Christmas Part 2, Santa Came

When Barrett woke up Christmas morning, he was ready to see if Santa had come.

He had to wait to open the presents until Nana, Paw, and Ray came over, but he knew exactly which one he wanted to open first... the big one.

Once Nana was here and he had told her all about Santa eating the cookies and the reindeer eating all their food, we told him he could open whichever present from Santa he wanted.

He went right to the big present.

Once he got it torn a little, he peeked inside.

As he peeked inside, he started jumping and saying it was a "stampoline".

He's never been on a trampoline or around one, so we were surprised at his reaction. We knew he'd love it once he knew what it did, but we had no idea how excited he would be just by seeing it.

He climbed on it as soon as most the paper was off.

He started jumping on it like he'd been jumping for years.

I guess all the practice on our bed and the couch really helped out.

After he jumped for a few minutes, he remembered there were other presents too.

He chose to open the other big gift, and he again tore enough paper to peek inside. He seemed surprised to see a Diego big wheel, and he turned to tell me what it was.

He also told Nana that he got a bike just like hers. (No, Nana doesn't ride a big wheel, she has a Diego ride on thing at her house for Barrett.)

It took him a while to get all the paper off of the big wheel, but he kept working on it until it was done.

Santa also brought toys for Fisher, but he was more interested in Barrett's toys.

Even though Mommy and Daddy weren't exchanging gifts, Daddy still had a couple things from Santa. Here is Daddy showing Barrett the shirt Santa gave him.

Fisher really wasn't too into the opening of the gifts, but he did find two things on Christmas day that he really enjoyed...

The boys had a wonderful Christmas day with Doug's family being here in the morning and mine in the evening. By the end of the day, they were both exhausted, but they did manage to find the energy to jump a little more before they went to bed.

Christmas Part 1

We've had lots of Christmas celebrations over the past week, and we still have one to go this weekend. I'll try and cover them all, but I'll start with the first one.

Last weekend, we drove to Dallas for our Christmas with my Aunt Jeanne and her family. Even though we have to drive four hours in the car with the boys, it is still probably my favorite part of Christmas.

Friday night, Aunt Jeanne let all the boys open one present.

They were laughing so hard at each other. It was too cute. Fisher didn't get a hat, but he had a good time trying to get to a present.


On Saturday morning, all the men went to play golf and the little boys stayed home with the girls. Jeanne was brave enough to make cupcakes with all the boys. Her former kindergarten teacher came out as she had them all helping make the batter.


After the baking fun, Aunt Jeanne sent Gretchen and I off for pedicures, and we gladly accepted the pampering! It was wonderful to totally relax in the middle of the chaos of Christmastime.

Once nap time was over for Barrett, the boys were ready to sing Happy Birthday to Jesus, but some of the adults were otherwise occupied...




After waking up the adults, we sang Happy Birthday and blew out the candles.

Fisher was the first to open a present, and as soon as he could see the toy through the torn paper, he said, "ewwww!"

Barrett loved his presents from Aunt Jeanne, but his Noah's Ark was by far the favorite. (I have to admit, I like it more than the instrument set too!) This picture isn't the best, but his expression is priceless.



He has played with his Noah's Ark nonstop. Unfortunately, he can't find Noah or one of the elephants which is causing him some major issues at times. We tried to put Joseph from the nativity in the boat, but he knew that wasn't right.

We had so much fun at Aunt Jeanne's, and Barrett complained about leaving for the first half hour as we drove home. Once we explained that we were headed to Gran Gran's for another round of presents, he recovered and settled in to watch Diego for the five hour drive!

Parrot Boy

The boys and Christmas have been keeping me so busy, that I just haven't had time to blog. There have been so many times I've had something blogworthy happen, but getting myself to sit and write just hasn't happened. As I looked at my list of things I must accomplish today, I decided to procrastinate by typing.

Fisher is growing like crazy. He is getting steadier on his feet everyday, and we've seen him standing without help more and more. He wants to walk so badly that it's probably not far away.

He has mastered climbing. If you don't pay attention, he'll be on the couch, coffee table, or toy box within seconds. His brother is even nice enough to help him climb up when he gets stuck.

He is still eating everything he can get his hands on, and his brother is more than happy to help him with that too. Yesterday, Barrett not only shared his lunch with him, but he also shared a couple of stickers, a leaf, and some paper. Our Christmas tree is becoming bare on the bottom due to Fisher's desire to eat all the ornaments. Most have been moved up on the tree, but all the legless gingerbread men have been laid to rest.

