December 26th!

The day after Christmas, Kevin, Zachary, & I went to my inlaws house for breakfast. Karen made my yummy Blueberry Casserole. It was too die for yummy! After breakfast, we opened gifts from Kevins brother & his family....Jeff, Kathy, Brynn, & Karsen. We sure did miss spending Christmas with them.

Karen's breakfast table Zachary and I waiting to eat!

Kevin opening up his Christmas present from his parents

Zachary posing by his present from Uncle Jeff & Aunt Kathy

I asked him to hold it up so that I could take his picture with his new game and this is what he did. Thank you Brynn & Karsen for CANDY LAND! Z loves it...now if we could just get him to follow the rules :)

He is a huge fan of his fishing game too!

Zachary & Kevin by Kevin's new target practice deer

Christmas Night

As you can see we celebrate Christmas A LOT! To me the best present is being with the ones I love, celebrating Jesus. We have a lot to be thankful for that's for sure.

On Christmas day/evening we went to my parents house. My in-laws join us too which is nice to be able to celebrate together with both families. I am bummed because we did not get our "annual" group photo. Here a the only photos I took from the day. My Aunt Ann & Uncle Wayne sent the boys Steeler Jerseys. Elliott all but popped out of his skin when he opened it. He loves #7 Ben Rothlesberger! He is the ultimate Steelers fan!
It was so sweet of Aunt Ann & Uncle Wayne to send the boys gifts. They also sent Z a John Deere Calendar. As soon as we got home he had to put it up in his room. He looks at it and says, "Mom what time is it?" Rachel & Matt gave my dad this mug.
My parents got both of the boys a Geotrax Train. Z LOVES it!
Moms table for our "soup" supper

Christmas Morning

When we got home from Ruey & Freddy's we put out a cupcake & cookie for Santa. Zachary was very persistant that we had to leave Santa "water" because he probably got too much milk. This is funny because we often tell Z he needs water because he drinks too much milk. HA!
Z was already asleep so we put out the goodies for Santa. We then went to bed and woke up to a house filled with wonderful gifts. Kevin woke up at 6am, so excited for Christmas morning. While waiting for Zachary and I to wake up, he cleaned out our closet, read a magazine, did his daily devotion, and twittled his thumbs. At 8:00 am Zachary was up and he totally forgot it was Christmas. We had to show him his gifts and then let him wake up a minute. Once he woke up he was totally stoked.
Santa left Z a monster truck and a bowked. Mom and Dad gave Z a bike.

A letter from Santa, the stockings, and a small gift from Rudolph



Z realizing it was Christmas Morning and that Santa came to our house

We've got one happy three year old!


Zachary sitting on his new John Deere bike (it's a little too big...hoping he grows into it before summer)
Zachary with his "bowked". All Zachary asked for was a "bowked". We had no idea what a "bowked" was so we took him to Toys R Us and asked him to show us what it was. He showed us that it was a "Transformer". Personally, I am not a fan of boy toys. I don't get them nor do I know how they work. However, Santa Clause thought Z had been good and he deserved his wish. So he got a "bowked". Funny part of the story is that Z does not even play with this toy. Since he got it out of the box he realized that he does not really want it. Fine by me.

Kevin has to do all the "transforming" because it is too hard for a 3 year old


Mommy & Zachary on Christmas morning! I love this little boy SO much!
Trying out Z's new bike in the kitchen

Christmas Eve

This Christmas Eve our family got one of the best gifts ever....a new cousin. My cousin, Jen gave birth to baby Duke on Christmas Eve. We are so happy for Jen & Jack and the rest of the Wood crew.

On Christmas Eve we ALWAYS got to Ruey & Freddy's church and then to their house for Christmas with the Lemons. Unfortunately, because of the snow and ice we were unable to stay as late as we normally do. Our night was cut short because of the weather but we still managed to have a wonderful time celebrating with our family.

The door bell rang....the boys were running to see who it was....it was SANTA! Here's Elliotts reaction!

SANTA... I love him!

Zachary and Santa

Elliott with Santa
Sisters with Santa

Santa with Baby Jerrytt
Ruey & Freddy with Santa

Elliott with his Christmas PJ's on. Zachary was too busy running through the house to get a photo. :)

Leslie's College Graduation

On the 19th, my "cousin", Leslie graduated from college with a Biology degree. You might recognize Leslie from other blog post. She is my cousin that has the big dog, Harley. Zachary LOVES Leslie and Harley. He says, Leslie is his girl.

