Friday, December 31, 2010

A Very Merry Christmas

I can only say that we Lewallens had a fabulous Christmas this year!
We spent most of Christmas Eve in our "night-nights"...


Until it was time to get dressed for our Life Church Candle-light service.

So I took my handsome boys and we went to Forza...

It was a family event. So, yes, you can see that I was bribing them with chocolate animal cookies to sit nicely and quietly for the service.

We had a great turn-out. Standing room only at our favorite coffee shop!

And the candles were really cool.

Made for blurry pictures because I didn't want to use the flash and mess up the mood.
And the boys did pretty good. The only incident we had was when the candles started being lit, Ryne piped up with "Daddy, it's a fire! A fire, Daddy! A fire!" Of course everyone giggled and we moved on. We might just have a future fire marshall on our hands or something.

We picked up McDonald's on our way home for a yummy Christmas Eve dinner.

You can still see evidence of it on Ryne's mouth in the hilarious picture.

Because the boys did so well at the candle-light service we let them open one present on Christmas Eve.

New Books!


And they both happily climbed up in my lap to check them out.

I love that my boys are happy getting books!
Plus, I decided to give them books as their one gift that night so that they didn't loose the excitement of the books in the midst of all the toys to come the next day.

Got the boys all tucked away in bed. They went down without a peep.
And I must tell you my favorite Christmas Eve memory.
I was putting Kade to bed and it was his turn to pray.
This is what he said, "Thank you for all the good food today. And God, I hope you have a good birthday tomorrow on Christmas. Please help Ryne not to break any of his new toys. And help me and Ryne remember how to obey tomorrow for Christmas....." And he just went on from there. It was just precious. I wander how many people prayed to God telling Him that they hoped he had a good birthday? I am so thankful that Kade "gets it!"

Anyway, with boys tucked away and fast asleep, Kyle and I had to get to work.
We started with a couple of big hot cups of hot chocolate!

And headed to the garage...

To assemble a gift from Grandaddy and C.G.

The finished product!
A new kitchen for the boys. They both love to help in the kitchen and as often as possible I let them. I must admit though, I was probably most excited about the kitchen because I think it will free me up a bit while I am trying to work in the kitchen. Isn't that selfish?

All the gifts were wrapped and under the tree....


Stockings were stuffed and taken down from the mantle so that they didn't come crashing down with a thud....

All the lights were lit...


Christmas cards had found a home....

And by midnight we were all ready for Christmas and headed to bed!
Not too bad!
Then much to our surprise our boys and our dog gave us the best Christmas present we could have hoped for. They ALL slept in until almost 8 o'clock!!!!! Seriously, that NEVER happens!!!

We planned to do Christmas with Grandaddy, C.G. and Monk Monk first thing so we got the computer set up and Skyped them in....

And the Christmas fun began......
They got to see their kitchen and new easels first but I didn't get pictures because I was following the boys around with computer while Kyle videoed. But once we settled down to the presents under the tree I was able to get some great pics. Check it out....

New dishes for the new kitchen!

A super hero! Just look at that face. Can't you tell he was excited?

Not sure what is in the box for Ryne yet, but Kade is already excited for him!

Jessie!

Kade took all of his presents over to the computer to hold them up and show Grandaddy, C.G. and Monk Monk what he got. It was too cute!

Elefun...a butterfly catching game.

Buzz Lightyear!!!
(Buzz is not a soft toy but Ryne sleeps with him and Jessie every night now. And Buzz and Ryne have a bad habit of greeting us in our bed about 5 am every morning.)

Iron Man!!!!

And these little things we have named "cow bugs" because that's really what they look like. Very cool new riding toys.

And the boys ride them everywhere!

More presents!

Weebles Whobble

And more Weebles Whobble

Daddy working on Iron Man

Kade, playing with his super heroes!

He is really into super heroes these days!

Ryne took a break to leave us a message on his new chalk board.

Kade caught a second when Ryne was watching and had to check out Buzz and Jessie.

The Weebles Whobble tree house is really cool.
It was lots of fun to have Christmas morning with C.G., Grandaddy and Monk Monk!

After we took some time and let the boys check out their first round of gifts. And picked up a bit of trash. We went for round two! Christmas with the four of us.

Kade was super proud to be delivering his gifts to us.
I got a really cool purse from Kade and a pretty sweater from Ryne.

I love that he was so excited to watch us open our presents.
Kyle got some new t-shirts and a new sweater and a video game.
The video game because the boys big present was....

