Christmas 2015

I'm late again in posting, but better late than never right?  We had an amazing Christmas season - it's definitely my favorite time of year!  I love the magical feeling in the air and all of the decorations and lights around town!  I also love seeing Matthew get so excited about the same things now that he's old enough to better understand it.  I had hoped to do a lot of the traditional Christmas things with him (Christmas cookies, Santa, etc), but time got away from me.  Also, Mike and Matthew went to Illinois to visit family right before Christmas so there just wasn't time.  We did manage to go see Christmas lights and introduce Matthew to the crazy inflatables at the house on Convington Drive in North Little Rock!  He now wants a lot of inflatables for our yard - ummm...no!

While Mike and Matthew were in Illinois, I had some quality time with Samuel!  We hope to be able to take Samuel to Illinois next Christmas so he can meet our family there, but only time will tell.  It just depends on his health, and the health of others.  Thankfully, we have 11 months for him to grow and for his lungs to get healthier before we have to make a decision.  I loved getting to focus on Samuel and his therapy during our alone time.  I was also able to play with him more than usual - he's so much fun!  I did miss my other two boys though.

He was in little boy heaven with all of the trackers!

Climbing to the top of the silo with daddy!

Christmas day, we went to my parents house.  We had a yummy breakfast before opening presents.  While Matthew tore into his gifts, I opened Samuel's for him.  Matthew got a lot of cars, a car transporter, remote control cars, clothes, and other toys & games.  My parents surprised us with a full blown cowboy outfit for Matthew and it's the cutest thing ever!  He now has a hat, boots, belt, shirt, handcuffs, gun (suction sup), and a star badge.  It's pretty awesome!  He also got a ride-on jeep...this was definitely his fave!  After opening all the gifts and relaxing a while, we had lunch.  It was just like when I was growing up and I love that my boys get to experience the same thing!  

My favorite gift that I gave were signs that I found on Etsy.  My grandparents got a sign that reads "Great Grandkids" in the background and underneath it says "Make Life Grand".  There are several clothes pins attached at the bottom for them to display pictures.  For my parents, I found an Etsy site that custom makes signs also.  My boys call them Emie and Pops and there are never any grandparent things with those names on them.  Their sign says "Pops and Emie Established August 2012".  I wanted them to have something with their unique grandparent names and I thought this was perfect!

 

The day after Christmas, we headed up to Conway for the Fleisher Christmas.  This one cracks me up because it's 5 kids under the age of 4 ripping into presents.  We pass them out one at a time and watch as they each open a gift.  Samuel got more clothes and a multitude of light up toys!  Matthew stocked up on Octonaut characters and their ships, plus Paw Patrol & Jake and the Neverland Pirate toys.  His big gift from them was a big boy bike!  We haven't put it together yet because we are waiting on finding a new house and for the weather to warm up.  I know he will love it!

Overall, Christmas 2015 was a huge success!  Matthew keeps asking about when Santa will come again, so we are trying to teach him about the concept of waiting 11 months - haha!  I want my boys to know to true meaning of Christmas, so it's my goal this coming year to do a better job of incorporating the story of Christmas.  Any ideas are welcome! 

Christmas 2014

It was this time last year that we were announcing to family and friends that we were expecting baby #2!  Crazy how time flies!  This year, I really wanted to do a few special things with Matthew because I know he's had a rough year also.  I made a little Christmas "bucket list", but only accomplished a few of them.  Matthew and I made a gingerbread house and Christmas cookies.  Both were not easy to hold the attention of a 2 year old for long, but he loved it!  My parents took him to see Christmas lights, which was on the list.  My hope is that next year we can do everything on the list as a family of 4 :-)

Anyways, we really did have a wonderful Christmas.  What made it even more special, was that we were given the go-ahead to take Samuel to our family Christmas celebrations as long as everyone was healthy.  Yes, we were taking a risk, but our family needed a little normalcy.  

On Christmas Eve, my parents came over to give Matthew his first present...a trampoline!  Oh, he loved it!  That night, he opened our Christmas Eve box that had matching PJs for him and Samuel, a Christmas book, Alvin and the Chipmunks Christmas DVD, and hot chocolate.  We spent time as a family enjoying some relaxation by just watching a movie!

We went to my parents house early Christmas day.  Matthew was very excited about opening gifts...much different than last year.  After breakfast, we passed out the gifts.  Matthew tore through his so quickly, it was hard to see everything he got.  It was so much fun having him ask me to open every new toy that he opened.  Samuel just chilled in either mine or Mike's arms, but he did a great job!  He even got to meet a few of our neighbors that have been praying for him along the way.  That night, we celebrated Christmas with just the 4 of us and played with Matthew's new train set.

The next day, we went to my in-laws in Conway.  This was the first time for all 5 grandkids to be together at the same time, so it was definitely a special occasion.  Present time was insane with 5 little ones aged 3 and under!!!  Wrapping paper was flying everywhere, happy laughter/squeals were heard every 30 seconds...it was madness!  I can only imagine what next year will bring?!?!?!

