Brotherly Love :)

I have always thought it would be nice to have the boys pick out birthday presents for each other and this year was the first year that I thought it would really work and reciprocate. (After all, this time last year Parker was ONE turning two . . . could that be right? in fact it is . . crazy!) Anyhow, I took Parker to the store the night before Davis' birthday so that it would be close enough that there was a potential of him keeping a secret. I thought it would be super, super hard to get him to focus on picking something fun for someone ELSE and not for himself. I guess I shouldn't be surprised that not only did Parker 'get it' right away, but he was really into it. He walked up and down the isles for a long time trying to find something Davis would really love. It was just so precious to me how excited he was to pick something for Davis and how he never mentioned one time getting something for himself. In the morning when Davis woke up, Parker came running upstairs to find his gift - he was SO excited to give him his Nerf ball blaster. This is a picture of the two of them right after Davis opened his gift and I think you can see in his face how proud Parker was of his gift to his big Bro! I'm just not sure they make 'em much sweeter than Parker!

Late Christmas in Duncan

We took a late trip to Duncan to celebrate Christmas one more time with family there.  Unfortunately I failed once again at having the camera out very much at Gram Boyd's house and didn't get any pictures with her but we got to spend the second day with Great Grandma Jeanette and I managed to have the camera out that day!

It was so, so, so cold there.  The low was 16 degrees and the high was about 42 degrees - waaaaaay to cold for this desert rat!  The boys stayed warm enough to play outside and I was warm enough when I could wear Mark's ski jacket.  I'm a baby, I know!  They could play out in the dirt outside all day long and never get bored.



After lunch with GG we got the boys treats at a cute ice cream/fountain shop.  It had a pretty bar with stools and the whole bit.  The boys thought it was pretty fun.  Davis ordered root beer and Parker and Grayson both had ice cream.  The hit of the stop was the balloons they received from the lady at the shop.



It was a quick but great trip!

Sibling Outing

My parents got Cardinals game tickets for all of us for Christmas this year.  We went today and had so much fun.  I love football and enjoy any kind of a stadium football game (and while it wasn't Mile High Stadium :) the company was even better).  We laughed so hard throughout the whole day.  Random funnies:  My sister's "overly enthusiastic fan" routine, Matt and Melissa ducking away and making me think I lost them in the crowd when I stopped to check the score of a different game - haha guys, Marky's sunglasses, Matt trying to convince me to army style crawl under a pylon, and so many more.  I would have some memories of Mark and Troy but they were . . . . oh yeah, up in the private lounge - toughing it out!! Very fun!  I love my brothers and sister.  Thank you mom and dad for a really great day!  (and thank you Buzz and Billie for keeping the kids)

The Christmas Marathon

(Our Family on Christmas Morning)

Christmas for us is a bit of a nonstop marathon of houses and family events.  This year's schedule:  Christmas Eve lunch at Buzz and Billie's house, Christmas Eve dinner with all the Kronwald extended family at Mom & Dad's, Christmas morning stockings at home, breakfast with my siblings at Mom & Dad's, quick Christmas lunch at Gram's with the Nothum side, a trip to Camp Verde for the Boyd family celebration and a final trip back to Gram's the day after because we didn't have enough time to exchange gifts with her on Christmas Day.  Whew! 

We used to say, "we are NEVER doing this much in two days again".  I don't really feel that way anymore.  I love how much my boys enjoy being with all of the different groups of family.  We have an amazing family and there is not one stop that I would want to miss or want the boys to miss.  Of course it is never without some casualties . . . this year's mishaps were the banged up Acura/the mailbox that took the blow and a banged up Grayson - he fell and was left with a very bloody mouth and nose.  He woke up pretty upset about 2 am and I did not know what to do for him - crying and keeping everyone else up was not an option.  I considered driving him around in the car, but the 15 degree temperatures were a deterrent.  I pulled him into bed iwth me and pulled a huge blanket up over him and he was asleep on my should in about 3 seconds.  He pretty much slept on my until about 5:45 am.  As a one time event - I would be lying if I said I didn't enjoy my snuggle!  

This was the first year that I can remember my boys 'anticipating' Christmas morning so much and were SO excited when they came in our room in the morning.  When I tucked Davis into bed on Christmas night (on a couch in Camp Verde) he said, "Mom, this is like the MOST fabulous day of my whole life!".  I chuckled at my dramatic kid, but seriously, to him, at that moment, he could not think of a better day - that is a success in my book!  Our family hopes that you too enjoyed a very Merry Christmas!!  (Below you can choose to endure a flood of pictures from all these events that I really want for photobook purposes:)

Random Christmas funnies:

Parker: (when opening one of our nativity advent calendar doors - he pulled out a donkey) "Oh, look, Eeyore was in the Christmas story!"

