the rest of the story

A week of celebrating Christmas means lots and lots of pictures.  We left off leaving my parents house on Christmas Eve.  We made it back in time to unload the car, put the boys down for naps and then head to the Christmas Eve service at our church!  We love being able to worship together, celebrating Jesus' birth with our church.  Jason has led this time for the last two years, so it makes it a little tricky to keep two boys content, but they did great this year.

After service, we packaged a little more coffee while watching It's a Wonderful Life.  After being gone for 4 nights already, we all slept so well in our beds.  I woke up around 7:30 and we went to wake up the boys.

Amos was already looking at his books on the floor, and didn't know what to think of us bursting into his room saying, "Merry Christmas."  He soon broke out in a smile.

Daddy and Silas read the Christmas story.

 And Amos and I acted it out with our nativity!  This was a hit.  We're going to have to remember to do this again next year.

 Then came stockings.  Amos quickly realized that his stocking looked a little fuller this morning than it had the past few weeks.

 Amos "helping" Silas with his stocking.

 Silas still wasn't happy unless in Mom's arms.

 I think he likes it.

 Trying out the new gifts.  Excuse the mess.  It only got worse.

 After presents, we ate breakfast and reloaded the car to head to Lebanon.  Where these guys were waiting for us to celebrate some more Christmas.

 She liked her apron.  In fact, she wore it the rest of the day.

 Amos trying out Teigan's present.  Does he look like anyone?

 I think everyone tried it out by the end of the night.

 Playing with some new toys!  I'm not sure who was more excited about the new toys, the kids or Mom!  I was getting a little tired of all the old ones.

 She let me braid her hair!  What a pretty girl.

 These two played together all evening.  They did lots of cooking.

Amos is Papa's stomping boots.

 Silas finally found someone he was bigger than and he loved it.  Tommy is light sensitive and keeps talking to you as you move.  Silas loved it.

 More presents!  Dad is excited about all the balls Amos got and is ready to start playing some real games.

 We spent the rest of the time playing games, eating good food, and just relaxing with the family!

Friday morning we loaded it all up again to head home via Silver Dollar City!  We wanted to use those passes one more time that season and experience Christmas at Silver Dollar City.  I think everyone thought the same thing because we had to wait an hour in traffic just to get into the parking lot!!!!  With such beautiful weather, the place was PACKED OUT!  We didn't do a whole lot, but we did manage a few of the kid rides!  Amos was coming down with something by this point, so we spent the rest of the time walking with him trying to get him to fall asleep in the car seat.

We decided to leave the park early and eat at Famous Daves on the way home!  Everyone thought that was a good decision.

We were beat that night and all slept very soundly in our own beds once again!  However, Christmas wasn't quite over.  We loaded up (just ourselves) and headed to Altamont one more time for my Mom's side of the family Christmas.  It was such a fun time catching up and playing games together.  I didn't manage many pictures, but this guy sure looked spiffy in his Christmas attire from Granny!

 WOW!  It was quite the week and the boys did great.  We are glad to be home and I think I finally have everything unpacked.  Laundry is a different story.  We're ready for a week at home!

christmas part 1 and 2

Our Christmas started early this year.  We planned to travel to Altamont for my dad's side of the family party and then back for church, but with the threat of bad weather, we left early and just stayed for my family's Christmas.

Bad weather kept some of my family from being to come down, but we still had a fun time.

Anybody think we look alike?

 Rockin it!

Because we were iced in, we were all able to worship together at my parents church.  It's been a while since that has happened.  We just keep growing!

 The son-in-loves wearing their new Christmas sweaters.

The rest of the day was spent eating, talking and playing games together.  We celebrated Christmas together on Monday.  We all had a blast!

Silas was a major Mama's boy during Christmas.  Something clicked in his head while he was sick and he doesn't want to leave my side.  This was his attitude if he was in someone else's arm while I was in the room.

Here he is in my arms.  Good thing he's so cute.