Christmas

The Sunday before Christmas, Boston woke up in the middle of the night throwing up. 

Yes, exactly ONE week almost down to the exact time that Hudson was throwing up.  I felt so bad for the poor boy and just prayed he would be healthy for Christmas.  Since my Bubba was sick, I stayed home while Kent took Hudson to church.  I let Boston rest as I finished packing and loading the car for our trip to Louisiana!!!  Thankfully, Boston slept comfortably (well as comfortable as you can in a car) on the drive and we had ZERO throw up on the way.  I was nervous but I'm pretty sure the Dramamine we gave him saved us.  He was a trooper.  Love that boy. 

 And yes, thankfully, he was healthy for Christmas day...okay minus the throw up he had that morning which we soon realized was more then likely from constipation then the sickness he had 2 days prior.  Once we took care of that with our first experience using an enema, the problem was completely solved! TMI?

On Christmas Eve, it's always been a tradition to open ONE present.

The last few years, Boston has always been disappointed

And Hudson has always been so excited (I'm sure this will wear off in a few years)!

Without any planning, Kari and I opened the SAME PJ's this year. 

Then we headed over to Carol's house for Christmas Eve with the Hooper family. 

Hudson just LOVED the books Grandma gave him.  He still has me read "Goodnight Train" on a regular basis around here.

And poor Boston had another disappointing moment.  He opened his cousin gift only to find a BARBIE inside!  He was totally sad!  Uncle Jeff had played a prank on him and BOY DID IT WORK! 

 This boy was in TEARS!  He saw the Barbie and just DROPPED it to the floor and hid his face in Kent's chest just in tears!! 

Thankfully, Jeff redeemed himself when Boston opened his REAL gift...MARIO TOYS!

Melia is our little equestrian.  She LOVES her horses and couldn't get enough of this horse jacket she got.

By the end of the night, the room was destroyed with boxes and wrapping paper but everyone was happy!  We finished the night off with a reenactment by all the kids of the birth of baby Jesus.  Boston was lucky enough to play Joseph. It was so cute seeing the whole thing.

We hurried home and got in our Christmas jammies

Can you tell the struggle I had to get this family picture?

Then it was off to bed so Santa could come deliver the toys. 

There's not much in the world that beats seeing your kid's faces on Christmas morning. 

I'm probably JUST as excited as they are about it.

Hudson couldn't wait for breakfast (and in the Bluth house, Papa doesn't get to start making his famous Christmas breakfast until almost noon or later on Christmas Day), so he started going to town on what was in his stocking to eat!

This year, we really tried to stress with Boston the importance of GIVING vs receiving. 

He picked out this semi that carried cars to give to Hudson. 

He kept telling Hudson, "Huddy Hud, you are going to LOVE it!"

Of course it is VERY important to give but it is still fun to receive (and Boston's reactions NEVER disappoint)!

My dad had requested a small food processor when he saw mine during Thanksgiving.  This man has so many kitchen gadgets...let's hope this one actually gets used!

Hudson gave Bubba some "boxing gloves"...they love it and so does their mama because NO ONE gets hurt...as of yet anyway!

Uncle Tanor was sweet to think of the boys and made them homemade marshmallow guns!  These are used on a regular basis and I seem to find marshmallows EVERYWHERE!!!

I surprised Kent with some good tickets to see the Rockets vs Clippers basketball game.  He LOVES his basketball and ESPECIALLY loves him some Blake Griffin.  I love pulling off a good gift!

Boston had requested camo like his daddy's for when they ride the four wheeler. 

Now the boys have their crocs and their camo for riding....TRUE COUNTRY FOLKS right here!

Are we from Louisiana or WHAT?!

We had TERRIBLE weather Christmas day with tornado warnings and all.  It's the first time Boston has EVER been nervous during a storm (Mimi yelling "GET IN THE BATHROOM! Did you hear the alarm???"  Didn't help either...love you mom;))  So we spent the rest of our day hunkered down...although I did make my family get dressed for a Christmas picture!

And the boys tried to stay occupied playing on the new iPads my dad surprised us all with this year.

Our Christmas was wonderful. 

 I love when this time comes each year. 

 I love teaching my little family about the TRUE meaning of Christmas and seeing their little minds start to understand and most importantly believe. 

I've always thought about Mary but I have TRULY, TRULY started to just understand and love her more when I gave birth to Hudson two years ago at Christmas time.  It has changed my thoughts on her forever.

Just Believe. 

Merry Christmas! 

Prepping for Christmas

Holidays are always a busy time.  I really tried this year to make quite a few memorable Christmas experiences for our family because that's what's most important this time of year.  Here's a quick recap of our week right before Christmas:

Polar Express day at school.  Boston got to wear his PJ's and bring his teddy (B) to school.  They got to drink hot chocolate, read the story, watch the movie and even got a visit from Santa.  Not sure if they did anything else in relation to the book....that's just all the info I got out of my five year old's recap of his day.

The next day was Boston's holiday party at school.  I got to go help with it and spend time with Boston.  I love seeing him in his school environment and seeing all the faces of the kids he talks about in his class.

