Christmas Memories

It's Christmas!  Max normally doesn't like hats and pulls them right off, but he loves wearing this "Cousin Eddie" hat that was mine when I was little.

 Our Christmas puppy, Murphy, he always finds the cozy spots.

The G and The Pop came over from Topeka to spend Christmas Eve and Christmas with us.  Here we are right after mass on Christmas Eve.  It was super crowded at church, Mommy and GG got there 30 minutes early and it was totally full.  They got 2 rocking chairs in the cry room, so we all just kind of squeezed in.  For supper, Mommy and Daddy made Beef Daube Provencal, a recipe Mommy had been wanting to try for quite a while.  It was yummy. 

 Me and My Momma

 Our little family on Christmas Eve

 Max and I each got to open 1 present on Christmas Eve.  I wanted to open my present from Max and he wanted to open his from me.  Guess what my little brother gave me?  A shaving kit!  I always want to shave with Daddy, but I've never had my very own razor and supplies, but now I do!  I broke it in immediately as Poppy showed me some shaving techniques.

How do I look?  Nice and smooth?  I gave Max a fishing toy for the bathtub and he really liked that too.

Bedtime stories on Christmas Eve - usually Mommy and Daddy each read 1 story and tell 1 story.  Tonight, GG and Poppy got to tell and read one too.

 I love ANY book involving monsters or anything scary!

 Christmas morning finally arrived!  First thing when I woke up, I said, "I can't wait for Max to wake up so I can tell him thank you for my shaving kit."  Then, "I want to shave, Daddy!"  And then, "Let's go open presents!"  I was so hoping that Santa had remembered that I really wanted a saxophone.  And guess what???

 He did!!!

My new saxophone goes everywhere.  I played all day on Christmas, put in in my nightstand drawer last night and took it everywhere I went today (even to Hobby Lobby with Mommy and Max, where I played it in the store).  We got a lot of smiles.  :)

 I can play so many jazzy tunes!

 Max decided to relax on the couch Chrismtas morning with Murphy and eat his Cheerios.

Sweet baby brother

Just lounging and still waking up

 Max got a growth chart from Santa.  It's really similar to the one I have in my room, but Max's has rockets (mine has baseball players)

 My quadruple decker ice cream cone set from GG and Poppy - another favorite!  They gave Max and me a new kitchen set and all kinds of goodies to go with it.

 Playing under the tree...

 Checking out a toy for Murphy from Grandma and Grandpa

Another favorite gift - my new Nike soccer clothes from Grandma and Grandpa, as with the saxophone that never leaves my side, I've had these clothes on since Christmas morning, only changing to put on my jammies at night

 Maxy and I got lots of nice clothes from Grandma and Grandpa in Florida, Max got this striped shirt.

 Here's the cool kitchen from GG and Poppy, my brother and I love it already!

 An easel from Mommy and Daddy

 Mommy's favorite Christmas present ever - this handprint wreath that I made for Mommy and Daddy at school.  I brought it home a couple weeks ago and did such a good job keeping a secret as to what it was.  Mommy started crying when she saw it, she loves it so much.  I thought we should hang it in the basement by my kitchen.

 Here's my beautiful work

 I wanted to pose with the G and the Pop too by the wreath I made

And after all those presents, we got really hungry.  Mommy made us Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer pancakes!  What a great Christmas we had!  I am so thankful!

Holiday Memories with Friends

 Last week we went bowling with our friends, Cooper and Reid.  Mommy loves this picture of me and Cooper hugging the bowling balls.

 Reid thought it was pretty fun too!

 Here it goes!

 Right down the middle - I got a spare my first time up!

 Cooper's feet are off the ground, good one, Cooper!

 We loved watching for the balls to pop out of here.

 Today we had a gingerbread house party at Cooper's house.  It was a blast!

 Noah, Cooper, me, Max, Reid and Emma

 Max and I in our matching shirts ;)

 Max liked climbing the stairs a lot.

 Noah getting some "reindeer feed"

 Max and his sweet girlfriend, Emma

 Check out my antlers!

 I love making gingerbread houses - and especially eating the candy!

Here are my buddies and I with our finished houses (me, Cooper and Reid)

Another fun thing we did this week is that we went to a puppet show of the Gingerbread Boy.  Mommy forgot her camera. :(  We met several friends there.  Maya and Nolan's mommy organized the outing.  I loved sitting next to Connor and we liked the scary fox.  We stared the whole time and absolutely loved it.  Maxy did a pretty good job sitting still too!

Popcorn Party & A Project

The other night, we had a boys night with Daddy.  We had a popcorn party and watched a movie.  I love my Daddy so much!

 Max had vanilla wafers in his popcorn container, he's too little for popcorn still. 

Mommy and I did a special project together that was pretty fun and messy!  We used the hairdryer on crayons and made them splatter everywhere (we initially tried it in the garage but it was too cold and the crayons weren't melting, so we moved inside, but made quite a mess on the floor and wall even though we tried to prevent it.)

 Crayons starting to splatter....

The finished project - pretty cool!

Max's new words

Visit with Santa

Santa came to Daddy's office a couple weeks ago.  When I walked in the door, he knew my name, which was pretty neat.  I told my brother, Max, that Santa is nice and not scary.  Max was happy to sit on Santa's lap with me.  He didn't cry at all.  When Santa asked me what I wanted, I told him... a saxophone.  (I call Santa quite frequently to make sure he remembers that is what I want.)  But when I said "saxophone", Santa thought I said "cellphone."  I said, "no, a saxophone."  Mommy thought it was pretty funny.

On a sad note, Mommy and I had the terrible awful stomach flu yesterday and so we had to miss my Christmas program at pre-school.  We were all really sad to miss it because I've been practicing and working so hard.  Even Mommy cried that we had to miss it.  It was such a bummer.  At least I'm better now so I can make it to the "Happy Birthday Jesus" party at pre-school tomorrow.  I guess there's always next year's Christmas program...

At Home with My Bro

We made a yummy gingerbread house, but really the best part was eating the frosting and the candy!  The house only lasted a few days and then candy started disappearing from it somehow...

My brother is teething and he loves chewing on the infant tylenol lid cause it's nice and squishy.  Mommy knows she probably shouldn't let him do it, but it feels so good on his little gums.

 Me and my brother

This is the most engaged in a book Max has EVER been!  99.9% of the time, he crawls away and won't even look at a single picture in a book when Mommy or Daddy or I read him a book.  This is a rare sight, for sure!

Tonight I wanted to dress as a "scary gorilla" and put "band-aids" all over my face to be extra spooky.  Mommy thought I said bandanas, so she went to get them out and I said, "No, bandaids, like Daddy has in his bathroom cabinet."  This yellow drumstick is my scary tooth.  I bet I spooked you, didn't I? 

I couldn't wait to spook Daddy when he got home, and then I told him that I wanted him to be a "scary gorilla" with me too.  So here we are, red shirts on our heads and band-aids all over our faces.  Oh, the fun we have...