Christmas 2013

Was this really only a year ago?

Christmas morning 2012

We had a 10 day old baby.  Gez, that feels like ages ago!  Here we are Christmas morning 2013

All smiles

I took a video of Evie coming down the stairs hoping to capture her excitement over all the gifts and her trampoline.  Instead of smiles, we got one super shy little girl.  She clung to Daddy for a good 5 minutes.  Maybe the gnarly carrot scared her :)

We had a very relaxed day, opening gifts throughout the day.  We opened a few then let the kids play with those toys.  What's the rush anyway?  

Her mother must be a child of the 80's.

Evie enjoyed opening her gifts and also liked handing out gifts to all of us.  Evie definitely takes after us with her meticulous way of ripping the paper.  She took off a piece, then handed it to Daddy to be put in the trash bag.  We taught her well :)

Her big gift from us was a mini trampoline.  Uncle Sam has said since about 5 months old that Evie will be a gymnast.  She hangs off the tables, jumps off the steps, somersaults over the couch, all doing so very gracefully.  Our hope is that Evie will "jump, jump!" and swing on the trampoline instead of our furniture now.

This picture might show up in 16 years
when Evie is on the USA gymnastics
team at the Summer Olympics

Gracie gets in on the action

Braylen loves it too

Look at those pig tails flying

And of course there is tackling

Evie took a strong liking to this moose from Great Aunt Betsy and Uncle Bruce.  The book, The Moose Belongs to Me, is about a boy that claims a stray moose is his.  He names it "Marcel".  

Evie reads with Marcel

Evie doesn't really have a lovie.  She sleeps with a certain blanket on top of her and baby, but I think she could do without them.  So far Marcel is looking like a contender for her lovie.  He has gone more places than any other animal has gone before.  Evie requests to see the horses, likes to scour the neighborhood for baby deer, and thoroughly enjoys her reindeer pajamas.  Marcel seems to fit the mold.

The kids really like everything they received.  Some of the toys are still out for play, others are up in the attic for another day.  We have a huge bin in the attic with toys that will come out in a few weeks when we need to mix things up.  It will be like Christmas year round!

Round 2 with Mema 2 days later

Between the plastic heels and the trampoline,
we are bound to have a broken ankle

And as mentioned in my previous post, we had homemade crab cakes for Christmas dinner.  Yum!

I loved being at our house the entire day.  Evie stayed in her pajamas all day (I think Daddy did too).  I kept things relatively simple this year and it was just right for the ages of our kids.  It was a wonderful 2nd Christmas with my little ones!