Our Christmas

Merry Christmas! We had quite the eventful few days!

We alternate each year who we spend Christmas with -- this year Christmas Eve was with the Lowes, and Christmas day was with the Wayments. 

Christmas Eve, we went to my mom's house for our annual Christmas breakfast -- so delicious as always!

Kailee, JD, and Kenna

Rowan, Sarah, Ama, my dad, and Trent

Gray got Angry Bird gummies in his stocking -- he was beyond excited! He STILL carries the box around with him! He's quite the Angry Birds fan :)

Nani with the babies -- Holland and Thatcher (check out that crazy hair! hehe)

Look at that sweet little girl! Love those big baby blues!

JD "won" Christmas this year by giving us all the most memorable gifts of all time.  Nude pictures of himself with strategically placed bows, presents, etc covering the naughty bits.  This was my mom's reaction when she saw hers.  She was CRYING, she was laughing so hard! I personally STILL wish I could wash my eyeballs! It was hilarious! 

Thatcher playing with his new squeaky ball

Row and Gray playing with some of the new loot

Holland got her first Madame Alexander doll!

Rowan got the cutest ice cream set! He was quite happy, and was very busy serving everyone their own ice cream cones.

Gray got this awesome dragon from Nani and Pop.  He loves it.

T's favorite present -- a blue raspberry teether -- he loves this thing!

My mom made all the grandkids stockings! So cute!

Rowan and Kailee with their stockings

Gray with his

And little miss Holland with hers (and Sarah, too)

T also got this fun dinosaur ball popper -- so entertaining!

Gray loves it, too

So does Henry! (my mom's dog) -- he was so funny, just sitting there staring at it forever!

Me and my festive hubby :)

T getting adventurous on the stairs

My sweet baby in his cutest sweater outfit, when I got around to dressing him.  Never did get around to doing his hair....

 We went home for naps, (lovely), then we went to Ama's house for our annual homemade soups dinner.  I guess I didn't manage to get any pictures there! (anyone have any they wanna shoot my way?!)


On Christmas day, we went to Steve's parents' house. The boys opened their presents, and we had another delicious breakfast!

Gray got this giant monkey from Gram and Grampa -- so fun!

The boys unwrapping presents

T had a great time with the paper :) 

Gray had a great time spreading his loot all across the floor

After playing with all the new toys for a bit, we were able to go to sacrament meeting at Steve's parents' ward.  It was so nice to be able to go to church on Sunday and have some time dedicated to thinking of the Savior.

Steve and Thatcher in their Christmas Sunday best! Aren't they cute?!

Cute Grayson in his Christmas best.  Love this pic :) 

After church, we came back to the Wayments' house and relaxed for a little bit.  Gray snuggled up with his daddy and played with his new Lightning McQueen toy that plays a game on his daddy's iPad.  It was sweet -- had to snap a pic.


We went over to Steve's aunt's house later in the afternoon for fun and food.  Didn't get pics there, either.  I guess I was too busy :)  After that, we went over to Steve's parents' house again to open our presents from Scott and Jeanne (great stuff -- thanks!)  Then we headed over to Steve's cousin Ryan's house for a bit.

We had a great holiday! I'm so glad we live so close to all our family and get to see them so often! We love you all! Thanks for everything!

Happy Santa Claus Day!

Steve and I decided that our family is going to have Santa come the week before Christmas (we were going to have him come on the Dutch holiday Sinterklasse day on December 6th, but, uh...Santa wasn't quite ready!)-- this way, we can have one day for Santa, and then have Christmas be about CHRIST.  So this past Friday night, Gray made cookies with Nani (the traditional stars, bells, and snowmen, but there were also some ghosts and bats in there, too), and we set them out for Santa.  He didn't disappoint!

Grayson got a little trampoline -- he's loved bouncing like a kangaroo, frog, lemur, and a monkey on it. 

He got these little bath toy animals in his stocking

He spent the first hour just lining the animals up in various places around the room.

T slept in for a while, but when he woke up, he was excited for his bead toy, some books, and a teddy bear.

Playing with the new loot!

I had to put him in his Santa outfit after his morning diaper change.  He is so stinkin' cute!

He loves books, and he really loved the Hungry Caterpillar book! He flipped through it and babbled at it for a long time

...he also chewed on it a bit.

I had to include these cute close-ups -- he is just too adorable

Gray wanted T on the trampoline with him.  T was excited :)

Gray was excited to show T all his animals

T taking a turn on the tramp. Ha - not really, but he did like standing there and kind of bouncing/wobbling around -- don't worry, I was right next to him the whole time.

It was a fun, relaxed morning.  Grayson gets so overwhelmed by all the usual Christmas festivities, so it was nice to have a morning to ourselves -- nowhere to be, no one to visit. We let Gray go through his presents at his own pace -- like I said, he spent an hour alone on the animals before he even looked at his other presents.  It was early afternoon before he even got to the tramp, and he didn't look through his books until just before nap time. But he eventually got to everything, and loved it all. In his prayers that night, he thanked Heavenly Father for Santa and all his new presents.  He said it was the "best day ever". And I'm excited to spend the rest of the time until Christmas focusing on the Savior, service, and family. Here's to new traditions :)

11 Months Old!

Baby Thatcher is 11 months old! (I'm late blogging about this -- he turned 11 months on 12/6/11).  He is still just the sweetest little guy, and so happy and smiley!  He has the best, deep gut-laugh that always makes everyone that hears it laugh right along with him. He's still not really crawling in the traditional sense, but he gets on his belly and pushes with his feet/pulls with his forearms, so he can get where he wants to go pretty well.  He can pull himself up to standing very easily, and sometimes even does it without holding on to anything.  He cruises around the furniture, and uses his play table as a kind of walker -- he pushes it in front of himself and shuffles along behind it. He has his bottom two teeth, and loves to eat Cheerios with them. He says 'dada', 'mama', 'daaa'(dog), 'naaanaa'(nonies), and 'baabaa' (brother, I think --he says it when he sees Grayson).  He signs dad, mom, milk, eat, all done, binky, and more. He loves his Sophie giraffe toy, his rattle, books, and pretty much anything Grayson is playing with. We love you little T-bear!