A Wii!!!

They got games to play, too.
Go Diego Go and I Spy!
Plus Monk Monk had given them a really cool Nickelodeon exercise game to play.

A lion towel for Ryne

A monster towel for Kade

A World Map floor puzzle just like the one he likes to put together at the Rubber Room.

Stacking blocks for our little builder

Bingo Game!

Little People Zoo

Moon Lamp for Kade's bedroom
And several other things they got but I thought by now you might be getting tired of looking at "unwrapping" pictures.

We had to take another break to play...

Ryne cooked.
Kyle cooked, too....for real....he made us a yummy breakfast.

Kade played one of his games.

We got out the Hungry, Hungry Hippos!!
I loved this game as a kid and was so happy to see that my boys really liked it, too.
I'm saying this game is a classic!

While we were getting ready for breakfast we realized that we had totally forgotten about the stockings. So after breakfast we went back for round three!


Kade thought the new bath toy was really fun.

Yeah for Toy Story toothpaste!

Is it bad that I put shampoo in the stocking because it was something they really needed?
Ryne seemed happy to get it.

Kade was really investigating his toothbrush.
Guess what was on there....Super heroes! I know my boy!

Then more playing....

Ryne kept hiding Jessie in the "zoo box" and running around saying, "where's Jessie?"

Then he would open the box and be so happy to find her! It was the cutest. He played that game for at least half an hour.

See, still putting Jessie in the box.
They played and played and played! I really don't think they could have been any happier!
Which means I don't think I could have been any happier, either.

Then we also got to see Paw, Granna, Uncle B, Aunt Kim, Brandon and Taylor...

On the computer, of course!
We are waiting to do Christmas gifts with them when we go visit next month.
The kids all got to tell each other what they had gotten for Christmas. Lots of fun to get to see all of our families on Christmas day even though we never left our house. What a blessing technology is!
Ryne didn't last too long because he needed to go cook some more....

So glad the kitchen is a hit!

Something else we did for Christmas was a pretty big hit, too!
We let Ryne have one of Kade's old t-shirts....

And we told our families that we are having a new baby this summer!
Yep, we are all very excited!
We told the boys Christmas Eve and Kade said he was just as excited about a new baby as he was excited about Christmas. I'd say that was a good response!

So, I mentioned earlier that we didn't even leave our house Christmas day. It is true.
But we did have some friends join us for Christmas dinner.

Vance and Molly are our friends from Arkansas, Steve is our new friend from New York. They didn't have plans to be home for Christmas so they came over and joined us. We had a great time with them! Of course the boys were thrilled to have someone to show all their new toys. And if you notice, our boys are still in their night-nights. We couldn't get them to stop playing long enough to even put on clothes for dinner. Thankfully, our guests said it didn't bother them at all.
Christmas dinner was YUMMY!

I forgot to take a picture until I was almost finished. Woops! But I think we have started a new family tradition. Steak and potatoes for Christmas dinner!
Molly brought a yummy mint-chocolate dump cake and we were all stuffed. Happily stuffed!
After dinner we grown-ups played a game and the boys played with their toys. Kade was really into figuring out his Diego video game. And thankfully, Ryne was fully engaged in watching Kade play.
I don't think I could have asked for a better Christmas at home. Although, Kade must have thought my Christmas could have been better. Why do I say that? Well, at one point during the night he stopped playing his video game and came to the table where we were playing, cuddled right up next to me and in the sweetest little voice said, "Mom, I'm sorry you didn't get a lot of presents today and that you didn't get a video game of your very own." I thought I was going to cry. I mean, seriously, what three year old stops playing his new video game because he feels overwhelmed that he needs to apologize to someone else because they didn't get a lot for Christmas? I love his sweet little heart! Of course, I assured him that I had a fabulous Christmas and I didn't need any more presents than I got. He was content with my response and went right back to playing his game.

Christmas was done!
Toys well played with, boys worn out, tummies full, it was bedtime!
We all went to bed extremely happy.
When I went to bed that night I could help but pray, "God, I hope you had a good birthday today. We sure did enjoy celebrating with you."

Day after Christmas...we did a little bit of shopping. Found a few good deals but the main purchase....

Food for the kitchen!
And boy did they get to work that afternoon organizing their new groceries.

Just look at that!
Now if only I could get them to get the rest of the house put back together that nicely.
Oh well, for now we are still stepping over new toys and enjoying the aftermath of Christmas.
Hope you all had a very Merry Christmas as well!