Christmas Pictures

We had a very blessed Christmas. People spoiled us so much which is an extra huge blessing when you are unemployed. :) I bought a few things at the dollar store for the kids (stocking stuffers and things I knew they love like puzzles and coloring) but that was it. You wouldn't have known we didn't really buy them anything - they have TONS of new toys and love them all!
Kylie was a super cute age for Christmas this year - still a baby really so she doesn't comprehend it all or care about everything - but had TONS of fun and was of course capable of opening her own gifts and getting excited about them which was cute.
The boys have been SO excited all season which has made this one the best so far! Christmas Day was no different. I'm certain they were COMPLETELY exhausted but they had fun!
On Christmas Eve we made Christmas cookies and then went to the late afternoon Christmas Eve service at our church with Jared's family. They all came over after for dinner and games.
We got up in the morning and did stockings and then had a big breakfast. Then we opened gifts. Then Kylie took a nap while the kids played and then we Skyped with Geep and Gran. Then we headed over to Jared's parents house and opened gifts (for forever! :) ) and then had a YUMMY prime rib dinner and relaxed at their house for a while. It was a great day!
Enjoy the pictures...

Crawling is for Babies

Kylie has apparently realized crawling is for babies and this is how she gets everywhere currently...

Christmas Videos

I'm currently on YouTube for the purpose of posting videos here :) So here's a few random videos from the Christmas season....

This is a little dark but here's Kylie enjoying the Lights of Christmas...


Kylie thought Christmas Eve would be an appropriate time to start walking while we hold her hands....


Kylie excited about some Christmas gifts...'

Final product

Christmas Lights

We were blessed with a generous gift as a family and decided to take a trip south to see The Lights of Christmas as a family - plus Aunt Angela joined us (and spoiled us with coffee and hot chocolate!)
The boys had SO much fun. They are super into Christmas this year and love lights - but I was hoping they would still love it - and they did! We ate at Applebees, ate Kettle Corn (a favorite of the boys) and cider and donuts. There was a train ride - which the boys were SUPER excited about and a petting farm. There were pony rides which Jaden did last year and Jackson did not. It looked like it would turn out the same this year. Jaden rode the pony and then Jackson decided he wanted to. He seemed fine up there but was reluctant to let go when it was time to get off (out of fear) and when I asked him if he had fun he said "no! The pony was tipping over!" I couldn't get great pictures of this since they were particular about where you could take them so the ponys wouldn't be scared.

A Boy and His Frog - Part 1

Kids typically have stuffed animals they become attatched to. We didn't make any effort to do this and just let the boys figure it out for themselves. Jaden switches around what he's attatched to and never REALLY gets SUPER attatched. He has 2 blankets, a seal, a mouse (someone gave him in the NICU), and a bear. Actually he has two bears that are identical. One was meant for Jaden and one for Jackson, however, Jackson never really took to them. One of them is missing one eye. Jaden always wants "the happy one with 2 eyes". He rotates between all of these animals/blankets and sometimes goes with multiple or even none.
Jackson is a totally different story. He has a frog. When the boys were 9 months old we visited my grandparents in Las Vegas. When we arrived there were several stuffed animals on our bed intended to give the boys. One of them was a frog. As the boys got older Jackson began to hang on to the frog more and more (I don't recall the moment he selected the frog). Soon they became inseperable. The frog has no name, though at one time is was "Pedibone" after some pet on Micky Mouse Clubhouse but it has once again become "my frog".
When you ask Jackson to do something he will often say "my frog can do it" and then proceed to use the frogs hands to accomplish the task. If Jackson gets in trouble for something he will often create a story about the frog.
For example:
Me: "Jackson, you are not aloud to throw balls in the house"
Jackson: "Mom, one time my frog was throwing balls in the house and I told him not to and he didn't do it anymore"
Jackson also tells plenty of stories about his frog. Usually they are completely random. Here are a few I can remember (though I wish I wrote down every single one)
His frog has a house but you have to ride in a hot air balloon to get there.
His frog has a sports car. One time it needed to get new tires at Costco and they cost "five money"
Jackson sometimes talks to his frog's dad on the phone.
His frog sometimes goes to costco to get groceries (this is just a story. Jackson doesn't really bring him in - we can't risk loosing him :))
He tells so many funny stories about his frog and I hope to post many of them here.

At least she's happy now while doing this

Yes Kylie

Christmas Program

Last night was the Christmas program at our church. Jared sang one song with the choir...

Then came the kids choir. There are 2. One of them is for 1st grade and older. But the other starts at age 3. The way this particular choir works is every weekend during Sunday School the kids practice the songs. Some sign up to be in the choir. Then there's one practice the day before the program and some show up. Then the day of the concert a TON show up. They sing with a track that includes voices. We didn't really realize our kids could be in this choir for sure until a couple days ago. Jared took them to practice and while Jaden was super excited, Jackson was not pleased. Jared made him do the practice but in the end Jackson decided not to be a part of the actual program - though he was excited to see Jaden. Jaden was SO excited! I went to the front to get him on camera so here are a bunch of pictures.
Here are some videos. I know it's a mom thing, but I think it's cute. At practice there were no risers and Jaden spent a good deal of the program trying to understand them and figure them out. In one of these videos you can see when he figures out I'm sitting down at the front taking pictures. I believe that moment happened to make it to the big screen.





And then the attempt at family pictures. This never goes that well but this is the best we could get and I don't think it's too bad :)


Afterwards we had dinner with Jared's family (his parents were in the adult choir) and Kylie, who was beside herself with tiredness, was having fun...

Christmas decorating

This is about all the help we got out of the boys and then they were bored

More Christmas Decorating

Something to Think About

I am in absolutely no way bashing buying Christmas gifts. At all. This is just something to think about....

Wagging Rudolph

First day of "preschool" for the boys (at home)

Oops accidental unmatched hairbow

Christmas decorating

This is about all the help we got out of the boys and then they were bored

More Christmas Decorating

Our current living room

Here is the damage from our leaking Christmas tree stand. Hopefully we
don't have to replace the carpet padding. Thankful for a friend of
Jared's who insisted we pull up the carpet and came over to help Jared
do it.

Nite nite Bob

Hope it works

Christmas Decorating