Wednesday, January 1, 2014

Christmas and the beach

The plan for Christmas morning was my parents were going to bring by Dunkin Donuts around 7:30 with the thoughts that, of course, everyone over here would be awake. 

At 7:35, I heard my phone vibrate and I rolled over to a text from my mom saying "we are in the driveway!" Everyone in my house was asleep! HA!

After some quick wake ups, we headed downstairs to see all that Santa brought.


It was a chaotic morning filled with present opening and donut eating.  I loved every minute of it! Of course, I didn't take any pictures the entire morning.  When I was a kid, I remember my mom handing out presents while we all sat around opening and when we would hand her one, she would set it aside and say she would open it later- she just wanted to enjoy us opening ours.   I didn't get it at the time, and now, as a mom, I TOTALLY get it.  I didn't care if I opened one thing- I was SO happy just watching my family members open their gifts. 

Oh, I did take one pic.... bless his heart.  He was in the middle of the storm. 


The boys, true to form, were totally opposite in their opening style, but maybe not how I would have thought.  They both got bikes from Santa-- Andy saw his bike and was done.  He didn't care if he opened another thing.  Cal saw his bike and then made a bee line for the tree to find anything with his name on it.  Meanwhile, Andy is riding his bike from one side of our house to the other-- completely oblivious to the present opening taking place in the family room.  I would pull him from his bike every now and then and "help" him open a present and he would get a quick look at whatever the gift was and then he was back on his bike.  Cal would open a present, scream with delight and then toss is aside for the next one.  Too funny!

We spent the morning opening and playing (and Andy riding his bike!) and then we headed over to my parents house for Christmas time with them and my brother's family.  I did manage to remember to take a few pictures there:

my main man, me, tricia and tommy
With all of the Williamson family staying at our house, we ran out of room quickly.  The house did better than I thought it would, actually, with the guest room and couches and floors being used by everyone, but we thought it would be nice to go to the beach house, where there would be ample room for everyone to be under one roof! SO, we came home from my parents house, put Andy down for a nap and did a quick clean up and pack up and then around 4:00 we headed to the beach!

Hank and Murphy were happy to be there together:


Our time at the beach was chilly but so so fun.  We brought the boys' bikes down and the first day, we took of Cal's training wheels.  He's been riding his strider for a while and doing well with it so we decided it was time.  He did great!!! He was a little nervous, but he rode it right away.  I took a bunch of video but no pictures... videos take too long to post on the blog so go look on instagram ;).  He isn't great on two wheels yet-- he can't start by himself and he loses his balance easily, but we are going to keep working on it (actually, I took him out this morning to ride and he didn't want to get on his bike... the boys are tried and I wasn't going to push him....). 

While Cal was riding, Tommy, my dad and Andy went for a golf cart ride:



All that fresh beach air wore out some boys:


How precious is this shirt from CB? We love it!!! It is super soft material and says "just ducky".  LOVE!


There was never a shortage of people willing to snuggle a boy.  My kids were in heaven!


Andy's new bike is pretty much the exact same size as his old bike-- but it is blue and green and hot wheels and he thinks it is just amazing.  He must have ridden MILES while we were at the beach.  He rode all over our neighborhood, around every cul-de-sac, over speed bumps, everything! We couldn't get this kid off the bike.  We thought maybe, just maybe, it would help him sleep at night.  It didn't.  




We walked over to the sound and Hank couldn't help himself-- he had to go in the freezing cold water.  He was a happy pup sticking his head under looking for shells.  Sweet boy had the best time there.


It was chilly there, but it did not deter these guys from taking a boat ride.  They had to put on warm clothing-- my dad outfitted Tommy.  We joked they looked like the new duck dynasty crew.  



My most favorite Christmas gift, other than being with my whole family.... these cuffs.....


I adore these two goofy, wild, energetic, happy little boys.  I can't believe I get to be their mom.


While Andy was cruising the neighborhood, my mom followed him on the golfcart.  Hank wanted to go too, so he climbed up and got shot gun.  He is the best dog ever.  I swear, he was smiling while he rode up there.  

The boys went for another boat ride, this time it wasn't as chilly-- the water was like glass.  


I got it in my head that the water was perfect for paddle boarding-- which it was! It would have been chilly had I fallen in, but I wasn't planning on falling, so.....



It actually was perfect out there! I even took off my fleece jacket-- who goes paddle boarding on December 28th?? 


You know who else paddle boards on Dec 28th? My sister in law...


Eddie was convinced if we fell in we would go into shock and die in the (58*) water..... thank goodness we didn't fall in..........

We built a little camp fire in the yard and Eddie needed a snooze.  I think all his worrying about me wore him out:


That afternoon, we did the Williamson family pictures for their holiday card.... with everyone together, we had to take advantage of it with a photo op!




After ALL that fun, we still had more fun to come.... we made s'mores by the camp fire! The kids loved it! So did the adults, actually.... what's not to love about marshmallows, chocolate and graham crackers? yummmmm


We came home Sunday and I went into massive clean mode.  I hung up all of our Christmas cards this year and they made me so happy all season-- I hated to take them down!!!!
Speaking of Christmas cards, I just remembered I never posted ours....

front:

 back:

From our crazy home to yours.... a very Merry Christmas!!!

Today is New Year's Day.... here's to 2014!!!



 

Christmas Eve

Back to blogging!

We had a wonderful Christmas with family.  Eddie's parents came in on Christmas eve eve and his sisters and brother in law came in on Christmas Eve.  We all headed to the children's service at church at 5:30 and met my parents and aunt and cousin there. 



Lala came into church-- of course.


A Christmas selfie....


Poppy let Nug put some money in the offering plate.  He was so excited!



After church we headed to my parents house for food, drinks, and holiday fun-ness.  I attempted to get a picture with both boys.... it was a failed effort.  I wish we had gotten one of our family of four, but there were so many things going on, everyone was going a different direction!


My fabulously wonderful sisters-in-law.  I LOVE THEM SO SO SO SO MUCH.  Like sisters, really.  

And, my SILs love my boys...


And then....y'all, Santa Claus showed up at grandma/grandpa's house! Minds BLOWN! He came bearing gifts for the kiddos and everyone was so excited!

The kids all sat ready to see Santa....


"Who has been a good boy/girl this year?" (please notice who is not raising a hand....)

Thankfully, Santa brought him a gift this year...despite his naughtiness...


Jackson and Cal both got on Santa's lap for a sweet picture...


After Santa left, we moved into the living room where my mother in law played Christmas music on the piano and we all sang along.  The kids are all learning tons of Christmas songs in school and they are ALL about singing.  This sounds so cheesy, but it really is awesome-- everyone is drinking and singing and laughing...all together.  It's so special.


Cal still loves baby Margaret- he wanted to hold her so CB helped by sitting her on his lap on her lap!





We got home and the kids hurried to bed.  We brought out presents and got ready for Santa to come.  Andy hasn't slept through the night in oh, say, months.....(!!!!!) so he moved to our floor somewhere in the middle of the night.  Hank kept him company and toasty warm while down there. (side note: if y'all have any ideas on how to get the kid to sleep through the night, I would love to hear them.... we tried dropping naps...didn't help.... we've tried ignoring him....doesn't work....any way... that's a whole different post!)

Santa came and was good to my crew!!!






 
 
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