After the party, I checked him out and we grabbed some Menchie's, JUST THE TWO OF US.

And Boston brought home his sweet Christmas card from school

We made our annual Christmas deliveries to all our friends

The Saturday before Christmas, Santa dropped by the boy's BIG Christmas gift.  It was too big to bring to Mimi and Papa's so, he was nice and dropped it off early. 

 Boston was in AWE because he said there was even SNOW on the tramp straight from the North Pole (aka frost from the night before)

The boys got a chance to meet Santa....thank you Bass Pro Shop...they don't look overly thrilled here but trust me, they were pretty excited!  It was Hudson's first time meeting him but showed NO expression sitting on his lap yet practically RAN to Santa when he saw him.

Bass Pro Shop had TONS for all the kids to do.  We took full advantage.  We love this place.

Then we got to see Santa AGAIN in The Woodlands right before we left for Louisiana. 

The Hubbards were in town for the holidays so we were lucky enough to meet up, eat some dinner, meet Santa, and play outside where the carolers were singing around the Christmas tree.

This time, Boston actually got the time to talk to Santa and tell him what he wanted for Christmas...the Mario and Sonic Olympics Wii game.

 All just in time for Christmas.

We're Not in Kansas Any More

Two weekends before Christmas, we made the trip one last time to Kansas City.  Little Sophie was getting baptized and we just couldn't miss it. 

We pulled Boston out of school, made a quick stop in Dallas to see these cute faces over night...

Then got to Kansas Wednesday afternoon. 

While the girls were in school on Thursday, we got to visit LEGOLAND!!!!!

The boys were thrilled....well atleast Boston and Charlie were.

Legos were EVERYWHERE!  Heaven for boys!

They had a whole room dedicated to buildings in Kansas City made straight from Legos....even the adults were VERY impressed.

And even the adults joined in on building with the giant legos....you're never too old.

The massive play area made the boys SWEAT from head to toe!

But we probably spent most of our time racing the lego built cars...

But only because these two were determined to make the FASTEST car

When we were finished with LegoLand, Boston had requested visiting FRITZ'S.  He LOVES this restaurant and didn't want to miss out eating here one last time!

Some genius invented this cool place.  You order your food on the telephone and a TRAIN delivers the food straight to your table!

ANY TIME you heard the train whistle blow, this kids face LIT up!  You've never seen boys sit so well at a restaurant!

Although, the older boys still tend to act out a little...

Friday was Sophie's BIRTHDAY!  She turned EIGHT!  SO glad we could be there on her birthday to celebrate.

That night, Kristin had a DUAL party for Sophie and Rylee.  Since they are moving the day after Christmas, she wanted them both to have a party for their birthday (Rylee's birthday is Jan. 9) and kind of a going away party for them too.  My boys LOVE a good bounce house, so once again, everyone was in heaven.

Saturday was Sophie's baptism day.  We are so proud of her for making the decision to get baptized.  This is a huge step in her life and a wonderful choice in bringing her closer to her Heavenly Father.

Chad baptized Sophie and it was so sweet and neat to see. 

We are grateful for her example to us and to my boys.

Another perk of going to Kansas, is being able to see our good friends from college, Ross and Lindsay!  They were some of our closest friends during our days at BYU-Idaho.  We miss not being closer to them.  Boston LOVED playing with their boys and I still get him asking me when he's going to get to play with Braden (their oldest boy) again. 

Also, my thoughts and prayers have been with Lindsay during these holidays.  Lindsay found a lump on her throat one day and went in and had tests run only to find out that she had thyroid cancer.  Just like that...she's 28 with three young boys and a life ahead of her.  She just had it removed yesterday and we are continuously keeping them in our prayers.  I just can't imagine. 

Praying for good results. 

 Love you Lindsay and Ross. 

A visit with cousins is never complete without a little DS playing

We did some gingerbread house making too. 

This stuff stresses me out but I also love it all at the same time.  Is that possible? 

Houses falling over when candy is put on, candy sliding off and not sticking, tears, anger...oh gingerbread houses are just WONDERFUL! 

 Luckily, everyone was smiles in the end.

And of course what makes it even BETTER is when Kent shows everyone how he can stick licorice down his throat and bring it back up in one piece!  Now that's talent people...

We had plans to leave Sunday morning early, EARLY.  Plans changed a little when Hudson woke up around 2 am covered in throw up!  He had no fever or anything so my first thought went to concussion.  He nailed his head REALLY hard earlier that night and got a MASSIVE bruise on the forehead.  He spent most of the night throwing up every 30 minutes.  By about 5:30, finally the throw up subsided, we all got a little sleep and got up around 8 to get things packed to hit to road.   I hate having my poor boys throwing up.  It makes me so sad for them.  I just want to cuddle them and take it all away! 

 After an hour or so of being up, Hudson was pretty much back to normal...eating, laughing...all normal...thankfully.  We made the trip back to Houston safe and sound.  Sadly, our last Kansas trip came to a close....but we are SO happy that they have now made the move to DALLAS and are only 4 short hours away!!!!!!!!!!! Boston is a little upset at the fact that they won't have a basement in Dallas though....