While his eating habits are the complete opposite of Barrett's, he does seem to have Barrett's love of talking. Fisher tries so hard to talk, and he will attempt to mimic anything you say to him. He's figured out a few words like Mama, Dada, no, uh-oh, hey (used as hi), moo, and baba, but his newest addition to his vocabulary he can thank Nana for.

Nana was holding him the other morning, and Paw was in the kitchen looking for something. Nana was a little irritated with Paw, so she said with a lot of attitude, "HELLOOOO!"

Not but a split second later, the parrot on her lap said, "hellooo." It was as clear as it could be.

I guess we need to watch what we say around him now too. :)

Santa Drives a Car?

Yesterday, Santa was at Barrett's school. It is so nice to get to see a great Santa who actually talks to the kids, get to take my own pictures, and pay absolutely nothing for it!

Barrett was so excited to get to school to see Santa that I had a hard time convincing him to let me get dressed.

Once we got to the school, he literally skipped all the way in.

Since we got there early, there was no line, and Barrett walked right up to Santa. He wasn't the least bit shy or nervous. He climbed on his lap and told him all about the bike at Walmart that he wants.

I wish the photo taking part went a little better, but he was WAY to into Santa to stop to look at me.



I tried to get a couple of both boys, but that didn't go to well.

Fisher did really well once Barrett was off Santa's lap, but Barrett was upset that Fisher couldn't tell Santa what he wanted for Christmas.




I told Barrett to tell Santa what Fisher wanted, and can you believe that Fisher wants a bike from Walmart too?

After pictures, Fisher and I ran errands all day, and then headed back to pick up Barrett.

Barrett's teachers informed me that while Barrett's class was on the playground, Santa was leaving the church. They all went running to the fence to see him, and to their horror, Santa got into a car.

They all waved as he drove away, but there was mumbling that Santa was supposed to have a sleigh with reindeer.

While his teachers were about to come up with a story, Barrett turned to his little group and said that he's probably just going to feed the reindeer. Apparently, they all bought Barrett's story because they all went back to playing. :)

Tree Trimming

I was going to wait until much closer to Christmas to put our tree up, but part way through the day Saturday, I just couldn't wait anymore. Decorating the tree is one of my favorite things to do, so Saturday night, Doug got all the boxes out of the attic.

Barrett was so excited that he was running around screaming. I don't think he even knew why is was excited, he just knew I was.

I had the stocking that my mom made hung before anything else. I told Barrett they were stocking and that Santa will put presents in them when he comes. When Doug came in, Barrett screamed, "Look Daddy bean stalks!"

I guess my Texas accent makes "stockings" sound like "staulkings"? We've corrected him a bunch of times, but he keeps calling them bean stalks.

While I was setting the tree up, Fisher was climbing and chewing on the boxes, and Barrett was watching my every move. When I had the tree part way up, Barrett noticed the needles that had fallen off. He was VERY concerned about the mess on the floor. I told him I would vacuum once I finished, but he was not happy with that. He ran off frantically looking around while mumbling about the mess.

Here is what he was looking for:

Even though he didn't clean up the mess at all, I think it made him feel better that someone attempted to vacuum. (He's so my kid!)

Once we had everything ready, it was time to decorate the tree. In my visions of what having a family would be like, it always included the family decorating a tree. Since Doug and I have been together, he's always left to house while I decorated. I was so happy to have Doug and the boys here to help.

I put the boys in their matching Christmas jammies, popped cookies in the oven, gave Doug the camera, and we started decorating!



Barrett was immediately drawn to the big bag of gingerbread men. Here is he putting the first ornament on the tree.

Because all of the ornaments were all being put on the bottom foot of the tree, we brought out the step stool for Barrett to use. He loved standing up "tall like a big boy" to put his ornaments up, and Fisher loved trying to climb up with him.

Barrett worked so hard to get all the ornaments unwrapped and on the tree. He would get so excited to see all of the ornaments especially the ones with his picture in them! He worked until the whole tree was done.





Fisher had an entirely different mission.


Fisher wanted the plug to chew on so bad. He kept crawling back there, and Doug kept pulling him back. I finally went and got out a stack of wrapped presents to block it, and so far that has worked.

Since Fisher was unable to complete his plug chewing mission, he found other things:




It was a perfect day. It was exactly how I wanted it to be. Hearing Fisher laugh and clap as he chewed on everything. Listening to Barrett talk about the ornaments and bean stalks. Laughing with Doug at how cute our boys are.

Even if the rest of the season gets crazy and hectic, it's ok. I've already had my Christmas. :)