He Smiles!

For a couple of weeks we have been getting smiles here and there from Crew, but not constantly. I got a couple on Christmas Eve, but today he officially started smiling! He's been smiling all day and I finally was able to get it on camera, so I guess that is what made it truly official. At 7 1/2 weeks! It just melts my heart, it is so dang cute and its so fun to see him interacting with us now. We even get little coos now and then.

What was making him smile in these pictures was Clint pounding his hands on the couch like a drum by Crew's feet. Funny that that would make him smile, but to Crew it was the best. It's amazing that something as simple as a baby smiling can light up your day and be so exciting, better than Christmas if you ask me!

Isn't that the cutest smile ever?!

Christmas Day

Santa came! All the presents under the tree!

A new TV!

Crew hanging out waiting for his siblings to come downstairs and join him for the present opening.

The boys got up at 6:30 am. I can't complaining, I thought it might be earlier, but Clint and I were exhausted from being up late the night before, so it was still torture to wake up. Here the kiddos are waiting at the top of the stairs for their okay from mom to come down.

Checking out what Santa brought them!

Mckynlee with her pile of presents. Look how tired she is. She, like her parents, was still asleep when her brothers got up. So she was rudely awaken by her brothers who are not patient enough to wait for her to wake up on her own. It took her a little bit to adjust.

Dax opening his first present, a Lego set!

Poor Crew only got 2 presents, one from Santa and one from his grandpa and grandma Voorhees. I'm sure he didn't care much, though his brothers were a little concerned about it.

The boys watching Mckynlee opening one of her gifts.

So you may think this face is one of surprise but it is not. He is actually saying "I told you so!" in this picture. This gift was from Brock. He got Brock a DVD also and we wrapped it in a shoe box. So when the kids wrapped their gifts to each other and put them under the tree last week, Dax picked up the present Brock wrapped for him and said "I know what Brock got me, he got me Toy Story 3." I told him that he didn't and that he needs to stop prying. Well in the picture above I'm getting a big fat "I told you so!". Hilarious!

Brock with his present from Dax, "Despicable Me".

Mckynlee opening her Disney Princess Castle from Santa.

Crew hanging out with dad watching all the excitement.

Well after all the presents were opened there was one last item behind the tree. A paper rolled up and tied with a red ribbon. We had the kids go get it and open it up and we had Brock read it. This is what it said (if you can't read it through the picture) "Dear Brock, Daxton and Mckynlee, You have all been very good children this year. That makes me so happy! You have been such help to your mommy and daddy. And you have been great siblings to your new baby brother, Crew! I hope you have enjoyed all your gifts this Christmas Morning! Though it is very exciting to receive all these fun gifts, don't forget the real reason we have Christmas, and that it is to remember the birth of our Savior. He is our greatest gift. Now I know you all wanted a dog this year for Christmas, but your mommy and daddy told me that I couldn't get you one at this time. But I still wanted to do something extra special for you this year. So, if you will all get up and go look out your back window into your backyard I have a special surprise for you! I hope you enjoy it as much as I think you will! Merry Christmas! Love, Santa" So they went and looked out into the backyard and found this:

A trampoline! Santa was busy setting this up while we were out on our shopping adventures on Christmas Eve. The kids were so excited! What a great Christmas!

Mckynlee with all her Christmas loot! Purple was definitely the theme this year for her.

Brock with all his presents!

Daxton with all his presents!

Mckynlee wearing her new, purple Rapunzel dress-up holding the new baby her grandma and grandpa Voorhees got her.

The boys testing out their new video games.

My favorite picture of the day, Mckynlee cuddling with her daddy watching TV while wearing her princess dress and princess shoes.

I think Mckynlee enjoyed this present the most of all. She is bouncing around any chance she can get whether its on the couch, on her bed, or even on the hard floor. I call her my little "jumping bean". So the trampoline was like a dream come true for her.

The boys love it too. The kids are constantly on it, unless its raining outside, which it has been here and there. I love it, they pick it over video games! It gets them outside more than they are ever outside! I've decided its my new best friend. Plus I don't mind jumping along with them, to discover how out of shape I am. And it keeps them interacting with each other which I love, they always want a buddy to jump with them and they never turn each other down when one wants to go out there and jump.

Mckynlee got a ton of dress-ups for Christmas, I think a total of 4 new dresses plus a tutu. So she was in heaven. She just kept switching out of them to put a different one on. Here she is in another.

We had not yet bought a TV for our downstairs. Since our friends the Thompsons had temporarily moved away for 6 months they said we could borrow theirs. Well they come back in a month so it was necessary to get a new TV. So why not get one we really want. This was are gift from Clint's parents and our family gift. His parents paid half for it and then we paid for the other half. So now we have a 55 inch TV, Clint is very excited to watch sporting events on it.

And then there was my gift. You don't know how excited I was about this gift. This house has very cheap carpet, I would have to clean out the canister in our old vacuum after every room I vacuumed. It then got to a point where my old vacuum would keep getting clogged and lose suction. Luckily my last month of being pregnant my friend Kim brought her Kirby over and vacuumed my house twice. I cleaned out the vacuum for when my mom came to help me out after the baby, but when she vacuumed there was no suction. A month later I unclogged the vacuum to have it clog up again after vacuuming one room. I was done, there was no way I could vacuum like that and I felt our carpets were disgusting with barely being vacuumed. So that is what I asked for Christmas. I was set on getting a Dyson, but as I talked to more people who had had theirs for awhile they were disappointed. So I did my research and found the Hoover bag vacuum. It had the best reviews I had read yet so I decided that it was the one I wanted. I set it up and vacuumed a little bit Christmas Day and it works amazing. At least for now, the draw was it has a 6 year warranty, and since I have never had a vacuum last that long I was sold. Well since then I have vacuumed a ton, I'm kind of obsessed now. Before I was lucky to vacuum once a week and now I'm tempted to Vacuum several times a day. My carpet feels clean again! And its wonderful! I never thought I would be so excited about getting a vacuum.

