Let it be Christmas!

 Best Christmas Ever! My kids were so much fun on Christmas morning! 

Our annual family photo.

 Corbin couldn't wait to start opening his presents. He had the hardest time waiting for his turn. He loved his big tool bench from Mom and Dad the best.

 Maggie took her sweet time opening each of her presents. Her favorite was the cash register from Grandma & Grandpa. She lost interest in the castle we gave her because I was way slow setting it up and I forgot to have batteries for it.

 Corbin trying to wait patiently for his turn.

 

 This duplo set from Grandpa and Grandma has been a hit. When Corbin opened it he said, "That is going to make me way tired!" He has played with it a ton though.

  My parents came up to watch our kids on Christmas morning. It was so much fun. It totally reminded me of my Grandparents coming over every Christmas, which is my very favorite Christmas memory.

I got spoiled this year from Matt. He gave me two super cute outfits that I am excited to wear one day when I actually have somewhere fun to go. Matt got a new wallet and a dutch oven set. His favorite gift was the camp chef from my parents.

Christmas Eve

 For Christmas Eve this year, Marianne gave each of the kids Christmas pillows for story time. It was a hit and it made story time much calmer than normal.

 

They all got Disney pajamas and night lights in anticipation for Disney World. Maggie got Alice in Wonderland and Corbin's were Cars.

Santa

 Santa visits my Grandpa Davis' party every year. This was the only time my kids saw Santa. Corbin did great. He told me before he didn't like Santa, but he had no problem sitting on his lap. He didn't want to stay and chat though. When Santa asked him what he wanted for Christmas he said, "This!" pointing to the present Santa was holding. The second he got the present he hopped off.

Maggie didn't scream hysterically like I was expecting. She actually did decent at first, but I missed it on camera. She did like that he had a doll to give her though.

Family Party

Last night was my parents Christmas party. We had dinner and minute to win it games. Then Erin had an unwrapping game with saran wrap filled with prizes and candy.

 My favorite part was we went caroling to each of our in-laws houses. We brought them cookies and sang a song for them. Here's Corbin and Cori hanging out in the back of the Tahoe.

 Maggie was trying to push open Mark's front door when he opened it, so she fell right in. It was pretty awesome.

 The cousins exchanged gifts. Maggie got a purse and immediately ran upstairs to fill it. My parents also give a gift at the Christmas Party. Corbin got a doctor kit. He walked around the rest of the night asking everyone if they were sick. He looked in Erin's ears and told her they looked, "Sick!" He has been playing doctor non-stop. This morning he told me his blood pressure hurt.

 

Bird Tree

 I say this every year, but the Bird Tree is one of my very favorite traditions. Matt's family get together and string food to put on a little Christmas Tree. We then take it out to Marianne's parent's grave for the birds to enjoy. This year our little family didn't make it out to the cemetery, but we still helped beautify the tree! Corbin had a lot of fun this year because he could do it mostly by himself.

 

Maggie's first year stringing for the tree.

Artwork

I was just thumbing through my pictures and found this photo of a picture Corbin drew of a jack o lantern. I was way impressed because it was the first picture that ever really looked like what he said it was.

Thanksgiving

This year for Thanksgiving we went with the Thompson Family. This was the smallest Thanksgiving I have ever seen for my moms family.Still fun though. The food was delicious like always. My aunt brought Bingo that Corbin had fun with. I told him he could go back and play some more and he said "No, because then I will get another prize."  "I know, don't you want another prize." "No! Just one!" He was adamant he only needed one prize.

 My dad brought his huge train tables and Maggie had to be right in the middle of it all. She was filthy because she was crawling all over the train tables, but she loved them.

 

 

That night we went to Matt's parents. As we were all sitting there, the doorbell rang and it just happened to be the mailman bringing us all a package. We opened our boxes as families and it was the Elf on the Shelf. My kids were so excited, but Matt and Corbin could not agree on a name. Our elf sat in his box for two nights until we finally agreed on Jolly.

18 months

Maggie is past 18 months now, but I still haven't posted about her. She was 88% for her height and 23% for her weight. She is constantly eating so I was surprised she was so small.

This girl has spunk! She is seriously my little spit fire. She does everything for herself. She is actually quite good at putting her pants and shoes on and she thinks she can do it all.

The other day while I was showering, she figured out how to climb up on her glider rocker and dive into her crib. When I got out of the shower, Corbin was crying because he couldn't figure out how to get in to play with Maggie.

Her speech is definitely on the low end. She has about five words and normal is five to 30. Her latest word is Uh-Oh, and she says it about 500 times a day.

Oh how we love her, attitude and all!