Whoa..What Just Happened?!? Christmas!!

Ahhh.. Christmas. Christmas with two kids. Two VERY active kids, I might add. This year was all I had hoped it would be and then some. It was crazy, hectic, and a little more crazy. But my kids rocked it. I mean tore through those gifts like nobody's business rocked it. Like I had to have a sit-down with my four-year old about how some kids don't get anything for Christmas and he shouldn't say things like "that's all?" and "that's for girls.." or "what else did you get me?" kind of rocked it. Oh, the joys of a preschool child who knows nothing but honesty!

Normally when I do posts I try to get a few pictures in but never share as many as I'd like because it just simply takes too long to upload. But, Christmas pictures are different. I HAD to share a bunch. I think I only uploaded 15. That might sound like a ton, but considering I took 206..I thought that was pretty good.

I have two boys. One is 10 months (who is now running around like he owns the place) and the other is 4 years (who thinks he's going on 13). This was our first year with multiple kids and I was super geeked. And I quickly realized I had a few things to learn:

1) Family pictures where the kids sit still are IMPOSSIBLE. We musta tried at least a 100 times. Here's a few of the best ones we could come up with:

Lucas with my dad.

My sister and father trying to keep Lucas in a chair for the pic.

I finally got Lucas to look at me, and then my sister laughed. And moved. Therefore cutting her head off. Oops. Oh, and I was too slow so Lucas wasn't looking at me by the time I snapped either.

This is the one Lucas is telling Ethan he better look up for the pic.

I believe this is the one Lucas is trying to tell me that Ethan is not smiling. Maybe. Who knows. Good times :)

This is the first family photo we've had taken together since Ethan was like 6 mos. I might order it in an 8x10. What d'ya think? (Um, photographer fill-in (aka my sister), you should tell me when my kids clothes are coming off for the pic..m'kay?) LOL

This one's cute. One outta a hundred ain't bad, right?

2) I learned that the excitement is just as great for the kids as it is myself. Well, maybe not quite..but close..

3) You do NOT need to buy a ton of gifts so they have more to open. They will simply open the coloring book, clothes and flash cards and throw them to the side to play with their cool toys. Oops. Prolly coulda saved some money here..

And while some gifts may have left us feeling a bit confused..

We will always have our favorites. Like wrapping paper. To eat.

Or maybe barnyards with plastic animals we can chew on..

Or snowboards our moms bought (even though I'm totally freaked out by the idea of him actually using it on.a.real.hill.)

Other top hits:

The Nerf gun he isn't old enough to use.

Daddy's new Nerf gun. What a kid.

His awesome new "big boy" scooter. Like Matthew has..(if I had a dollar for everytime I've heard that this week..)

While I made out pretty good this year in presents (OMG I got the new lens I wanted!!!!!), I think the greatest blessing was watching my THREE boys (that includes my husband, lol) enjoy each other's company as we start a new chapter in our lives.

Happy New Year, everyone. Let's make it the best one yet!