Clint's present was a Blueray Disc player, we didn't have a DVD player downstairs, so it was also another thing we needed to buy. Now we can finally watch movies downstairs.

Later Christmas day we braved the traffic and made the 1 1/2 hr (normally 45 minute) drive to Clint's parents house for Christmas dinner with his parents, brother, aunt and uncle and a few of his cousins and their spouses. We ate some good food and just hung out and talked. The kids enjoyed Grandpa and Grandma's train, though Mckynlee broke it that night and playing with Grandma's ipad. The picture above it Mckynlee watching "Polar Express" on the ipad.

Crew hanging out with his grandpa. We had a great Christmas, but were exhausted by the end of the day. So Christmas is over. I'm sad that its over. I love Christmas. I love the excitement on my kids faces when they see and open their presents, or when we make treats and wrap presents. They just eminate the magic of Christmas. I love how everyone is in the mood of giving and how we get to celebrate the birth of our Savior and the spirit that brings and the good that it brings out in people. It's because of Christmas we were able to get to know a few of our neighbors a little better. I love the decorations, I love the music. Everything is so magical. Even this year, I was feeling frazzled and not in the mood because of just having a baby, I still loved that it was here and can't believe its gone. I hope you all had a wonderful holiday and I hope you had a very Merry Christmas!

Christmas Eve

We had a wonderful Christmas Eve. We started the morning off with Clint picking us up donuts for breakfast, yum! We hung out for awhile and then I took the kids to the park, and then to the dollar store for them to pick out gifts for their Grandpa and Grandma McDowell and their Uncle Dustin for a Christmas Eve gift, then we headed to Wendy's for some frosties, then to the car wash and then we headed to the outlets to get Brock new church shoes (the poor guy has been begging me for a month now for new ones because his current ones are way too small) and then we went home. You'll understand our long excursion without Clint on my Christmas post. Then I rushed to get dinner going and clean up the house. Clint's parents and his brother, Dustin, came over that night. We had yummy, creamy enchilada soup, with corn souffle and fiesta salad. And then Clint's mom brought a really good dessert, though I'm not sure what it is called.
Then it was to the Christmas Eve activities my kids had been waiting to do all day. I found a pre-made gingerbread house at Target, came with everything you need (my kind of style). So the kids got to decorate it with their grandpa. They were so excited about it.

The finished product, they were so proud of it.

Then it was time to make and decorate sugar cookies for Santa, we've decided to make this a tradition, we did it last year and the kids loved it. I made the dough that morning and then after dinner we cut out the shapes and cooked them. Later that night we let the kids decorated them. They had been asking all day when they could make them.

And of course you have to eat a couple to test them out for Santa.

Dax still at work on his cookies.

Now was the time for the kids to give their dollar store gifts to grandpa and grandma and Dustin. I got this idea from my friend Kyra, a few years back and we started doing it last year and I love it. Of course the presents kind get kind of silly. But each kid got pick out the presents themselves. I love how it teaches them the importance and joy of giving. And their grandparents and Dustin were so cute about their presents and acted so excited it made it even better for the kids.

Then it was time for the kids to open their Christmas Eve Gifts. They could hardly wait. They woke up first thing that morning and asked if they could open their presents then and were disappointed when I said they had to wait until that evening. Of course its our tradition of a book and PJ's for Christmas Eve (a tradition I grew up with).

Crew opening up his pajamas. Doesn't he look just as excited as his sibling about it? LOL!

We got Brock the 2nd book of the Diary of A Whimpy Kid series. He just finished the first book about a month ago and we just rented the movie and he is now obsessed. Anytime we're at a store and he sees Diary of A Whimpy Kid stuff he has to stop and look at it forever. So he was very excited about his new book and has already started reading it.

And of course a Superhero book for Dax. Dax loves our I Spy book, so I thought he would love this one because it is a Look & Find book. And sure enough he did.

And what more could a girl who loves purple want than a book called "Purplicious". She coerced her grandpa into reading it to her over and over again.

The kids showing off their pajamas. I was so mad about the boy's pjs. I got them in their right sizes, but this brand I guess fits small. So they are small and they'll probably only have a month of wearing them before they are too small. Oh well, they were super excited about them anyways.

Mckynlee's purple owl pajamas! It's all about the purple.

Showing us her new book.

Crew in his new pajamas. Again snuggling with his big brother on the couch.
Well soon after opening their gifts Clint's family left and then it was time to rush to bed so Santa could come. It was so funny though, we kept telling them Santa wouldn't come until everyone was asleep. So, Dax kept saying, "Well then I'm not going to sleep until you go to sleep". They wanted to hurry that process along.

But, they couldn't go to bed until they laid out Santa's cookies and milk. Luckily it didn't take them too long to fall asleep.

Handsome Little Man

We went out the other night to dinner with some friends to celebrate our friend Ryan's birthday. And since Crew is not ready to be left with a babysitter yet, he is our constant sidekick on our dates. And since mommy and daddy were getting all dressed up to go out, so should Crew. So I gave him a bath and got him all dressed and I thought he looked so handsome. I got him this shirt for the purpose of our family picture, but since you can't really tell what he is wearing in the family picture, here you go. Plus, he's wearing these cool shoe's my friend Vanessa got him. I just had to pull out the camera and take pictures of my handsome little man!

Brother and sister had to jump into a few shots. They had the job of entertaining Crew while mommy got ready. Such good little helpers.