Our Christmas

What a wonderful whirlwind of a week we have had.  We've been back and forth between our two families houses, spending lots of time with parents and siblings, singing Christmas carols, eating good food and generally enjoying the season.  It really is the most wonderful time of the year.  Our kids have been pretty exhausted (we tried to have dinner with my family tonight and Micah cried the entire time only stopping to say, "suuuper tired" over and over again until Scott finally had to bring him home early).  It's been a full week, but we are so thankful to live near both of our families and to be able to enjoy this beautiful time together.  Here are some highlights of the last few days...
 My parents living room...

 Clara and Camden checking out the tree...

 Cousin love...

 Story time...

 Our annual Christmas Eve gathering with our dear friends, the McAllisters.  First time ever to be hosted at our house, but so glad we could all be together (including my Dad!) this year. 

 Camden knows most of The Night Before Christmas by heart already and had fun reading it to Micah in their Christmas jammies...

 Our little tree ready for Christmas morning...

 6:00am and we were ready to go!

 We had tons of brand new books to pass onto the boys thanks to the generosity of hand-me-downs from the family I used to babysit for in college.  They take very good care of us! 

 Ready for the snow!

 After an early morning at our house we headed over to the Allenby's for the rest of the morning.  We sure love our new little niece, Mylah...

 Micah and Pop...

 A new Mama and her baby... :)

 After nap time at our house, we went to my parents to spend some time with my side of the family. 

Camden showing my parents the adorable little trivet he made for them with his handprint on it...

 Camden was very excited to give Clara the little bracelet he made for her.  They are pretty cute together!

 Micah was very tired by the end of the night...poor little guy. 

 The next day we visited with both families again and made (and ate) cupcakes for Jesus' birthday (a tradition that our boys love to do!).  These guys are pretty adorable with little Mylah, and I'm so excited that my little girl will have a cousin just 4-5 months older than her!  YAY!

 Decorating cupcakes...

 Happy Birthday, Jesus!

 Merry Christmas, friends!

Celebration

Our little Micah-Man turned 2 a few weeks ago!  I'm still kind of coming to terms with this milestone...wasn't he just born?!?!  Every year for the boys' birthdays I make them a special photo book with pictures from the entire year and a nice long note to them at the end.  We just received Micah's book today and he is having so much fun going through it and pointing out himself over and over again in all the pictures.  Here are a couple samples of what the pages look like.  It's a 12x12 book, so the pages are nice and big and doesn't seem too cramped...

And here's the recap of Micah's year from the end of his book...

Oh little Micah-Man!  What a joy you are.  You have brought so much happiness to our family these last two years.  Your smile can light up a room and everyone loves that little blonde head of yours.  You have such a funny little sense of humor and love to make us laugh.  You refuse to say the name, Micah, and think it's hilarious to refer to yourself as "Ba-boop" instead.  You make the silliest little face and do the cutest thing with your fingers when you just want a "teensey, tinsey" little bit of something.  You are forever trying to keep up with Camden.  You guys usually play very well together, putting on "plays," playing with trucks, riding your "blue bike", reading books and chasing each other around the house, but there have been a few occasions where you get very mad and bite your big brother.  Despite your charm, you have a very strong will and haven't quite learned how to properly show your frustration.  Instead of trying to use your words, you generally throw all of the items near you across the room, throw your food on the floor, knock over chairs and just generally throw a major fit.  I'm hoping that this stage won't last forever!  
You are quickly growing up from a little baby to a big boy!  You can count up to about 14 and then start repeating random numbers again from that point on.  You know many of your letters and when we read books you often have to flip back and forth between pages showing us matching letters or similar pictures.  You are a very picky eater and would probably live only on yogurt, frozen berries, puffs and spaghetti if we let you!  You just stopped nursing this month and even though it seemed like you would nurse forever if I let you, you made a very smooth transition away from it.  You go pee on the potty often, but aren't yet showing much consistent interest in potty training.  You are still sleeping in your crib and finally just this summer started sleeping longer stretches.  You love to push your dolls and stuffed animals around in your stroller and sing them lullabies and you seem to be very excited about "Baby Goose" growing in my belly.  Every day you put your head on my belly then pop up saying, "Baby Goose Hi!" with the biggest smile on your face.  I think you'll be a wonderful big brother, especially since Camden has been such a great one for you.  We are so proud of you and love you more than you will ever know.  Happy 2nd Birthday, Micah Gray!
Love, Mama and Dada

We had a fun, low-key family party to celebrate. Here's my masterpiece...

 Birthday boy...

 We were even able to get my Dad into our house for the first time since he got sick in March!  Here's part of our nifty ramp...

 Dad was such a trooper...it's not easy for him to be moved around like this (and it was after a long day in the hospital) but he did great and I'm so glad we made it work.  Thanks, Daddy!

 "How old are you?"

 We Skyped with Caren, Dave and Clara for a few minutes.  It was kind of strange to have a family event without them here!

 Wish my Dad's hand wasn't blocking his face because this was a very cute moment after Micah unwrapped his dinosaur from Bepa.  He loved it and ran up to show him his new toy!   My Grandparents were here visiting from the Cape as well, which was another wonderful part of the evening...

 Micah LOVED his new fire station dollhouse from Nan and Pop!

 

 So glad he could be there!

Happy Birthday, Micah Gray!  Thanks for making the world a better place!  We love you!