Christmas 2012

Christmas this year was busy!! Christmas Eve we went over to Kevin's Aunt's for dinner and the kids opened a few presents from our cousins. We had some turkey, ham, mashed potatoes, green beans, corn and some homemade rolls! Once dinner was over, the younger kids opened up presents. The kids got coloring books, crayons, coloring mat and some clothes. After hanging out with the family for a little while, we headed off to my parents house. When we got in the car, we told the kids we were going to see Grandma and Grandpa. So Ashton decided to repeatedly say "Grandma Grandpa where is you?" We corrected him by telling him it is "where are you?" but he just kept on saying "is".

When we got to my parents house, we skyped with my sister and brother-in-law since they were in WY for Christmas to visit Tommy's family. After we were done skyping, we went upstairs and played Wii with my parents and the kids colored and tried to put a puzzle together. They just wanted to play with the pieces, but at least they were learning how to match up the pieces to create a picture. My parents got the kids these little couches that pull out to beds so they could sleep on those when we stay the night. They are usually in pack'n plays or in the play yard so this was the first time they were in the room with no gates around them. For the most part they did pretty well staying in their beds, but Brittany and Caitlyn didn't want to sleep. Finally around 12:30 we told them they had to go to sleep so Santa Claus could come. They finally laid down and went to sleep.

We brought the kids down stairs and they got to see all of the Christmas presents that Santa left! They all were into opening the presents, but a few presents in and Brittany didn't want to do anything else. Ashton was really into opening his stuff and everyone else stuff! Caitlyn was doing very well opening up her presents on her own too. This year they didn't open a present and want to play with it right away! After we opened presents, we ate our breakfast and hung out for a little while before packing up and heading off to Kevin's parents house for the second Christmas of the day!

Instead of opening up presents first at Kevin's parents, we ate lunch. We had country ham, regular ham, mashed potatoes, green beans, sweet potatoes, homemade rolls and desserts. After we ate, we let the kids open a few presents first and then everyone opened up their presents. Caitlyn and Ashton were into opening all of their presents and Brittany again didn't want to open much. I think she was overwhelmed with what was going on. Ashton was getting so excited, he started to go to the pile of presents and open them. Luckily they were his! After we were done opening presents, we all relaxed until it was time to go back to our house for the third Christmas of the day!

We finally got home around 8:00pm. Since the presents were out in the open that couldn't be wrapped, I waited outside with the kids until Kevin was ready to snap some photos of the kids when they walked in to see what they got! They walked in the door and had huge smiles on their faces!! They went straight for their new tricycles. They were so excited, they got right on them and put on their helmets. We had to get them off the tricycles so they could open up the rest of their presents. There was one present that wasn't wrapped that we had to show them first. It was a mini set of corn hole boards. After Ashton saw that, he didn't want to see anything else. He cried and pitched a fit when we took them away. So he continued to play with them as the girls opened up the rest of their gifts. He finally came back to opening up presents when the girls started to play with their magnadoodles and he wanted to play too! They were so worn out and exhausted from the day!

We had a very good Christmas and hope everyone else did the same!

Visiting Santa

We took the kids to see Santa Claus this year at Bass Pro Shops. They have a Santa's Wonderland set up with a bunch of games, crafts and carousel rides. We went on a weekday so there wasn't very many people there. Before Santa got there, we tried to get a few pictures of the kids on Santa's chair, but they didn't want to stay still very long.

We got on the carousel, but we did one at time since we had to stand next to them while they were on the ride. Kevin rode with Ashton and I rode with the girls. Brittany wasn't too excited about it at first and wanted to get off, but she ended up liking it at the end.

When it was time to meet Santa, they were excited! Then none of them wanted to sit with him. Kevin and I had to get in the picture with them and hold Brittany and Caitlyn. Ashton sat on his lap, but wasn't happy about it. We tried to get the best picture possible... but it's very hard to try to get 3 two year olds to look and smile at the camera! Maybe next year we will get one!