Christmas part 1 "Our family Christmas morning"

This picture is sooooo funny! I was taking pictures of the kids in front of the tree (in December) and of course Brayden wants to climb on everything so he decided he was going to climb onto the chair and as soon as Payten saw him standing up in the chair, she immediately yelled, "mommy, mommy, uh oh, uh oh". It was the funniest thing. She tries so hard to be his little mommy. So I had to share this picture with everyone. Below are lots of pictures of the kids the morning we celebrated Christmas just our little family. We left on a Sunday to go to Oklahoma, so we celebrated Christmas on that Saturday morning. It was a sweet time just Matt and I and our kids. We got lots of nice things and got some cute pictures. So I have pictures to post from Christmas in Oklahoma and I will get to them for sure this week! We survived the swine flu in our house so that has set me back a couple weeks. Enjoy the pics. More to come real soon. Brayden LOVED going through all of his "goodies" in his stocking. We got him lots of bath toys because he loves bath time. His favorite time of the day. :) I know in this picture he is thinking......"Come on guys....is there anything else in this long sock? Surely there is more fun stuff in here." :) I could never get him to look at me and smile for the camera. All I could get were pics of him looking at his new toys and side views. Oh well, action pics are sometimes the best and this is the stage we are in right now. Payten got a slinky in her stocking and she LOVED it. She played with it all the time until her Daddy broke it. haha She was really upset. A couple weeks later we were in Hobby Lobby and there were slinky's by the register and of course she saw them and reminded me that I told her we could replace the one that her Daddy broke. She plays with it all the time! Payten's present to Brayden was a set of cars from the movie, "Cars. We were in Target one day looking around and she saw them and was really excited and wanted to get them for Brayden, so we did. Brayden loves them and so does Payten. Luckily it came with four so they each get to play with two. I have to remind Payten that the cars were Brayden's present from her for Christmas. She says, but Mommy, he can share.....Oh but it is sooo hard for her to share when it comes time that he wants to play with something she has. We are working on that! :) Payten's big gift was a dog named, Dotty. It moves, wags it tail, barks and does all sorts of neat things. She absolutely LOVES dogs and animals and this is the closest she is going to get to a real dog while we live in Houston. And probably for a long time. haha :) She wants a real dog sooooo bad, but dogs are such hard work and we just don't need anymore animals right now. One cat is enough! She can just play with Miles, Festus, Twister and all of Hailey's dogs. :)

Pre-Christmas Activities

The night before we celebrated Christmas with the kids (we had to do it the weekend before Christmas due to traveling on Christmas Day) Payten and I made Santa Clause some really yummy cookies. Santa didn't get very many of them though because Mommy and Payten really like the cookie dough. Neither one of us can keep our hands out of the bowl. :) We had fun Mommy/Daugther time! My little Christmas countdown calender in the background says it all......We are truly blessed! Look at that little sweet face! She is my precious baby girl. :) And I know exactly what she is thinking in this picture......Mom, please quit taking these stupid pictures so I can hurry up and eat my delicious cookie dough. haha We also made a Gingerbread House. Matt started it and then Payten and I finished it. We had a few minor problems along the way......I accidentally cracked the roof down the middle so it kept caving in. I finally got it to stick to the icing and I thought Payten did a pretty good job decorating it. :) The candy cane represents two things: #1The red part stands for the blood that Jesus shed on the cross for us and #2 The white part represents that we are washed white as snow when we ask Jesus into our hearts. So we always do the candy canes upside down to make a J. (J is for Jesus)

Baby Jesus

Brayden got to play the very special part of Baby Jesus at the Kids Crazy Christmas Show at our church.....and Matt and I got to be Mary and Joseph. We had a lot of fun doing it! Brayden did really well for a while and then he got bored and wanted to play with the hay. Enjoy the pics. :)

