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!

Thanksgiving & Some Early Christmas

This year we spent Thanksgiving with Kenney's family at Nana & Papa's house. I have to say, I think it was one of the smallest Thanksgiving groups I can remember in the Keys' home. I think there were only about 50 people there. I know that doesn't seem small to most, but trust me it was small! There were not as many 'out of towners' as usual. However, we just loved being able to spend time with family and especially our Daddy since he didn't have school! We were also able to begin some Christmas activities that were a lot of fun. As always, we have so much to be grateful for, and we are so blessed to have such great family and friends.

The trampoline was a favorite, just like every other time we go to Nana & Papa's.  One morning Kyler saw some of the neighbor's grand kids jumping, and Kenney told him that some friends were outside jumping.  Kyler got really excited, walked out the door, and said, "Hey friends, it's me, Kyler!"  It was so cute!!  He is definitely his father's child.  I never would have done that as a kid.  Actually, I still would not do that!

If you have ever been to the Keys' Thanksgiving, you know that this is such a small collection of desserts, but it was still an amazing dinner!

On Friday, there were Christmas festivites downtown.  Santa came riding a firetruck, there was hot chocolate, prizes, a hay ride through the park to see Christmas lights, and Christmas music.

Kyler riding on the hay ride with his cousin Avery.  Before we got on this ride, Kyler jumped onto a different trailer all by himself and waved to me saying bye.  He was going to ride through the park with a bunch of strangers and had no hesitation to do so!

Damon on the hay ride.  He of course refused to look at the camera.

The Tossey's (Kenney's sister's family) came in from South Carolina for the holiday.  Kyler played really well with Jax, and Damon did pretty well, but he is not as nice as Kyler!

Some more of the group.  Thanks to Tamra and Marilyn, we sang carols all through the park.

It was pretty cold outside and the hot chocolate was perfect!  Damon even drank it while it was still warm.  He hates anything that is warmer than room temperature!

The best family picture we have to date!

He had to blow on that hot chocolate for a long time!

Aunt Kacy cuddled Radley to keep him warm.

Radley was trying to figure out what all these crazy people were doing around him.

On Saturday, Nana got her Christmas tree and decorations out in order for us to have a little Christmas before we all parted ways.

The boys had fun helping Nana, and I was glad she got it out because we are not getting Christmas stuff out this year.  I know I may seem like a Scrooge, but I do not want to fight the boys with the decorations when we are not even going to be home for Christmas.

He really liked this Santa.

Kyler decorated this part of the tree.  He really saturated his part with a LOT of ornaments!

Before we went on the hay ride and stuff, Nana got the boys some gloves and other warm things.  Kyler continued to go back to that drawer and wore a variety of hats and gloves the rest of the time we were there!

Radley opened his very first present.

Like most babies, he liked the paper and box the best.

Kyler showing us the Avengers.