i have a problem

a really big problem

i always have waaaay too many pictures i want to post! ha! and then either the post is really long or it is crammed full of collages. i, for one, like the collages... but i just never know if all of you who read it think i overdo the picture thing? don't answer that ;)

anyways, i am finally posting about Christmas and, of course, there are lots of pictures to go along with it!!

we waited until the boys were in bed on Christmas eve to put the presents under the tree. not for the whole "santa left you gifts" deal but more for the "i don't want to spend my entire day keeping my 2 kids out of the presents" deal. it works out really well because sean is always so excited when he wakes up and there are presents under the tree. confession: we don't even necessarily tell him when he goes to bed that the next day is Christmas and he's getting presents. we figure we might as well get some sleep in the years that we can, because once he realizes it i know it will be all over with (the whole sleeping on Christmas eve thing).

anyways.... we spent Christmas morning just the four of us opening gifts in our house. it was small and quiet and laid back and perfect. well, except that nolan slept through the whole thing. but i guess he wouldn't have really opened a lot of gifts himself if he had been awake.

do you love dathan's shirt in the above picture? i think it's the greatest shirt i have ever bought him (we got it at rue 21). please forgive dathan's goofy grin, he was being a dork ;)

below is sean coming out of his room in the morning and first noticing the gifts- especially the "big present" which was an awesome train table that he was ecstatic about!

all my boys and their toys ;)

after we did Christmas morning at our house we packed up and went out to dathan's parent's house for Christmas with his family. we had a lot of fun and there were a TON of presents (mainly for the grandkids, of course!)

these are the best two shots i got of nolan on his "2nd first Christmas" (because we had his "1st first Christmas" with my parents, remember?)

after all the gifts were opened, dathan's mom "mimi" remembered she had a BIG present tucked away. so she ran and grabbed it, and this bear was the biggest hit of the whole day! seriously, this thing is HUGE. the kids were hilarious playing with it! good job, mimi! this one is a winner!

dathan and i decided awhile ago that we wanted to have a family tradition of making a birthday cake for Jesus every year. we really want our children to understand that Christmas is always about Jesus first, and that we are celebrating him. since sean was old enough this year, i wanted to let him help me decorate the cake. we had a lot of fun together and i loved how it turned out so i think i'm going to add onto that tradition that the kids will help me decorate the cake. we even sing happy birthday to Jesus as a family before we eat the cake.

the reason i didn't get that many great pictures of nolan is because he looked like the pictures below most of the day. we knew he was sick and had been to the dr on the 23rd. nolan was diagnosed with bronchialitis and a double ear infection, and was tested for rsv. well, because of the holiday and then the weekend, we didn't find out until monday (the 28th- 5 days later!) that nolan indeed tested positive for rsv. poor baby! it was so sweet though, because sean would come up to him when he would cry, hug him, and say "it's ok, big brother's here." it just melted my heart. i'm sure someday he's going to be mortified that i wrote that on my blog, but for now, while he's three, i'm going to savor and love every minute of it! ;)

despite sickness, we had a wonderful Christmas. we loved celebrating the most precious gift of all- the birth of our Savior. we already decided that this year for Christmas we are going to do more of giving to those in need. we really don't go overboard on getting gifts for each other, we try to have a small budget, but we want to use a larger chunk of that budget to bless those who need it. after all, Christmas is about the biggest gift & blessing we could possibly receive. we are thinking of doing a few boxes for operation Christmas child, and maybe something else. what kind of outreaches do you do at Christmas time?