Part 2: Christmas Morning!

What fun we had on Christmas morning!  Ben was REALLY into the Santa thing this year, and Anna just knew by watching him that something good was coming!!

So sweet, waiting at the top of the stairs...

 

 Oh, my goodness...how precious!!

 

 

The first thing Anna played with was a Minnie Mouse toy...imagine that!

Ben got a cool train table and a marble run...

 

Chandler helping Anna ride her new hobby horse :)





 Mason and Ben, checking out the new marble run, one of Ben's most favorite toys.

 Best Day Ever:  Minnie AND Mickey!!

We stumbled upon a gumball machine and thought the kids might like it...it was definitely a hit with ALL ages :)

 And....the aftermath of Christmas with two toddlers and two teenagers.  Whew!  Can we take a nap??



Christmas 2013, Part 1

Hopefully "better late than never"...what a blessed Christmas we had last year!


Anna performed in her very first school program! No butterflies here! :)

Ben had a great time singing, too...

 

 

Grandmamma and Grandaddy came to see the show.

 

These two (and their mommy!) love crafting, so we did lots.  Decorating gingerbread people...

 

 

 

 

 

 

We got the felt tree and ornaments from last year back out, and it was a hit again :)

 





 

Something extra special we did was make cinnamon ornaments.  They smelled so good on the tree!  We took one to our favorite neighbors, Jeff and Betsy, and they were thrilled to have one :)

 

 

Of course, we had to go to the mall to sit on Santa's lap.  I love that they have the same one every year!  Anna was NOT a fan, but after two tries, made it long enough to get a good picture (actually a fluke - I do not recall her smiling at all, ha!!)  Of course, Mommy and Daddy were all of two feet away, and she wanted to be like big brother....well, maybe next year :)

 

 

 

Ben told Santa he wanted a dinosaur.

 

When we visited Meme and Pop for Christmas, we got to go to a special lunch with Santa.  Again, Anna was having none of this.  She agreed to stand as far away as possible from Santa while holding Ben's hand for a quick photo, but no more.  After lunch when we were leaving, though, we all got a good laugh.  From a safe distance with Pop holding her, she yelled at Santa, "MINNIE MOUSE, ELMO!"  Just making sure Santa got that wish list before we left, Ha Ha!!!

 

 

The whole gang!

 

Anna loves dessert buffets

 

Finally, here is the photo we used for our Christmas card this year.  Thank goodness one photo was good out of the fifty I took, ha ha!!

 

 

Christmas 2012

This year, we kicked off Christmas with Ben's school Christmas program.  Here are Ben and Anna at school before the performance, all dressed up.  Anna's outfit was made with love by Mama!!

We took a video of his class performance, but there's really not much to see because this is what Ben looked like the entire time. HA! He kept his hands up to his mouth just like this the whole song. I think he wasn't quite sure of the words since he missed several days of school when they were practicing because he was sick...poor thing! We got a good laugh, though!

In deep thought...front row, 3rd from the left!
 

Next it was time to get our tree. Ben was really excited about going to the tree farm because they have hot chocolate and popcorn :) Here are some of my favorite moments from our trip:

Anna gets a ride/Daddy gets a hug:

 

Ben gets a ride from Chandler (thank goodness, because when we first got there, Ben must have tripped at least five times in a row as he excitedly ran around - he didn't "get it" that there were a bunch of stumps everywhere from the trees that had been cut!):

 



 

Ben's most anticipated moment: hot chocolate and popcorn!

Finally, the whole gang!!

Ben's Very FIRST School Play!

This Christmas, Ben had his first of many school performance :) It was the Christmas program for preschool, and even though they're only two, his age group got to participate!

As with all "firsts", we didn't know what he'd think about being up on stage in front of crowd, but he didn't bat an eye!! Well, OK, actually, when he saw Mark come close to take pictures, Ms. Nita (his teacher) said he got a little whiney for Daddy, but she reminded him of their song they needed to sing in order to go back to the classroom to get some candy. That apparently did the trick ASAP, ha!!!

Singing songs, doing the sign language...

 Having fun!!  I was SO PROUD (and SO relieved he wasn't scared!)

 Lots of kids...the two year olds came on stage with the entire rest of the preschool at the end of the performace for their part.  You can see his teacher Ms. Nita keeping everyone going...I don't know how she does it!

 Ughhh....getting boring.  How much longer do we have to sing before I get that candy??

 Boredom = picking at the hairbow in front of you.  Apparently the candy trick didn't work for the little girl next to Ben!  He didn't even notice her the whole time, LOL!

Here's a little 1-minute video of the performance :) (Remember these videos won't work from the email; you must click through and actually go to the blog webpage!)

Here's another 2-minute clip that's pretty funny...Ben has a hard time keeping his hands to himself, and the nose-picker beside him (from the first video) becomes a screaming banshee!!

Lastly, all the children worked on some very special art for the school fundraiser that Mommy and Daddy could purchase (tee hee!)....here's Ben's ~ worth every penny!!!