Christmas Celebrations!

We had lots and lots of fun Christmas celebrations, starting in Dallas where Uncle Connor and Aunt Wyndi live!

Caden taking the last ornament off of the Christmas advent calendar! Hurray, Christmas is finally here..

Christmas Eve we drove down to Houston to spend the night at Gigi's house and see her family!
Here are the boys in their Christmas pjs!

And a Christmas Eve picture...so not exactly a portrait...

Christmas morning, classic "mom, why do I have to put on this adorable outfit?" tantrum from Caden...also, notice baby Cole making his grand appearance via my belly getting HUGE, I guess he didn't want to be left out of the picture...

Opening presents at Grandma and Grandpa's house!!

Aww!

Resting at Grandma and Grandpa's house on Christmas Day..

The next day we went to the race track where Grandpa races his slot cars!

Altogether we had 4 Christmas celebrations when you include our celebration at Grammy and Grampy's house and we didn't even make it to Maga and Papa's house in Houston this year. I suppose 5 is sort of a stretch when you are 34 weeks into a pregnancy. Speaking of which, now that Christmas is over its full blown baby countdown at this house!!

Merry Christmas!

Hope you have a wonderful Christmas!!!

Enjoy our "virtual Christmas card" as we didn't get any in the mail this year :)

Love,

Collin, Jennifer, Caden, Caleb, and Cole

Here are the videos from our Community Bible Study Christmas Songs!

Caleb is standing in the very middle of the stage in plaid, saying, "wow!" about the stained glass window...he has not a care in the world for the other kids, teachers, or crowd :)

Caden is on stage in the middle of the very back row with a red and brown shirt on. Caleb is standing directly in front of him facing the wrong way. Check out the end when Caleb spots me in the crowd and gets "escorted off stage" by his teacher and then Grammy. Precious!

Ok, so Caleb didn't make it to the end but here is Caden singing the two last songs...

Thanksgiving 2010

Thanksgiving!

is a really special holiday for my family

We've been traveling to my dad's part of West Texas for my whole life to deer hunt and celebrate Thanksgiving and we are so lucky that we still get to go!!

Its a fun-filled casual Thanksgiving meal that tastes like Martha Stewart made it...which isn't close since our head chef (Grammy) is also a Martha :)

Two of my brothers and Jenna (our new aunt to be!) were there, but we missed Uncle James and Aunt Layne :(

Collin climbed the top of the hill behind camp to take this picture...very impressive honey

I couldn't get over this, the rancher who lives here went out with his brother on Thanksgiving Day to practice steer roping. Very cool.

Brothers...

Uncles...

Mom, there's no tv, what do we do?

I guess we will have to spend an hour jumping in these leaves...

And then mom will force a family photo on us which we will not cooperate for of course. "Caleb, you look down and I'll look up...that will teach them"

Out during the official deer hunt...the boys, Grammy, and I only chose to participate for one evening of this...if the cheetoh stained mouth on Caleb and Caden's thrilled expression don't give away the reason for our lack of participation I don't know what does..

Instead we ate the tops off of muffins...

And fed the rancher's horses...

Family pic and yes, that is me 30 weeks pregnant hiking around with Caleb on my back. Don't worry he counterbalances the baby weight...

Practicing their celebratory gig 'em

Well, not quite

Caden with Aunt Jenna having a lot of fun

Deer on its last trip up the mountain...with some assistance

Uncle Gray with our cousin Dugger

and our cousin Chad

Hunting is fun!

And even better when you get to drive

Caden with Mommy and Baby Cole at 30 weeks

Hurray for Deer Camp, we had so much fun!

Birthday Boy!!!

Four years ago at 11:20 on 11/21, Caden was born!!!

Newborn

He has grown to be such a joyful, cuddly, and sweet boy!

First birthday

I can't believe he has already been a part of our lives for just 4 years, he has been in our hearts for many more than that!

Second birthday...I can't find any cake pictures, but Caleb was just born so who knows?

Caden loves animals, playing with Daddy, and he has become quite the big brother. He laughs with us all the time. Lately, he has been working on "telling jokes" as in "why did the chicken cross the road? Answer: strawberry pie" I guess you have to be 4?

He also tells me at least twice a day, "Mom, I wanna tell you something..." "(in a quiet voice) Your the best mom in the whole world and I love you!" Seriously, at lease twice a day! Caden's favorite foods (and there are not many to choose from according to him) are peach yogurt and Chick-fil-A. His favorite cartoon is Shaun the Sheep. He still wants to hear the story of Noah every night. He has a gentle spirit, but he is such a boy! He is already starting to talk in a "deep" toddler voice. Lately he is very interested in learning all about the baby in my tummy so we have fun talks about what they eat and how we give them baths. I'm contemplating whether its appropriate for a 4 year old to change diapers...

Mostly, Caden is as unique and wonderful as I could have imagined 4 years ago when we were waiting for him to arrive. Blessing doesn't even say how good it is to be his mom!

3 Years Above and 4 Years Below

(yes, that is the same shirt and no, its not planned, come on people)

Today for Caden's 4th birthday he got to open Candyland when he woke up...

Then, we went to the Mall and rode on the new train there which was a huge hit with both boys!

We even got to see Santa because he just arrived at the mall and it turns out the weekend before Thanksgiving there is no line. I have never been organized enough to get Santa pictures with "nice" clothes on my boys or even when their hair is combed, but now we will just have realistic memories I guess :)

I'm not putting the official (and very cute) Santa pic on here yet because it feels wrong before Thanksgiving, but here is a cute preview of Caleb being mischievous as any 2 year old would be. Also, notice his buzzed head which is thanks to a very traumatic first "professional" haircut experience. Apparently when they are screaming at the top of their lungs and flailing about violently it is not as easy to do a trim on the top and keep it long. Our stylist informed me that we would have to just use the clippers which turned out to be super short. Sigh. Hair grows, I know...

The birthday cake is chocolate-chocolate-with rainbow "sparkles" per Caden's request. I secretly love that he calls them sparkles because it reminds me of Rainbow Brite and I take what I can get in this house of men!

Happy Birthday Caden, we love you!

And as a ps, here is some bonus haircut footage...

Before

After...I miss you messy headed Caleb...I'll never cut it again...or not for a while...and not at that same place!