Merry Christmas! (2011)

Merry Christmas from our family to yours! 

This year is the first we've really played up Santa. Last year Caleb was still too young to understand what was going on. Santa left a few things in each of our stockings and one gift for the boys to share. (Aaron will have to wait until he's a little older to enjoy!) He (Santa, that is) decided not to put together the big toy because he knew how much fun Caleb would have helping his daddy put it together. (Amazing how Santa knows these things) 

Checking out the foundation

The inspector

Helping with fence posts (picture of the whole house together is further down....we forgot to take a "finished product" picture!)

Aaron's toy from Mommy and Daddy

The boys had some time to play with their presents and then family began to arrive. As usual, we had a ton of food, but a ton of laughs to go with it. We keep it pretty formal around here... fine china (paper plates) and the good silver (plastic) are necessities. We took our time eating and then moved on to presents. Jonathan attempted to capture some of the chaos, we don't believe in taking turns : )

From left going clockwise - Papa, GG, Derrill, Katy, Thomas & fam, Sarah & fam, Grandma Mal, Grandma Deb (with Hannah Joy), Pops, and Caleb & I (Aaron was napping and Jonathan was photographer) 

After presents we let the kids play and tortured babies while taking a million pictures. Good times! 

Kaylee (left) and Hannah Joy (right) These are my two nieces born a day apart.  Poor Hannah Joy was the tortured one!

The kids upstairs - we turned off the lights and turned on a movie in hopes to rest since they all missed their naps (Caleb was on the floor and Lana and Eli were in Caleb's new house)

Caleb and Kaylee hanging out - yes, Kaylee was totally passed out!

Love the arm leaning on Kaylee's knee!

Hanging out

Still sleeping - how precious is she?!?

Aunt Katy playing with Aaron

I'm pretty sure he was trying to figure out how to eat those fingers...nom nom nom! 

I hope everyone enjoyed their  Christmas as much as we did! We're totally wiped out and ready for bed, but it was a wonderful day! We're off to Christmas #3 tomorrow with Jonathan's dad and are having a New Year's Day get together at our house next weekend, so the holiday isn't officially over yet!

Sarah's Baby Shower

Sarah, Jonathan's older sister, had her 2nd little girl in October this year. Since she moved out of state earlier this year, we weren't able to throw her a baby shower to welcome baby Kaylee before she was born. So, Jonathan's younger sister, Laura, decided to throw Sarah a baby welcoming party while she is in town for Christmas. Laura did majority of the decorations and planning and I helped by having the party at my house and assisting with food and drinks. 

It was nice to get everyone together to visit and give Sarah a few things for Kaylee that she didn't already have from her first little girl. A bonus was this was Laura's and my first time to meet baby Kaylee, so it seems like we just handed her back and forth between the two of us! She is a sweet little girl, very quiet so far. 

I love any excuse for a gathering and this one was extra fun since it was actually cool outside. We had hot chocolate in the crockpot, cranberry punch, and lots of warm appetizers. Thanks for cooperating Texas! 

I hope Sarah enjoyed her party and Kaylee feels welcomed! It's amazing how much you can love a new little niece even without meeting her, I fell even more in love after I got to hold her : ) Thanks Laura for thinking to throw the shower and all the work you put into it! 

Laura got to hold her right away and give her a bottle... I tried to patiently wait my turn
: )

In the excitement of meeting Kaylee, I forgot that Aunt Sarah hadn't met Aaron yet!

The two newest cousins with Aunt Sarah and Grandma Mal. 

Uncle Drew hanging out with Aaron. 

 After the shower was over and most of the guests left, we had a small Lutz family Christmas with Grandma Mal, Sarah and her family, Laura and her husband and the four of us. After that we ordered pizza and watched Winnie the Pooh (yes - the adults too!) and relaxed after a long, fun day!

Playing with Aunt Laura. 

Caleb hamming it up on Lana's new hopscotch mat. 

Lana's hopscotch mat from us. I had a lot of fun putting these together for my three older nieces and nephew!

I loved having the day to spend with my two of my nieces and I'm so glad they are in town for the holidays! 

Sitting!

Aaron is officially sitting now! Sadly, I can't say the exact day he was able to...it just sort of snuck up on us! We're thinking he's been able to sit on his own for about a week now. I'm having a lot of trouble believing he's old enough to sit up already, but the pictures speak for themselves! (The boppy is just around him to keep him from getting hurt if he falls backward)

Catching Up

December has been such a whirl-wind of events! I love the Christmas season and all the events going on. I really worked hard this year to only say "yes" to some of the things going on so that our family could still enjoy the season and not be overwhelmed. We've had a few Christmas parties and family gatherings and lots of time to hang out as a family. I think we've balanced out pretty well and are relaxed and ready as we get closer to Christmas.

I'm trying to catch up with our various December pictures on the blog so that as we have family events later this week, I'll be ready to put up those posts. I can't believe Christmas will be here in just a few days! Yippee!

I'm pretty sure that's NOT where I left him! 

Caleb pointing to a clue! 

Yes, Caleb is the one that noticed Aaron's outfit had a clue on it (from Blue's Clues) It was cute : ) 

My three guys 

Hugging his giraffe on the floor. 

Yummy toes!

Jonathan was on a conference call upstairs, so we hung out in the bedroom to limit the noise. Caleb crawled in our bed and asked me to bring him his bears. Here he is all snuggled while watching Blue. Didn't last long, but the calm moments was sweet! 

Super happy boy! He's gotten so stable in his exersaucer and loves playing with all the toys attached to it. 

We hope everyone is relaxed as you go into the holidays. Merry Christmas!

A PeeWee Christmas

Merry Christmas! Tuesday evening was our PeeWee School family Christmas party! I'm not one for standing in line at the mall for my kids to hopefully get a descent picture with Santa, but when Santa's already at the Christmas party (and it's free) - why not try! Oh my goodness, I know Caleb's not afraid of strangers, but I expected at least a little hesitation from him...no, that was certainly not the case. We practically had to hold him back until it was his turn to go up and he just loved giving Santa a big hug! I may be a little biased - but have you ever seen a cuter picture of two sweet boys with Santa?!? Ugh - I just love it! 

After Santa, there were booths for the kids to do some fun activities. My mom joined us to help with Aaron since I helped man one of the booths part of the time. 

Mrs. Christi (one of Caleb's teachers) helping him decorate a cookie. 

Eating his yummy cookie (with the bear Santa gave him)

Pretty cookie!

Decorating a Christmas bag with Grandma and Aaron. 

"Cheese!"

After the booths were done, our drama team shared the Christmas story with the kids. By then Caleb was getting pretty tired, but Grandma helped him make it a little longer!

Watching the Christmas story

He liked the story, especially with Grandma!

For the next two days, Santa's Bear was very popular! He currently resides in Caleb's bed and must be there when he goes to sleep : ) 

Christmas Bear (given by Grandpa Ron last year) and Santa's Bear hanging out with Caleb after his nap the next day

I love that our school gives the boys a chance to celebrate Christmas with fun and remembering the true reason for Christmas. We have a lot of parties and events this season, but I loved spending this evening with all of my boys (and Grandma too!).