Christmas 2013

Christmas Eve morning we always head over to my parents house for a big breakfast. On our way, we made a quick stop at Cracker Barrel to pick up a large order of hash brown casserole to go with the breakfast my mom and Brandy were cooking. Once we arrived, breakfast was was just about ready. The kids were so excited to see everyone, especially little Hunter. Breakfast was absolutely delicious. One thing I know for certain, my kids will eat breakfast food anytime of the day. (They are picky eaters) When all else fails, give them a sausage and biscuit and some bacon. :)

Not long after breakfast, we opened presents. I took a ton of pictures like I normally do, but I just grabbed a few to put on my blog.

A boy is so so easy to buy for. Landon kept himself busy the rest of the afternoon.

Landon LOVES Despicable Me. So he got Despicable Me 2 and we have only watched it 532,421 times since Christmas. :)

We ordered the rails to transform Adalyn's bed from a toddler bed into a full size bed but they are considered a "special order", which means can take up to 12 weeks to arrive! We ordered them back in November and are still waiting on them. But, my parents got her new bedding for when her bed is ready! It's killing me that everything is still in bags, I'm dying to re-arrange and decorate! 

(she loves her smocked dresses as much as I do :)

When we were finished opening presents, we played and rested the rest of the afternoon. We watched Despicable Me and The Little Mermaid, took naps, then got ready to head to Church for our Christmas Eve service. They didn't have childcare so that meant we needed to try to keep Landon (somewhat) quiet for 1 hour. We sat in the very back and he went back and forth between Jerry, Nancy, Christopher, Brandy, my mom and dad, and Adam and myself. He did fairly well, just wanted to keep busy. Typical for a 2 year old boy. :) Adam assisted in serving The Lord's Supper again this year so that is always special for us. 

After the service, we went home, unloaded all the gifts, gave the kids a bath and put them in their Christmas pajamas, ate supper, and watched a Christmas show on TV. Adalyn was so so excited about Santa coming. Landon was excited because Adalyn was excited. lol. She squeals, he squeals. :) 

We got our Santa Clause plate down, loaded it up with cookies and a banana, poured a glass of milk, and sat it out on the end table in the living room. 

Landon kept trying to eat the cookies...

Again, they were SO excited they were yelling "Santa!!!" when I took the picture.

They were both promptly in bed at 8:00. Adam and I watched TV for a bit before we started getting everything out and put by the tree. 

With the kids birthdays falling so close to Christmas, it's hard to figure out what to get them! Adalyn is our artistic child. She loves coloring, painting, drawing, etc. I wanted an easel that would look more like furniture to fit in her room decor so we chose this wood easel. The picture makes it look like black wood, but it isn't.  It's more of an espresso color. It has a chalk board on one side, dry erase board on the other, and the roll of paper to bring down to paint or just to color on it. This has been a hit with her. I can't wait until the warmer months get here so we can bring it outside for her to paint her little heart out. For now, we bring it in the kitchen for her to paint. 

Anytime you asked Landon what he wanted for Christmas, he would quickly say, "Tractors and Diggers!" So, that is exactly what he got. He was in Heaven. They loved looking through their stockings, too. 

Adam and I set our alarm for Christmas morning at 6:00 AM. We wanted to watch the kids walk down the hall to see their reaction. Landon gets up around 6:30 and he climbs out of his bed on his own and comes into our bedroom and wakes me up with him tapping on my back saying, "Momma, I want my milk". So, with him getting out of his room in the mornings anyway, knowing him, he would stop and start playing with the toys and we would have no idea he was even awake. So as painful as it was, we set the alarm for 6:00 and Adam and I sat on the couch and waited on one of them to wake up. Their doors are closed and by 6:15,  Landon turned on his lamp. (He always turns on his lamp before he walks out. I asked him why he did that one morning and he replied, "I can't see the door". Smart kid ;) We met him down the hall and then we opened Adalyn's door to wake her up, too. She quickly remembered that Santa came so both kids were eager to go into the living room. 

I got in front of them and snapped their picture. 

SO excited!

Adalyn kept going from on thing to the other, while Landon rolled all of his tractors and dump truck back and forth. We let them play while Adam and I got ready for our busy day ahead. Our first stop was Jerry and Nancy's for a big breakfast and presents. We arrived around 8:15. Once we were all full from breakfast, we opened presents.

They have such good big cousins!

A boy can never have too many diggers!

I have no clue who La La Loopsey is, but this mermaid is so neat. She is able to go in the bath tub and her hair turns purple when wet- Adalyn loves it!

 I can say "Tangled" is my new favorite Disney movie right now. (Well, besides Frozen. I cannot wait until that one comes out!)

 Landon loves Tangled, too. Most mornings he will ask to watch "Rapunzel" as soon as he wakes up.

We left around 12:30 and headed to Hillsboro for the rest of the day/evening. For Christmas, we always do a bunch of finger type foods as opposed to ham, mashed potatoes, green beans, etc. I love that we do this. I love eating on different dips and snacking on "stuff" all day long. My mom also cooked homemade chicken fingers just like my Grandmother always did. Delicious. 

We played with toys, ate, and rested the entire day. The guys stayed outside most of the afternoon and shot their guns. This was the first Christmas without my Granddaddy and of course, he and my Grandmother were missed so much. We left maybe around 8:00 that night and headed home. Autumn gave them a bath and we put them in their pajamas before we left. They slept the whole way home and we put them straight into bed once we got home. 

We had a wonderful (and busy!) two days with family and good food! 

Hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas.

Here is our Christmas card this year.

(I need to remember to add the year!)

2013