Christmas Part Deux

Part deux indeed! This is Christmas morning at the Burnhams. Our family is sure growing. Or we're just spoiled rotten!

p.s. I loved Tarilyn's Holly Jolly earrings.

It's Burnham tradition for everyone to eat their favorite sugar cereal Christmas morning. I chose Reeses cereal this year, because I usually end up eating Joe's. My usual is Nesquik.

I love the legitimate excitement on Jackson's face. Everything is "awesome!" according to Jax.

Yes, we let Ellie sleep in her Christmas dress. Sportin' a little leg are we? What a cutie!

Checkin' out the stockings with Charlie.

Apparently she thought Ellie was pretty stinky, ...sleeping in her dress and all. "Have some DEODORANT!"

...she wasn't too happy about that.

But she got over it.

I was a kind Mom and shared my sugar cereal with Ellie. Me. Nice. Ellie. Happy.

Pure excitement!

...still going on the Reeses Puffs! Ellie, you are MY Reese Puff!

Toy Story. We honestly could have stopped the goods there. Noah had a newly replenished stock of Army Guys and took off to play with them on the other side of the room and couldn't be bothered to open more gifts. Next Christmas? More simple!

THIS, however, is exactly what Jackson wrote Santa for in his Christmas letter. So, of course being the good boy that he is, he got it! We kept telling him that Grandpa was a Doctor, too. He thought that was pretty neat.

Mitchell. Welcome to the family.

Jackson had a growth spurt which means new Sunday clothes! He looked pretty excited about the new suit I got him.

Like I said, Charlie loves her hair.

I think I just might have been more excited about Ellie's gift than she was. She DID, however, chew on it a bit which shows some interest.

This was my gift. A Nikon 3100 and a new 50mm lens. Woot! Woot! Yup. Officially spoiled. But I'm alright with that. I've been wanting to upgrade my camera for a while now! Yeay!! So, ...I've been using the holidays to practice a bit.

Like now. Here's a fresh pic of what Joe and I both got. KINDELS! Yup, ...I got even more spoiled. I am so excited to start using it. Joe put my camera manual on it, so now I have to read it this time. ;) Tee-hee!

Jackson on Sunday morning. Everyone kept telling him that he looked just like a missionary, so he thought that was pretty awesome. "Jax, do you know what a missionary is?" "Yup. ....Uhhhhhh...." Cute.

These were taken Christmas Day. Grandpa, Celeste and I built a sledding-hill off of the deck. Mostly Celeste and Grandpa. The boys loved it!

The next two shots are taken with my new camera and lens! So excited to start using it more. Weeeeeeee!

It's weird having Christmas come and go so quickly. I feel like it went from rush rush rush, to what-do-I-do-now and where did everybody go and why do my pants fit so tight? The pictures above can probably answer that last question. Anywho, it was a splendid Christmas! I loved watching the kids have fun playing with their new toys and with each other. On the other hand, Ellie is sadly becoming the annoying little persistent sister to the boys. Poor girl. One day, Ellie, you'll be running around and wrestling alongside those boys. One day.

Before I close my post, I'd like to share my favorite Noah quotes to get out of bed this holiday season:

"I. Meed. Some. Wotion!" (I need some lotion).

"I'm sick. I meed some watew." (I'm thirsty. I need some water).

"Noah, if you don't go to sleep right now, I'm going to take away your bed-time toys." "Okay."

The boys were playing in the same tent, and of course were supposed to be sleeping in separate tents, but decided to have a tickle-party instead. Tarilyn was the one that found them tickling each other saying, "Coo-chee-coo-chee-coo-chee coo!" Tarilyn, "I think you boys are supposed to be sleeping." Noah turns to Jackson and starts tickling his face, "Coo-Chee-coo-chee-coo-chee-coo!" Oh dear. My child has no respect for authority. Yikes.

Now I get to start to look forward to our Hockey game on New Years Day, Oilers vs Flames! Woot woot!

Happy New Year everyone!

All I want for Christmas is...

My two front teeth! And... she got 'em.

Ellie decided to cut her front teeth right before Christmas Day. Weeee! In all honesty, she was a pretty happy girl. Cutting teeth doesn't stop this girl from smiling.

So, ...I took a million pictures this Christmas. Are we even surprised? AND this is only "PART I" of my super-long Christmas post. We did so many fun things with the Burnhams this year. The kids always love visiting Granny and Frumpa's house and Christmas-time just makes it that much more fun. I will try to stick to the highlights.

This was taken the night before Madilyn was thrust away from us by her parents. Thanks a lot Taylor and Bethany! I thought it was cute that they just happened to have matching pjs. Thank you Carters.

The Wii is always a hit at Granny and Grandpa's. Jackson can already kick Joe to the curb with his mad-bowling skills.

