Look what I can do!

Christmas Day!

Happy Birthday, Jesus!

Christmas day started off with opening up stockings before we headed over to Oma & Opa's for the Byeman Christmas celebration! Jaelyn got the honors of opening up Benjamin's gifts all day...at this point she is enjoying them more than he is!

One of Ben's new books, "The Bear Snores On"

Jaelyn enjoying her Winne the Pooh sticker book!

Daddy helping Jaelyn play her whistle...I thought this might be an annoying toy...but not until she opened up THIS is her stocking:



Oh, boy...not sure about this gift Santa brought the girls!

Nice work, Santa...perfect addition for her dress up clothes!

The crew before we opened up the gifts under the tree!

After the kiddos took their afternoon naps, we headed to the Bellevue Botanical Gardens d'Lights! It was pretty amazing to see all the lights used to create the displays.

Wow!! Beautiful! Supposedly they had 7800 man hours to create the blooms...& that's on top of the flowers they kept from years past! They are maxed out on power at this point...so no additional displays unless they switch over to led's!

This is how the kids strolled through the park!


We came back to Oma & Opa's for a yummy Christmas dinner...and then we headed home...exhausted! A wonderful Christmas! :)

Family Christmas

We celebrated Christmas as a family on Christmas Eve. We had a great day together! We started off the day with a yummy breakfast: egg/sausage dish, fresh fruit, & mommy's favorite sour cream coffee cake. While Benjamin took his morning nap, the 3 of us got ready for the day & played/relaxed. Once Ben woke up it was time for PRESENTS...then naptime for us all...pizza dinner at Oma & Opa's house with the whole family...followed by the candlelight church service. It was a fun day as a family.

Merry 1st Christmas, Benjamin!

Probably Jaelyn's favorite gift this year: a scooter from my Dad. She was SO excited after she opened it up & figured out what it was. She absolutely loves it & couldn't wait to ride it! Her next gift (from us) was dress-up clothes. I thought this would also be a "hit"...but not so much after getting her scooter! I should have known better...this girl is an athlete through & through....not so much a girly-girl. We'll see though...give it some time & I bet she will enjoy playing dress up in all the fun princess dresses.

Benjamin got a few gifts too...had to taste test them all! Jaelyn got a piggy bank her 1st Christmas, so Ben had to as well! I think he likes it! Ha. No worries...there are soccer balls on the other side of the piggy bank.

Benjamin is starting to sit up unassisted! Pretty cool. (Not that we compare our kids..but that's 1 month ahead of Jaelyn!)

Jaelyn was such a good helper unwrapping Benjamin's gifts. He doesn't mind this year!

It was a beautiful/sunny day & we had to get outside & try the scooter...you think she likes this gift? :)

Christmas Cookies

We decorated Christmas cookies with the girls this year! Such a fun activity for the girls to do all.by.themselves! I *tried* to make the cut out cookies...but will need to acquire some better skills & patience to have them look right! Not sure if I didn't roll the dough thin enough, but 1/2 of the cookies came out looking like blobs (you couldn't tell you were holding a bell, mitten, or star!). At any rate, Oma came to the rescue & ordered some cut out cookies from the bakery! YUM!

Spreading the frosting on the cookie all by herself and putting on as much as she wanted!!

Concentrating hard to decorate her cookie with sprinkles!

This is such fun...but she wanted a paper towel close by so that she could clean her hands frequently! She didn't like getting her hands all messy with the frosting!

Thanks Auntie Karen for helping me! :)

Elisabeth working hard at decorating her cookies!

And, the morning with Nancy or Karen wouldn't be complete without getting my nails painted by Nancy or Karen...and then painting Nancy's nails! Wow...what a treat! :)

The best part of the morning....eating the cookies!!

Cousins!!

We took the 5 cousins to get their picture taken together! We pumped ourselves up for a crazy, sweat-filled 30 minutes to get *one* photo of the kiddos (based on previous experiences we've had!). But the kids proved us wrong! They all did great! :) Next time we do this Elisabeth will have a brother or sister to hold on to as well!

Elisabeth, Jaelyn & Benjamin, Jake & Alexis

Putting up the Christmas Tree

We had lots of fun putting up our Christmas tree this year! It was such fun for Jaelyn to place the ornaments on the tree...she loved it! She is growing up way too fast! She had a ton of questions for every ornament she put up (i.e. who gave it to us, what exactly it was, etc). She loved being Mommy's little helper....and only one ornament casualty! I didn't know whether or not I could put wrapped gifts under the tree (& have them stayed wrapped!)...but she doesn't even touch them! She loves to just look at the pretty tree! :)

Look very closely...Jaelyn has a pony tail in her hair!! :)