Missouri Family Pictures

Since all of the family was together, we decided to take advantage of the opportunity and take family pictures. We have added two new members since last year, Chris and Radley. I have to say, they are both great additions to the family!! Considering there was no professional photographer and we used the timer on the camera to get all of us in one shot, I think they turned out really good!

Not too shabby for a bunch of rowdy boys

The Entire Crew

I can't get enough of these cute boys!!

Having some fun with Aunt Sara between shots!

The famous Papa Dude baby pose!

Mom and Damon

Oma and Damon

Papa Dude and his boys

The boys couldn't wait to finish with pictures and play in the leaves.  Kyler coundn't even wait for me to get him a new shirt, so I made him take off the one he had on for pictures.

So fun to jump in the leaves and throw them.

Even as he gets older, he is still adorable!

Oh Louie!  Damon did not quite like him much at first, but by the time we left, he even gave Louie a hug!

This is about how close Kyler got the whole time.  He neither liked or disliked Louie.

Bule Eyes!

Christmas Day

The boys had a fantastic Christmas this year. Between 3 sets of grandparents and amazing aunts and uncles, the boys got WAY more than they necessary!! It was fun to watch them open presents and see their faces light up. We had a blast just watching them!! The morning started off slow, but they got excited pretty quick, especially once they figured out there was candy in their stockings. Kyler and Damon each got a bike from Santa, so we will be making many more trips to the park. All of their dressers are now stuffed to the brim with clothes, and we made off with some toys and movies too! I think Damon enjoyed the music of Christmas the most. He was singing Jingle Bells for a week straight. He would just be playing nicely and start singing it without any thought. It was really cute! Kyler is starting to understand this Santa stuff a lot more, so it was really fun to see him get excited. And Radley just had fun eating the wrapping paper! I am still amazed how loved we are, especially our boys. Thanks to all of our friends and family for a wonderful Christmas season!

Santa arrived with bikes and Scooby Doo movies.  Kyler told Santa that he wanted Scooby Doo for Christmas, and I think the movies satisfied that request! (Just in case you are wondering, that huge stocking is Kenney's.  He got it as a joke the first Christmas we were married, now it's his forever!  Someone asked me if we filled it up.  Yeah right!  That thing is massive!)

Lots of presents under the tree!

The boys had just as much fun passing out the presents as they did opening them.  I'm glad it doesn't take much to make them happy!

Teamwork!  That one was heavy.  It was full of pink dishes for Auntie Shandi

It was really hard to get a good picture of them opening presents.  I wish I could have gotten their faces a little bit more.

Sweet little Radley hardly made a peep.  Papa Dude helped him to open presents.

One of Damon's favorite things, CARS!!

Kyler trying out the Ironman costume he got.

Radley's little collection of gifts.

Here is a little clip of our Christmas morning.

Getting Ready for Christmas

This year we went to Missouri to Oma & Papa Dude's house for Christmas. Shandi and her husband Chris also made the trip to Missouri, so all 5 girls were home!  The boys absolutely LOVED being there!!  Between the movies, toys, treats, juice boxes and family, the boys could not get enough!!  They were completely exhausted everyday.
 

Damon slept so crazy and snored almost every night!

Aunt Sara was the best!  She played and took care of the boys a lot.  I love the little grin on Damon's face.  He had fun watching his cars fall down the stairs.

They waited until we got there to decorate for Christmas since we didn't get any decorations out at our house. The boys had a good time.  Kyler was a really good helper and brought most of the boxes from downstairs up to all of us.  Here he is helping Papa Dude put out the Nativity.

Oma found some kid snow stuff.  They all thought Radley looked cute in this hat.

Kyler liked to help put presents under the tree.

Since we don't have a gaming system at our house, the boys had fun playing on the PlayStation. The really liked the driving game.  Kyler was actually pretty good.

This little guy hardly sat on the ground because there were so many people there to pick him up.  He is going to have a hard time once it's just Mom around.  I love the little outfit Grandma Hill sent him.  It says, "No Mistletoe Required."  Oh, how true that is.  No one can resist that cute face!

The boys got matching Christmas pajamas.

Kyler helped decorate cookies to leave for Santa.  He made sure there were carrots and other food for the reindeer too!  I don't think they quite knew what to expect the next day.

1st Christmas

Santa & More

Our boys officially met Santa this year. I know we are horrible parents who have never taken our kids to meet Santa. We never thought it was worth the wait and knew our kids would not get close enough to actually sit with Santa, especially Damon. Kyler was nervous, but he jumped right up on Santa's lap! Radley was just curious about everything and was looking around.  Damon wanted nothing to do with it!  The boys also got to decorate some gingerbread cookies which they loved because Kenney has been telling them the gingerbread man story lately.

Radley and Kyler both agreed to sit with Santa.  Kyler told Santa he wanted Scooby-Doo.  Hopefully Santa can get the message!

This is as close as Damon would get.  He would barely even look at him!

I think Radley was just really confused about what was going on because he never smiled even a little bit.

Sprinkles were a hit!  Damon just dumped the sprinkles on his cookie.

Damon getting some decorating tips from Kyler!

He was much more meticulous abut his sprinkle placement!

Damon's pile of sprinkles with his cookie somewhere hidden beneath.

Have I ever mentioned how difficult it is to get a picture of my kids?!?

This was such a miracle I had to take a picture.  Both of them fell asleep one day watching a movie.  Of course Radley was awake, but I will take what I can get!!

This little cutie is sitting up much better now.  And yes, his hair is out of control.  It will be getting cut soon!

One day I had a bottle ready for Radley, but wanted to put some dishes away before I fed it to him.  Damon saw the bottle, grabbed it, and climbed on the counter to 'help' me.  It was pretty cute!!

This video is titled Poor Radley for a reason. Radley is so very patient with his brothers, most of the time. However, he loves his brothers and seems to be taking notes for later on how to drive me crazy!!

Family Pictures

I have to admit that family pictures are incredibly difficult with kids, especially 3 kids 3 and under! I keep thinking it is going to get easier, and then I remember that we keep "adding" to the problem. I actually thought Radley would be pretty easy because he is at the stage where you look at him and he smiles. He was the most difficult! Damon is never easy in these situations, and Kyler is in the funny smile stage. Kenney hated family pictures as a kid and continues to hate taking pictures. I knew we were climbing and uphill battle! I was pleasantly surprised when we got one really good picture! Thanks to the four people helping us take the pictures, I think we can consider this year a success!!

Many of you will see this again on our Christmas cards.

The best shot of the 3 boys.  We have to keep working on this one!

Notice Kyler is still holding on to his rock, but not his brother!

Damon was quite miserable, at this point.  I pulled out the fruit snacks after this, and then they found the rocks to throw!

Proof of the funny smile!

Just a few examples of how difficult Radley was being.  He has never done anything like this and he chooses family pictures to show us his new trick!

It continued to get worse and worse!