Thursday, December 29, 2011

Christmas Day

Shortly after the boys opened all their presents from Santa, our family started to arrive. Here's Opa watching the boys play on their new tool bench...


After everyone arrived, we started a gingerbread mini-cake decorating contest. Everyone got to select a partner to work with. Grant picked his creative Oma...


Opa and Oma Wie picked each other...


Opa Berg went solo... but, I think a partner would've voted against that scary knife! Poor little gingerbread!


Grant and Oma's final design...


William and his daddy's final design... (oops, I think we had a malfunction on Rudolf's nose!)


Aunt Beth and Uncle Tim's surfing gingerbread...


Gabrielle and Claire working hard...


Oma and Opa finally finished...


We posted these 6 contest entries on Facebook for everyone to vote on and the winner was #5 created by Aunt Beth and Uncle Tim!

1-Oma & Opa Wie
2-Opa Berg


3-Uncle Peter & William
4-Grant & Oma Berg


5-Aunt Beth & Uncle Tim (The Winners!)
6-Gabrielle & Claire


Yay, it looks like Rudolf's nose got fixed...


I asked everyone to get together for a family picture...


Then, Aunt Beth took this one so I could get in...


Mommy's side of the family...


Daddy's side of the family... (unfortunately, Uncle Eric and his family weren't able to make it because they were on their way to Oklahoma to spend Christmas with Aunt Alisha's family.)


Ready for more presents!


Claire and William served as our little elves and handed out the presents...


The boys' newest obsession... Thomas the Train!


I think the boys wished everyday could be like this! One morning, a couple of days after Christmas, we went upstairs to get the boys out of their cribs and one of them asked us, "Are the presents ready?"


They love their new tricycles! Luckily, we had several warm days after Christmas so we took several morning rides to the park.


But, today, our house was the park!





Pop a wheelie!


That night, the boys wore their cute Christmas pjs from Aunt Alisha... and mommy's headband! (The headband was their idea!). Here's Bryce...


And, Ben hugging his new pillow pet...


I asked the boys to hug each other, and this is what we got...


The boys got a little more playtime before going to bed...


Really, mom, haven't you taken enough pictures today?!



Bryce wanted to take his new McQueen and Mater on a ride...


Checking to make sure they're still on...


They kept falling off, so he decided to just hold them...


Every time I see Ben with his big Buzz Lightyear, I think about him saying, "Wow, that's the coolest toy ever!" :)


To infinity and beyond!


Evan and I thought about crossing out Andy's name on the bottom of Buzz's boot and writing Ben/Bryce instead. :)


As Chippy the Elf would say, this was an end to an "extravaganzalorious" Christmas!




Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Christmas Morning

I couldn't wait for Christmas morning to come to see the boys' reaction when they saw all the presents under the tree! We usually change the boys' clothes and diapers downstairs in our bedroom, but we knew, once they saw the presents, it would be impossible to pull them away. So, that morning, we decided to do everything upstairs in their room before bringing them down!

This was the first year that the boys started understanding about Santa. As we were getting them dressed, we told them that Santa had come while they were sleeping and brought them lots of presents because they had been very good boys. I didn't know my love for Christmas could be any greater until that moment as I watched our children's faces light up and their little bodies start jumping up and down and running around the room with pure excitement. It was a moment I'll never forget and will look forward to for many Christmases to come. After we finished getting the boys dressed, I told Evan to give me a headstart to run downstairs so I could grab my camera and capture their first reactions.

They spotted the presents... :)


They couldn't run fast enough...


And the real fun began!


Daddy helped Ben open his first present...


And, mommy helped Bryce...


Lightning McQueen shoes!


What's next?!


A tool bench!



Toy Story figurines...


This one looks good!


Help me daddy!


Buzz Lightyear!


And, of course, everything came in twos in this house...


Ben's reaction to Buzz: "Wow, that's the coolest toy ever!" :)


Bryce worked really hard to get into this box holding the Cars 2 Spy Jet...


The Spy Jet came with Finn McMissile...



And, on to the next...


After we were done, it looked like the cast of Cars and Toy Story exploded on our living room floor!


Ben quickly went back to the "coolest toy ever"...


While Bryce played with his Spy Jet...



Soon after, our family (and more presents) started to arrive!