Saturday, January 14, 2017

Christmas 2016


Christmas morning was so exciting! James woke up certain that he heard thumping during the night that he said must have been Santa Claus. So of course, I had to show him the picture of me catching Santa putting the presents under the tree ;) He was very amazed!

The boys both got power wheels for the new house, Rett got a fire chief car and James got a power wheel ATV. After about a week we had to return Rett's because it wasn't working right, so we are in the market for one to replace it. It turned out for the best because the wheels on his weren't heavy duty enough and it kept getting stuck. He is going to need something with more power for getting around our 3 acres!

Moving on to the presents:

They opened their wrapped present from Santa that was for both of them: a gear set.

Books, of course!

Anthony got a smartwatch! He is really picky about this kind of stuff, so he had already picked out the exact one he wanted, but he hated waiting until Christmas to play with it so he was still excited.

Lightning Mcqueen remote control car from James. He also got him a mater remote control car, but they are both on the same radio frequency, so we discovered that you can't play with them at the same time because one remote will control both of them at the same time.

I already picked out a Christmas present for myself (a lightbox kit for my bow tie photographs), but Anthony totally surprised me with another gift! He got me a handmade Harry Potter apron set that makes it look like I am wearing a Hogwarts uniform while I am cooking. So awesome!

James has been asking for this rocket fishing rod for along time. You pump it up like a grenade launcher and then when you shoot it, it shoots your fishing line out. He played with it twice and then it broke! I returned it and when I looked at the reviews all of them said something about them breaking right away so I let James pick out a replacement gift at the store. He ended up with a few transformer toys instead.

Testing the new vehicles out:

Of course we had to do our annual Christmas T-shirt contest. I was sure I had it in the bag, but Rett ended up winning. You can't beat his cuteness!

Anthony:

Rett:

Mine:

Daniel:

My mom:

This was our first Christmas on a Sunday with kids, so it was interesting opening presents and then quickly getting ready for church. It was only a musical and scripture reading sacrament program so it wasn't too long. I played my flute for three of the songs! We ended up sitting on the front row and James would wink at me and do thumbs up while I was playing to tell me that it sounded good :)

After we got home, my brothers arrived from Gainesville and we did more presents. James got another zombie nerf gun that matched perfectly with the zombie chainsaw nerf gun he got earlier that morning. Daniel got a good picture of James getting ready to attach the zombies!

After presents we got in the car to head to Cocoa for dinner at Robin and Michael's with Anthony parents and the cousins. James was kind of peopled out at that point, so after visiting for a little bit, he watched netflix on my phone. Rett skipped his nap in all of the excitement so he was going a little wild. Thankfully, Dallas is so great with little kids and was really glad to take him on walks outside and play with him. At one point they were playing tag and Dallas slowed down so Rett could catch him, but Rett would just slow down too. Eventually they were both standing still looking at each other. So funny!

After dinner, Nevada pulled out Pie face. We have heard of it, but never played it before so we all took a turn. After two times around, everyone got whipped cream in the face except for Mimi. When she avoided getting hit, we didn't make her try again :)

It was a fun and wonderful day spending time with family. Merry Christmas everyone!

Waiting for Christmas

After James' break from school started, it was so hard to wait for Christmas to come! I had to relearn what to do all day with both boys :)

Rett has been such a sweet snuggler lately! Sometimes he will cry in his room at night and when we check on him, he says, "I snuggle you?" How can you resist this face?

We stopped at our local ice cream place for slushies (for the boys since they don't like ice cream. crazy!) and ice cream for me. When Rett saw what I had he sounded confused and was trying to figure it out. He said, "mommy, you got nogurt, with black beans and....poo poo?". It was so funny!

James' last day of school was polar express day where everyone wore pajamas, watched the movie and had fun all day. The principal of James school wore Elf pajamas and went around the entire school ALL DAY being an elf on the shelf, watching the kids and complimenting their good behavior. Isn't she amazing?

Waving to everyone from the sign outside of parent pick up:

Watching over everyone in the cafeteria at lunchtime:

Checking out recess from a tree:

Taking a peek from the roof while they switched classes:

James brought home another gift he bought for me from the school Christmas store: a diamond ring! I was so surprised he kept it a secret for so long and I told him that. He said, "Oh, that's because I forgot". For the next few days, he was so happy with himself. He kept asking me at random times, "Don't you love your ring? Aren't you so glad I got it for you?"

Giving turtle the tortoise a strawberry:

Christmas eve we went to the park to play with James' bubble gun. He got to the top of the slide and started blowing bubbles, yelling, "It's snowing!"

Elf Shenanigans

Our Elf on the Shelf, James 2 had a fun visit this past Christmas season! On the first day he arrived he surprised James and Rett by bringing presents and waiting in the car to pick up James from school.

Discovering the visitor:

Trying to read the note he left. He was looking for sight words he knows :)

This night James 2 got a little nerf gun crazy:

Got into the chocolate bars:

Unfortunately James 2 had to bring a few naughty warnings for the boys.

Coloring on James' chalkboard:

Playing candy cane hide and go seek:

Right before Christmas break, James got really sick with a high fever and a bad cough. Looks like James 2 caught it.

Hanging from a candy cane rope:

Saying goodbye with a candy cane heart treat for the boys. Thanks for a fun Christmas visit James 2!