Christmas With Family

We shared a wonderful weekend with my parents, brother, and Aunt and Uncle the last weekend in December.  Ernie and Judy brought along their yellow lab, Toby.  Sarah and Silas especially loved following Toby around and petting him.  I am not sure how much Toby enjoyed Silas, but he sure did tolerate him well... the hard patting on his back petting, the person laying on top of him hugs, the tail and ear pulling petting, and the constant little person looking for him and running along behind him.... What a GOOD DOG!

Looking in our stockings and opening gifts....

Silas got a BIG racetrack from Nanee and Popee for Christmas.  He instantly forgot about Toby and contently raced his cars for a significant amount of time before realizing that he had been distracted from his self-appointed job of petting and following Toby around.  (Since bringing the racetrack home - Silas LOVES to race his many cars on it.  He has it in his room, and races cars with his sisters many times throughout the days.)

While there that weekend, Silas also started to do this funny little lip suction thing... If you look closely in the two pictures below of him and his dog-buddy Toby, he has some pretty silly faces going on.  From the side, he almost looks a little like Mr. Burns from the Simpsons t.v. show.

I made my parents a t-shirt quilt.  I used all the extra t-shirts that my Dad had saved from the ALS walks that he and Mom have participated in and helped with, in honor and memory of their friend, Jeff McCloud.  It turned out very pretty!  I love the colors that I used in this quilt.  The back fabric is also the blue that is used on the front.  Each time I make a new t-shirt quilt, it becomes my new favorite.  Dad and Mom both loved this gift that I made for them.

We played some games that weekend too.

Phoebe wasn't too sure about the "Don't Spill the Beans" game.  She was a little frightened of the bean can spilling over and was very hesitate about placing any beans on the top.

What a great weekend.  On the way back to Mom and Dad's house on Sunday after church, Silas fell sound asleep.  He even let Eric carry him in and lay him on the floor in the living room.  Then stayed asleep for another forty five minutes there!  Thank you Mom, Dad, Matt, Uncle Ernie and Aunt Judy for a fun weekend!  It was so good to be together again.

Snowballs At The Zoo

We went to Emporia over the weekend right after Christmas to be with family.  When we got there on Friday afternoon, it was beautiful outside!  So, we all headed to the Emporia Zoo.  There were LOTS of ducks there.  Silas kept pointing at them and trying to get as close to them as he could.  Most of the other animals were either sleeping or inside their enclosures.  

We checked Eric's wingspan and according to my Aunt Judy one of his "wings" is longer than the other.  Who knew?

Toward the end of the Zoo visit there were some piles of snow that had just been calling Sarah's name.  She just couldn't resist any longer!  She picked some up formed a small snowball and started a snowball fight.  Beginning with herself and Uncle Ernie, then Eric, Popee, and Phoebe joined in.  

What true fun this was to watch the happiness that a few snowballs can bring to children and adults. Everyone left the zoo that afternoon with smiles on their faces.  (This reminded me of when I was little and my siblings and I would spend a few days with Aunt Judy and Uncle Ernie every summer.  We always had a big water fight... hoses, buckets, cups, squirt guns, and LOTS of water.  Ernie and Judy always participated, and we all always smiled then too.)

Christmas Morning 2013

Christmas morning at our house was pretty calm.  Sarah woke up first, then woke up Phoebe.  Then they came into our bedroom quietly... I heard Sarah say to Phoebe, "You wake up Mommy and I'll wake up Daddy" as they both climbed up onto our bed.  After waking us up we got Silas out of his crib and headed into the living room to see what Santa had left for us all.  Phoebe's face was the BEST surprised face as she entered the living room and saw all five stockings filled.  She even did a little gasp.  (so cute!)

Both girls were eager to get the stockings down off the mantel and spill the contents out onto the floor.

Silas really had no idea what was going on, but was a very good boy, waiting his turn to take things out of his stocking and waiting to eat breakfast. (He is use to eating breakfast first thing after getting out of his crib.)

Socks, a Llama Llama book, Yogurt Drops, and Puffs for Silas.  A stuffed cat and dog, candy, and the Little Mermaid cd for Phoebe.

A book, candy, Alvin and the Chipmunks dvd's, and the Frozen cd for Sarah.

Presents under the tree before we started unwrapping Christmas morning....

Silas was excited to unwrap this new Fisher Price Wheelies Disney Pixar Cars racetrack.  (I knew he would love it!)  As soon as Eric got it out of the box for him, he sat and played with it for a very long time before coming back to all of us and unwrapping some more of his presents, then going back to his racetrack again.

Sarah couldn't wait to find out what was in this big sack from Daddy and Mommy... It was lots of new clothes!

I got some great gifts too, jewelry, The Wolverine dvd, an autographed Pioneer Woman cookbook, a Casting Crowns and Kenny Rogers cd.

Phoebe got a couple of new small figure playsets.  (She loves little figures and more times than not, picks to play with them during the daytime.)

Silas was excited to get a package of more cars for his racetrack!

Eric was happy with his gifts too, even though every year he tells us he doesn't need any gifts.... He got a WII game from Sarah, and the game Headbanz Disney version from Phoebe, gum from Silas, a book and devotional, a dvd, and cologne. 

The tags below were all on packages to me from Eric.  (He thinks he is so funny.  What is even more funny is when I would be about to open a package and he would say, "who is that one from", prompting me to read the tags out loud.  So we could both get a good laugh at his creativity.)

And, lastly another good laugh... as we played Headbanz for the first time.  This game ended up being a little tough for Phoebe to play, but Sarah quickly got the hang of it.

Another great Christmas is in the books.  Here's to many more with my happy little family.  Thank you each for all the love and laughs on this Christmas morning.  I love you each more than you will ever know.  

Christmas Eve 2013

Christmas Eve our family got all dressed in our Christmas clothes and headed off to our church's Christmas Eve service.  On the way home we drove through a Spangle's and picked up some dinner.  After dinner it was time for bed.  Sarah had a hard time going to sleep.  She was very excited and said that she wanted to see Santa, but Phoebe and Silas went right to sleep that night.