Merry Christmas!

Hi everyone! I hope you all had a really great Christmas! We had a really good time. Here are some of the highlights of the past few days!

On Christmas Eve, we spent the afternoon with John's brother's family in Mt. Pleasant. We always have a good time there, and Gena always makes us a great meal and Monday was no exception! Unfortunately, Ben wasn't having the best time since he's dealing with some teeth coming in so he was really grumpy the entire time. It also had to do with the fact that he only slept for 45 minutes of the 2.5 hour trip! And to add insult to injury, he had three poopy diapers in a row at their house so we were out of diapers by 4:00, didn't leave till 5:30 and had the long drive home... The later he burned his hand on their stove! It's all good though. We made it home in one piece and had a peaceful drive home listening to Christmas music. Since I was trying to manage Ben the whole time, I only took a few pictures. Here's one of Ben doing Itsy Bitsy Spider.



















When we got home that night we had a lot of preparing to do for Chritmas Day. We got everything done we needed to and even had time to watch Elf and the first 15 minutes of Home Alone before I fell asleep! We got all of Ben's presents ready for Chritmas morning. I have to admit that I didn't sleep well that night because I was so excited for Ben to open his presents! On Christmas morning, he was a little groggy and confused, but once we got him opening his presents he actually started to get into it. From Santa he got two crashing Cars cars, a semi-truck full of matchbox cars and a Fisher Price Bounce and Spin Zebra. He loved everything! And don't you love the bed head? :) For Christmas I got a new printer I've been needing/wanting and a new watch. John also got a new (way cool) watch and two new dvds.










































































Around lunch time we went to my mom's to do Christmas with my family. We do stockings with my sisters and their kids then a gift exchange with the small amount of extended family we have. Ben got a big Lightning McQueen from my mom and he LOVES it! He played with a similar one both at Jan's and Kelli's when they both babysat. I think it's probably his favorite toy he got!



















Here are some pictures of my family. This is Randi, my nephew's wife, holding Eddie, my sister Melinda's youngest.















John playing with my sister Mandie's son, Carter.















Gideon picking his present for the gift exchange.















My cute nieces, Julie, Chrystal and Carrie.















Then we went to Mark's house (John's brother) to give the rest of the family their presents. We had to improvise since there were family members there we didn't expect to be there so that was interesting! But it all worked out. Ben had fun playing with his cousin, Helen. They're both so cute!





























Last but not least, Ben was having so much fun with his new toys this morning. I guess he likes them all so much he feels the need to multitask! It's pretty funny.



















This afternoon we're going to spend time at my sister Suzy's house with my nephew Kenny and his wife Texas. We're excited to see them again. Merry Christmas to all of our family and friends. We love you and wish you the best in the new year!