Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve!! Christmas Eve is so magical.  So much anticipation and excitement for what is to come the next day.  I love it.  We started the morning off with some donuts.  Yum Yum! Kolton helped me cut out snowflakes to hang above the table for our Christmas Eve dinner.  He did awesome!

We had a ham dinner, per tradition.  Brady got off work a couple hours early and so we ate dinner at like 4:30.  We read the Christmas story in the Bible at the table before we ate dinner.  Kolton could hardly wait to open his Christmas Eve present so we did that after dinner.  Both boys LOVED their Christmas Eve jammies.  Bentley thought it was SO cool that his were Mickey Mouse and Kolton loved that his were Nike Elite shorts and shirt.  He loves elite shorts so he was pretty excited to get another pair (he only had one pair).   

 After that we made sugar cookies to leave for Santa.  The boys loved cutting them out with the cookie cutters.  I liked eating the dough.  Haha.  I didn't half the recipe this year for some reason and I totally should have.  We had way too much dough.  We didn't decorate even a quarter of them!

 Kolton was pretty good at his decorating...Bentley not so much.  Haha.  He COVERED his cookies with sprinkles.  Kolton tried to make designs and shapes with the frosting. 

 These were the two cookies that were chosen to be left out for Santa.  One was made by Kolton (the snowman) and the candy cane was decorated by Bentley. 

After cookies we drove around to a few neighborhoods to look at Christmas lights and then came home and put the kids to bed.  Kolton was super concerned that Brady and I were going to stay up and make it so Santa couldn't come.  He kept telling us, "You need to go to bed right after me so that Santa can come." Haha.  It was cute. 

Bath Brothers

Recently Bentley has loved taking baths with Kolton.  Usually what happens is I tell Kolton to go hop in the shower and Bentley comes running trying to take his shirt off saying "Be-be bath too!" So then Kolton ends up taking a bath with Bentley.  They play with the bubbles and shoot the balls into a cup.  These boys always have to have a ball within an arms reach...I swear!  

Kolton's Baptism Invitation

A couple of days before Christmas I took Kolton in the backyard real quick to take a few pictures of him for his baptism invitation.  We put on his shirt and tie but he still had on pajama bottoms.  Haha.  He looked so handsome and just so sweet.  He is such a good kid.  I snapped a few pictures and then called Shawn and asked him if he'd be willing to make an invitation for me.  Haha.  I don't really know how to do it and I just get super frustrated and confused when I try.  And he's a pro at it so I thought if he had time then it would be awesome if he could do it for me.  :) 

I picked this picture because he just looks so happy and excited.  We passed it out to friends and sent it to family members and members of our church and non-members. 

The Week Before Christmas

Saturday afternoon we went to Bass Pro to go see Santa.  When we got there we found out there was a 3 hour wait!! The line went through the entire store!!  So then we went looking for fudge and they had shut down their fudge cart.  What the heck?! It was the worst trip to see Santa ever.  Haha.  We then decided to go do some furniture shopping to get an idea of what we might like.  We headed to Mathis Brothers and we found out they had a Santa there.  AND there was NO line, like not a single person!! It was awesome! We just walked right up to him.  He was super nice too and really friendly.  When Kolton told him he wanted a dirt bike for Christmas he said "You guys are killing me this year!" I thought that was cute.  Bentley wouldn't ever smile but he didn't cry or run away so that was awesome!! After Santa we went to Texas Roadhouse with Brady's parents.  They told us it would be a 10-15 minute wait but almost an hour later we were still waiting to be seated.  It was crazy.  We got free dessert out of it though so that was nice. 

Sunday we went to Brady's parent's house for dinner and then we sang some Christmas songs.  Kolton was so cute sitting next to Jaycee singing along.  I loved it. 

My brother Tyler came over to visit us Monday night.  He had flown in Sunday night for work that week.  The company he works for opened an office here in OKC right next to Brady's work so he was here helping train them.  So Brady picked him up after work and brought him to our house for dinner.  The sister missionaries were coming over for dinner that night too so that was fun.  We ate and then after they left we went and did some ding dong ditching to some of our friends to give them some Christmas treats! The boys loved playing with Tyler.  He played basketball almost the whole time he was here.  Haha. 

The last day of school I brought Kolton's class pizza for lunch for his birthday.  I had done it last year as a surprise and then at like the beginning of December he asked me if I was going to do it again so I decided to go ahead and do it.  It is fun for the kids to be able to eat in the classroom and since it is the last day of school before Christmas break it makes it kind of like an end of semester party.  Kolton loved it and thought it was so fun.  Bentley thought it was pretty cool too.  Kolton's teacher ended up having to go to a meeting so she left me with the kids.  They finished eating and then we played a couple rounds of Bingo before heading to recess.  I also brought some Grinch popcorn for the kids to eat that afternoon while they watched the Grinch movie. 

