Christmas with Noni and Papa!

We started our Christmas festivities on Saturday at Noni and Papa's house! Like everyone else I am sure, we have so many places to go during Christmas, we have to start early. What a blessing to have such big families to get to spend time with during the holidays!

This is our one and only family picture taken this week. I told the boys that if they would smile and cooperate for this one picture, I wouldn't make them take family pics at every place we visited. They look a little awkward and forced, but they held their end of the deal, so I kept my promise.

This was my piano when I was a little girl, and now Brooke plays it. And I love to watch my boys play around on it, too!

Mamaw Sharon came over and brought the boys these fun laser guns!

Excited boys ready to open presents from Noni and Papa!

"Whatcha got there, Beckett?!"

A guitar!

And a skateboard for Brody-man.

Brooke got a Littlest Pet Shop Treehouse!

Brody was so excited to open his beyblade dome.

Levi has gotten good at opening his gifts! So good, in fact, that he loves to hide and open other people's gifts, as well. Little stinker. This boy, I tell ya'. He is putting us through the ringer. He is so smart and funny, but he is so very strong-willed and independant. And hard-headed. Man, is he hard-headed. But between fits and screams, he gives the best hugs and and has the sweetest little laugh. And he tells me he loves me, and for just a little bit, I forget about how he wears me out. :)

He likes Beck's guitar, too :)

Ryan and Tara with their gift cards and Sour Patch candy. Ryan loves this candy, so I usually let the boys get him a couple packages every year.

Papa Cliff showing off his shirt!

I love my comfy pajamas and new welcome mat from Ryan and Tara!

My little artistic sis drew me a picture of Rudolf and gave me a cute necklace. I just love her drawings. She is so talented!

Beckett playing with the beyblade dome!

Noni getting ready to open her new camera...

These are my new curtains from my mom! Love them!

And we will end this night with Miss Eden opening her new Toms.

More to come!

Kindergarten Christmas Party!

Brody had such a fun school Christmas party this morning! Beckett came with me while Levi stayed home with Daddy. I love this little school and all the people who love my boy while he's there! I'll let the pictures do the taking...

And so it begins!

Our busy busy Christmas week has begun! My stepbrother, Tony, and his wife, Carrie, were in from Fayetteville this weekend, so we gathered at my dads to let the kids open their gifts from them. My niece, Michaele, wasn't able to come down with them, so we sent our gifts for her back with them. The boys and Eden were so excited to get to open their first gifts of the year! Dad and Karen also let them open a couple small gifts from them as well. What a fun Christmas it will be!

Busy in December! {Instagram Style}

We are staying busy this month playing outside (thanks to those warm days we had!), singing Happy Birthday Jesus with candlelit pancakes, making Christmas countdown chains, coloring underneath the tree, getting haircuts, FaceTiming, going to tacky Christmas sweater parties, shopping with friends, enjoying Sonic treats, and snuggling at bed time! Such sweet days these are.

Sharing the news!

On the Friday night after we received the referral of our boy, we had our families over to share the news! I debated posting about this yet, because I'll have to blur the pictures, but I wanted to record it while its fresh on my mind, and hopefully I can come back and replace the pictures with unedited ones later.

We were so excited to share the exciting news with our family! We invited them all over telling them that we had an early Christmas present to give them. I'm sure they all figured out what was going on, but since it was so much sooner than we'd expected, it was still fun!

I printed out and framed 5x7s of his referral picture and wrapped them. I wrapped an 8x10 for our boys to open. When everyone had arrived that evening, we had them all gather into the living room for the big news. I announced that we had been matched with a precious baby and for them to open their gifts to find out more! It was so fun watching them tear into their gifts and light up with excitement when they saw his beautiful little face! After everyone had time marvel over how cute he is, we announced his name and told them a little more about him. It was such a special time! Then, we brought out the blue balloons and Its A Boy plates and celebrated with some yummy food!

(I will add as a funny side note that I think Brody was a bit confused when he opened his picture. We had just told him the same as everyone else, that we had an early Christmas present for him. So, I'm sure as any 5 year old would, he was expecting a toy or game. Lol. So to see a framed picture of a baby he didn't know in that gift package...well lets just say the look on his face was pretty funny. But I can assure you, once we explained who that baby was and what it meant, he has been so very proud of that early Christmas present.)

I've included a few pictures from that night. Not sure what order they'll post in since I'm posting from my phone, but the blurry group pic was right before everyone opened their gifts. The others are just of our family holding their picture of Lennox. One of my grandmothers was out of town, so she wasn't able to come that night, but my mom let her open her picture the next day when she met up with her at my cousin's football game. That picture is included too. Enjoy!