Wednesday, December 26, 2012

Christmas 2012

We had a wonderful Christmas! Lots of pictures in this post, mainly of the boys. I don't know why I never take pictures of anyone else, but I don't! Sorry family! We are extremely blessed to have such great families to celebrate Christmas with. I'm sad it's over!
 
We started out as usual with Christmas Eve lunch at the BCC. We stuffed ourselves silly! We tried to take a family picture. If only Harrison was smiling AT the camera and not at his big brother, it would have been pretty good! His big brother is pretty silly though so I can't blame him.
 
 Hudson was just a wee bit excited on Christmas Eve!

I think Harrison knew something was up too! He was all smiles both days and was just a pure joy to be around.
 The grandkids at lunch..
We hurried home for quick naps before heading to the Christmas Eve service at church at 4. It was a great service as always! Hudson sat in big church again and loved singing the candlelight Silent Night at the end.  After church, we headed over to the Mills house for a few minutes of fun.

Papa John's 95th Christmas!
I thought Hudson looked so cute (and grown up--sad!), but he HATED his outfit. He wanted the red vest off! :(
 We were only able to stay at the Mill's for about 45 minutes before heading to my parent's house to open presents. Of course, as soon as we got in the car to head to my parents, I checked my phone and I had a voicemail from church saying that they had taken out the boys Christmas pajamas at church and forgot to put them back in the bag. It is a Christmas miracle that they were able to determine that the pajamas were ours. I didn't realize they weren't in the bag when I picked Harrison up, so I would have been very upset had it come time to change the boys into their cute pajamas only for them not to be there! Anyway, so we were way late getting to my parent's house that night so I was worried about how Harrison would do since he goes to bed at 7! He did awesome though! Exceeded all of our expectations and stayed up until 10 pm that night! He never fussed a bit and just had a ball!

Having some goldfish...

 Wrestling...
 Don't feel bad for Harrison. He can most definitely hold his own!

 Cute boy with a weapon!
Harrison got the hang of the present opening pretty quickly. He did not love that we wouldn't open them completely up once he opened them. You know it takes an act of congress to get toys out of packages! Ha! He also loved just playing with the wrapping paper!
 Hudson got these precious slippers and has not taken them off since!
This is what happens when you grow up. Your name gets crossed out on your stocking and the grandchildren's names go in our place! Boo!

 We got home late that night and waited until the boys were good and asleep before we set up Santa stuff! Love this part!

Hudson came down at 7 am and asked me why I put all that stuff out! I guess he forgot Santa was coming? He was pretty excited about his new spiderman toy. The one thing he really wanted! He hasn't put it down so I guess Santa did good! 

 If you ask Hudson what he wants to be when he grows up, it's a doctor like Dr. John (his pediatrician). I hope he does become Dr. John one day! He has been giving us lots of shots and medicine.

This was one stocking stuffer that Santa messed up on! Phew it's loud!

 
Mommy got Hudson a camera all for himself since he is always taking mine! He wasn't really into it yesterday, but this morning, he took about a thousand pictures! I can't wait to hook it up to the computer to see what all he took!
 

 I finally woke Harrison up at 9. He probably would have slept all morning if we had let him! He was out! We had already done presents, so we kind of just did the morning in shifts this year. It worked out just fine!
 
 Harrison LOVED the roller coaster. He has done it a thousand times and is not scared a bit. He is even climbing on it himself. This kid has no fear.
 Sweet boys in their Christmas pjs!

 
 Hudson is "cutting" Joel's hair. He says that doctors do that?

 Hudson got a new scooter and it took him a while to really try it out, but once he did, he loved it. He has a cute spiderman helmet that goes with it. I can't wait until it warms up a bit so we can go outside and ride it.
  It was nice being able to take our time that morning without having to rush off somewhere. At 10:30 (which is late for us!), we headed to the Reed's for brunch. There were lots of dogs at the Reed's house and they were locked downstairs. The boys had fun watching them through the glass door!


Happy happy boy! Both boys were just so much fun this year. We had a blast!!!

 
After brunch, we headed back over to my parent's for lunch with my mom's side of the family. We took a family picture, but it was with my brother's camera so I'll have to add that later. It was fun being with my 95 year old grandparents and my Aunt Ellen and Gerald and my cousin Alan! It has been a while since we celebrated Christmas with them! So glad they could come! Carrie made some fabulous desserts. I wish I had taken pictures. They were to die for. After brunch and lunch, we were pretty much comatose! Ha! The boys had hit their limit so we went home and all took naps!
 
We had one more stop that night. We headed back over to the Reed's to do Christmas with them! Hudson was still showing off!
 
 We got some awesome stuff again!

 Batman in his Spiderman sleeping bag!