Parker: (reading a Christmas story book - page of the 3 Wise men and they were giving Jesus gifts that were a metallic paper in the book) "Oooh, yeah, the wise men brought some Kryptonite".  (laughed hard about that one)

Davis: (handing Mark a WRAPPED gift) "Here Dad, can I help you open your new shaving kit?" - way to keep it a surprise buddy!

Davis: (in Camp Verde after Erin let him play with some of her old Star Wars toys) "Mom, I didn't really have anything to play with in Camp Verde until . . . Dum , Dum, Da Dum, Dum Da Dum, Dum Da Dum." (singing the Darth Vader song - maybe you had to be there - SO FUNNY)

Driving home on Christmas Eve, we were talking about the fruits of the Spirit and how when the Holy Spirit lives inside of you, you can see Him coming out of your actions and attitudes.  (This whole conversation stemmed from some things my Dad said to everyone Christmas Eve before we read the Christmas story - very cool to me.)  In the car, Davis said, "When will I be ready?" (Me: For what?)  "To have God the Holy Spirit living inside of me?"  I prayed with him right then that God would give him a genuine desire for a relationship with Him and that in His timing would give Davis a heart that is committed to Him.  To be clear, Davis didn't make any commitments out loud or anything but I was so encouraged to see God possibly growing in him that desire.  I know that a true desire for Him can only come from Him - there is nothing more I would ever want for my kids.  This was such a sweet conversation to have on Christmas Eve and a sweet reminder of the greatest gift worth celebrating - my God who loves me and was born to live and die for me.  We continue to pray that God would grow desires for Himself in all three boys.

Christmas 2009 Photos

Evie and her beautiful Christmas dress - it had a matching bow too (below:)

Getting ready for Stockings at Home Christmas Morning

Grayson gets a dog

Davis and Daddy

Troy and sweet baby girl

Davis

TJ

Eli

Parker - got dress up clothes for Christmas - he was so excited about them - he didn't take this jacket off for about 24 hours!

I'm sad to say that I did not give my child his favorite gift - he got this 4 foot dog from my sister and he is IN LOVE with it.  It is crazy how much he loves this dog.

Boys doing stoking in C.V. with Grammie

Grayson with Gram

Family Picture in Camp Verde

Cousin picture - Boyd family

Grayson and Grammie in C.V.

Parker loves cousin Erin - even though he calls her "dray-dree-in" most of the time - he thinks she is pretty great.

Christmas Pictures

Family photos can be a dreadful experience.  Lucky for me, my super talented cousin is willing to do our family pictures for us every year!  There is a slide show on her blog if you are interested.  You can link to it on the right - One 3 Photography.  Thank you Kelly.  We love you!

Check out my sweet baby boy/super handsome child model . . . I know, I know . . not biased at all.  My cousin is the best ever, but it must help a little bit when the kid is SO PRECIOUS :)  Grayson can be 'finicky' about people (I'll just leave it at that) and he actually loves Kelly - lets her carry him around and everything - so she can get some great pictures of my baby boy.

Tradition, Tradition

I love so many things about this season and one of the things I really love is traditions.  I love the old ones that we try our hardest to keep so our kids can experience them too and I love the new ones that we are creating with our family that the boys will hopefully grow to expect and enjoy.

I take a picture by our tree shortly after we get it up and decorated and then have it made into a porcelain ornament.  It is my favorite set of ornaments to put on the tree because I get to see their little faces from the previous years - so precious!  This picture is the keeper for this year.

Another tradition I love is our advent calendar.  I have a very cool advent calendar that has little doors with a magnetic manger scene in the middle.  They open a door each night and there is a character piece inside so that on Christmas Eve we have assembled the entire Christmas nativity.  We also read the Christmas story together when we open the little doors.  When we were talking it about it last night . . 

Me:  So who is Jesus' daddy?

Parker: God!

Me:  So who is Mary's husband?

Parker:  Moses!

(he was channeling TJ's love for Moses - haha)

I am also a sucker for all the old Christmas movies.  My kids love them so we bust those out after Thanksgiving and watch a movie together as a family a couple times a week before bed.  Even my hubby loves the old school Grinch movie or Frosty the Snowman.  

We also sing Christmas songs before bed instead of their usual favorite bedtime songs.  Davis loves this and sometimes asks for these songs year round (which is kind of okay with me:)  Their favorites are Silent Night, Away in the Manger, and Hark the Herald Angels Sing.  

We have some other things that we try to do in the month of December like looking at Christmas lights, making hot chocolate at night and going to Zoo Lights.  I love this time of year.  It is all about Christmas over here!!