We are so proud of all that Leslie has accomplished.
Her next goal would be to be accepted at UMKC School of Dentisty in the Dept of Dental Hygiene. No matter what Leslie does she will be wonderful at it! You go girl!

Zachary and his girl!

My "cousins". I love these guys to death! Leslie, Lucas and Abbey

Leslie and her boyfriend, Trey

The boys hanging out by the fish tank.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to each of my blog readers!

I had to put this in here to show you how hard it was for all of us to cooperate. And of course it was all my fault. Zachary and Kevin look great...I'm asleep.


Kevin and Hilary

"Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord." Luke 2:11

Celebrating Kevin's Mom

My mother-in-law's birthday on Dec 19th. For the past 5 years we celebrate on the Sunday closest to her special day. It's turned into a tradition that can't be broken. Both of our families get together for lunch and then we head to a local theme park to celebrate Christmas. No matter how cold it is we always go. Fortunately this year it was a lot warmer than years past. We had a wonderful day celebrating a birthday and Christmas all in one.

Here is the lunch spread. My wonderful mom made her "famous" quiche. I made homemade french onion soup. Then we had bagels, muffins, and ceasar salad. YUM!

Waiting to eat lunch....you can see Rachel (& baby Jerrytt) in the background....this is the only pic I have of her or Matt.

Zachary picked this out for MaMaw's cake. Before Zachary my mom or I would make Karen a cake. Since the boys are here they love to pick out "FUN" cakes. It was either this one or a Transformer cake from Sam's. Luckily I could convience Zachary that grandma would like this one better.

My in-laws...Karen and Marvin

I love this one...Z & E look like they are planning something.

Elliott with Grandma Karen
Zachary with MaMaw
Kev and Hil
Mom and Dad

Taking time to smell the roses

I hate to admit it but we (Kevin & I) have gotten into the hustle and bustle of Christmas. You know the running around trying to find the perfect gift, getting the Christmas cards written, the groceries purchased, cookies made, giftbags for the preschool class, etc. I love this time of year. I love everything about this season...Jesus' birth and the commerical stuff too. I love all of these things but I feel like I have been dragging Zachary around EVERYWHERE with me. Ususally we spend every afternoon at home but this month we are on the go until about 4 oclock. He's pooped, I'm pooped and we are not enjoying each other. So one afternoon we decided to stop and smell the roses. We stop by Barnes & Noble and had some Hot Chocolate & a very hard cookie. It was nice to just relax and talk with one another. I really think Z enjoyed it too. However several times during our "date" he informed me that this is where he goes on dates with "Grammy" (my mom). He was very concerned that we were at his and Grammy's spot.

Candy Gingerbread Houses!

Last year we started the tradition of decorating a pre-made gingerbread house. You can find these pre-made houses at Wal-mart, Target, etc. They are awesome because you don't have to spend all the time making the dough, cutting the perfect pieces, and getting the icing perfect to get your house upright. Instead you just pull it out of the box, mix the pasty icing, and then decorate. It's a lot of fun.

We were lucky because we got Elliott for the evening so we decided to decorate our house with him. The boys were very excited. It was hard for Kevin and I (who are VERY TYPE A) to let them do it themselves but we did. I was very proud of us! It was funny to see how the boys went about decorating their houses. Zachary wanted TONS of candy and every color. Elliott wanted very little candy and he wanted it all monochromatic. He chose an all-orange roof. Elliott also spent a lot of time making landscape....which is very Matt just like his dad. It was a fun night and both boys were uber proud of their candy houses.

The varieties of candy. If you purchase this kit know that there is not a lot of extra candy...for eating. So I pick up some Mike N Ikes and Skittles. Just a tip!

Check out Elliott concentrating...see his tongue. This is very much a trait of my Uncle Wayne Wood. Funny to see how similar they are.

Zachary eating...instead of decorating.
Zachary was more into the eating of the candy....yes he is like his mom in this area. WE BOTH LOVE CANDY!
Look at Elliott's monochormatic orange roof. After he worked for about 30 minutes on the roof he said he was done. We had to talk him in to doing the rest of the house. He was quite pleased with his work.
Elliott was so proud of his house.
Viola! Here are the finished house. Elliotts on Left with shrubs. Zachary's on right with LOTS of candy!