I love watching Noah and Jax "pounce" each other (boxing) because Jackson is all about hopping up and down and side to side and all over the place, and Noah just stands still moving only his arms. "I got Noah down!!! Yeah!" And then Noah thinks that's pretty awesome and repeats, "Yeah, I got Noah down, too!" Ellie, of course, is all about being a part of the action. She always is.

An unsuspecting Ellie chilling with her best cousin-pal, Charlie. Charlie either loves or hates Ellie's hair. She's either stroking it or pulling it. Probably just practicing up for when she becomes a hair-dresser just like her Mom!

The night before the Hawaiians left us, we had their very own Christmas-gift-opening. Madliyn was on fire and would not stop unwrapping until all the gifts were unwrapped. And THEN she decided it was time to play with them. All business that girl.

Eliza was all business, too. YUM!

I think Charlie looks adorable here. Matt thinks she looks like she has a giraffe-neck and wonders how many rings she could fit around it. Oh dear....

One of the fun things we did while Tay and Beth and the gang were around was go to the church gym and play basketball and soccer. It was so fun. And afterwards we went into Red Deer to go swimming. I already posted about it, so I will leave it at, "it was so fun!"

Ellie and Charlie in the tub.

One afternoon, Grandpa took the boys, Celeste and Joe and I bowling. The boys were in heaven. They were all practiced-up from bowling on the wii, now it was time to dominate the score board. Here are a few fun pics....

"I did it!"

Noah and I were having a dance party celebration!

Jackson was very meticulous when it came to setting up the ramp. This is a serious game here... as you can also see from Noah's face (above).

"Cheese!"

If you look closely at the score-board, Jackson and Noah (and I, if I can include myself) beat Joe!! Woot woot! In fact, he came in dead-last! Sorry Joe.

Games. It is not a Lacombe-trip without some kind of game going on. "GOLF" has been one of the popular card games this time around. "Just one more round. Okay. Okay. Just one more round...."

One afternoon while kids were napping and Joe was on a conference call, Jax and I had craft-time and made some puppets. It totally took me back to when I was a kid! I made these things all the time. I asked Jackson what he wanted to name his dog and went with, "Snickers." (He spelled it in his own little way though, of course). What he didn't know is that the Burnhams had a dog named just that!

Of course we had to make a SANTA! Jax even spelled it out on his own.

Ellie. Ellie. Ellie. She may look adorable here, but under that sweet face is a devious mind. Many times I would find her in front of the Christmas tree de-Christmas-tizing it. "But, I'm so innocent Mom."

We tried to be Christmas-y by going sledding on Christmas Eve. It was pretty chilly on the hill for whatever reason (probably the fact that it's winter), and the boys were done after two runs! "It's too bumpy and windy." I promise you it took me longer to get them all dressed up in their garb than it did for them to do those runs, so I was not prepared to go inside just yet and decided we would try sledding down the front driveway! Way less bumpy and cold! I'm a genius.

Celeste was a trooper and played hard with us the whole time! Thanks Celestial!

Christmas Eve "evening" finally arrived and we acted out the Nativity before the kids went to bed. Jackson was a wiseman.

Noah was a shepherd.

Christie and Mitchell were Mary and Joseph, and of course Matt was none other than the mule.

The girls were all beautiful singing angels!

Ellie was also a sheep, I guess. "Baaaaaa!"

It was really cute to watch the kids act it out. Last year Noah was baby Jesus and I kept finding him on top of our kitchen table eating every one's left over pie. This year, the kids actually kind-of followed along. Jackson was especially excited about it. He is a true performer/Ord.

After acting it all out, Ellie kept giving baby Jesus hugs and kisses. It would be really cute if the doll weren't so creepy.

After the kids acted it out, Joe stayed behind with Grandpa to put the kids to bed and prep dinner while the rest of us went to the old folks home here in Lacombe and sang Christmas carols and acted out the Nativity. I have mixed feelings about doing this, because I love the idea of serving, but I always leave a little sad. I never want to be old and alone. It is nice, however, to see them enjoy it and sing along. I am certain I will be the crazy-lady in the front row singing along to each song loud and clear, much like the lady in the red and white striped sweater. I loved her. Yes, I will be her.

We then came home to this spread. I was so ready to eat! The Burnhams do their big turkey-dinner on Christmas day, so Christmas Eve is always different each year. This year we did fondue: Steak, chicken, prawns, and bread. That's what I ate that night anyway. I believe there was a veggie, fruit and cracker tray but I didn't quite get that far.

Before this post comes to a close, I have to show some pics of the kids in their Christmas pjs! They were so excited to be able to open a present from Santa's elves the night before Christmas!

Charlie and Ellie (we miss you Madilyn and Eliza!)

This is what the rest of the night was. Chilling in Christmas pjs and visiting the night away, awaiting the excitement that comes when anticipating Christmas morning. It is definitely less about us old-folgies and more about watching the kids enjoy the morning, but alas, that is another post altogether! I promise it will come soon!

Merry Christmas!!