Christmas Morning at Home

Presents from Mom and Dad. I made some fun labels the night before and love how they came out.

 The crew ready to get downstairs and be done with Mom taking pictures.

 And they're off!

 I love that you can see the excitement in this picture. The big two were running around like crazy and Grayson was all about the cookies Santa ate.

 Grayson's present.

 Totally recommend this toy. It's big, but is getting played with all the time. Fisher-Price Loops and Swoops Amusement Park.

 Levi and his Big Wheel.

 Doc McStuffins. She had been asking for it for months and then the night before changed her mind and told me she wanted a skateboard???!!!

 Headlamps from Santa were a big hit.

 Santa pancakes for breakfast. The banana nose made Santa look a little "piggish":)

After breakfast we finished baking what we needed to and loaded up to head to the Stejskals...

Christmas Eve at our house

Looking for Santa. Katie came home with a bag of reindeer food to spread for Santa and they were beyond excited.

 Levi is putting the keys under our mat. Santa can magically make any key fit the lock of houses that don't have a fireplace:)

 Milk and cookies out for Santa.

Then off to bed the kiddos went while Mommy and Daddy ran around wrapping gifts, cooking for the next day, and getting everything prepped to leave in the morning.

Christmas Eve with the Walkers

Katie started out the evening by taking some pictures. Quickly cooking some veggies since I mixed up the message that I was supposed to bring them!

 Dad is ready for Christmas.

 And now for the family shots...

 Levi was done with pictures and ready for presents.

 We didn't figure out until later that the camera was focusing on the table.

We went to the candle light Christmas Eve service. Went back to my folks house for dinner. Sang Happy Birthday to Jesus and had cake and then opened family gifts up. Then off to our house for Christmas night prep.

Christmas!

We had a great Christmas this year. It was really fun being in our new house and figuring out where to put everything. We did not have a new baby, a graduation or anything really major going on. We spent the month making snowflakes, watching Christmas movies, putting up our Jesse tree ornaments and celebrating Jesus!

 

Annual pictures before we headed out to look at Christmas lights.

 This picture perfectly captures our goofy family.

 Poor Levi's nose. He face-planted off the swing-set and sported a bit of a Rudolph look through Christmas.

 Pointing at the star! Gray didn't want to wear his matching Jammies that night because he wanted his snowman jammies:)

Levi is 4

Birthdays seem to come so quickly around here. Especially Levi's. Being just one week after Christmas, when everyone is experiencing the Christmas crash is a tough one. I determined to not let his birthday go by without a big party. He has been so excited for months about this. He determined a while back that he wanted a volcano party and we did our best to oblige. It was a really fun day and we had lots of friends come to celebrate this sweet boy.

 

Making his volcano cake.  I realized after I put the cake in the over for 7 minutes I forgot the eggs! I pulled it back out, mixed them in, and thankfully it came out fine!

 Such a classic Levi expression.

 A real smile! I am getting lots of cheesy grins these days.

 Birthday doughnuts! He wore his red shirt and black pants so he would look like a volcano.

 We got him the v-tech switch and go dino he has been wanting and he was so happy!

 Volcano cake.

 Opening gifts early with Grandma and Grandpa Walker. They took Katie back to their house  for the party because she was really sick.

 Excavating Dino bones in the garage. The kids were so excited when they found them! We got a mold set on amazon and made concrete bones.

 Lava decorations. You can see the rope lights under the cloth! My sister helped set up so much. It was such a blessing to have an extra hand to help with everything.

 Dino cookies. Those are supposed to be bones:)

 One more cake shot. The candles were sparklers and I made his name with a glue gun, glitter and toothpicks!

 Shooting off the diet-coke/mentos volcano. The kids faces are all in the window.

 This was Levi's favorite part. It was over pretty quick but we did get some great reactions from the kids.

 Levi was not a fan of the sparklers, but he tried so hard to be polite and not freak out.

 Lots of help with presents as usual at a kid party:)

 

Levi is such a joy to our family. He is kind and empathetic. He always is the first to react to any one in our family being sad. He will run and get Grayson's blanket if he is crying and loves to help Katie. He is the boy that smaller kids attach to and want to play with. He loves them and speaks so kindly and tries to help them out. He gets engrossed in whatever he is doing. Watching a movie, building Lego's, doing a puzzle, throwing a tantrum:)  He is very particular about things, he does not like white puffy foods, like marshmallows, and whipped cream. He has pretty much given up naps. However he is ready for bed by 6:30 on days he doesn't nap.  He is so fast on his balance bike, but not ready for a 2-wheeler yet. He loves having a Mohawk or spiky hair. He is independent and likes his space, but loves to help too. Our lives are all better for having him around us. We love him and can't wait to keep watching him grow.