 We ate another delicious meal and then capped off the night watching Polar Express. Doesn't get much better than that!

What a fun and crazy Christmas we had! We are enjoying our lazy day at home today playing with all of our new toys (and getting Christmas taken down). When it's over, it's over!

Monday, December 24, 2012

Christmas Card 2012

Merry Christmas to you all!
 
Had to add a cute one of Harrison too!

 
Let the celebrating begin!
 

Thursday, December 20, 2012

We Saw Santa

While I am partial to the purple couch that the Brookwood Mall Santa has to offer, we decided to change things up a bit and see Santa at Bass Pro this year. Santa was GREAT at Bass Pro! And, the pictures were free. Beats the $15 "so so" picture you get at the mall. And, there is a huge kids section that Hudson just loved! Can't complain a bit about our experience. Anyway, without further ado...
 
 We (meaning my mom and brother in law) turned our backs for a second and all of a sudden, Hudson was sitting in Santa's lap. I have no idea how it happened, but I guess he just walked right up and got in his lap without any hesitation? We were the only ones there so it wasn't a big deal! He said he couldn't wait to sit in Santa's lap, but I still wasn't so sure given his reaction the past 2 years! He has not been a fan. I was so wrong! My baby is growing up! He wasn't scared a bit!

I will tell you who was NOT a fan and that was Harrison!

 Ahhh my classic Santa picture that I so love...

 I'm really not sure I'm going to love the Santa pictures when they are both smiling. What is the fun in that???? I must be a mean mom. I told my mom before we even walked in that Harrison was going to scream and I was putting him on his lap anyway and that she just needed to deal with it. She hates to see him cry, so she is not a fan of this. Me on the other hand, I LOVE this! Haha!

 Hudson had a really long conversation with Santa and told him that he wanted a big Spiderman and that he had to behave or else Santa wouldn't bring him any presents. :) Santa sort of had to push him off his lap (he would have stayed there all day!) and when Hudson got down, he told me that Santa stunk! How funny! I told him I would stink in that suit too if I had to wear it all day! :) Of all the things to say...I love 3 year olds, they just tell it like it is!

Bass Pro had a merry go round too. It was a little boring for Hudson (he would rather be climbing all over the gators and boats and 4 wheelers), but Harrison loved it!

I love how I got the "restrooms" sign in this picture...


It was a fun trip out and my brother in law's first trip to Bass Pro. He definitely got his fill of "rednecks" while we were there!

Wednesday, December 12, 2012

The Rest of Sunday

I really need to get the weekend wrapped up on the blog, but I have the FLU. I feel like I have been hit by a mack truck. I did have a flu shot this year too. According to the doctor yesterday, they aren't working this year. So far, the rest of the family hasn't gotten it and I am praying it stays that way.
 
I'm already getting bored sitting here all day in bed (and I don't feel like moving so I'm pretty much stuck), so in between trying to work a little and catching up on daytime tv (which is just as bad as it was when I was on maternity leave), I thought it would be good to quickly wrap up Sunday's activities.
 
After singing in "big church" on Sunday (and Hudson sitting through his first church service like a champ!), we went to lunch with the Reed's. We got home around 1:30 and had to be at another party at 3, so I decided to just punt on the nap. When we got to our neighborhood, I realized that at 2, our neighborhood was having its annual Christmas parade. Why not add in one more activity for the day?!?!? I'm thinking maybe this is why I am sick--it is God's way of telling me to SLOW down and that we don't have to do just everything. It is so fun though! :)
 
 Hudson's favorite part was the marching band. He is obsessed.


 He got to see Santa one more time and I have a whole purse full of candy that they all threw out. I'm so glad that we went!
 At 3, we headed to the Bridges' house to do our annual gingerbread house and cookie decorating party. Once again, it was a blast. The kids were so cute and they all had so much fun.

We are missing Caroline P. in this one. She was still waking up from her nap! :)


 Margaret made these cute aprons for them and Hudson has not taken his off since! He walks all around the house saying that he is a chef and asking you what you want for dinner!

 Bad picture of Hudson, but they started out with this really cute reindeer craft!


 The finished products...it is next to impossible to get all four of them looking at the same time. Maybe next year?!?!?

 Thank you Margaret for hosting another wonderful afternoon! I hope we continue to do this from year to year!

 This is what I came home to. Harrison stayed home with Joel and napped and Joel had changed his clothes from his church clothes. I always think it is hilarious to see what he puts them in!

That is it for the weekend! It was such a fun weekend full of activities. Hudson is so giddy about everything right now, so it makes the Christmas season even more fun watching it through his eyes. Now, I've just got to get better so we can continue the fun! We are supposed to go to the Nutcracker tomorrow night and I am pretty sure we are going to have to miss it, which makes me so sad! There is always next year though.