Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve morning we got up and headed up to Troy, IL to have Christmas with Dave's parents and his sister's family.

Reese enjoyed being held a lot!

After lunch we opened presents.
Dane and Daddy checking out his new trucks.

More trucks!

Airplanes

Reese napping in Aunt Lisa's arms.

We left late afternoon and head back to Kirkwood for Christmas Eve Church service. Once we got to Kirkwood Dane and Reese were both sound asleep. Since we knew we had a full night ahead of us we decided to let the boys sleep. I went to church with Katie and my mom and Dave took the boys back to my parent's house for a nap.

When I got home from church they were well rested and ready for the evening.

Our family before Christmas Eve dinner

The boys- Dane was just so excited!

Mama with her grandchildren, missing Claire on Christmas Eve.

Dane opening his gift from my Aunt Janice and Uncle Chris.

Mama gave out the Christmas Eve pjs.

The boys got matching pjs.

So excited for Christmas!

Checking out his lunch bag from Aunt Janice and Uncle Chris.

A toolbox...he walks around the house saying, "Fixing mommy's house."

Hanging out with "Tay-Tay" and "Lou Lou".

Getting ready to put out cookies for Santa and a carrot for Rudolph.

Here you go Santa!

I don't think I have ever seen Dane as excited and wild as he was Christmas Eve. He just loved every second of the evening. He was ready to go to bed so Santa would come!

Christmas at our House

Santa came to our house last Thursday night, the 23rd. We started out the evening with a visit from our friends, the Mercers, from down the street. Dane just loves Lauren. She is so good to him. They decorated cookies together while I supervised and Latesha, Lauren's mom, held Reese. Lauren was so kind when Dane would dump a whole pile of sprinkles in one spot.

He loved eating the icing!

His hair is a little crazy because when Lauren got to our house Dane was still napping. He jumped up so quick when I told him Lauren was there.
Dane's cookies

It was funny because since I watched Dane decorate his cookies (licking the knife, then icing, then putting his little fingers all over the cookies) there is no way I could eat his. Lauren iced quite a few and left some at the house. I could eat those. The next morning several of Dane's were missing.....Dave got hungry in the middle of the night. I laughed and told him if he saw Dane decorate them he probably wouldn't have eaten them. He didn't really seem to care.

Dane was so sad when Lauren had to leave. He kept asking her, "Please stay." I distracted him by reminding him we had to get ready for Santa to visit.

Once Dane and Reese were bathed and in their pjs I tried to take a picture of them by the tree. Reese was crying a bit and Dane was trying to calm him. Finally Dane said, "Take him mommy. He's crying."

We laid Reese on a pillow, which he didn't like either. He just wanted to go to bed!

Dane had his cookies on a plate for Santa and he was excited.

He then went to sprinkle out his reindeer food that he got from Santa on the Santa Express.

He sprinkled it on the patio.

Finally, he was ready for bed. He went to bed really well and I was surprised because he was so excited.

Not long after that Santa delievered all of the gifts.

The next morning I got up with Reese at 6:00. He took his morning bottle and I kept waiting for Dane to call my name. About 7:00 Reese fell back asleep and Dane was still sleeping. I ended up laying in bed and fell asleep as well. It was about 8:15 when I heard Dane call my name. Right away he yelled, "Santa" and went running down the hall.

Checking out the presents

I wanted to get his picture next to the tree and he just couldn't take his eyes off the presents.

Finally, time to open. We checked the tag together to find one for Dane.

He loved it that Santa used "Thomas the Train" wrapping paper.

He helped Reese open his gifts.

After he would open one he would say, "Anymore for Dane?"

I loved watching him get so excited.

He piled all of Reese's gifts on and around his chair.

Reese slept through the entire present opening.

Last thing to open, a stocking.

It was so fun to have the magic of Christmas in our house this year. I can only imagine how he will be in the next few years and the fun we will have with our two sweet boys!

Random Pictures from December

I am getting ready to go through my many, many pictures from our Christmas Celebrations! We celebrated here on the 23rd, at Dave's sister's house Christmas Eve Day, at my parent's house on Christmas Eve with my dad's family, Christmas Morning at my parent's house with my siblings, and Christmas Day at my Grandma's house. We had a wonderful holiday and I can't wait to look at all the pictures and remember it all!

Here are some random December pictures.............

The boys playing in Dane's room before going to bed.

Reese never knows if he is going to get a sweet kiss or a more aggressive love pat.

Dane made a stocking at Tracey's house and he just loved it.
Dane got Elf on a Shelf from my parents for Saint Nick's Day. This is before Dave read the book Elf on a Shelf to Dane. We didn't know we weren't supposed to touch the Elf.

The next morning the Elf was up high and safe from a little boy that loved him so much!

Santa window clings! Another gift from my parents for St. Nick's Day. Dane loved these window clings and he spent hours and hours pulling the chairs from the dinning room table over to the sliding glass door so he could play with them. My window has so much little fingerprints on it!

Dressed in his Santa hat and shirt for the daycare Christmas party!

Taking Christmas pictures this year was quite the ordeal. I thought we would do it in the comfort of home so that we could do it whenever we all seemed to be in a good mood and up for it. We attempted twice and got a couple of good pictures to share. Here are some pictures to show the craziness of the photo shoot.

Dane deciding he wanted to give Reese a kiss. Reese not really wanting one!

When Reese started crying Dane kissed his hand to try to comfort him.

A kiss on the forehead to try to soothe a screaming baby brother!

Who knows what he is trying to do here!

Our Lady of the Snows-Way of Lights

Last Tuesday my mom, dad, Katie, Dave, and I took the boys to the Way of Lights at Our Lady of the Snows. We had dinner at McCallisters first and then headed over.

Our first stop was for a pony ride and the petting zoo. Dane loves riding ponies and he is now at the point where he doesn't want/need Dave to hold his hand as he rides.

He reached down to pet it before he got off.

We then went over to the petting zoo. Dane fed the animals some carrots.

He loved it! After he would feed them he would jump up and down. He was so excited!

We then went inside so Dane could play at the Childrens Village.

He decorated a star.

After Dane played for a bit inside we went back outside to go through the light display. Little Reese just enjoyed the night snuggled up in his carseat.