Christmas Overload

We had such a wonderful Christmas this year. We are so blessed to have such wonderful families on both sides and we just loved being able to celebrate Christmas with them. Last year we missed out on a few big Christmas get togethers because of a big snow/ice storm that came through Iowa. So I was very thankful to be back in Indiana this year. Their is nothing more important at Christmas time than being with family.

Mike and I were on top of the Christmas shopping this year. We started early and got the things on our list taken care of quickly. The only problem with that is that we didn't stop shopping. We would be out and see something little or not too expensive and pick up another gift for the boys. They ended up with a pretty big Christmas, much bigger than we had intended in the beginning. Oh well, the boys sure did have fun opening presents.

Santa was good to our boys :-)

Jude was pretty excited about the candy in his stocking

Eli was the most excited about Boomer!!!
New slippers from Mommy
I love his face in this picture
Jude loves his little "cd player"
Alphie is what Eli asked Santa for!Jude LOVES his pillow pet!Cuddling on the couch with Butta, Boomer, and his pillow pet Christmas morning

After the boys napped on Christmas we headed over to Mike's parents to celebrate with them. Eli had to take his new Boomer to show everyone :-) We had a wonderful time with them. Both boys just adore their grandparents.

Eli helped Grandma pass out some of the presentsJude was excited about his new blocks
Eli got pretty excited when he opened up this present..It's Batman's House!!!!!!Jude got a very nice Mickey Rocking chair that he LOVES!

On Sunday we headed over to my sister Tracy's house to celebrate Christmas with my mom. It was another wonderful Christmas. My mom has 15 grandkids so it can get a little crazy when we all get together but it is so much fun. And the boys love all their cousins.

12 of the 15 grandkids

Me and JudeEli got a few costumes from my mom and he LOVES them!

The Flash

Hiccup from How to Train your Dragon
Eli opened up a big kitchen from Grandma

And Jude opened up a big bucket of food to go with it!

When we got home we got out the new blocks to play withand knock down :-)

Yesterday we hosted a Christmas get together for my dad. This is only the 2nd time that we have hosted a family get together at our house and I think it went pretty well. Again the boys had a great time playing with their cousins.

Eli was really animated about a lot of his presents this year :-) Jude got a big Buzz!Eli got an Explorer and a new Pacer's Jersey!Eli and Jude with Papaw (Eli refused to smile)

Tonight we got out Eli's box of costumes that he got from Santa and let him try them on. He had SO MUCH FUN!!! The box came with Superman, Batman, and Robin so of course he had to try them all on and then run around in them.

Superman

Batman

Robin

Its Begining to Look A Lot Like Christmas

Well it has actually looked like Christmas for some time now in our house. We decorated our Christmas tree the weekend after Thanksgiving but we didn't get our stocking up until this week so I waited to post all the pictures together. The boys have both really enjoyed our Christmas decorations. I put up all the decoration (except the tree) while the boys were napping and they were so so excited when they woke up. Eli kept saying how beautiful it was. That evening we got the tree up and the boys got to help decorate it. We also gave the boys their special ornaments for this Christmas. We picked out an ornament for each of the boys that was something that is special to them right now. Eli got a Rudolph ornament and Jude got a cat ornament.

Opening up the ornaments

Eli with his Rudolph

Jude was pretty happy about his cat

Decorating the tree

The tree

The stockings

Advent Calendar and Christmas cards

We have also had some visitors since Thanksgiving. Eli and Jude each have an Elf that have been watching over them and reporting back to Santa with how they have been. The elves moved around to different places and each time they moved the boys would get so excited when they spotted them.

Our Elves hanging out on the tree

Earlier this week Eli helped me make some Christmas cookies. We made Blue snowmen, red bells (which were actually pink), yellow stars, and green trees. Tonight the boys helped me put out some milk and cookies for Santa and the reindeer.

Helping make cookies

Putting the cookies out for Santa

We hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas!

Christmas Time

We had a wonderful weekend filled with Christmas fun. Saturday we took the boys to see Santa at the mall. Before we left the boys each colored a picture for Santa and I helped them write a little note to Santa on the back. Eli has been talking about going to Santa for a few weeks now but we wanted to wait until Mike was done with school so that he could go with us. Jude would also get really excited when we would talk about Santa, but I don't think he really understood what we were talking about. When we got there Eli did great getting on Santa's lap and talking to him. He smiled the entire time and told Santa he wanted Alphie the Robot for Christmas. It was so cute. Jude was not quite as excited about it. As soon as he saw Eli sitting on Santa's lap he grabbed a hold of me pretty tight. I walked up there with him and showed him Santa was nice and he was ok going on his lap. He wouldn't smile, but I was just happy that he didn't cry. Oh course as we walked away he kept waving and smiling and saying bye bye. :-) Eli then got to put their notes for Santa in the big red mailbox. When we got home the boys got to enjoy the candy canes that Santa had given them and they both loved it.

Coloring a picture for Santa

Eli was so excited to see Santa!Santa 2010
Leaving the notes for Santa
Enjoying the candy canes from Santa

Today we went over to Mike's parents house for a family Christmas party. It was so wonderful to see everyone. We hadn't seen most of them since last winter. It is so wonderful to see the boys playing with the their cousins and their 2nd cousins. All the kids got to decorate a balloon for Jesus' birthday and then we went outside and sang Happy Birthday and let the balloons go into the sky. I was concerned that the boys would be upset that they had to let their balloons go, but they both had fun watching them float away.

Eli with his new hat

Jude playing with his new shape sorter

We had such a wonderful day with our family, but the highlight of my day had to be meeting my newest nephew. Leo Michael was born on December 8th and he hasn't had the easiest start on life but he is absolutely perfect! I absolutely loved holding him and I can't wait to hold him again on Christmas day!

Love you sweet Baby Leo!