Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve is the day for the big celebration with our family. This year it was at the Morrisons and their house looks beautiful and was perfect.








Where's Hudson?

Sky High

Well who knew that this was right down the street. Someone told me about it and I took the boys today. It is so close to my house and was so much fun. Kids of ALL ages were there (adults too). It is called Sky High and it is a warehouse full of trampolines.







We mainly stayed in the 'under 8' area. The older people were doing crazy flips, jumps and bouncing off the walls. But then I saw the foam pit and I knew they would love it.

Hudson:

Cannon:

Daddy and Cannon Playing Guitar

JR is teaching himself to play the guitar by watching youtube videos. He was playing last night and Cannon came into the room holding his little toy guitar. It was so cute. He wanted to hang with daddy and be just like him.

Christmas Celebrations

The kids got 3 Christmas celebrations this year. It was so much fun but they were exhausted by the end of it. Cannon was so funny. He would have been happy with one present. He isnt big on opening and then moving on. He wants to play with whatever it is he opened and would not move on until the present was fully opened and played with. Our family of four took our time on Christmas morning and it was nice to have it be so mellow. Christmas Eve was a blast with the big group. Yummy food and drink and lots of fun watching the kids play together.

Here are the boys painting something for daddy.



We did Christmas early with JR's parents. The kids had so much fun and love their new dinosaur pillow pets!





Christmas Eve was at the Morrison's and they did such a great job. Their house is perfect for hosting and partying. More pictures of this night to come.

Cannon fell asleep on the way home but Hudson was awake looking for Rudolph's red nose. We saw a plane with a red light and we told him we thought that might be Rudolph and Santa, thinking Hudson would go for it. But he looked and said "No. I think that's just a helicopter."

He stayed up and helped us put milk and cookies out and carrots for the reindeer. Because he stayed up so late, we had to wait a couple hours in the morning after Cannon woke up. We had to keep Cannon out of the front room until Hudson woke up. Thank goodness it was still dark, so Cannon didn't even go in the room until Hudson came down.





Hudson checked the milk, cookies and carrots right when he woke up.



And then they saw their presents and started ripping. Christmas is so fun with kids that understand and enjoy it. It makes me feel like a kid again and I want to do everything I can to make it special and memorable for them.









After opening a present on Christmas Day Hudson said "We should make thank you cards out of the wrapping paper." And so we did.

Crying

My cousin told me about a children's book that she reads to Liliana. And in her 30 second description, we both ended up crying. I cannot quite put into words yet why this book is a tear jerker but I think it is about the circle of life and love.

It is about a mother who rocks her baby when he goes to sleep at night and sings:
I love you forever
I love you for always
As long as I'm living
My baby you'll be.

(I change it a little). The son grows and grows and is soon a toddler. The mommy sometimes thinks he drives her crazy but every night when he's asleep, she crawls into his room. And if he's really sleeping, she'll hold him and sing....I love you forever, I love you for always, as long as I'm living, my baby you'll be.

He grows and grows into a teenager and she thinks she lives in a zoo. But she still goes in and rocks him and sings when he is sleeping.

He grows into a man and moves across town. And the mommy still drives across town and if he is really sleeping, she'll climb in and rock him and sing.

The mommy grows older and older too though. And one day she calls her son and says to him that he better come visit because she is sick and getting old. He goes to her house and she tries to sing the song but she is too sick. So the son holds his mommy and sings to her....I love you forever, I love you for always, as long as I'm living my mommy you'll be.

Then the son goes home and into his own sleeping daughter's room and picks her up and rocks her and starts to sing her the song.

I read it to Hudson yesterday when Cannon was napping and couldn't get through it without crying. And at the end he said "Mommy, can you rock-a-bye me and sing that song." Oh man, that killed me. I could hardly sing.

Then after Hudson went to bed, I read it to Cannon. And Cannon sat still and listened to the whole thing. And then said "Again." I have yet to make it through this book without tears. It describes life in a nutshell. How much we love these kids and how they grow so fast and how maybe they don't really know how much we love them until they have kids of their own. And yes we have crazy days and bad days but these are the only days we get with them and we should make the most of it. I love the tradition in this book and plan to read this book and then sing this to the boys at night now - if I can make it through it. I love this book and wanted to share.

Big Bear in December

We had a great weekend in Big Bear last weekend. The weather was sunny and pretty warm. We still had fun doing winter activities though. I took Hudson skiing again. And we all went sledding. And a friend found a dairy/egg/soy/nut free gingerbread house for Cannon. The kids loved putting it together and eating the parts.

Sledding:







Getting ready to sled:



Gingerbread House:







Skiing: