December, Part 7: Finishing Up One Year and Preparing for the Next

I put away all of the Christmas decorations the day after Christmas. :) It had just been one of those years. It felt cluttered and I was so sick of the boys messing with all of the decorations. It felt so clean and uncluttered after it was all put away. I love to put it up because it feels so festive...but at the same time, everything feels so clean, bright, and spacious when it has been packed away too. Time for fresh starts!

Above: Return of the Pudgy Pants! These weren't Peter's Christmas Eve pajamas, but he got them as a Christmas present on Christmas Day. Peter just loves to stuff his pajamas with his blankets. He always has and probably always will.

Above: He looks pretty snuggly and cuddly when he does his Pudgy Pants thing.

Above: This guy sure loves his baby brother.

Above: We sure got a lot of snow this Christmas break! The boys were very helpful at clearing it up.

By the end of Christmas break, I was sooooo ready for the boys to go back to school. They were bored and it was snowy and freezing outside, so we were all cooped up inside. Besides that, I was still so, so sick and had no energy to do anything even remotely creative, exciting, or entertaining with them. Christmas took it out of me! I think once school started after New Year's, everyone was ready to go back to everyday life.

Speaking of New Year's, we went to Nammy's house for Chinese food. We had good times, as always, but we had to leave pretty early so that we could get Daniel to bed. That was fine by me because I needed to get to bed too! Blasted cold! This year is going to bring good things to our family though. We have had a lot of adventures this past year, and I can't think of anyone else that I would rather have these adventures with. I love my sweet boys. They are one crazy bunch and sometimes they make me feel so exhausted, but they make me so happy too. Onward and upward!

December, Part 6: Christmas Day

Christmas Day was a good day. Busy and crazy snowy, but good. However, if I never have to drive through snow like that again, I'll be a happy gal.

Also, I caught a really, really bad cold two days before the boys' Christmas break started. By Christmas, I had laryngitis and was an exhausted wreck. I felt awful. On Christmas Eve, I fell asleep by 10:30 p.m. and then I woke up at 1:30 a.m. and realized that I hadn't set out the Christmas presents yet and that Daniel would be waking up any minute to have his first bottle for the night. Yikes!

Jeremiah's brother, Bri, had stayed over because Mike and Debra had gone to New Zealand over the holiday break. Jeremiah and Bri were still in the basement playing video games. I feverishly started putting out Christmas presents when Daniel woke up for a bottle. I fed him and then put him back in his crib so I could finish setting up Christmas.

Thank goodness I had a little energy about two nights before and had wrapped all of the Christmas presents then. I usually wrap everything on Christmas Eve, but I knew with how terrible I was feeling that I needed to do whatever I could whenever I could. If I hadn't wrapped those presents early, I would have been up until 4 a.m. doing it on Christmas Eve.

I finished setting up everything for Christmas and then I texted Jeremiah to come to bed so that he wouldn't be cranky and tired the next day (too late!).

The boys woke up bright and early...but not too early. As I mentioned, Daniel was still having bottles throughout the night, so he had his first bottle at 2 a.m. and another one at around 5:30 a.m. and then the boys woke up a little after 7 a.m. I was pretty tired, but it could have been worse and I had enough energy to see me through the day.

Above: Johnny loves to check out his stocking goodies.

Above: Peter got an AT AT Lego set from Santa and Johnny got a Little Live Pets mouse run from Santa. Daniel got a baby iPad and iPhone.

Above: Daniel wasn't sure what to make of it all, but he was very interested.

Above: From Mom and Dad, Peter got a Jurassic World Lego set and a Pokemon binder and some more Pokemon cards.

Above: Johnny got some puppy and kitty stuffed animals from Mom and Dad and some Unikitty Lego stuff as well.

Above: For our family gifts, we got Inside Out, Minions, The Reluctant Dragon, and the Lego Jurassic World video game.

