CHRISTMAS 2011

Christmas Eve morning Kolton woke up at like 7:00 and came in our room.  I told him to hop in to bed with us and he "slept" for another hour or so before I just decided to get up with him, since it was Christmas Eve! :) We got up and headed to the donut shop to buy some donuts! Brady always is the one to take Kolton out for donuts so we thought we'd surprise him. Kolton was super excited to walk through the door and show daddy what we got. 

 

I even let him get a special Rudolph one they had for Christmas.  He thought that was pretty cool! ;) 

 

Christmas Eve we got to do some relaxing and spending time with each other.  Brady was not feeling well (he was at the start of a head cold) and so he just felt like lounging around all day.  We did make one trip to the Mexican food store.  It is off of 89th and Western I believe.  Someone at Brady's work had told Brady about it and he wanted to try it out.  Anyway, we were supposed to bring a 7 layer dip to dinner on Christmas so we went there to get some things.  It was pretty cool! Everyone there spoke spanish and I totally felt out of place.  Haha.  

While Kolton was napping I decided to decorate the kitchen for our dinner.  I kept going back and forth on whether or not I wanted to spend the time or not.  I decided to take the 30 minutes it would take to throw something super simple together just because I knew he'd think it was really cool.  I'm so glad I did.  Brady brought him in to the kitchen after his nap and he was so excited when he saw it all! It made it worth it.  

I decided it was important for us to have baby Jesus and Mary and Joseph at the center of our table.  I liked having it there.  

 We had the usual ham dinner with roll and mashed potatoes and our sparkling grape juice that Kolton loves to drink in the "special" glasses! I made place cards and left a kiss on everyone's plate.  I put lights and some red bells around the table and windows and had some candles to "set the mood" (haha), and then hung snow flakes and a paper chain from the ceiling.  

 After dinner we got to open one present each.  Kolton has not gotten old enough to realize that the one present he gets to open on Christmas Eve is always pajamas so he had no idea what to expect. 

 When he opened them he thought it was pretty cool that they were OU pajamas but you could tell there was a little bit of disappointment that it was pajamas and not some cool toy.  Being the sweet boy he is, who always wants to make us happy, he tried not to show it.  He's so sweet!

 Once Brady and I opened our gifts, though, he was completely happy with the fact that he had received pajamas.  :)

 Kolton wanted to take the pictures of Brady opening his pajamas...this is his picture. 

 Kolton needed to test out his pajama pants to see if they made him run faster.  ;)

 

Then he and I did tricks with ours.  :) He's getting pretty good at hopping on one foot.  (Every time he does it I can't help but remember when my brother Tyler was a sunbeam and our primary was doing a talent show and he wanted to do a talent so he hopped around on one foot on the stage for an entire primary song.  Haha. Makes me laugh!)

 After our jammies we watched The Animated Nativity from the Living Scriptures.  It was great to watch and be reminded why we celebrate Christmas.  Kolton really enjoyed it.  

After that Kolton was off to write Santa a letter and leave him a donut and the reindeer the "reindeer food" we made them a couple days before. 

 He did a great job explaining what it was all for!

He was in bed at about 9:00 and Brady and I headed to bed at about 11:00 (after I ran to CVS to get some batteries I forgot we needed).

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Christmas morning came SUPER early! SUPER! Kolton came in to our room at 2:45 and said to Brady "Daddy, I can't sleep very well! I'm too excited." So, Brady asked him "Did you see if Santa had come yet?" Kolton told him "Mom said I can't go see until the sun comes up." Brady replied with "Let's go!" So we headed out to the living room at 3 in the morning to see if Santa had come--which he had! Kolton was SOO excited! One of the things Santa brought was a Cars 2 slot car race track.  Kolton is obsessed with race tracks and absolutely loves the one at Bass Pro and loves to play with it every time we go see Santa so he was pretty ecstatic to have one of his very own! 

Brady and Kolton played this for a while racing Lightning McQueen and Francesco (who always wins). It was definitely a hit! 

 

 Some of the other things he got were a Cars 2 mobigo game from Grandma and Grandpa Moffett, a talking Lightning McQueen and Francesco from Grandma and Grandpa Moffett (which he was super excited for!), a tool box from Lizzie, tools and a monster truck from us, motorcycle, trains, train track with Dash (a train with LINES!), and some coloring books and candy from Santa.  He was pretty happy with the things he got!

