The Holidays

I'm trying to play catch up here because we have been sooooooo busy over the past two months! If we weren't hosting a holiday and spending every second with family, we were sick and dying on the couch. If we weren't lying on the couch dying, we were working and wishing we were at home lying on the couch dying. Now we are finally getting our health back and the Christmas decorations have officially been put away, so it's time to recap!

Austin and I decorated our Christmas tree together and he loved it! We had the music going, the apple pie scented candle burning, and together we put together a masterpiece which he then went about undecorating and then redecorating over again. Every morning he would run to the tree and say "On!" because he wanted us to turn it on. Once we plugged it in he would then get really excited and say, "OOOoooo! Pretty!"

Austin met Santa for the first time this year! We don't know what he thought of the experience because he made no expression whatsoever.... But he sure liked the cool giant gold key Santa was wearing around his neck :).

The family Christmas picture that never got turned into a Christmas card..... Oh well, someday I will have it all together.....

Along with the decorating, Austin also helped me do some pre-Christmas baking!

His job was to turn on the blender and he took it very seriously.

We made cream cheese danishes on Christmas Eve to put in the oven for breakfast on Christmas morning! They were soooooo delicious and might just be our new yearly tradition!

Like I said before, Austin LOVED our tree! He pulled it down on top of himself more times than I can count and by the end of the holidays we only had half of the ornaments left that hadn't been lost or broken. He's sure a handful but he really made the spirit of Christmas come alive for us this year!

A few days before Christmas my Dad made a surprise visit to see us! Austin has only met his Grandpa Helm once in his life (when he was 6 months old) so it took him a little while to warm up. But once he did, they had a fun time :).

Great Grandma Helm brought Austin that singing snowman and it quickly became his favorite toy! He carried it around with him EVERYWHERE and loved pushing the button to turn the music on and off.

This was the first time my Dad had seen our new house so I had fun showing him around and then we sat in the living room and talked/played with Austin. I could tell the role of being a Grandpa was foreign to him but he warmed up fast to Austin (it's hard not to) and I enjoyed watching them play together on the floor.

Once Josh got home from work, we went out to dinner! Austin was a little terror as usual so we all took turns going outside with him to let him run around while everyone else ate and talked. My Dad seemed fascinated with us and watching us be parents. Like I said, he doesn't come around much and hasn't seen us in this role yet. By the end of the night he told us how proud he was and how good of a job we are doing. He also said how much Austin reminds him of me when I was a baby because of how serious he gets about learning and experiencing new things. I loved having this little experience with him and hope he comes around again soon! It kills me that Austin will grow up not really knowing his blood Grandpa very well......

Showing Grandpa Helm all of his toys.

Christmas Eve was spent with just us three. We watched Christmas movies and went to Panda Express for dinner. While we were there we befriended a homeless guy and bought him some Christmas Eve dinner as well. I spent the rest of the night thinking about all of our many blessings and how grateful I am to have my family together in our cozy home drinking egg nog on Christmas Eve.

On Christmas morning we woke up to presents from Santa and a yummy breakfast! The best part of the morning was watching Austin and being a part of his excitement :).

Checking out his Stocking and seeing what Santa brought!

Looking over Mom and Dad's stockings to see if there was anything good.

Asking Mom to open up his new toy!

Santa brought him a whole safari full of animals to play with because he knew how much Austin LOVES animals!

My two studs in the new Christmas Jammies sent from Grandma Porter :).

Sitting in Mom's lap while it was Dad's turn to open his gifts....

....then deciding he was taking too long and going over there to open them for him ;). After opening presents and eating breakfast, we got dressed and ready for the rest of the party to show up! Austin and Dad had a lot of fun playing with Austin's toys while we waited ;).

Once Grandma Porter showed up, Austin got to open some of his gifts early! His favorite was this giant stuffed monkey! He had so much fun hugging it, jumping on it, and dragging it all around the house with him :).

Great Grandpa Frank has a long list of ailments that prevents him from coming to a lot of family functions so we were happy he made it to this one!

As usual, the men sat around talking while the women ran around cooking, laughing, and taking lots and lots of pictures!

Picture with Great Grandma Porter!

Hanging out in the kitchen and chatting about my Mom's disgusting fermented drink that she somehow manages to swallow. Oh the things we women do for our health....

Picture with my baby sister! I can't believe she is going to graduate from High School in just a few short months!

Austin and Grandma playing with his new electric truck. He and his Dad spent the entire morning driving this thing around. It was quite the hit!

Awwwweee.... loves :).

This picture captures perfectly how hard it is to get a group photo in my family! There's always too much going on and it is so hard to get everyone to focus! I love it though :).

Sisters, Mommy, and the only grandchild (plus baby in my belly!)

We hardly ever get pictures with Nate because he is usually in the background somewhere trying to keep away from our girly craziness.... ;)

Austin and his new BFF!

Grandma and Grandpa Porter also bought Austin a new table for Christmas! It has been perfect for him and he loves having little picnics at it with his buddy :).

Eating our Christmas feast!

Austin attempting to use his fork to feed himself. He makes such a mess but is determined to not be a baby anymore :(.

We tried getting a good family picture but this is how it went.....

.....so we kicked out the trouble maker and got a good one of Mom and Dad (and sister)!

The next day we had a little Christmas with Great Grandma Helm! We met up with her, Sadie, and my Uncle Ken and Aunt Diana at the Conductor's Room inside the Railroad Pass Casino and enjoyed a wonderful fancy meal together. Or more like everyone else enjoyed their meal while Sadie and I wrestled with Austin and I got all my food to go...

Afterwards we went back to Grandma's house and opened presents!

Josh and Sadie checking out all of Austin's new books.

We love Grandma so much and especially love her generous Christmases!

As you can see, we had quite the Christmas! Sadly, the day after we celebrated with Grandma Helm we got super sick :(. So for two weeks afterwards we were out for the count. That meant that our New Years was extremely pathetic and we were in bed and asleep by 9:00pm. I guess we just partied too hard this year!