Christmas at Mimi and Papa's House :)

Here are a few pictures from Christmas morning at Mimi and Papa's House (my parents)...

Wrapping Papa's present at our house a few days before Christmas...he's never going to guess what it is!

This Christmas we were lucky enough that it fell in the middle of the week!  This gave us more down time with Mimi and Papa with no where to be for a day or two...here are Eden and Kellan enjoying a little cracker picnic in the living room.

Papa with all of the grandchildren :)

Kellan stealing Eden's scooter...she is not happy...he's a pushy little guy :/

Observing Eden's bath time...I kept waiting on him to fall in...he loves a bath...

Then finally it was Christmas morning...mommy and daddy were waiting patiently on Kellan to wake up...

All of his toys from Santa waiting to be discovered...

Mimi and Papa's tree

Please bear with Michael's shaky videoing...

After little sleepy head woke up, he immediately ran straight to Owen's big boy toys!  We finally convinced him to come over and play with his own.

He was not interested in opening any more toys...he wanted to sit with papa instead.

Notice behind me that Kellan has gotten his hands on Owen's light saber and is in the process of attacking the tree :)

So excited about his Tag, Jr. from Aunt Jessie and Uncle Shannon :)

He didn't want to open his own presents but he was all about helping Papa with his...

These two are always eating...I love the look Eden is giving him...

Owen checking out Papa's new fishing pole from us :)

After he got on his new 4 wheeler he didn't want to get off...

Mommy stealing a kiss on those chubby cheeks and showing him his new red shirt :)

Cruising through the living room 

Me, my mom, and sister in our traditional matching pj's

and of course we had to take one with the babies in their matching pj's

Helping papa drive his truck...

Typical boy...he loves trucks and tractors!

We brought him outside to ride his 4 wheeler but he hadn't quite gotten the hang of it yet.  He kept dragging his feet and not holding the button down long enough...it took a little practice but he's finally gotten it now :)

Christmas Eve with the Dawkins!

My mom's side of the family always gets together at my grandmother's house on Christmas Eve night.  We have finger foods, snacks, ham biscuits and later we open presents.  This is the night that I was talking about in my post yesterday.  All 9 of us grandchildren would wait patiently around the tree, just staring at the piles of presents until someone told us that we could get started!  It always seemed like the adults took FOREVER to be ready!

I didn't take pictures, but we started the night watching a compilation of video clips that my cousin, Jessica, organized and put to music.  My grandfather was in a lot of the clips and I don't think there was a dry eye in the room from laughing and crying.  It was so funny to see my aunts and uncles at my age now and see all of us crazy grandchildren running around being silly.  My how clothing and hair styles have changed, we were all fashions victims, old and young.  One thing I did notice though is how YOUNG all of my aunts and uncles looked...I know that sounds like such a naive thing to say but they did!  And I've never thought that they look OLD now...its just amazing how much you change over the years...I  completely blame it on the children :)  Anyway, I told my mom afterwards that I'm always running from the camera because "I'm not wearing any makeup" or because I'm in my "around the house" clothes, or my hair doesn't look right...I've come to the realization that I'm as young as I'm going to ever be again so I need to start cheesing for the camera every time it comes out because this is as good as its going to get!!

This group can get kind of loud and crazy at times so it can be a little overwhelming to someone that is not used to a big family.  Last year, my uncle Jody made my grandma play "Let's Make a Deal" for her present :)  Other years we have all played games and we have also provided Christmas for a needy family in lieu of gifts to each other.  We always have so much fun and you never know what may be going on with this bunch of crazies :)

And we wonder why the grandchildren love Papa...he's always handing out food!  Owen eating a ham biscuit.

Kellan shoving in a biscuit before mommy notices.