 Check him out! I love watching him play with his tools! It cracks me up! He wears the goggles and tool belt every time and carries around all the tools in his tool box.  Its cute.

 I got Brady a coat (which he took back-haha) and he got me a steam mop (which I love!)! He also got a work shirt and new basketball shoes from my parents (which he's already used and loves!) and a Chilis gift card from Derek (which we've already used and loved! haha) and I got a new colander from Tyler (which I've used and love that it is flat and doesn't take up any room in my kitchen) and money for camera actions and accessories and a curling wand from my parents (which I am horrible at using :) and will need my sister to show me how to work it). We were done opening presents at about 4:00 and decided to head back to bed.  ;) Kolton took forever to fall back asleep because he was too excited, but finally crashed about 5:30.  We got up at about 7:30 to play some more and then get ready for 11:00 church.  We also got to skype with my family and that was fun! Kolton liked showing them everything he got.  :) 
Here's a picture of the whole Brammer family (except for Dylen) on Christmas.
 

We also got to skype with Shawn that afternoon for about 20 minutes.  It was so cool to see him and talk to him! Only 2 more months until he comes home! So exciting! I wish I would have thought to take a picture but I didn't...

We went over to the Brammers that afternoon.  Kolton immediately laid claim on Grandpa's new foot massager he got for Christmas and monopolized it while we were there.  :)

 We also went on a walk and let Kolton ride his bike.  It ended up being pretty cold and we headed back inside only after a few minutes. 

 We ate dinner at 5:00 (mexican food) and then opened presents.  The boys went first and I had them open oldest to youngest (figured it would give Kolton a chance to practice patience :)). 

 London got a Star Wars lego set, Kolton got a "water front" themed lego set and Pierson got Star Wars action figures.  Brady and I got a shelf reliance shelving system from his parents and he got some shoes from his parents and a movie from Madison.  I got a scarf and shirt from his parents and another shirt from Jaycee.  Now I just need to get my food storage on!

 Kolton was actually pretty good at setting it up.  I had to sit with him and tell him to "grab a small red one" and then show him on the picture where it would go and then he'd put it in the right spot.  We've only assembled bag 1 of 4 but he had fun doing it. 

We had a wonderful Christmas and are very grateful for all we have.  Kolton was very appreciative of all his gifts and loves each one of them (well...except for the monster truck...I don't think its been played with since Christmas haha).  We love our little family and both of our families as well.  We are very blessed!
We got to talk to Dylen the next day.  We didn't think we were going to be able to talk to him because he was calling in the middle of the day and Brady had to work, but someone switched lunches with him so we came over during his lunch time so we could get a chance to talk to him.  It didn't work very well, and so his picture kept going in and out but we could hear him and he could hear and see us.  

Getting ready for Christmas

Like I've mentioned already, we are doing the countdown to Christmas as our advent calendar.  We bought a Groupon for the cookie place in the mall, so one day we went to the mall to get some cookies.  It was $10 for $20 worth of cookies there.  I'll tell you--its really hard to spend $20 at that place! We got like 10 cookies and a couple doozies and barely spent the money! Kolton and daddy got matching doozies (or whatever they are called...the ones with frosting in the middle of two huge cookies).  Kolton and Brady are such good buddies now.  Its so cute.  In fact, one day while I was in the kitchen making Kolton's lunch I heard sniffling coming from the living room.  I head in there and Kolton is laying on the floor holding Brady's OU ID card, looking at it, all teary eyed.  I asked him what was wrong and he said "I miss daddy." It was the sweetest thing. 

 Kolton is a pretty amazing eater.  Like if sauce or anything gets on his chin or face he can get it with his tongue.  I knew he was talented in this but until recently didn't realize how crazy good he is at it.  I've taken the time to watch other kids try the same thing, and while they do a good job at it, they just can't seem to clean their faces as well as he does.  :) It makes me laugh. 

 We also wrote a letter to Santa to remind him what Kolton wanted for Christmas.  Kolton did such a great job!