Here are pictures of our 2014 Christmas...

He was in a trance watching Alvin & the Chipmunks

Ready for Christmas morning

Taylor family Christmas

He loves his new grill!  Immediately started cooking us food :-)

He has a love/hate relationship with this new seat

The Fleisher Five!

Samuel (8 months), Matthew (2 y/o), Alli (3 y/o), Emily (1 y/o), & Juliette (5 months)

He LOVES Grammie & Grandpas cat!

 Matthew's gifts - spoiled much???  This doesn't even include clothes and a few other toys

Samuel's gifts - he also got several new outfits!

This was our project in order to make room for all of the boys new goodies!  

I hope all of you had a very Merry Christmas.  I will do my Year in Review soon!

Christmas 2013

So I am officially getting way behind keeping up with this blog!  Now that Matthew is into everything, I am exhausted by the time he goes to bed.  His bedtime is now my bedtime too!  We did have a wonderful end to 2013 (I will do my yearly review in another post).  Christmas was so different with a 16 month old compared to a 4 month old.  Matthew loved opening and climbing on his gifts.  We, of course, made the trip to see Santa and got a priceless pic!  This year we went to Bass Pro Shop to play in their Christmas area.  We spent Christmas Eve at my parents house.  Every year we have Christmas brunch before opening gifts - delicious every year!  Christmas morning, we ate breakfast as a family before opening gifts.  We then headed to Conway to celebrate Christmas with Mike's family.  Here are the only pics I got of our celebrations:

Told ya - classic!

Working on a reindeer craft at Bass Pro

Christmas Eve at my parents - love my little family!

Christmas morning breakfast

Matthew loved his tent w/ tunnel!

He's wearing the pj's I put in his Christmas Eve box.  It included pj's for Christmas morning, a Veggie Tales Christmas movie, and Christmas book.

The day after Christmas, the Fleisher family drove to Illinois to visit the rest of the Fleisher/Carlson side of the family.  It was an interesting trip because Matthew ran fever the whole time since he was cutting 3 teeth (1 being a molar) - poor thing!

M's First Christmas & NYE

We have had a lot of firsts over the past few weeks - first Christmas, first snow, and first NYE!  Leading up to Christmas we took Matthew to see Santa.  We didn't want to endure the long lines at the mall, so we took advantage of our local Lion's Club Pancake Breakfast.  We went to the community center and were able to have a delicious breakfast AND get Matthew's picture with Santa.  While we saved time, I do wish the Santa had been one with an authentic beard - the pic makes him look a little creepy (sorry Santa).

Matthew also got to see his first Christmas Light display over break.  We took him through the Burns Park Christmas Light display with my parents.  Mike and I took turns holding him in the backseat while pointing out the lights and characters.  He, surprisingly, really like it.  He was in awe of the lights and movement.  I can't wait to take him around town next year to look at more lights - and to the house in Sherwood that famously covers their lawn in inflatable Christmas characters.

On Christmas Eve, we stopped by my Great Aunt Shirley's house for some dessert and family time.  After we got home, we opened our gifts as our new family of 3.  Of course, Matthew was more interested in the wrapping paper than anything else.  I can't wait until next year when he will be more active in his gift opening.

 With his gifts from mommy and daddy - doesn't he look thrilled :-)

On Christmas morning, we woke up early and traveled to my parents house.  Before opening gifts we had our traditional Christmas brunch - yummy!  Matthew was so cute with his new toys.  He especially liked the musical ball my mom got him.  After a quick lunch we then traveled to Conway for the Fleisher Christmas.  We apparently wore Matthew out that morning because he slept through the whole Fleisher Christmas.  When he did wake up, we were able to get a few cousin pictures with Alli.  We had to leave early because of the winter weather.  We were greeted by a house with no power once we got home.  Our entire town was out of power - crazy!  Because of this, we packed up Matthew and Bella and braved the sleet/slush in order to stay with my parents.  Praise the Lord they never lost power!  We ended up having to stay with them for 2 nights.  That Thursday, we left for Illinois to see the rest of the Fleisher family.  We drove 10.5 hours there and came back Sunday.  It was so great to see everyone and celebrate Christmas with them as well.  It was also special because it was their first time to meet Matthew!

 I love my little family

 playing with his musical ball from his Emie

 He fell asleep in his great grandmothers arms - precious!

 Having fun with Emie and Pop

 Such as happy boy

 Matthew's gift from his Uncle Jim - can you guess what it is???

Sweet cousins :-)

After unpacking and going through all of Matthew's gifts, it was very evident that he is very loved and maybe a little spoiled :-)  Now we've had to rearrange/organize his nursery to make room for all of his new things.

With all of our travels, winter weather, and not being in the comforts of our own home, Matthew's first NYE was very low key.  We all went to bed early and had an early dinner at my parents house the next day.  Poor buddy was still a little out of sorts after so much traveling.

I hope everyone has a blessed 2013!  Ours is starting of blessed because we get to spend it with this little guy :-)