Christmas 2010: Part 1

Just a warning. It's going to take you until next Christmas to finish this post. It's a long one.

Six years ago Steve spent his first Christmas with my family. He was a little overwhelmed with all the gifts at first, but now he's gotten used to it. Next year I won't start shopping quite as early. I thought that I would go ahead and get all my shopping out of the way early so I wouldn't have to worry about it later, but that didn't go as planned. That just gave me more time to shop.
Kathryn got an early start on opening presents. I had to rewrap a few gifts that she took it upon herself to open. I guess opening presents comes naturally to Baby Sister.

The best part of the holiday was having family here. The grandkids got their usual dose of Paw-Paw and Lady spoiling.
Mace and Kathryn have a love/hate relationship. Mace is bothered by her when she comes after him, but when she's not paying him attention he comes looking for her.
Uncle Joe brought a gingerbread house kit to build with Nathan.
The gingerbread house became a new home for Mary and Joseph and their whole crew.
Paw-Paw and Lady got here early so that I could put their gift for Nathan and Kathryn together for them. My options were: Watch my kids while they put the new gift together or put the gift together while they babysit. That's an easy one. I put the gift together. Paw-Paw took Nathan to a movie to get him out of the house. I'm guessing this is the last year I'm able to hide huge presents out in the open by simply throwing a sheet over them. I had a whole wall lined up with big gifts under sheets in my room for two months.
Lady took full advantage of having cuddly Jessica around. Kathryn isn't the cuddly type.
All those presents cluttering my house and Nathan prefers a big box.
After much anticipation, we finally got to open that giant pile of presents. Nathan took it upon himself to open all of his and most of everyone else's.Uncle Joe was jealous of this gift.
Christmas is so exciting with enthusiastic kids.
New bath toys. Kathryn could stop at that present and be completely happy.
Kathryn is always up to something.
Kathryn was very interested in Jessica's new chair. She actually preferred Jessica's chair over her own.

Nathan's quote of the day was, "I'm really good at opening presents!"

Baby Sister stayed awake long enough to open a few presents.
I'm so surprised Nathan was able to keep Daddy's present a secret. He couldn't wait to help him open it.
Lady and Jessica.
This is classic. When Nathan realized he was opening a book, he dropped it and moved on to another gift.

When grabby-hands Nathan had his back turned, Jessica got a chance to open one of her own presents.

Next thing to do, find a place for all these toys.
Nathan worked very hard at getting his new shopping cart put together.
Nathan had to test Baby Sister's new elephant. It holds up to 140 pounds.
Kathryn only lasted halfway through the present opening. When she woke up she had new toys all over the place that Nathan was kind enough to upwrap for her.

Here is Nathan opening the giant surprise present from Paw-Paw and Lady.

Kathryn is quite the little chef in the new kitchen.
Nathan and Kathryn got a new table and chairs set. Nathan served Jessica some play food. Jessica actually really loved playing with the play food.
How exciting. Kathryn woke up to find a new shopping cart and Power Wheels.
We can't forget about Mace. He's enjoying his colorful, new poop bags.
More Christmas festivities will be on another post. I'm worn out all over again just from posting about all the excitement!

Historical Vacation

I have a lot of catching up to do. A couple of weeks ago we decided to explore around Alabama. After all, this is home so we wanted to see what it had to offer. We drove to Horseshoe Bend National Military Park. Nathan is always up for a family vacation.
I'm not being unfair with the uneven amount of pictures of Nathan and Kathryn. Kathryn was a grump the entire day so I didn't take many pictures of her. This is one of the few happy Kathryn pictures. She hates traveling and doesn't hesitate to let you know it.The park ranger invited Nathan over to show him some warheads and let him hold a canon ball.
Anything is fun as long as Nathan has pop.
Sitting on a canon.
Mad Kathryn on the canon.
We stayed at a bed and breakfast. We've never stayed at one before so we figured we would give it a try. We had the whole upstairs to ourselves.
Kathryn wanted to explore the house, so she was constantly mad when we were in our room. She stood at the door beating on it hoping to be let out.

Kathryn decided that she didn't want to sleep that night either. At least she stopped crying, but she replaced the crying with talking and rocking her pack and play across the wood floor while we tried sleeping. It takes a lot to get on Nathan's nerves, but he even got annoyed. Steve and I had to keep lifting his pillow while he slept to make sure he was getting fresh air.

Here's a little snippet of the drive home. Nathan knows all the facts and there is no arguing with him. Horse vs. Cow.

This family vacation is sure to be one that goes down in family history. That park is the new battleground of Kathryn against her family. We decided after this little getaway that on all future vacations we're getting Kathryn her own room, that is if we decide to invite her.

Historical Vacation

I have a lot of catching up to do. A couple of weeks ago we decided to explore around Alabama. After all, this is home so we wanted to see what it had to offer. We drove to Horseshoe Bend National Military Park. Nathan is always up for a family vacation.
I'm not being unfair with the uneven amount of pictures of Nathan and Kathryn. Kathryn was a grump the entire day so I didn't take many pictures of her. This is one of the few happy Kathryn pictures. She hates traveling and doesn't hesitate to let you know it.The park ranger invited Nathan over to show him some warheads and let him hold a canon ball.
Anything is fun as long as Nathan has pop.
Sitting on a canon.
Mad Kathryn on the canon.
We stayed at a bed and breakfast. We've never stayed at one before so we figured we would give it a try. We had the whole upstairs to ourselves.
Kathryn wanted to explore the house, so she was constantly mad when we were in our room. She stood at the door beating on it hoping to be let out.

Kathryn decided that she didn't want to sleep that night either. At least she stopped crying, but she replaced the crying with talking and rocking her pack and play across the wood floor while we tried sleeping. It takes a lot to get on Nathan's nerves, but he even got annoyed. Steve and I had to keep lifting his pillow while he slept to make sure he was getting fresh air.

Here's a little snippet of the drive home. Nathan knows all the facts and there is no arguing with him. Horse vs. Cow.

This family vacation is sure to be one that goes down in family history. That park is the new battleground of Kathryn against her family. We decided after this little getaway that on all future vacations we're getting Kathryn her own room, that is if we decide to invite her.

Co-Chairs

I have a lot to blog about, but there aren't enough hours in the day to do it all. We had an awesome Haggerty Christmas with Paw-Paw and Lady, Uncle Joe, Aunt Lexi, Jessica and of course, Mace. Last year's Christmas chairs are still a big hit with the kids, so Paw-Paw and Lady got Jessica her very own chair. Here is our attempt at a picture of the kids and their chairs. It didn't turn out like I wanted initially, but this way captured the moment more accurately.