We don't do this every year but I think we should start.  Here are my aunts and uncles and my mom.  Uncle Mike in the front, Uncle Jody, mom, Aunt Tammy, and Aunt Tracie

The siblings with their mom, my grandma.  I'm not sure what Jody is doing to Mike's hair :)

This is going to be a must-do tradition!  Every year when we were kids we always took pictures on this sofa together.  I wish I had one of all of us on the computer to compare to this one.  These are the great-grandchildren:  Kellan, 14 months, Owen, 3 years, Eden, 12 months, and Brooklyn, 7 months

I wonder what was going on over there?

And then we tried to re-enact the grandchildren picture...except we don't all fit on the sofa anymore!  We were supposed to be getting in order from oldest to youngest and I think this may actually be right.  From left to right:  Me, Dana, Chad, Jessica (my sister), Jessica, Brandon, Grae, Colby, and Bailey, the youngest, laying across everyone.

There were many attempts....

and we finally got a good one with every one's eyes open!

My grandma with all of her presents :)

Owen showing off his belly...we are not sure why :)

Opening presents used to be about us...now its ALL about the babies!

Trying to get Kellan to look at daddy taking pictures but he is just too excited about his My First Story Reader because it was talking to him.

The cutest outfit EVER from Colby!  

He snuck away to get into Brooklyn's gifts...who doesn't like a pink hippo?

Holding on to his firetruck in his lap and trying to open the barking dog from great-grandma at the same time.

Brooklyn loving on her new outfit.

Eden modeling her new outfit...

I think somebody is excited about their new laptop :)

It always happens...what do the babies want?  The bows! :)

We could have just stopped with gifts for Kellan after this night.  He got so many things, I will try to remember them all:  A penguin singing bath toy, Eight Silly Monkeys, a Goodnight Moon puzzle, a musical train set, a fire truck that lights up and makes siren noises, a dog that barks when you take his bone, Little Honey Bear and the Smiley Moon, a snowman sweater vest, a red puffy vest, a plaid shirt and jeans, and the My First Story Reader. Christmas Eve at grandma's is my favorite day of the whole year and I always look forward to it!  I can't wait to watch these babies grow up together and pretty soon we will have a new group sitting around the Christmas tree waiting on US!

Pre-Christmas with the Rodgesters!

Since we were going to be in NC with my family for Christmas, we got together with Michael's mom's side of the family the Saturday before at his Aunt Karen's house.  After we ate too much good food, cousin Dylan was ready to open presents.  Well Michael and I ate too much good food...Kellan however refused to eat anything which is totally unlike him.  He also had a runny nose.  This was the day that he decided to be a picky eater.  He wouldn't eat anything...not even bread!  Luckily it only lasted a week and he got back to eating again.  Looking back on it now, we are pretty sure he was teething and he has a molar or two to show for it.  

Dylan reminded me so much of me and all of my cousins when we were small.  It seemed like it took YEARS before the adults were finally ready to open presents.  The only difference is that there is one Dylan (+Kellan now) and there were 11 of us on one side of the family and 9 on the other side.  We always had a huge group sitting around the tree just waiting to get the go ahead to start passing out gifts!  

I did not do a good job of taking pictures of the rest of the family but here is Kellan opening his presents!

He was (and still is) in love with his sock monkey that plays peek-a-boo from Great Grandma Rodgester.

It makes him laugh every time :)  This has become one of his must-have toys on long car rides...it keeps him entertained for a long time.

He's gotten much better at opening presents since his birthday!

He also loves his big stuffed horse from Aunt Kim, Dylan and Uncle Calvin.  It is the perfect size for him to sit...

and it didn't take him long to learn that if you squeeze his ears he makes galloping sounds and neighs :)  

Daddy being silly...

He hopped right on his new 4 wheeler from Aunt Karen and Uncle Hardee.  It makes revving sounds and all other kinds of noises when you push the buttons.  He has passed lots of time sitting on this, pushing buttons, and listening to the sounds.

Kellan had such a great time and I know each year is going to get more fun (and more challenging) as he understands more about Christmas...and next year he will get to share it with a new baby!