December 25th -Christmas Morning

Coming downstairs...I love how McKenna is peeking and Will is still eating his doughnut!

Her dream come true.

He didn't ask for much. Actually he asked for shoes this year. Hilarious! 

That's the look of surprise that we got him an ipod touch (with all the parental controls set up!!). I was thrilled with this gift b/c it means he'll stop asking me if he can play with my phone.

Will loves cars and McKenna was happy to show him how this works.

Stocking. Look at how excited McKenna is about her candyland band aids!

 My dad got my mom a Kindle Fire!

 My mom got my dad a boot tray! ha! Okay, she got him a new bike too!

 It was the year of the Kindle. I finally talked Ryan into getting one. He's resisted for years but he reads a ton, we just don't have room for all of his books!

 She was a little embarrassed by all the attentions.

 But she loves the new balance beam PopPop built her.

 The girls.

 They loved sharing the Christmas excitement with Will.

 Do you see how excited he got about his new shoes??

Here's a lesson for all of ya.

The best app I have on my iphone is the amazon price scan/check app.

We saw the shoes Christian wanted in Dick's Sporting Goods. He tried them on and loved them, but they were $79.99. Seriously?? He's in first grade. I was not about to spend $80 on shoes for him that I know he will destroy before the end of the school year.  So I used the price scan app on my phone and on amazon.com they were priced at $47.95. Same shoes. In stock in the size we needed. I told him they cost to much and we left the store without them. Man that was hard for him but he even understood that it was too much money for shoes. 2 days later my amazon box arrived and boy was he surprised on Christmas!

 I love this picture. Just look outside. It was a beautiful morning.

We didn't push Will to open his presents. Hours later after everything was unwrapped he still had a present sitting there. The kids and Ryan were outside in the snow. My parents had headed home. I was in the other room when I heard the sound of ripping paper. The best moment of Christmas for me was sitting quietly for 15 minutes watching Will rip one tiny piece after another off his package. He is precious.

Christmas around our house

December 24th - Christmas Eve

It snowed on Christmas Eve.

It couldn't have been more perfect.

Do you see Will? Oh. my. word. that boy was excited. 

He kept running to different windows calling for me to come see the snow out each window. 

I think at first he thought it was just outside one window, but he was so excited when he realized it was everywhere.

We got ready to head to church.

The roads were terrible which really stressed me out!

The only serious car accident I've ever been in was a head on collision in a few inches of snow.

I know you can be as careful as you want to be but other people just do dumb stuff.

Thankfully we made it to church and home with out any issues. We were going to go to a live nativity, but we decided to skip it since the roads weren't plowed.

Geez...it's hard to get a decent smile out of Christian.

We came home from church and read some books (to try to keep everyone calm) while dinner was cooking. This book was about how the real St. Nicholas loved God.

PopPop & Ryan matched...they didn't plan it :)

My mom gave each of the kids a present.

Each year she gives McKenna a snowglobe.

And every year she gives the boys a Nutcracker. This year Christian got a giant one! He was so excited.

Then they get to open one present from mom & dad.

Will got a pair of Thomas slippers. I thought he would love them, but he actually refuses to wear them.

Once the kids were in bed Ryan and I started setting up Christmas!

'Twas the night before Christmas, my favorite night of the year.

Christian wanted to know what would happen if he woke up in the middle of the night and went downstairs. Enter...the jingle bell trap.

Unfortunately, Christian broke out at 3:15am and asked me if we could start Christmas. I kept sending him back to bed over and over again until he finally fell back asleep at 5:30am.

Needless to say, I was a little exhausted on Christmas morning.

December 23rd - Christian's Christmas

My sweet Christmas babies!

 Christian's school has a Santa Secret Shop. He was so excited to go pick out gifts for each member of our family. Do you see what he bought me? I'll give you a hint...he's wearing it.

 I learned that it's best to give Christian a special time to give his gifts.

It makes him feel special and McKenna and Will appreciate them more when that's all they're getting.

 She was so excited.

 The boys are just precious together. Christian picked out a car for Will that makes noise and you can pull it back and it goes on it's own. It was the perfect gift for Will and he LOVED it. On Dec. 23rd we were still helping Will open presents. By the time Christmas morning arrived, Will could open his own presents.

 Christian gave Ryan a baseball ornament.

 I was a little worried about this present. It sorta seemed like Christian was thinking more about what he would like then what McKenna would like.

 He got her a soccer ball and cones. I think he forgot that this was the girl who did her best not to ever touch the ball during a soccer game this fall. But do you see that smile? She is so sweet and was very thankful. She did mention that she doesn't really like soccer, but she and Christian played various soccer games all afternoon.

 McKenna gave Christian her present that she had picked out.

When the presents were done we had a family game night.