Christmas Morning- December 25th

And finally... we have some pictures from our Christmas morning.

Mike's parents and brother were here with us in the morning for opening the presents and breakfast. Our real tree, that we had to have, was so dry and dead that we actually took it all down and cleaned up after presents. Then we went over to my aunt & uncle's (Tim & Debbie) for Christmas dinner, which was wonderful!

Maddie was SO fun this year! She was so into opening all of her presents! She loved and was so grateful for everything!!! Chloe really could care less!

Happy Birthday, Jackson- Trip To Seattle

Jackson turned two on December 31st, so we had a little birthday party for him early, while we were all together.

Little Jackson was so anxious to eat cupcakes, he just couldn't wait. So we all sang to him, even though everyone wasn't there yet, so he could start eating a cupcake. Once everyone was there, we did it all over again!

Spaghetti Factory- Trip To Seattle

Another one of my favorite Christmas traditions... every year after getting Santa pictures taken, we head over to The Old Spaghetti Factory for dinner. This year the boys all had a bet to see who could put on the most weight by the end of the meal. They all weighed themselves on the scale there before they started eating, then again when they were finished. My brother-in-law, Parker, beat everyone pretty good, I believe it was 9 pounds he put on by the time he was finished!!!

Our little family!

Of course my little brother, Benjamin, has to go hang out with the 'babes' where ever he goes!

Auntie Karol was being naughty and feeding baby Kate little tastes of her ice cream... Kate wasn't going to complain though... unless it wasn't coming fast enough! :)

My cute cousin, Sydnee and her friend, John.

Silly Jackson

Getting Kisses

Cute Maddie, who insisted she needed to wear Chloe's bib while she ate!

Christmas Eve & Christmas Day- Trip To Seattle

Teaching Maddie how to "give"! This can be a tough lesson to learn for a spoiled two and a half year old princess!
Good thing mom was smart and had one for both of the kids!!!

My mom has always been so good about really making it feel like the 'real' Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, even when it really isn't! It was so fun celebrating early, and yet it really felt like the real thing. I love that if you forget batteries for a toy, you can run down and get them, the stores are all open because it isn't the 'real' Christmas day! And I love that everyone else is rushing around trying to get their last minute Christmas shopping done, while we are calm and relaxed because ours is done! I love all the traditions we have celebrating with my family, the same ones we've had for as long as I can remember!

The 'famous' hallway picture!

Papa's always such a good sport! I guess his eye needed some drilling!

These next two aren't from Christmas, but from our trip up there... I couldn't resist, my sister caught the whole thing on camera so I had to post it! Maddie and Jackson really do love each other, but they can have a lot of tears too!

You can see Jackson's little shoulders already shrugging up in anticipation! Obviously NOBODY stopped her, poor Jackson, as you can see from the outcome below!

It was actually kind of funny, sometime during the trip Maddie & Jackson were looking at the fish tank, and Maddie began to push herself over more and more to 'hog' the whole thing. Jackson didn't like that too much, so he just pulled her hair!!! :) These two kids are hilarious!!!

Argosy Christmas Ship- Trip To Seattle

Every year, as a tradition with my parents, we go on the Argosy Christmas ship. It was a blast! I was not very excited about going at first because Mike was supposed to fly in earlier that day, but because of the weather, he didn't end up getting in until after we were done! I was so bummed! But, I brought my cute cousin Sydnee along instead! She was a great help, and it was nice to have her there so I wasn't such a single mom!!!

Parker reading to Jackson & Maddie

Grandma & Jackson

Chloe, all snuggled up warm!

Cute Baby Kate!

Maddie & Jackson

Sydnee & I coloring with the kids!

They had a 'ho ho ho' contest, and Maddie was one of the two winners. I think the real reason she won was because the 'judge' was the same lady who played with her the entire time... I think they were friends! :) Because the only thing she said when it was her turn was her name and age. She was too shy to actually say the 'ho ho ho, Merry Christmas' part! I know, hard to believe Maddie being shy! She wasn't too shy to talk to Santa when he came over and sat next to her and she told him not to sit on the table, that he was going to break it!! Ya, always making her parents so proud! haha!!

Santa & Maddie

Grandma & Chloe

Sledding & Snow- Trip to Seattle

We were in Seattle for 2 weeks before Christmas. I'm sure many of you heard, who don't live in the area, the CRAZY amounts they got! Yep, we were there for most of it, and left just before the last big storm blew in!!! Thank goodness for my mom's nice car that did amazing in the snow and ice! Maddie had an absolute blast playing out in the snow, eating it, making snow angels, and of course, sledding! They would be out way after it was dark!!!

We didn't bring any snow clothes. Seattle doesn't normally get much snow, usually only 2 days or so out of the year and I didn't think we'd actually be there for those days it would get snow... boy was I wrong!!! Thank goodness Christian had some old bibs and gloves and hat that Maddie couuld borrow. I ended up buying her some snow boots because her 'ugg' boots just weren't keeping her feet warm enough. She got plenty of use out of them!!!

Maddie was DONE! She lost her glove, she was freezing, and it was well past nap time. I love Jackson's face, so sweet and content, while Maddie bawls her eyes out!!! :)

Chloe & Kate- Trip To Seattle

Here are a few pictures we got of Chloe & her cousin Kate. We all still get a kick out of telling people that Chloe is actually 3 days older than Kate... but you wouldn't be able to tell by the drastic difference in size!!! The first thing my sister, Brooklynn and I did when we saw each other was strip the girls down to compare thighs! Too funny!!!

My sister took all these pictures, and it was hilarious! I guess the flash was too bright for Chloe, or she just wasn't used to the 'snap, snap, snap' all in a row, but she started making these really weird faces and squinting before my sister would even take the picture because she new it was coming!! We were laughing SO HARD!

We even had them taste their first food together. For Kate, you couldn't get it in fast enough!!! She wanted MORE, MORE, MORE! Chloe... not so much. She didn't mind it at first, but pushed half of it out with her tongue with every bite. But eventually just got tired of eating and cried!

Santa Pictures

We took the girls to get pictures with Santa while we were in Seattle visiting. Maddie was so excited to see Santa, and is still talking about it (although you can't really tell by her face, she looks pretty serious! (Sorry, this is a picture of a picture. I don't have my new scanner hooked up yet)

We also took a picture with the grand kids, per the grandparents request! :) This kids were more straight-faced, than smiling; but at least they are all looking at the camera! I love the one of the grand kids that the Kate and Chloe are holding hands. It was actually pretty cute while they were trying to situate the wiggly 2-year olds (ok, really just Maddie who kept jumping up and down she was so excited), Kate and Chloe were looking at and talking to each other, which is when they grabbed each others hands! I am TOTALLY behind on blog posts! Life has been crazy and hectic and hopefully will slow down soon so I can catch back up. It's all just overwhelming me now!!