Christmas Is Here!

So Jake and I were realizing that this is the very first Christmas in the 10 Christmases that we have had that we have spent at our own house. While it's fun to be around lots of people and all the commotion, it was really nice to have a quiet low key morning. We really enjoyed being with the boys and opening their presents, putting their toys together and all of us playing together. We had a wonderful Christmas morning.

Later that afternoon we went to go visit with Jake's family down at his sister Heather's house. Marcus and Carson got a big red wagon from Nana and Gramps that love! All the little kids wanted a ride in it so we figured they better give it a try!

What a fun Christmas!!!

Christmas Eve

For Christmas Eve we had my family over for dinner. We enjoyed a delicious Brisket dinner then had a little scavenger hunt for the kids to find their Christmas PJ's. They had a lot of fun running around the house trying to find them. Carson got some "Cars" pajamas and slippers while Marcus got just some bright red pajamas to match his little elmo slippers. Here is Carson and Marcus showing off their new jammies:

Then we opened all the presents from eachother since we were all together. The kids also had drawn eachother's names so they opened those presents as well. Everyone got lots of fun things.

Marcus got a little radio from his cousin that he just loved! He kept wanting it to play music and would get mad when it stopped, so we had to listen to this little radio play music for quite some time!

Carson got a "Whack-A-Mole" game from Nono and Nona and tried it out with his uncle "Da".

Then Carson and Marcus had even more fun with their uncle Da while he pushed them around and gave them rides on Carson's little 4wheeler. What a great uncle!

After all the presents and fun, Darvell and my dad suprised us by pulling out all our old band instruments! Darvell had been practicing and played some Christmas songs on his saxophone while my dad played the piano for him. Tashina got out her old flute and played along and I got the old clarinet and did the best I could, which was probably like 3 notes that I could play! But I figured that was pretty good for not playing in over 15 years... So that was really fun to take a trip down memory lane to the jr high band days. After that and the little kiddies went to bed, the adults stayed up playing card games, Xbox and eating lots of yummy treats till around 1 in the morning. It was a great Christmas Eve!!

Fun With Nana & Gramps!

We have been fortunate this Christmas season to be able to spend a lot of time with Jake's parents. We picked them up from the airport and had dinners and movies and all kinds of fun with them. Carson and Marcus absolutely LOVE spending time with them. Here are some pictures of them with their Nana and Gramps!

They even got to sit and read books with them before they went to bed.

After it was all said and done, I think Marcus was pretty tired! He just laid his little head down on the floor, closed his eyes and rested for a while, it was pretty funny.

Battle Wounds...

I know when kids start crawling and moving around more they are bound to get bumps and bruises, but Marcus sure got quite a shiner! He fell off a chair at his grandma's house and the poor kid got a big goose egg on his forehead and now he can barely open one of his eyes...

I guess the good news is now it's easier for him to do his squinty little smile!

Carson & Cousin Peyton

We babysat my niece Peyton the other day and Carson just loved her! He wanted to hold her and take pictures so I put her on his lap and when she fussed a little bit Carson said, "It's okay, baby, it's okay" and he put the binky in her mouth. It was very cute.

Here are some of his happy and excited faces that he made when I told him I was going to take his picture with Peyton:

More Snow & Christmas Pictures!

Just one short week after our last snow storm, we got another 8 inches or so on Satruday! So Jake and Carson suited up and went to work plowing the snow with the 4wheeler. This has quickly become Carson's faovrite thing to do. He asks me also most every day now to go "outside, snow, daddy!!!"

After playing in the snow we got ready to go to my parent's house to take pictures. They wanted to take a picture of all the kids to put on their Christmas card. Here is the best picture, meaning at least all the kids are looking at the camera!

Once I started looking through all the pictures, I realized that in almost all of them Marcus has this super cheesy grin. Here's a close-up:

I guess he's got the smile down! He does this at home all the time now too. Carson has a little play camera that he uses and points at us and says "smile! say cheese!" And it looks like this is what Marcus has taken that to mean! I love my little cheesy smiler!

Let it snow!

December came with a huge amount of snow! Jake went out on the 4Wheeler to plow the driveway and ended up having to plow it again later in the afternoon. Here is a picture of Carson getting all geared up to go out in the snow.

Once Carson got outside, he and Jake went and plowed many sidewalks and driveways in the neighborhood. They were outside for hours! Carson had a great time helping his Dad. When they got back, we decided Marcus needed a turn, so they went for a little ride around the driveway so Marcus could see what all the fuss was about! What a fun snowy day!!