Christmas Memories

I have a ton of pictures from our 5 Christmas celebrations! Here is 1 from each celebration!

#1...the 23rd with my parents, sister, and brother-in-law!
Dylan has wanted Criss-Cross-Crash for months. Anytime someone asked him what he wanted he would say Criss Cross Crash. He was so excited when he opened this one up! #2...Christmas Eve at my Grandma's. Saylor and her grandma ready for church!! This girl LOVES her Grandma Shaver! Whenever my mom walks in the room she crawls right for her and if someone else is holding her she whines until she's in her grandma's arms. I am so happy that she loves her SOOOOO much because the 3 of us have many, many, many hours of shopping together in our future!! #3...our house Christmas morning! Watching Dylan help Saylor with everything and saying, "look Honey" or "what did you get Honey" and a little of "ahhh, Honey a new toy". It was pretty darn cute!

#4...Christmas Day at my Aunt and Uncle's house! There is nothing better than the love between the cousins.

#5...day after Christmas with Seth's side of the family! Dylan made himself a house with his presents! He is always building something.

We had a great Christmas and now we are ready to ring in the New Year!

Snowball Fight

One of the things on our chain link was to have a snowball fight.

Indoors, with paper.

That's my kind of snowball fight!

We waited for Saylor to go to bed then we got busy!

It was such a fun night.

Full of smiles.

Laughs.

Good memories.

Looking at these pictures makes me realize how much fun we had that night.

Even if the snowball fight only lasted 15 minutes, it was the best 15 minutes of the day.

These 2 laughed so hard.

They played hard.

They made memories together. Our house may not be picked up perfectly.

We may be in our work clothes.

We may be worn out after a long day.

But we made the time for our little guy.

We did something so simple that days later he is still talking about.

We did something that he wants to do over and over again.

We did something that cost us nothing, but that was worth more than a million dollars.

I often hear people say...
I will never be able to buy this or that for my kids.
We will never drive that nice of a car.
We will never live in a house like that.
You know what...neither will we.
My kids will never ride down the street in a brand new fancy SUV.
They will never come home to a big fancy house.
They will never take big, extravagant vacations.
But they will have so much more than that.
They will ride down the street in a car full of conversations, laughing, and love.
They will always come home to house full of family memories.
They will always enjoy a vacation, big or small, with the love and company that mean the most to them.

I know my babies are happy.

I know they are loved.

I know they have everything they will ever need.

And that makes this momma very happy and proud.

Growing

These 2 kids of mine are growing way too fast.

This little guy is already growing out of his jeans we bought THIS year.

They are very close to being high waters.

This cute of a kid can't wear high waters.

Off to the mall we go I guess. And this lady...just got a tooth on the top to match the 2 pretty whites on the bottom.

Before I know she will be brave enough to let go of the sofa and take a step.

This momma is not ready for that.

Family Christmas Party....Tacky Sweater Style

Saturday night my parents had their annual Christmas Party! Every year I am amazed at how much fun we all have together! This year we decided to have a tacky sweater theme! Everyone looked great! My parents also planned games from the shoe Minute to Win It.

The crazy group!! Dylan sharing a snack with his favorite Aunty Whitty!
Let the games begin...
Uncle Mike played one that involved cotton balls and Vaseline. He had Vaseline on his nose and had to pick cotton balls up without using his hands then drop the cotton balls into a bowl. It was quite funny!

Seth and Brady had to throw pencils in the air and then catch them. It was more difficult than it sounds. And these two took it pretty serious!Courtney and Whitney...they had to unroll the streamers, but the streamers had to stay on their body! They did pretty good!!
I can't believe I am posting this one...my sister and I had to do THE HARDEST ONE! They put Oreos on our forehead and we had to get them in our mouth without using our hands. We didn't get a single one. And we sure looked like fools!

These two are such good sports...they are Courtney and Whitney's boyfriends! Their game was called junk in the trunk! They had 6 balls in the tissue boxes and had to get them out by shaking their booties!! It was one of the funniest moments of the night!We ended our evening with a trip to Old Chicago to go caroling.

We were the talk of the bar!

We had such a fun evening! I am so lucky to have a great family that can hang out and have so much fun together!

Where's Saylor

Where's Saylor?I think I see her.

There she is.

Such. A. Fun. Age.

Ornaments

Each year I get Dylan a numbered ornament. Sadly this is the last year I will be able to since this is his 5th Christmas. So, next year he will start to get the son ornaments! Here is his last "baby" ornament! Kind of makes me sad. Another thing that proves he is no longer my baby boy! Hooray for me, I still have 4 more years to get Saylor one!
I love that our tree is filled with ornaments that have a special meaning to each of us.

Two years ago I started letting Dylan pick out a new ornament each year. We go to the Hallmark store and he gets to pick any one ornament. No help or persuading from mom! His first one was a toy barn ornament. It makes noises has you open and close the doors. Last year was a Hot Wheels ornament that also makes sound. This year he picks out a Tweety Bird ornament. And guess what...Tweety talks if you push a button! When he picks them out he has NO clue that they make a sound. But, they all have. And, they are all the most expensive ones! The kid has expensive taste..Seth says he must get it from me!!!

I don't know enjoys getting these out more each year..Dylan or mommy! I love seeing how is personality and interests change year after year with his selection! I can't wait to start this with Saylor on her 3rd Christmas!!

Letter Bingo

One of Dylan's new favorite things to do is review is letters using his flashcards. Ever since starting Country Side Preschool he is so much more interested in learning and I can see such a difference in what he is learning. Everyday I am amazed at what he has learned! One night I decided we would change some things up a bit...we played letter bingo! I did it old school style...homemade bingo boards and macaroni as the counters!!! I just used some paper, drew a very uneven grid, wrote letters and we were good to go!!
Dylan loved it!!! Seth and I would wait for Dylan to find his letter or realize he didn't have it to put our "counter"on. After a while he would show us where the letters were on our board before doing is own. Wonder if he thought we didn't know our letters!!

I am so happy Dylan is enjoying his preschool. We have never pushed him too much academically...we always knew he would get it when the time is right, and really why does a baby need to know how to read! He is such a little sponge..soaking in all of this knew knowledge. What an exciting time in all of our lives!