Christmas!

It was our first year of doing Christmas at our house with just us.  I think it was a great morning.  The kids woke up around 8am.  We took a few pictures and then got right to work opening the presents from Santa!

And and here’s a picture of Tyson’s Santa letter he made at school: Lego Mining Station and Driller Truck.

 

And our attempts at pictures of the boys together first thing in the morning.  Haha!

 

Stockings and so excited about candy!

 

Pretty cute at unwrapping. 

Tyson got the Lego Mining set, some Lego wii games, a puzzle, a Lego fire atv, Don’t Break the Ice game and some other stuff I no longer can remember :)  Andrew got the Little People farm, a toy phone, Grover remote and Elmo building set along with a few other smaller things.  I didn’t go picture crazy because I wanted to just enjoy the moment but I think I got some great pictures that captured the excitement from my little family.  The boys were great and so fun to watch open presents.  Andrew asked for help so Brian had to open and get out every toy as soon as it was opened. 

We then ate the Christmas casserole I made.  I made it with eggs, cheese, sausage, bacon and cheese.  It wasn’t as good as I thought it was going to be but it was still a nice breakfast.

Then Grandma and Grandpa Murray called on the ipad and the kids opened the gifts from them and they were able to watch.  Look how excited my parents were to see these kids. 

We then got ready and headed to my brother’s house for dinner and to spend time together.  I am still thinking about that ham…

Christmas Eve

Technically this picture isn’t from Christmas Eve but I wanted to share it anyway.  One of the neighbors brought cake and a DVD as a gift.  The DVD was children talking about Christ’s birth.  It was so sweet.  We lit the candle and sang Happy Birthday to Jesus.  I feel like it really helped Tyson understand the reason for Christmas on a child’s level.  And the cake was amazing.  A few neighbors were out of town already so they told me to eat theirs.  I ate a lot of cake in 3 days :)

Oh and our 7th anniversary was on the 22nd of December. We had Chili’s take out and watched a movie because the kids were sick. I had to take a picture of the flowers Brian got me because they were so beautiful. I thought the arrangement was one of my favorites. I was really sad when the flowers died.

It snowed Christmas Eve here.  Not a ton but enough for the kids to be really excited about it.  Tyson has been wanting to make a snowman and snowballs for awhile.  With Brian home that day we were all able to dress up and spend some time outside.  I loved Andrew all bundled up trying to walk around.

 

The second we hit outside Tyson went to town on building a snowman.  Brian told him he’d help him build a big one, so he said this one is for Andrew.  What a great big brother!

 

Here’s daddy teaching Tyson how to make a snowman…

Almost there!  Andrew was calling it a ball the whole time.

 

I LOVE this picture of my boys!!

 

Brian stuck Andy up on top as a joke and Andrew never wanted to get down.  He would beg and say, “up, up” over and over until Brian would put him back on top.  He thought it was so funny.

 

And then boys will be boys…must destroy whatever you build I guess.

 

After the snow playing we got showered and headed to Payson.  We had a great dinner with family and listened to the Nativity and each opened one present.  Tyson got a little excited and went out of turn.  Andrew loves his new blanket and Brian got some popcorn seasoning from the boys. Brian’s mom made us each a pillowcase and Rob and Tina got us some gifts from the Azores where they use to live.  We left kind of late that night so we rushed home to get the kids to bed.  Both fell asleep on the drive home so Tyson helped me half asleep put the reindeer food and glitter in the grass and lay the cookies and milk out for Santa. 

Preschool Christmas Program

Brian had the day off work so it ended up that he could come see Tyson.  Tyson was really excited that his daddy could come watch.  Tyson was a bit distracted by everything and the scarf he was wearing.  He sang maybe 50% and did the movements to about 20%.  He looked cute regardless.

Pointing to his friend where his brother and daddy were.  That Andrew was crazy that day.  Man, he’s hard.

Here’s Ty kinda in his own world.

This is the best stretch of songs that he did.  He loves being active and crazy.  He really got into the jumping around songs.

And one more

 

Seeing Santa

Some friends from class

Corgan, Olivia and Ty

Decorating for Christmas

Tyson loved helping daddy outside with the lights. 

 

Tyson was completely into decorating the tree too.  I tried to help him space things out but after it was clear he wasn’t going to listen I let him do whatever.  If you look at our tree now just 3 weeks after setting it up, most of the ornaments have moved around.  Either Ty decides one needs to move or Andrew rips it off of the tree and Tyson puts it back on but higher up the tree.  Andrew has actually done pretty well around the tree.  He gets curious and rips an ornament off but he hasn’t tried or wanted to knock it over.  He did fall into the bottom of the tree and knocked an entire section of the lights out.  He use to say Ooo and Ahhh over the lights.  By the way, we have been told that we have the most festive lights outside of the house.  I should take a picture of that.  Each window has colored lights and the balcony rails have icicle lights.  I love them.

 

Fotofly Santa

The experience this year was interesting.  We waited well over 20 minutes to start taking the pictures which made my kids extremely restless.  Andrew freaked out with the real Santa and the one picture that I ended up liking the photographer decided to go all artsy on me and its crooked.  I cried (I blame it on the hormones of pregnancy) and told them about the experience and they let us try again.  I dressed up as Santa and Andrew was still a little hesitant but it ended up working out.  I love the pictures now as I look at them and have them displayed in my house.

The first 2 pictures are from the first try…

 

And all done :)