Merry Christmas!

Caleb had been up most of the night Christmas Eve too excited to sleep. Finally when he did pass out, Joshua came into our room, ready to get up for the day. We insisted he wait a little bit until his brothers woke up, so it was close to 8 am before we finally all ventured downstairs. Above is a picture of the three of them in PJs waiting to come down. First things first, they saw that the cookies and milk were GONE!

Then they saw the presents around the tree!

Ryan wasn't feeling well, so he was a bit cranky. He started by screaming "OVER!" and knocked Daddy over (his absolute favorite game right now). I had to get a picture.

Then we started letting the boys open their gifts. We let Ryan go first, in hopes that it would make him happier. He said "Football! HIKE!"

I love the look on my little boy's face in this picture. Often Joshua seems so grown up to us, but he is still tiny really! Look at those long eyelashes on his sweet face.

Caleb enjoyed opening this color-your-own-rocket ship that we then put together for them to climb in. We've only colored half so far! It's quite the project!

I helped Ryan open another gift, and Grandpa Georgia surprised us by showing up at our door.

Caleb was thrilled with his very own camera! The rest of the day he was taking our pictures. This was just a cheap one, but we know how much he loves to take pictures.

The boys each got new Veggie Tales DVDs and they are enjoying them. :)

After the boys were mostly done, Shawn & I exchanged gifts. I thought this picture was funny of him with his gloves - THREE hands!

Grandpa left after a cup of hot tea and seeing some of the boys gifts. The kids were THRILLED to open their Mario Kart game for the Wii. Luckily we have two other wheels, and we have been playing this a TON since Christmas. The kids love it, and I like it better than some of their games because it's just racing in cars - no killing, no bad guys, etc.

After we opened a majority of our gifts, I took a shower and we made a late breakfast of reindeer pancakes, complete with bacon and fruit. I thought they turned out cute!

Shawn helped make the pancakes while I finished setting the table, and we all enjoyed a nice big breakfast/lunch.

Afterward, Mamaw called and came by to see what the kiddos had gotten from Santa. They were so wound up! They told her about Joshua's transformers, Mario figurines, and Mario & Sonic DS game while Caleb said his favorite was his slinky, and he got 150 crayons in a tower with a sharpener, among other things.

Since we had absolutely nowhere to go or anyplace we had to be, we let the boys hang out in their pajamas. We relaxed and played with toys the whole day.

While we had defrosted our Christmas ham, we decided to eat leftovers for dinner and just enjoy a lazy day. I made our ham the following evening with buttered noodles and corn - but Christmas night we just enjoyed being together.

Eventually that evening, I asked if we could go for a drive and look for Christmas lights - just to get outside a little. Shawn agreed, and it was adorable to listen to Caleb proclaim "CHRISTMAS LIGHTS!" For a kid who's normally very quiet, he was SHOUTING when he saw them out of sheer excitement and glee. We had fun driving around together. The picture below is of the boys starting to color their rocket ship.

And this picture is Ryan enjoying one of his gifts from Santa - TISSUES! He loves to pull them out one at a time, and we decided to give him his own box to sit and enjoy. Sometimes it's the little things in life. :) :) :)

Merry Christmas to all!