Above: Daniel got some new clothes to wear. Poor guy. He doesn't last long. He was getting hungry, so that is why he was cranky.

Above: Daniel got a little talking soccer ball and some other little toys.

Above: Poor hungry little guy.

Above: While I fed Daniel with one hand, I snapped pictures of Daddy opening his presents with the other hand. Daddy got a Red Ryder BB gun.

Above: Dad also got a pair of shoes, of course.

Above: Dad surprised Mom. Seriously. I had no idea this was coming. Apparently, Jeremiah was in cahoots with Mimi and got Mom a new computer since her old one was about to die. Jeremiah was so happy that he had surprised me that he was fighting back the tears. I loved my last computer, but it really was having problems. It needs to be sent in and reconfigured, but it really didn't have enough free disk space to do what I needed it to do and my disc drive had stopped working about a year ago. It's a great computer and it was much needed for the sake of our family. I'm very grateful to Mike and Debra for providing this to our family. It was something we couldn't afford at this time, and it is a gift that is very much appreciated.

Above: What a fun and happy morning!

Above: Time to organize the Pokemon binder!

Above: A full belly once again!

Above: A full belly means a happy Dan...until nap time, of course!

Above: Johnny was happy to spend some more time at his Minions art desk that Nana and Grandpa Mackay gave him yesterday.

Above: After we opened our own presents and played with them for awhile, Daddy snow blowed our driveway (we got dumped on the night before...so much snow!), we headed to Nammy's house.

Above: What a sweet, happy guy!

Above: Peter got a Star Wars shirt.

Above: Peter also got some Jurassic World Legos to match the set that Mom and Dad got him.

Above: Johnny got some Yummy Nummies so he could make some fun goodies with Mom's help.

Also, I forgot to take pictures of Derrick and Megan, but they announced that they are expecting their first baby. Such happy news! We are so excited for them! Yay!

After Nammy's house, we drove home. We had gotten a TON of snow in Suncrest and it was a pretty miserable drive home. Thank goodness for the new snow tires we got on our van...but even still, Dad is a better driver in the snow than Mom is and Mom had to trade places so Dad could drive up a steep hill and get us into our garage. After that, Dad cleared our driveway again and we settled in for a long winter's nap. No more driving until that crazy snow cleared up! It was a very happy Christmas though. We had good times together and made good memories. We are so glad that Daniel has joined our family and that he can join in on the fun with us and that we can share it with him!

December, Part 5: Christmas Eve

Christmas finally came--despite my boys believing that it would take forever before it actually arrived. Here are all of the adventures we had on Christmas Eve.

Above: Our Christmas Eve tradition is that the boys get stuffed animals when they wake up on the morning of Christmas Eve. This year, they got dinosaurs. Peter got a T-Rex.

Above: Johnny got a triceratops.

Above: Daniel got a stegosaurus.

Above: These brothers sure love each other!

Above: In the afternoon, we went to see Nana and Grandpa Mackay to exchange gifts.

Above: Peter got a seriously awesome Nerf gun (almost as big as he is).

Above: Johnny got an art desk and some art supplies.

Above: After Grandpa and Nana's house, we went home and had dinner and then we opened our Christmas Eve pajamas.

Above: Look at that cute baby body and those sweet chubby cheeks.

Above: Again, it's so hard to get all three of these boys to smile nicely at the same time! Ha ha!

Above: Johnny was definitely hamming it up for this photo shoot.

Above: I think it concerned Daniel a little. Ha ha!

Above: I really wish I had moved that cord out of the way for these pictures. There's my OCD moment for today.

Above: Johnny loves his art desk and he uses it all the time now!

Above: The magic ribbon is up to keep the kids from crossing the line and opening the presents before it's time.

Above: Santa ate his cookie, drank his eggnog, and fed the reindeer their carrots.

Above: All I have to say is that while that red sparkly wrapping paper was super cool, it didn't accept tape very well and I had to use the ribbon to keep the wrapping paper on. It sure looked pretty though.