Christmas- early edition

On December 10 we celebrated Christmas with my mom and Butch. It was a wonderful morning, and the boys were often overjoyed (and, perhaps, overwhelmed).

Butch had originally planned on being in Kansas for our Christmas, but some things came up so he was unable to make the drive. Thankfully we have modern technology and he skyped with us for all of Christmas morning!

The boys came down the stairs to find their new choo choo track and three stuffed dogs. The boys, of course, love the trains, and they have also become incredibly attached to the dogs. Payt calls the yellow dog a "kitty cat" and actually sleeps with it. In Derek's 13 month post I talked about how much DerBear loves the dogs and is always carrying them around by their tails.

Because my parents were recently sealed in the temple (my mom to Butch and my Dad to Rose) I was able to create a print for both my mom and dad that had their temple and the date on it. Here is my mom (and Butch) opening theirs.

For Christmas I got Brandon a new comfy blanket (which you can see in some of the pics- its plaid) because the boys and I have used and abused his old favorite. Brandon has declared that no children are allowed to use his new blanket! Brandon got me a food processor, and I couldn't be more excited. Seriously it was the only thing I wanted. I love to cook, and having this will make things a lot easier.

The only other thing that Brandon and I got our boys were books. I LOVE the books that we got them though. For Payt we found a train and airplane book that was full of real pictures, and explained what each picture was in toddler-friendly language. For DerBear I got him The Crown On Your Head by Nancy Tillman. This has to be my favorite children's book. I cried and cried the first time I read it. We have now integrated reading it into our bedtime routine (when we actually take time to have a routine!). In the picture where I am reading this book to the boys Derek actually ripped the first page just seconds after the pic was taken. Oh well. I should know better than to get a soft-paged book for a 1 year old, but I really want my boys to have this book!

 

So that was our (early) Christmas morning. It was sweet and simple. I have found that now that I'm a mother Christmas is so much more wonderful; there is something so special in seeing your kiddos joy over things that we've worked hard to get them. Perhaps I got a taste of what our Heavenly Father feels for us when we are grateful towards Him.