Payten's Christmas Recital

A few weeks ago Payten had her Christmas recital at her preschool. She was so precious up on stage....just singing away. I was so proud of her. :) I can't decide if she likes being on stage or not. Sometimes she will just look around and look kinda freaked out and then most the time she is singing and participating in the songs. It is pretty funny to watch her though. Matt also came to watch her sing, but Brayden wasn't having it. He just couldn't sit still. It was right at the beginning of his nap time and he was pretty tired, so Matt had to leave and ended up taking him home. The little kids were pretending to be Mary, Joseph and Baby Jesus and Payten was one of the angels....and an angel she is! Great job Payten on your performance. hehe :)

Brayden's Favorites

Here are some pictures of Brayden doing what he loves to do. I meant to post this closer to his one year birthday but Christmas came so fast so I am just getting around to doing it. Last week I took Brayden to his one year well check up and he weighed 20.3 lbs (10-25%) and was 31 1/2 inches long (90-95%). So basically he is long and lean....just like his sister. He is such a big boy and has learned so much in the past year. He is such a blessing to our little family! He has been really easy for the most part. He loves to be held but I am mostly to blame for that. I can't help myself. I love to snuggle with my babies. He is such a happy boy. He sleeps good all the time. He goes to bed around 8pm and wakes up around 7:30-8:30am every morning and takes a good 2 hour nap now. He used to not nap very well, but now he sleeps good in the afternoons. (which is nice for me!) He LOVES bath time! After dinner we always gives the kids a bath and when he's done eating in his high chair I say, "Brayden, bath time." And he gets sooo excited. He starts yelling to get him out of his high chair. Matt gets the water going and gets the kids undressed and now he has started where he will try to lift his leg over the edge of the bath tub to try and get in. It's pretty funny because there is no way that he could get himself in the bathtub by himself. And when bath time is over he usuallty fusses because he doesn't want to get out. Him and Payten have a lot of FUN during bath time. I have lots and lots of cute pics of them in the bathtub together but because of crazy people out there I will keep them off the internet! :) Brayden also LOVES his WAGON! LOVES LOVES LOVES it! Everyday while I am getting ready I will put cheerios in the little bowl and he will just sit there and eat his cheerios and watch me get ready. When Matt gets home from work he will usually take the kids for a stroll while I am cooking dinner. I got the wagon from a garage sale. It looks brand new and I got it for a lot cheaper then in the stores and it is by far on the top of his list for favorite toys! He also loves getting into EVERYTHING! You will see from the pictures below that I am constantly cleaning up after the little guy. He really likes my cabinets in the bathroom. He gets out everything. He thinks he is pretty cute! I do think he is pretty cute, but it sure does get old picking up a million things off of the floor everyday. Oh well, I know in 20 years I will look back at these times and just laugh. These are the best memories! Last year for Christmas Payten got a playhouse but she has never really used it that much, but Brayden loves it. In the evenings we go outside and play with the kids. Payten will jump on the trampoline and Brayden will play in the play house. He crawls in and out if the hole. Now that Brayden gets in it a lot, Payten likes to play with it too. That happens a lot at our house. If Brayden has a toy then Payten wants it. If Payten has a toy, Brayden wants it. We are all learning the word, share in our house right now. :) **Brayden took a couple steps the day before he turned one. He was so proud of himself! It has been a couple weeks now and he has taken off many times but doesn't get very far. He is a little unstable but has taken I think around 8 steps without falling. **He says momma and dadda. The first time he said momma I teared up. It was so precious. He mumbles and yells a lot! Hopefully one day it will turn into words. **He loves to point to things. He really enjoys walking around the house looking at all the family pictures. **I have been teaching him his body parts and he can now point to his nose and eyes. **He blew kisses for the first time last week during Christmas. I was so proud, because he really does listen to me when I try and teach him something. :) He has grown into a precious little boy. I know I say this all the time but I am so blessed. Every night when I am putting my kids to bed I look up and thank God for blessing my life with so many wonderful people. My husband is so good to me and my children are such angels. :) God is SO good! (all the time) Oh and Brayden's not so favorites are changing diapers, getting dressed and wiping his mouth. He HATES these things!!! :)