Christmas Day!

 The boys were excited to open their presents.  We made them wait until about 9:00 - so long to wait, but everyone had to be up and ready to watch the excitement.  We made them take turns this year, and that worked better than all at the same time.  I love their enthusiasm - especially Owen.  "I GOT ___!"
I didn't get a picture of every gift, but here are some of them.  All the boys got Legos, a game, and other fun toys from Papa John, Aunt Jane, and Jim.  In fact, their gifts were much more popular than what Santa brought.  Weston loved his pirate ship from Papa John and his Duplo zoo from Jane.  They loved the submarines and the Lone Ranger Legos too.  Savannah wasn't into opening the presents much yet, but she has played with all of them since Christmas.  Actually, the boys loved her castle - I'll have to post the video of them playing with it after we got back home.
 

Savannah really liked the dog book.  I was also glad to see her show interest in the keychain picture book that I made.  I pulled pictures from on-line of baby animals, printed, laminated, and cut them out.  Then I put them on a key ring.  She likes to look at them at church (although sometimes gets too excited about the pictures, making it a noisy activity...)  Some of her gifts she may have to grow into this year.  It's hard with her birthday right before Christmas.  I have to plan ahead for what she might want to play with in 6-9 months.  She doesn't have the benefit of mid-year gifts. 

Christmas in Oklahoma

We loaded up the suburban and drove to Oklahoma for Christmas.  We tried something different for accommodations this trip - KOA's.  They're a little cheaper than a motel, especially since we usually require either 2 rooms or one (expensive) suite for our big family.  The KOA wasn't too bad.  It's just a little cabin with bunk beds and another bed.  The bathrooms for the KOA's are community, but they were pretty nice.  I did use the showers - they weren't disgusting.

  We had to use our own bedding, so we had to take sleeping bags with us.  But then it was also nice snuggling down in our own stuff.  We had our own space, not sharing a wall with anyone else.  The kids could run around and play outside while we were loading up in the morning.  The KOA's are not for everyone, but for us it was a step up from setting up a tent in the middle of the night or paying over $125 for a motel room (s).  And we did arrive at 2:00am one night, so we were able to pick up our key without having anyone wait up for us.  They left the light on too...

At our lunch stop in Arizona, the boys got a chance to play in the snow.  Savannah touched snow for the first time.  She wasn't amused.  We got a kick out of how wimpy the boys were about the cold.  After about 5 minutes, Nathan said, "I think I have frostbite!"  California boys...

We made it to Alex's parents place without much drama.  We had to stop and get a new DVD player for the car on the way, but other than that the kids traveled well.  We needed them plugged into those videos though.  We tried for a couple of hours and then decided to make a Wal-Mart run.  The boys sang "I am a Child of God" to Savannah 3-4 times (or 20?) to calm her down.  

We had fun hanging out with Grandma & Papa John (besides the stomach bug that went around - sorry).  It was fairly cold most of the time, so the boys didn't want to play outside much.  They were more than happy to spend time watching videos and cartoons.  We had a nice sunny day one day, so we gave them a Christmas present a little early - homemade bows & arrows.  (I saw these PVC ones on Pinterest and put Alex to work making them.)  Weston couldn't figure out how to shoot it, but he liked just carrying them around.  

Weston continued his knack for falling asleep in weird places... behind the door?  Whatever.

They loved shooting the BB gun and playing with their new toys.  The remote control submarines were a hit!  Weston really liked the dog and the goats.

We enjoyed watching the dancing Santa toy and then watching Nathan and Jared mimic it. 

 

The kids are watching the dancing Santa for this picture... I need to get one of those for picture taking I guess.  They're almost all looking.

ONE sweet cupcake

We celebrated Savannah's birthday with family in Oklahoma this year (since we were traveling for Christmas).  She was sick on her birthday with a little stomach bug, so we celebrated a few days later.  I don't think she was 100% yet.  She had cake earlier this year and had no problem digging into it, but she didn't want much to do with it on her birthday.  Maybe the giant cupcake was overwhelming.  She did pick at a smaller cupcake.  

She had lots of help opening presents.  She seemed to like all her presents.  

She got a bear with music and lights and buttons to push from her TX grandparents.  She likes bears and music and buttons, so it was perfect (especially for travel).   

Savannah is such a joy to have in our family.  So far she has been pretty laid back and easy-going.  She sleeps well through the night.  She has a great smile and personality, and it's fun to see her interact with her brothers.  (She's pretty tough already.)  She is a little bit behind in her development, but she's coming along.  I haven't minded much that she isn't walking or talking yet (she does a great army crawl).  We have plenty of noise and rowdiness already around here.  She can take her time - I am enjoying the last bit of her babyhood.  Savannah is our last baby, so it's hard to see the end of our baby season coming to a close.  She got a full year of nursing.  I couldn't hold the tears back at her last feeding - that was an emotional thing.  I have been pregnant or nursing and taking care of babies for 10 years now.  And while I am ready for a new season, it's also hard to let go of this one.  I can't believe my baby is one year old.  We love our sweet girl!  

Her toddlerhood is just around the corner... 

growing UP...