Merry Christmas!!!

What a beautiful time to celebrate the birth of Jesus!!

J must have sensed it was a special day...instead of waking up at his usual 7/730am...he was awake @ 615am.

The family before opening stockings/presents...


J was not interested in opening the stockings...


But couldn't wait to open his presents!


Once one was opened, he was done. All he wanted to do was play..


See? Driving his truck away from the loads of presents.


J loves his Spiderman couch!


Everyone else got presents too! Mama got chocolate...mmmmmm!! (The only bad thing about good chocolate is that it's impossible to eat 'cheap' chocolate for a long time afterwards...it tastes too waxy!)


Dada got a CD!


And really nice slippers!


Even Sweet Pea got a few gifts, and she's not even here yet!


Speaking of the baby...here's a picture of more reindeer than you've ever cared to see....


We played a little...


Before finally heading out to the park. Shawn was on toddler duty while I sat on a bench and got ~creative~



J loved the leaves falling on him.


After naptime, Grandma and Grandpa G came over bearing gifts...


Cool!!


J loved helping Daddy put it together.


This thing is AWESOME!!


Trying to get a photo of them was impossible...J was not interested!


Still not interested....


He did like the snacks, though.


And peeking from under the table.


And this giant prime rib bone from dinner!!


Funny moments of the evening...during dinner, if I turned the camera on J, he made this face:


And, after dinner, while reading a Sesame Street book w/ Grandma and Grandpa...I asked him: "Where's Oscar the Grouch?" After thinking about it, he pointed his finger...straight at me! Huh??? It was unintentionally hilarious. It was a great day spent with very loved family. Merry Christmas!

Christmas Eve in Phoenix

Normally J and I have playgroups or something during the week, but since today is Christmas Eve we didn't have any plans. Because it was gorgeous outside (I think 60 degrees) we headed over to the park.


Want some sand?


Clearly, he is on a mission.


Hey!! Get back here!!


I loved his sandy bottom, it was so cute!!


Heading down the slide.


Shawn opened one of his presents tonight (I opened one last night, Shawn could wait for me to open it - some diamond earrings! Nice!) This was a present from Jeremiah - it's a photo book with pictures of just Shawn and J throughout the last 18 months. It's cute, if I do say so myself.


We also opened our jammies!!


Shawn was very excited about his nautica pajamas.



More tomorrow! J has about 5,000 presents so there will be lots of pics.

The tree!!

It all started last Tuesday night when we went to get our tree. It was cold, dark and rainy...perfect Christmas weather! Not for me, of course, but Jeremiah loved being outside in the rain running through the rows of trees.

Brrr! But it doesn't seem to bother him.


Running....


A brief moment of rest.


Watching our tree get some branches sawed off the bottom.


Our tree!


In the door...


Yay! It's seriously one of the prettiest real trees I've seen. I didn't really want to even decorate it. And I'm not a fan of real trees. But this one may have changed my mind.


We did (or I did, I guess) decorate it, of course!


I'm trying to get a cute pic of J for thank you cards. Here's one that I won't be using. (Obviously very cute)


Another one I won't be using. He sure likes to have his picture taken, though!


A shopping center right by our house had 'snow' - a few tons of shaved ice dumped on the parking lot. Jeremiah likes to look at snow (he calls it 'ice') and so I thought it would be neat to see how he'd react. He was alright with it.




They also had a Santa there. I snapped a quick pic, he was really excited to see Santa...he even sort of says "Santa." He kept wanting to go back up to him.

In case you were wondering...

that is what 10 dozen (give or take a few) 'cheesecake delight' cookies looks like. I baked them Friday night in a marathon of rolling, filling and baking. It was fun and totally worth it, because the next day I came home with tons off different cookies!! Of course, I can't say no to ANY exchanges so I'm doing one tomorrow and one Thursday, so tonight I'll be baking only 5 more dozen. (I'm doing oatmeal cranberry white chocolate though, yummy!!)

J saying "cheese"


J loves the camera, especially taking pictures. Sorry if my morning face scares you!


This outfit is adorable - it was Caleb's, our 4 yr old nephew's until it was passed down to J. The jeans are long so you roll them up to show the little pattern and the shirt matches. He looks like a little lumberjack!


J received just a couple presents from his Grandpa Dan and Grandma Karen in California. The other day he just picked one up and started ripping the paper off. Instead of stopping him I took pics so they could see him open one of their presents.




Finally, the child is really into climbing right now. While I was making dinner last night he completely cleaned out this cabinet (placed all the tupperware on the lazy boy) and climbed in. I didn't get a photo of him all the way in because he realized I had the camera and wanted to look at the pic.