 He wrote Santa, Kolton (forgot an "o"), and motorcycle all by himself.  I told him what letters, for Santa and motorcycle, but he did a great job writing them.  The "2" up in the corner was actually his first attempt at an "S." We turned the paper so he could start over after he practiced a couple times on another sheet of paper.  He also drew a picture of Santa, copying a little statue thing we have.  There's Santa (with his beard, hat, and belt) holding the toy bag and a bear.  I think its too cute!

 Last weekend we went to Jeff and Vanessa's house to make cookies.  We were supposed to go on Friday but Brady ended up having to work late to cover for someone who didn't come in to work and so we had to reschedule for Saturday night.  The boys all had a lot of fun cutting out the cookies and decorating them!

 On Sunday I subbed in nursery.  I haven't really been in there in a long time.  I was by myself, but I had the kids that are going to be sunbeams in January so it wasn't too bad.  They are so funny! I love listening to little kids talk.  They crack me up! If only parents knew what their kids told their church teachers... Haha.  

We went over to the Foys house on Sunday evening and made cookies again.  I made the cookie dough and tried so hard to not make it taste like flour (per Brady's request).  Unfortunately the only flour I had was some wheat flour I had ground so the dough ended up being very "wheaty" tasting. :) All well! We had a good time and then watched the movie "17 Miracles" which we've been meaning to watch with the Foys for forever! It was really good! (And I'm sure would have been even better if we weren't interrupted 500 million times by the kids.)

 The other day Kolton was at the Foys and Brittney texted me and said: "Haha Kolton was smelling my couch (not sure why) and said it smells like Tyler! Ha! I said, 'who is Tyler?' and he said 'You know, my uncle that lives at my grandma moffetts house!'" So funny and so random! :) 

We also went and got hot chocolate from Starbucks as one of our fun things to do this month.  While we were there Kolton seriously busted out in "I am a Child of God." It was the sweetest thing! He also started asking me when he was going to die...He asked if he'd be standing and fall off something.  I told him no and said he'd die when he was sleeping.  I very quickly realized that was a mistake to say! :) The look on his face was priceless.  He was so concerned and said "when I'm sleeping??" I told him, no...some other way.  Haha.  Speaking of sleeping, Kolton has gone to bed for the last 4 nights now without a movie! Hallelujah!! I've been wanting to stop this habit for a while now but have never gotten around to it.  On Monday night Kolton was acting like a baby (to be funny) and it was time to go to bed.  He asked if babies watch movies when they go to bed and I told him that he didn't when he was a baby so he said he didn't want to watch a movie since he was a baby.  OK! And he fell asleep fast that night and has done it since! I love it! I know its only 4 nights but now he and I know he can so there's no going back! ;) I do think its interesting, though, that to get him to stop he had to be like a baby, whereas I'm sure I would have approached it like "Big boys don't watch movies when the go to bed and since you are big boy we need to stop watching movies when we go to bed." I guess sometimes its better to let them do it their own way.  

Jaycee and Adam and their son Landon are visiting from Utah for Christmas.  We got to see them Monday and Tuesday nights at London and Pierson's basketball games.  So fun to watch little kids play sports! I love it! Kolton and I also got to see them this morning.  We all went to Bass Pro together to go see Santa.  

It was packed! We were given a pass to get in line at 11:00 and couldn't get in line until then.  They gave out 40 passes for each time slot.  While we waited we headed over to the fish to let the kids look at them.  I asked them if I could take a picture and Kolton and London immediately posed themselves.  Haha.  Pierson took a little coaxing, but they were so cute! A lady that was there said "You must take a lot of picture of your kids because they knew just how to pose themselves on their own!"

 We got a picture with Santa of all the cousins! Kolton told Santa that he was 3 years and then asked him how old he was.  Santa told him he was "as old as the hills! ho! ho! ho!"

One quick totally random story that is actually from a while ago, but I don't think I've included it in the blog yet.  We were reading the scriptures one night and it said the word "servant." Kolton asked what that was and so I told him it was someone who does work for someone else--keeping it simple.  He then said "You work for Grandpa Brammer...are you his servant?" Haha.  It was funny! :) 

We are so excited for Christmas! Its so close, I can't believe it! I love this time of year!