The Best Moment from Christmas Morning

He thought we were done with the presents.

We saved it as a surprise for later in the day.
He was SO EXCITED!!!!! I mean, he even climbed onto the box.

And the part that I just love is that as he was opening it he said "I can't breathe" because he was so excited.

And I love it that he didn't fuss when McKenna helped him open it.

And then some more assembling!

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I love giving presents to Christian because he genuinely appreciates them. And he can remember who gave him every single thing that he owns. If someone gave him a shirt, he remembers who it was. And he loves to sit and look at all of our Christmas picture albums and remember the presents people have given him in the past.

P.S. And if you have kids, make sure you've read THIS book because it's helped me figure Christian out so much!!! "Gifts" is one of Christian's love languages.

Christmas Morning 2009

Everything was ready and waiting! And we waited and waited for Christian to wake up. I finally woke up the silly boy to tell him it was Christmas morning.
And boy oh boy were they excited!

I resisted and resisted getting the Handy Manny Repair Shop workbench. I thought it cost way too much money for a bench that didn't even come with the tools. But it did come with a zillion pieces for over 30 projects that you can put together and that all sounds very unappealing to me. But Christian couldn't stop talking about it and Christian has the nicest daddy ever who told me to go get it for him. So I found one of the last ones at Target just a few days before Christmas and I don't regret it one bit. You know all those zillions of pieces that I was dreading....well, they actually make some pretty cool stuff and Christian can do it all on his own. It's rather amazing and it's been a great gift.

And this has been a hit as well, with McKenna and every other child who walks in our house.

But the baby doll stroller has been used more than anything else. She actually pushes Christian around the house in it. Ha!

Do you see what Christian is holding? It's the present he wrapped all by himself for his daddy (it hasn't been unwrapped yet...that's just how he wrapped it). He saved one of his baseball Happy Meal toys to give to Ryan and he drew a picture of our family and found one of Ryan's favorite books and wrapped it all up.

Any guesses as to what I gave Ryan for Christmas? Hmmm..I guess you can kind of see in that picture. Let's just say, he was shocked and we all love it! It's going to be a great way for our family to spend time together.

McKenna's cousin Gracey had one of these sofas that turns into a bed and McKenna loved it so much that we decided to get her one.

Love the freckles on that sweet little nose.

Obviously my mom had a pretty big Christmas!

This present was a necessity. It's a radar detector and since it cost about the same amount as one speeding ticket, I'm hoping it will save us some money in 2010. Ryan had some pretty bad luck in 2009. Enough said!

Let's just say, my dad really shocked my mom more than once this Christmas morning!

My mom actually cried when she unwrapped this one. It's a record player that let's you burn your records onto CDs. It should be fun!

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It was a merry Christmas all around. My favorite present was definitely my new house! It's starting to really feel like home now! I'll post some pictures soon.

Christmas Eve 2009

Christian and McKenna spent the week of Christmas at Grandmom and PopPop's house while Ryan and I got moved into the new house. We couldn't wait to see them!! And Christmas began as soon as we walked in the door of my parent's house.

We put Baby Jesus in the manger and sang "Away in a Manger."

We loved being together as a family.

And Christian talked and talked, telling us everything he had been doing that week. I love watching him get into a deep discussion with his daddy.

Then it was time for presents.

The kids got to open their presents from Grandmom & PopPop on Christmas Eve.

McKenna got a baby that drinks a bottle and giggles when you press on her belly.

McKenna was beside herself, she was so excited! She loves babies, but this is the first time she had one that made noise.

And then it was Christian's turn.

He had been hoping and wishing for the Handy Manny tool set! He was one happy boy!

Then it was off to bed for the kids, while mommy and daddy assembled toys!

McKenna's Favorite Christmas Gift

She LOVES Dora!

She could dance all day until she notices that you're watching, then she starts feeling a little shy about all the attention!

Visiting Grandmom & PopPop

The kids and I had a great weekend at my parent's house!
Christian & McKenna hung their stockings, since that's where we'll wake up on Christmas morning.

Christian is starting to have a really good memory. He remembered this Christmas train that my parent's had put up last year, but that they didn't put out this year. He just had to have that train, so PopPop had to go out to the garage and try to find it for him. It was a hit, as any train is!

McKenna got to play with some tiny trains while she watched the Christmas train.

This is a much trickier train than Christian is used to. It kept coming off the tracks and Grandmom was very involved in putting it back on.

Love it that he still gets so excited over a train! I don't really think he's going to outgrow them. He might outgrow Thomas, but then I think we'll just move onto the real trains with the tiny metal tracks.

Christian and PopPop worked on a project.

While McKenna sang Christmas carols with Grandmom.

I wish I had taken more pictures because McKenna was so excited about all the Christmas decorations at my parents house. She was thrilled with the Christmas tree with the packages underneath (she only opened one, you definitely can't wrap things in gift bags with her around). I've got to get a video of her saying, "Ho, Ho, Ho, Merry Christmas!" It's the most adorable thing ever!

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And I've got to share this idea with all the Grandmoms out there. My mom has a small Christmas tree that she calls her "Grandchildren Tree." Every year we give her picture ornaments of the kids and that's the tree they go on. So she ends up with pictures of the kids from every year of their life so far. We do our best to put the date on the back of the ornament, so that we can remember how old everyone was in their picture. The tree is starting to get a little crowded, but it's so fun to look back at all the cousins as babies. It's a sweet tradition. (My sister gets the credit for this idea. She started it a few years ago).

Christmas Stuff!!

I LOVE Christmas traditions! I think that's what great family memories are made of. This year we've put quite a few things on hold and are just sticking to the basics. We have our advent calendars that contain a piece of chocolate each day (that is definitely not a tradition to skip) and we've got our Jesse Tree that I adore. It has led to so many wonderful discussions with Christian. It's a little different this year because we've found that McKenna is way too distracting to have around for it, so it's not a family thing this year. It's just a Christian and mommy or daddy thing. But I love talking to him about great people of faith like Jacob, Abraham and Ruth!

We didn't do THIS this year! But it's one of my favorite traditions and one that we will definitely be doing again next year!!

And I absolutely adore THIS idea!! I have got to remember this next year because I read this on her blog last year and meant to do it this year and then forgot! Maybe you could remind me Courtney :)

Normally I have a very hard time coming up with gifts that I love, but I wanted to share this one. I love the Leap Frog Scribble and Write!!! It's been such a learning tool for Christian and it's a great car toy on top of that! He finally totally gets the concept of upper and lower case letters all because of this thing. And it has helped him greatly with his handwriting skills! It costs just under $20 which is an excellent price. I think it's perfect for preschoolers, but probably too easy once they get into kindergarten. Just thought I'd mention it in case you needed a good gift idea for a four year old!
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So what are your favorite gift ideas this year?
And what are some of your favorite traditions??
I love getting ideas from other moms, so I hope you'll leave a comment or do a post on it yourself!

Gingerbread Time!!!

There's my boy with his Gingerbread House!
Can you believe that his preschool teacher's were brave enough to do this craft with a bunch of 4 year olds? I was wondering how they were going to pull it off but when I dropped off Christian that morning they already had the houses put together and all the kids had to do was decorate!

Daddy was Christian's special helper for the morning! They did an awesome job!

Carter and his mommy created a masterpiece too!

Tada!! Here's the finished product and that's Christian's new look when you tell him to smile.

Christian made it clear as soon as I picked him up from school that this house was NOT going to become a decoration. He planned on eating it and he and McKenna were chowing down before we even got home. We actually still have some of that Gingerbread house left and that's because it's currently sitting on top of the freezer out of the reach of sticky little fingers.