Christmas Craftiness.

Oh what fun!

We made Christmas trees out of ice cream cones.

And then we ate them.

Delicious.

We made a Christmas tree out of construction paper loops.

We made Christmas trees out of pine cones and pompoms for our grandparents.

We made graham cracker Santa faces that turned out like this...

and tasted better than they looked.

We made Christmas tree crayons.

They turned out precious...

...and were super-fun to color with.

We made and decorated sugar cookies with Lulu.

Christmas 2012.

We had a wonderful Advent season and Christmas this year.

We made it to church every Sunday of Advent (a first at least since Fawn arrived as in year's past someone has gotten really sick during December).  What a great way to stay focused during such a hectic time of year.  As always, a huge thanks to the lovely, patient nursery workers who are doting on Small Fry and helping him "survive" his time away from our arms.  Buck did one of the readings at church the Sunday before Christmas and did a great job.  We let Fawn sit with us at church that day and he chose the moment his dad was reading to lift his shirt above his head, tell me he had an itch, and ask me to scratch it.  Of course.

My mom joined me for our church's Christmas concert and it was fabulous this year.  I'm so glad I made time to attend -- it put my heart in a happy place for days and days.

We did lots of Christmas activities, baking, and crafts.  More on our craftiness to follow in a separate post.  But, Fawn and Mommy enjoyed the fun!

Buck and I had not one, not two, but THREE nights out in December without the boys.  We had our Sunday School Christmas party where we got to hang out with some of our closest, dearest friends.  We had Buck's work Christmas party, which is a fancy, grown-up night out. 

And, we went out to dinner with Buck's siblings and their significant others for our annual Christmas dinner.  So fun!

We visited Santa at Bass Pro Shop.  Fawn jumped into his arms and eagerly requested two gifts (Spiderman Motorcycle and Spiderman Jeep) before forgetting his third request.  I had to whisper it to him (Rescue Bots).  Santa tried to give Fawn a candy cane and Fawn informed Santa that he did not like them.  So, Santa gave Fawn a special Santa business card that allows Fawn one trip into Santa's Workshop if he is ever in the North Pole.  Good gracious!  Being the conversationalist he is, Fawn asked Santa what kind of cookies he liked for Christmas Eve.  My bet was sugar, but apparently I've been wrong all these years.  Santa's choice?  One chocolate chip cookie.  In other news, Small Fry hated Santa.  But, both boys loved the carousel inside BPS.

Totally awkward Santa picture.

Christmas Eve was low key as Buck and I prefer.  Buck and Fawn spent the night of the 23rd at the farm and I was able to finish up Christmas baking.  When they arrived home we enjoyed a lovely Christmas Eve brunch.  It's exactly the same each year, but always a hit.  We went to our early Christmas Eve candlelight service and left both boys in the nursery.  After we got the boys in bed, Buck cooked his amazing venison steak and we had some great red wine with our meal. 

Sweet baby after Christmas Eve church.

The big kid wasn't feeling pictures.

My two loves on Christmas Eve.

 

On Christmas Day we celebrated at home and invited our families to join us throughout the day.  We are so blessed that they all live super-close and were able to come celebrate with us.  Buck made his famous turkey chili, and I baked to my heart's content in the days leading up to Christmas to make sure there were plenty of goodies for our visitors.  It was a perfect way to celebrate with two little ones!

Even, Even More Merry Memories.

Small Fry playing with a ball tower from Aunt C.

Christmas smiles from little...

...and big.

Maybe they will learn to share?

Nothing a little head-butt won't solve.

Small Fry, we'll play with it when he's at school.

Fawn got in the Christmas spirit and decided to share his Rescue Bots.

Christmas paperwhite.

 

The end.

Even More Merry Memories.

Mema came by but poor Abou was too sick to join us.

Mom and Dad came by too.

Super-excited for the Switch-N-Go Dinos from Mimi and Pops.

Mom surprised me with this beautiful, comfy, awesome t-shirt quilt made from my college t-shirts.

The official Spiderman courtesy of Mema and Abou.

Christmas sillies.

We're in a bit of a non-cooperative phase.

Playing with Lulu with my new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles from Lulu and Doc.

 

To be continued...

More Merry Memories.

Everyone was excited for Fawn to wake up.

Mr. Cool chilling with his coffee.

So happy with the musical ball.

Fun with a new race track.

Did I ever mention this kid loves balls?

And just when I thought balls were his favorite thing, Pops had the bright idea to give him a flashlight.

There are no words.

Pure joy.

 

To be continued...

First Christmas.

First Christmas.

First Christmas to really, really get it.

First Christmas present to open.

First Christmas to be a big helper.

First Christmas wheels.

First Christmas as a family of four.

First Christmas to steal little brother's new toys.

First Christmas with matching pj cuteness.

Fun with Small Fry.

Fawn has given up the afternoon nap.  It's a good thing because he's sleeping much better at night and later in the mornings.  Plus, we can hang out in the afternoon while Small Fry is sleeping.  The only downfalls are that I have even less time to get lawyer work done during the day, sometimes he is quite cranky by dinner time, and Buck often misses him at night because he is in bed by 6:30. 

That said, sometimes life just catches up with Fawn and he crashes...for hours.  I mean totally dead to the world even if lights are on and it's noisy.  When it happens on a weekend it's so nice for Buck and me to spend some two-on-one time with Small Fry.

Every baby loves to fly!

 

So funny!

 

Patty cake with Daddy.

 

Loves riding on shoulders.

 

All smiles.