Christmas Day!

Christmas morning was a ton of fun this year because our kids were so excited.  Santa must have been able to interpret all of those lists because Jax got his wish and got toy tools and a tool bench.

It was so fun to see his face when he saw it and then he promptly went to work.

He didn't even want to look at his stocking or other gifts because he was busy building and fixing.

This elf was also pretty excited about the toy tools.

Santa brought Kennadie a little xylophone, which she loved to pound on.

And a few treats in her stocking.

But her favorite part of Christmas morning was that the tree had been moved within reach. 

And that Jaxson left some chocolate laying around.

After a few mishaps we had to bring in her chair to at least try to contain her.

Grandpa Nebeker made the kids these fun blocks.  They are something we will always love, right now they're mainly being used as bowling pins but someday soon they will be used for much more.

Jaxson's cousins knew exactly what to send him.  We he opened this gift we all busted up but it was even better when he tried to bite into it.  If you don't understand this you can read here.  They also sent him a really fun Toy Story book which he loves.

Kennadie also got her first doll for Christmas and knew exactly what to do with her.

My grandma sent Jax a Buzz which he wouldn't even stop flying around long enough for a picture.

Buzz also had to be in every other picture we took and was with us all day.

My parents and Santa must be on the same wavelength because the tools they sent were prefect.

Despite the face, he LOVES them.

And they provided him with lots of entertainment.

Kennadie sure did well and loved all the gifts everyone sent.

Jaxson scored big time!  Thank you everyone for spoiling our kiddos.  We appreciate it!

We stayed in our pjs for pretty much the rest of the day while we ate, played and watched a few new movies.  This pic makes me laugh because it shows how big Kenna's jammies were on her.

While playing with all his new toys Jaxson fell into the toy box and Kennadie made sure he was going to stay there.

One of our favorite gifts came from my brother who got us Toy Story 3!  Jaxson was more than thrilled and has watched it just a few times since then.  Thanks guys!  And thank you everyone else who sent us gifts.  Everyone was so generous!  Merry Christmas!

Christmas Eve!

Christmas eve ended up being kind of a crazy and busy day but we sure ended it right, by trying to keep some of our old family Christmas traditions and also started a few of our own.

We had a yummy Burdett style dinner and for dessert we decided to have a birthday cake for Jesus.  We thought this might help Jaxson understand a little more the real reason for the season.

He loved it so I think we might have to make it a tradition.

Another tradition in both mine and Keith's family is to open a sibling gift on Christmas eve.  So, we're going to carry that one on.

They were both super excited about this.  Kenna sure knows her brother well and picked out such a great gift that Jaxson couldn't even take his eyes off it for one picture.

A tradition in my family is to get new matching Christmas pjs and take lots of pictures in them on Christmas eve with all the cousins together.  Yes, even as adults we do this.

My grandma made my kids stockings.  Aren't they cute?  I love them!

It was a fun evening.  As, I've said before kids make the holidays so much more fun!

And after they were tucked in their beds and dreaming of sugar plums Santa stopped by and boy, did he spoil us.  I had to get a picture of our tree finally with some presents under it because any other time I tried to put a gift under it, it was promptly unwrapped by an anxious little boy.

Tower City

We were so forunate to have Keith's parents come visit us for a few weeks during the holidays.  We had a blast with them!  We took them to some of our favorite Cleveland places and on some new adventures.

One new adventure was down at Tower City.  Neither Keith nor I had been there before and they really went all out for the holidays.

On Gingerbread Lane they had a bunch of really awesome and big gingerbread houses.  It was so fun to see all the creativity, work and details.  This one was my favorite and my picture doesn't do it justice.  It was very impressive.

Then Jaxson got spoiled by his grandma who paid for him to ride a little train that went around the mall and was driven by an elf.

As you can see he was thrilled.

I was a little naughty and opened a present my grandma sent us early.  She spoiled us with a bunch of great stuff including some of these super cute hats.  A few for both me and Kenna.  We've both been wearing them around and I had to get a pic of us together.  Thanks grandma!

December Happenings

Because I don't want to forget here are a few other little things that happened this month.

These two have really started playing together a lot more and they love it.  Kenna will tackle and wrestle with Jax and for the most part he's really gentle with her.  He loves to kind of bounce her on his belly.  I LOVE watching them together!

We hosted Jaxson's little preschool and did the letter R.  We did a few things with reindeers, including make our own horns and reindeer cupcakes.

Needless to say they were a hit.

Jaxson has been making us lots of Christmas lists.  Of course he got this from Curious George.  I find them all over the house and he gets so upset if I lose one.  Finally he made one I was for sure not going to lose and put it right on the fridge.  In case you can't tell he asked Santa for toy tools this year.

Christmas Cuties

I decided to do a little photo shoot with my two cuties in hopes of getting a few pics good enough for a Christmas card.  I'm pretty excited about them especially because they were all done in manual which is hard for me to do with my kiddos. Here's a few of my favorite of our Kenna girl.

And my favs of my handsome boy.  Who actually did much better than usual when I pulled out the camera.

The hardest part was getting them together.

My favorite of the two of them is now at the top of the blog.  My friend took that one when she took some family shots for us.

St. Nick

For some crazy reason I thought taking the kids to see Santa before Christmas was a must.  Then my friend told me about a free breakfast with Santa at a local hospital and I thought it would be perfect. So we get there and before I even get both kids unbundled I'd lost Jaxson. Maybe ten minutes later we find him and learned that he had gone looking for the elves. And since he didn't find any elves and got in trouble he was then in a bad mood.

He then decided he didn't want to see Santa and that he was all of a sudden scared of him.  So, I tried to put Kennadie up there in hopes of getting a cute picture.

This is what I got.

I then did my best to get Jax up there without being the crazy mom that forces her child to sit on Santa's lap.

But I gave into the craziness and just put him up there and quickly snapped a few pics.

And they were less than thrilled.  Yep, I am for sure that crazy mom!