As most of you know, I don't post often but when I do, it is a big one. So, here goes Christmas! It all started the weekend after Thanksgiving when we got out all the Christmas stuff and began to decorate the tree...
Lately one of our favorite things to do is to go to Eatzi's for dinner. The salads are great, and the mac & cheese is the best ever! The boys love to run around outside after we are finished eating. Here they are running after each other. Yes, Elijah runs.
My boys at the park Thanksgiving weekend...
We were SO excited to get to see Ava, Micah, Kyla, Alan, my aunt Laurie (Jo Jo) and my uncle Greg (Poppa) during Thanksgiving weekend as well. We had a great time at their house riding the golf cart, jumping on the trampoline, eating a great dinner, and watching the sunset.
Decorating the tree!
One of our favorite Christmas traditions is going to see the "Trains" at Northpark (benefitting the Ronald McDonald House). This was Jaron's 2nd year in a row to wear his train conductor costume to the "Trains."
After the trains, we walked around the mall until we found a little "Scrooge" puppet show. Scrooge decided to pick on Cary, asking him about his job, etc. That was funny, but it was even funnier to see Jordan and Jaron laughing at Scrooge's jokes. Especially Jaron, because he was laughing very boisterously, even though he clearly didn't understand any of the jokes.
A couple of weeks before Christmas I took the little boys to the Dallas Museum of Art for their "2nd Tuesday" thing...the museum is free that day and they have all kinds of fun crafts, storytimes, exhibits, for kids to see and do. It is fantastic. Here are the hats we made that were supposed to be inspired by Dr. Seuss.
This was a huge highlight of our Christmas this year. "Cookies and Castles" is an event sponsored by the Dallas Tri-Delta alumnae, and it benefits the Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for Children. We got to decorate gingerbread houses with icing and EVERY kind of candy that you can imagine. They actually had a station of never-ending candy. You could simply walk up and get whatever you wanted to decorate your gingerbread house and gingerbread men. Of course it was fun to sample the candy as well. The first picture is of a giant teddy bear Christmas tree that I thought was impressive. Then you see pictures of the boys decorating their houses. Mimi (my Mom), Creede, Lori, and Creede Hudson came with us!
(I just want to note that Jordan, despite the face in this picture, really enjoyed this event. He is trying to play it cool. :) I think he took home about 7 pounds of candy.)
Elijah got one piece of candy, a gummy orange.
Here is our "Little People" Nativity Scene that we put up every year to talk about the First Christmas.
We found this guy while out looking at Christmas lights!
Here are a few pictures of Jaron's preschool Christmas celebration. His teacher told the Christmas story, and when she asked the kids what the wise men brought baby Jesus, Jaron piped up and said, "gold frankincense and myrrh!"
Playing in Mommy and Daddy's room
Of course we did have our annual picture with Santa. All 3 of the boys actually smiled! (I believe this was thanks to Jordan, who set the pace for the whole thing.)
Reading Christmas books from the library...
Here are a couple of pictures from Elijah's class Christmas party! A snowman cookie! Mmmm..!!
Cary even came to play music for all these little babies! What a sweet Daddy!
A couple of days before Christmas, we spent the day at the Fair Park Museums, including the Children's Aquarium and the Museum of Nature and Science. Here is a picture of the boys holding some kind of crab or something (I was really paying attention as you can see!) This aquarium was really cool...I recommend it for sure!
These pictures are from the Museum of Nature and Science.
Digging for dinosaur bones in the huge sandbox..
Cary, Jordan and Jaron found this on their way to lunch.
Sweet brothers!
Here we are on Christmas Eve!
Elijah could not hang for very long in the church ceremony, so he climbed around on the stairs in the hall.
We spent Christmas Eve at Mimi's house having dinner and opening presents. It was a great night!
Here is a picture of Jaron with one of his favorite toys from this Christmas: a Woody doll from Mimi. On the way home from her house that night he said that his Woody toy was what he has "always wanted." My Mom loved that! :)
Here are the pictures of Christmas morning! Take a close look at Jordan's and Jaron's needlepoint stockings. My Mom and I finished them this year, after working on them for 2 years! My first time to needlepoint ever!
Hmm...Santa ate the cookies but left some candy!
Elijah was not sure what to think about all this...
Here is a picture of Jaron with the big gift this year...a drum kit for all 3 boys!! Yes, we are insane! The kids love it!
Thanks to Kim, the boys have matching Christmas pajamas this year. So cute!!
We picked up Jordan around 11, and headed out to my grandparents' house where Jordan got to open a bunch of his gifts.
My Mom gave him this awesome remote control car that goes 30 mph.
Here are Jaron and Ava getting ready for Christmas lunch.
Mammas and Poppop gave Jaron this little miniature sandbox with little knights, horses and a castle. It was really cute to watch Jaron and my cousin Tanner play with this fun toy together...for like 30 minutes.
Elijah was not feeling very well on Christmas day :( but he did at least take a long nap that day, and he enjoyed taking ornaments off the Christmas tree. :)
Jaron and Ava sneaking around in the courtyard...
Here is Cary with Micah, Ava's sister. She is adorable!
Jordan opening his stocking
Cool soccer shirt
We celebrated with the McNeese family on the day after Christmas. This year, we all went bowling after having a wonderful lunch at Greg and Suzie's house. Here is Elijah with Grandaddy.
My cousin Natalie with June
I tried to take a picture of the 2 babies together, especially since they were both wearing Christmas sweaters with doggies on them.
Jaron bowling for the first time! Each time he just kicked the bowling ball and it rolled slowly down the aisle (with bumpers).
We spent the next day at my Dad's house. It was a very relaxing day. Here is Cary reading to Hannah.
Jaron got the game "Guess Who" to replace the old version that he tore apart as a 2-year-old. Incidentally, he also memorized the names of all 20+ characters in the old game we had. He has a great memory. Speaking of memory, he also received the game "Memory" from my Dad and Holly that day along with "Guess Who."
Here's Haley with the cozy boots we gave her.
We ended the week celebrating Christmas with Cary's parents who came from Austin to be with us at our house. We had a great time, and they gave the boys a really fun tent with about 100+ of those balls (like they used to have at McDonald's). We still have not put this away, and it is tons of fun! Here is a picture of Jaron with a shirt that BawPaw got him on his trip to Turkey.
Jaron and BawPaw watching "Toy Story" together
That's Jordan in my hat. :)
Here is a picture of Jordan snuggling with Jaron, who did not feel very well a couple of days after Christmas.
I don't know when this picture was taken but I thought it was so cute I had to include it!
Here are the boys in some cute outfits they got from Mimi for Christmas!
Christmas all finished!
