Cousins!

We finally got to meet our new nephew, Dylan, this week! He is just the sweetest, most adorable baby!! We were all at Ben's parents' house Monday through Thursday, so I had plenty of time to hold him and love all over him--Anna and Jeff seemed to love the extra hands that were always eager to help out, and I took complete advantage of being able to soak in his sweetness. I love, love, love new babies! Grayson and Emma Claire didn't pay much attention to him, which wasn't a bad thing! :) 

P.S. Check out my new brown hair! I haven't posted pictures on the blog yet, but I became a brunette for the first time about a month ago--I'm loving the change! 

Cookies for Santa

I thought these pictures were so cute---Grayson put out cookies and milk for Santa on Christmas Eve and was so serious and careful about putting them in front of the fireplace. The next day he announced that Santa had eaten the cookies and the reindeer had drunk the milk. :)

Happy birthday, Jesus!

We had a birthday party for Jesus when we got home from church on Christmas Eve, which the kiddos really enjoyed. I felt like Grayson was focusing too much on Santa and presents so we decided to start a yearly tradition of having a birthday party for Jesus on Christmas Eve and talking about the real meaning of Christmas. It was a hit, and I look forward to celebrating this tradition for years to come with our growing brood of babies! :)

Bath time!

Catching up...

I finally caught a little bit of Christmas spirit and decided to order cards (and had to pay for expedited processing and shipping...I guess that's what I get for waiting for the last minute), actually send the cards out (along with the moving announcements I've had since March), start Christmas shopping, wrap presents (okay, Ben did this part since I spent 3 1/2 hours putting together a play kitchen), and pretend like I'm excited for Christmas. Needless to say, I've been a crazy person trying to get everything done with less than a week until the 25th. Somebody please remind me next year not to wait until the middle of December to start any of these things! 

Morning sickness is kicking my rear, so that might be one of the reasons I've been so lacking in Christmas cheer. I'm now 11 weeks and everything is going well--Grayson is so excited and tells anybody and everybody that mommy has a baby in her tummy. :) He insists that it's a sister, so we'll see in a few more weeks. 

I'll be back next week with lots of new pictures of the kiddos. In the meantime, here are a few taken over the past week--Grayson and Emma Claire outside enjoying the nice weather (it's been 80 degrees here lately!), and our faux-Christmas morning yesterday when Santa delivered their kitchen a few days early. Merry Christmas, everybody!

Jingle Bells

Hee hee....

First encounter with Santa

The children had their first encounter with Santa this season---as you can see from the pictures, it went pretty well for Grayson, but Emma Claire was another story. :) We really talked Santa up to Grayson on the way there, and although he was initially afraid he eventually mustered up some courage and was brave enough to approach Santa and yell, "I want a kitchen!". Emma Claire pretty much hated him, but she doesn't like many people besides her mama these days, so it was to be expected. :)

Our family, elf style!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

I can't get enough of  Elf Yourself!!! This cracks me up, and the kiddos love watching it. Ben especially loves Chester, our cat, being part of it, since he's such a big fan of the cat. :)

Who wants to take a bath??

Does anybody else get THIS excited to take a bath?? :)

Big boy

Just wanted to share a couple recent pictures of Grayson...he's getting geared up for Christmas and just wants Santa to bring him "presents". Nothing specific, just presents. Now if it would stay this easy for the next 20 years, we should be okay! :)

Does this look like a girl who...

is going to become a big sister in July???? :)

Christmas parade

Can't you see his enthusiasm?

Sanders, future fashionista

Curly-headed cuties, Hayes and Nate

My favorite part of the parade:

He's loving it!

When is this over, Mommy????

Some lovin' from Sanders always does the trick!

So I took Grayson to his first "real" parade on Sunday--our town's yearly Christmas parade, complete with every garbage truck in the county, the loudest fire engines they could find, a couple of high school bands, and of course, what's a parade without a couple of camels walking down the street? I was so excited to spend some time with Grayson---poor buddy hasn't gotten much one-on-one time with Mommy since his sister was born---and I thought the little truck-lover would be thrilled about the parade. Ummm....not so much. Grayson hated pretty much every bit of the parade and spent most of his time either with his head in my lap or telling me that he wanted to go home. He's now officially afraid of Santa, and keeps telling me, "I don't like Santa." The geniuses who planned the parade put Santa and Mrs. Claus on the final fire truck, which had its sirens and horn BLARING---which, in turn, had Grayson and several other toddlers around us fly up into their parents' arms. :)

The good news is that he quickly forgot about the traumatizing parade a few minutes after it was over when we went and had hot chocolate "with cream", as Grayson kept saying, and he was able to tell everybody he was drinking coffee. A little trip to the cute new candy shop for some jelly beans also seemed to do the trick.

I'm not sure when the next parade we'll attend will be....maybe in a few more years?