Bentley is like a little gymnast in the making.  He loves to do stuff like this and hang from bars and poles and whatever he can. 

Brady got to go duck hunting on the 19th.  He had a big group (like 6 guys) and they didn't get any ducks.  But it looks pretty.  :)

Monday, the 21st, we went to Orange Leaf as part of our family home evening.  Bentley got his own ice cream and loved it. 

One day we were driving by the cemetery and Kolton wanted to stop by and say hi to Lillian so we did.  When we got there we found that her headstone had come off the cement slab it was glued to so we need to go fix that. 

Tuesday Brady and I went to the temple with all of his family.  Maddi and Dylen and their spouses had come in to Oklahoma for Christmas so we were all here and could all go to the temple for the first time.  We did names from Brady's dad's family so that was cool.  We also did sealings so that was neat too.  Afterward everyone (except for Jaycee and Adam) came to our house and Brady's parents picked up pizza for everyone to eat.  It was a great night. 

Wednesday we went to the doctor to check on Kolton's finger.  It was still hurting him so I wanted them to do an xray and make sure it was ok.  They took an xray and said his finger wasn't broken so he was good to go.  They said jammed fingers can hurt and be swollen for years.  That is crazy! After that we went skating with the Landrums and the Widdisons.  That was fun to chat with the moms while the kids played.  Then that night we had Maddi and Dylen and their spouses over for dinner, ice cream, and games.  We laughed a lot and had a good time. 

Basketball

I went up to Kolton's school and picked up his make-up work so he could get it done before he headed back to school.  He started working on it right away and whipped through it all.  It was so great for him to have something to do that stimulated his brain.  His teacher even let him take his tests at home with a note that said she trusted him not to cheat.  I thought that was awesome. 

I got a message from a friend from high school that had this picture attached to it asking if this was my mom.  Haha.  He said he was in the break room at his work and the news was on and he saw her and recognized her.  I thought that was funny.  My mom was on the news promoting a performance her bell choir was giving that week at a museum there in Utah. 

Brady took Bentley to Braums for some ice cream.  I can't remember where Kolton was but I was at youth I believe.  Bentley loved it, as expected.  Haha. They opened a new Braums right by our house so it is really convenient.  :)  

He falls asleep anywhere and everywhere these days except for his bed.  I just love snapping pictures of him sleeping, too. 

Kolton has his first basketball game of the season on the 4th of December.  That day he wanted to go outside and play some basketball to warm up for it.   

It was so great to watch him play.  The city league is way more competitive than the Y which is great.  Kolton's team won 22-12.  Kolton had 8 points.  You could tell he was exhausted during the game.  10 days of doing and nothing will do that to you.  Haha.  But he still did great!

 I decided to try a tie on Bentley hoping he would leave it on.  I asked him if he wanted to wear a tie like Bubba and Daddy and he said "yes!" and he kept it on and loved wearing it.  He looked so stinking cute. 

 More pictures of Bentley sleeping.  :) He just looked so precious holding his Mickey with Goofy sleeping next to him.  If you put him on the bed with a blanket and he has Mickey and Goofy, they have to be right next to him on either side and the blanket has to be on them too. 

 I'm pretty sure he will be right handed because he predominately uses his right hand but sometimes he'll color with his left hand.  I caught him doing it one morning and snapped a picture to send to Brady. 

 I had to run to Academy to do some Christmas shopping for Kolton.  Bentley fell asleep in the car and I could not get him to wake up.  No matter what I did he would just close his eyes and try to lay down again.  haha.  So I took of my scarf and put that down for him to try and make his headrest a little softer. 

 One morning the sunrise was beautiful.  These colors are straight from the camera...no filter, no editing.  Its so pretty!

 Friday, the 11th, Kolton had his second basketball game.  He said when he got home from school that day that his finger kind of hurt but it didn't look swollen or anything so I told him he'd be ok.  We went to his game and he scored 12 points and did awesome helping his team to another victory.  That night after his game his finger hurt more and was kind of swollen.  So, the next morning, while Brady was gone hunting, I took him to the Urgent Care to get it checked out.  The doctor didn't x-ray it but said it didn't look broken, it was probably just jammed pretty good and it messed with his tendons and ligaments pretty good so it would hurt for a while.  She put the splint on and said he needed to wear it for at least a week and that after a week his finger should start to feel significantly better. 

 Kolton will go and play video games in our room and Bentley has to join him.  :) He never has the right kind of controller but still thinks he's playing with his big brother.  And Kolton always pretends to cheer him on.  It is super sweet.