Christmas

At 7:30am I woke up and realized my kids don't know how Christmas morning works.  The past few years, I've had to go wake them up and tell them that Santa came.  I guess I shouldn't complain.  The boys each have a small tree in their room I let them decorate themselves and hang all their homemade ornaments.  Santa left their gifts under these trees this year.

We met in the family room and let them open.

This is a sad face.  He was disappointed because he wanted a Toy Story backpack but got a Mickey Mouse backpack.  He asked for a truck, trailer, vroom vroom (4 wheeler) & a car but Santa didn't bring a car...just a truck with a trailer & a boat.  A few minutes later he said he needed to call Santa and thank him though so I guess it wasn't all that bad.  

Since Aydon is now old enough to hunt we asked if he wanted a gun for his birthday and he wanted it but he didn't want that to be his only present.  Lucky for him Christmas is close and we got him a 270 for Christmas.

Since Aydon has $500 dollars now we suggested that he save that money to buy himself a scope for his new gun!  

Ty with his presents.  He got a new BB rifle with a scope so he can start learning to use a scope.

Drew got hooked up on Mickey Mouse stuff.  

He got a sand digger toy too.

Zack showing off the TWO watches he got.  He also got a BB gun.

Preston's gifts.  All I had to do was get him those black shoes and it would've been good enough.

I got super spoiled this year.  

We then headed down to Vickey's to open more presents.  Drew got a remote control 4 wheeler, Mickey jammies and this Mickey Mouse.

Aydon finally has his own 3DS and got a remote control helicopter.

Ty got a set of 2 remote control 4 wheelers and this set of K'nex.

Zack got a remote control 4 wheeler and monster trucks.  This is Drew's truck, trailer & vroom vroom that the DeSpain's got him.  It's a Swamp People truck & boat and had Willie from Duck Dynasty too!

We enjoyed a good meal with Preston's family and visited with them most of the afternoon.  We went to visit my family who'd had dinner with my grandparents & Uncle's family.  We thought we'd get to visit them too but they'd already left.  We had a wonderful Christmas and are sure thankful for our Savior Jesus Christ and the opportunity to celebrate his birth and think of His life!

Christmas Eve

I made Gumbo & pecan pie and hosted Christmas Eve at our house this year.  Unfortunately, John went to work early that day so he wasn't there.  After dinner, Sunshine pulled out an envelope.  Part of her gifts to the family were scratchers for all of us.  A little backstory, we remember the time we went back to Louisiana to spend the summer with my Pappaw & he bought John a chili pepper scratch ticket & he won $25.  We were all so excited for him winning so much money.

Sunshine bought all of us 2 Duck Dynasty scratchers & 2 Stocking Stuffer scratchers.  

On Aydon's 1st ticket he said he won $500!  He yelled, "Now can I buy my own PS Vita!!!"  He won $2 on another scratcher for a total of $502.  

Ty won a total of $6.

Drew won $20!

Money, money, money!

We decided this will definitely go down as his best Christmas present EVER!  It for sure will be a Christmas we won't forget.  

I won $2! Woo-hoo.

Preston won $4!  Poor Zack Attack was the only one that didn't win any money so Preston & I gave our winnings to him so that all four of them had a little bit of money from Sunshine.  

She also made them these little goody boxes full of candy!

I have had this vinyl idea pinned from Pinterest for years since Sunshine's (who was recovering from surgery just a week ago) bedroom is yellow & gray & the boys call her Sunshine & I FINALLY made it for her.  

Granny & Pappaw got the older 3 their own LSU blankets!

They're so soft & they LOVE them.

Sunshine got Zack a sketch book with some erasable colored pencils & a firetruck Lego set.  He started drawing right away.

Drew got lots of Mickey stuff & some cute LSU things from my parents.  

Sunshine got him some Jake & the Neverland Pirate Toys.

Zack's loot from Granny & Pappaw.

Aydon's

Ty's

Drew was trying on all Mickey Mouse socks he got, silly boy.

Granny & Pappaw always spoil the boys.  We sure appreciate all you do for them!

My gifts from my parents

& from Sunshine.  As kids we LOVED getting a Lifesavers book so she made sure to get us one.  

She also brought cupcakes for her & the boys to decorate but they were to into their gifts

so Drew was the only one that did.

We then played a some cards while the kids enjoyed their presents.

Uncle John got each of the boys remote control trucks.  

Family Pictures

We haven't had a professional set of pictures done in a couple of years.  Since I got my own camera, I figured I'd try doing our own.  I set it on timer & we went down to the creek to try it out.  They turned out pretty good for not having anyone there to help out.  We didn't get a chance to do it until the week before Christmas so we are sending out New Year's cards for the second year in a row.  It just may be a new tradition, rather than stressing about it during the busy time of November & December.  

I realized how fast my boys are growing up.  Neither Preston nor I get to hold anyone for family pictures anymore.  :(  

Since we were limited on time & it was just us I was trying to set up different shots but the stool I had wouldn't get all the shots I wanted.  I still wanted to include some of my test shots though.

Zack was afraid we were missing an event he really, really wanted to go to so he started crying & we couldn't get him to calm down so I told the boys to start doing silly poses to try to get him out of his funk.  

And it FINALLY worked!  

A true smile from Zack Attack!

This is a pose I want to re-create in a few years when they're all bigger!  ;)

As I was testing shots I let them do silly and I love it.  

This is one of the boys favorite rocks out by our house but the sun was in a HORRIBLE position and these just weren't gonna work but they sure had fun while I was testing it out.

This boy...he's soooo full of it!  Life is never dull with him.