyway.  Hudson was obsessed with Kennedy and had to look over to see her.  

Ready for Christmas

Everyone is anxiously awaiting Christmas at our house!   Dawson looks at the "count down Santa" decoration a few times a day to see how many days are left and they both are always eager to open up the chocolate in their advent calendar that Papa and Ma Dee-Dee gave them.   We have a busy few days ahead so hopefully everyone is happy, heathy and the weather (and kids) cooperative!  ;)    The kids had their Christmas parties at school and will now be out of school until January 7th.  Geoff will be off work for the majority of their break so that will be great to have him here with us.   I finally started feeling better from my nasty cold last week and then took a little tumble outside and have had a sore shoulder/arm for the past couple of days. Hudson wanted to ride his tricycle one day this week, but he's too short to reach the pedals.  I was leaning over him and holding on to the handle bars to help him go.  We went on a little walk around the neighborhood like that.....probably not the smartest idea with my oversized belly in the way.  We were almost back home and I either tripped on the basket behind the bike or the hill caused us to fall.  Either way, Hudson fell off the bike, the bike fell on him and I fell on the ground.  I managed to catch Hudson with my left hand and caught myself with my knee and right arm.   On a positive note, Hudson didn't get hurt and never cried (I wanted to), I didn't land on my belly, and I didn't tear a hole in my favorite yoga pants that I was wearing.   Lesson learned.....I won't be pushing Hudson like that anymore.  I've also realized this week that I need to slow down a little bit.  I'm hoping that the next 5 weeks go by VERY fast!  

I was cleaning up the kitchen the other morning and had on a Christmas cartoon for the boys.    Hudson   positioned himself like this on Dawson.  Neither one would take their eyes off of the TV for a pic, but I did snap this one before Dawson decided he didn't want Hudson sitting like that anymore. 

Both kids love to color and I'm so impressed with Dawson's coloring skills.  He does a great job at staying in the lines on his pictures and tries very hard.  He was really proud of his "pat er n" as he calls it. 

Hanging out at home

We spent a lot of our time at home this week due to me having the most miserable head cold that I've had in years!  I've been so congested and it sucks.  I felt a lot better and was much less congested today, but the lovely clogged nose has just recently returned for a night time visit.  Wonderful!  Crossing my fingers that tomorrow show even more improvement.  Being 33 weeks pregnant is hard enough so add in not being able to breathe though your nose and it really adds to the fun.  

The boys didn't seem to mind not doing much outside of the house, other that school.   

 They both love getting to play on the iPad.

 A mix of Batman and Captain America

 We took an after school trip to Menchie's one day this week.  Hudson isn't a fan of frozen yogurt but loves getting a bowl of M&M's and junk!

 I've tried everything you can imagine for congestion this week, including Breath Right strips.   This is a nice look for me.  ;)   I took this pic yesterday on our way to grab a quick lunch at McDonald's so that I could show my mom and Geoff how cool I looked in the drive through.  They are not easy to get on in just the right place and it seemed to be working at that moment so I wasn't about to take it off.  I pulled up to pay and the cashier told me that the person in front of us paid for our lunch!  By the way...the lady had an OSU Posse sticker on her car.  Maybe she realized how silly I looked.  I doubt it but that was so nice to experience a random act of kindness!  I passed it on and paid for the person behind me.  

Christmas parade

We went to the downtown Christmas parade last night for the first time.  It is usually always during the week, but they moved it to a Saturday this year.  The boys loved it  and had big smiles on their faces!  Hudson really loved the fire trucks!  Geoff bought the boys these light up swords that were a big hit.  We learned on Friday that steroid medicine and Hudson do not mix well at all so it was nice to have our sweet little Hudson back by Saturday evening!   

My friend Jill had a baby shower on Saturday that I went to.  Jill and I were in the same girl scout troop for a while in elementary school and ended up joining the same sorority and being roommates in college.  Jill is expecting her first baby and our due dates are only about 2 weeks apart!  It's fun to have one of your best friends pregnant with you at the same time! 

Fall pics

We had family pics taken at the end of October and used a few of these on our Christmas cards this year.  It was really rainy that morning, but we lucked out and it cleared off by the afternoon.