Christmas Day!

Ok, ready for this??  Our Christmas morning started at 4:30am.  FOUR THIRTY in the morning!  Gavin, even though I explained the night before that the kids were to call for us when the light in Riley's room turned green, came into our room at like 4:00 and whispered, 'Merry Christmas!' Yes, son...Merry Christmas.  Now go back to bed.  So he heads back to Riley's room, and I hear him over the monitor trying to wake her up.  Are you serious, child??  I tried, unsuccessfully, to have them just come snuggle in our bed.  Finally around 5am, I went out to the living room with them.  We got cinnamon rolls ready, took pictures in front of the tree, and they played with the umbrellas Santa brought until about 5:30, when I could no long keep them distracted, and Jarrod came out so we could open gifts.

 Gavin was SO excited to finally get his first video game.  He was thrilled to finally get Skylanders for the Wii!

We enjoyed our homemade cinnamon rolls and started our morning of building Legos, opening gifts, and exploring all the fun things Santa brought.  I honestly thought the kids would crash.  Nope.  Before I knew it, we were off to deliver cinnamon rolls to the fire station and headed to see Big Hero 6 at the theater, one of our newer traditions. (We started that last year!)  The movie was hilarious, and Riley made it almost to the end before she was just done and ready for a nap.  She crashed and took a great nap, but was the only one of us that got to sleep that day.  Craziness.  

We had an amazing Christmas this year.  It just makes my heart happy when I see how magical the holidays are through the eyes of the kids.  And I just cherish every minute of the family time!  I miss see my family at Christmas time, but when I hear friends complaining constantly about all the hustle and bustle of traveling from place to place to place and never getting to just relax and enjoy a quiet moment with their kids, it makes me grateful that our holidays are filled with family memories and not stress.

Alright...more Christmas pics coming when I transfer iPhone pics!

Christmas Eve Traditions

Christmas Eve always starts out like any other day when Christmas falls in the middle of the week because Jarrod still has to work.  The kids and I had our normal morning...nothing spectacular obviously because I can't even really remember what happened!  Ha!  I know I planned ahead this year and made our cinnamon rolls for Christmas morning.  In the past, Jarrod and I have made them together after the kids go to bed, but he always is so tired from working that I end up finishing them alone anyway, so why not knock them out early?  ;) When Jarrod got home, we Skyped with the Ohio fam and let the kids open the few presents they had from them.  We did Christmas in July so they shouldn't have had any gifts, but you know how that goes! :)  It was, of course, great to see them and spend some of Christmas with them. 

We had to do our traditional pictures in front of the tree, and that always includes me messing with the camera, trying to get the settings right.  We have such bad lighting in here, so I ended up saying 'screw it' and used auto mode for most of them.  Oh well.

Our holiday dinner was delish!  Ham with roasted veggies, sweet potato fries, and mac and cheese for the kids.  The kids had to tear through dinner quickly to get to present time!  We exchange family gifts on Christmas Eve. 

Riley got some My Little Pony toys, Lego Duplos from Gavin, new Frozen pajamas, and ballet and tap shoes.  Gavin received Minecraft toys, a TMNT from his sister, much needed pajamas, and a new soccer ball and net for the goal outside.  Both kids got new books, too.  Jarrod wasn't supposed to get much, but I got him some Ellen underwear to match what Mimi and Beepa bought for the kids, a Road ID to wear when he's out training alone, and I 'gifted' him my commitment to running the Half Marathon with him.  What was I thinking??? :)  He did a great job picking out new clothes like I asked - I got leggings, tunics, boot socks and a scarf. 

Another Christmas Eve tradition is a sleepover in Riley's room.  The kids love it, and I do, too.  Something so special about checking the monitor and seeing both of our babies sharing a bed.  I cherish those little things so much!

Can't wait for Christmas morning! :)

Family Photos

One of my 'bucket list' items from 2014 was to have family photos done.  I love taking selfies with the kids, but aside from that, I'm not really in photos and we very rarely have any of all four of us.  But, good photography, while an investment, is so expensive!  The last photos we had professionally taken were in 2012, when Riley was just 9 months old! 

And so, a very popular photographer advertised a mini-session day and I jumped on it.  I figured it would be the best way to get some photos.  I reserved our spot and paid for the smaller package - five images on a disc.  I thought that would be good...one of the family, one of each of the kids, and one of the family. 

But then....the day came, and despite only have twenty minutes with the photographer, I was blown away by how many pictures she snapped.  We got in the car and I immediately told Jarrod, 'I'm going to be really disappointed when I can't see some of those shots she took...' so I emailed her, paid to upgrade to the bigger package, and got all these amazing photos of my lovely family.  I'm so thrilled with them!