Christmas 2011

Merry Christmas and merry it was in the Hansard House.  Clay and I were woken up at 5:30 to Ford saying "Guys, it's Christmas, there are presents . . ." We all walked out together to see an abundance of gifts from Santa.  The boys didn't know where to start, they were checking everything out. 

Santa came!!

After looking at all the presents, they went over to see if Santa ate his cookies
and grabbed their stockings.  Yes, even Jackson was a good boy.

 Big Boy Bikes!!

Ford got his remote control car - he had only been talking about for months! 

 Jake got Lego Lightening and Lego Francesco -
 this was the gift that Jake had been talking about for months.

Ford taking in all his new stuff!

A big happy face on Christmas morning!

Santa left one last surprise in the garage for Ford and Jake.
Jake is in pure shock!

It is actually a 1-seater, but they both squeezed in to give him a try.

After opening gifts, the boys slowly went from toy to toy to get it out of the packaging.  We had a big breakfast and a nice relaxing Christmas Day at home.  Grandma and Grandpa came by in the morning to visit and see what Santa brought.  Gigi and Granddaddy also came by to do the same.  Ford and Jake were excited to show them all their new stuff.

We took the remote control cars over to the parking lot
across the street to do some racing!

We also took Lightening for a quick test drive in the drive way/garage.

Later, we had our first turkey dinner at home as a family.  Then once it got dark, we went over to Aunt Kimberly and Uncle Glenn's to visit and see Christmas lights in their neighborhood, which are the best lights in Plano.

We then came home and got ready for bed.  It took the boys a few days to really open and play with all their new toys.  It was a very Merry Christmas full of blessings! 

Christmas Eve 2011

We are so fortunate to have all of our family close by. We actually got to see everyone on Christmas Eve. We went to Gigi and Granddaddy's house for lunch and saw Great Granny, Aunt Phyllis, Great Papa, Millie, Aunt Jill, Uncle Billy, Grace and Brooke. We exchanged gifts and played.

Christmas Boys!

These are the only pictures of Ford in his sweater vest,
he took it off as soon as we got to Gigi's and refused to put it back on.

Ford really wanted to sit at the little table for lunch.
So he did and everyone else was at the big table.

Jake is ready to eat!

Jake gave Great-Papa a nice hug :)

 

Another set of twins!  Okay, not really, but matching sisters - Aunt Phyllis and Gigi.

Great-Papa, Granddaddy, Daddy, Ford and Jake

Our little family.

We then came home for a little nap and then went over to Grandma and Grandpa's for dinner with Aunt Kimberly, Uncle Glenn, Blake and Benjamin.  All the boys had a great time together.  Blake put Baby Jesus in his cradle and Benjamin recited the Christmas story.  Ford and Jake decided to be his back-up and copied his moves and repeated parts of the story.  It was so precious.  We also exchanged gifts.

Getting 4 boys to pose for a picture is nearly impossible!

The Nativity Story by Benjamin; Props by Blake; Back-up by Ford and Jake
The video is priceless!!

Opening presents.

A marshmallow gun armed Santa . . .Yikes!!

It isn't Christmas at Grandma & Grandpa's without the trains!

All the boys decided to help, Grandpa was being brave
and let them have turns with the controls.

This needs to be Grandma and Grandpa's Christmas card next year! 
It's life with 4 Grandsons and a crazy dog!

A little better . . .

We drove by a few streets to look at some Christmas lights and came home to get ready for bed.  Ford and Jake were so excited to put out cookies and milk for Santa.  We said "bye" to our friend Eddie the Elf (since he would be going back with Santa) and listened to our "Night Before Christmas" book that Granddaddy recorded last year for us.   Then Ford and Jake got snug in their beds with great anticipation for the morning!

Getting ready to read/listen to Night Before Christmas!

Pre-Holiday Fun

We had several pre-holiday activities.  Besides all the fun below, we also had a "Winter Party" at school, went to a fun puppet show, played with friends and looked at Christmas lights. 

We were looking forward to the Plano Christmas Parade.  This is the best one of the year, all the high school bands play music and many of the floats were quite impressive.  Santa of course came by at the end.  Ford yelled several times, "Santa, it's Ford, I want a remote control car."  Jake was mesmerized into silence!

We helped Daddy put up the lights and our favorite, the Snowman.

We celebrated Benjamin's birthday at a Candy Land Gym Party.   We also had lunch with him on his actual birthday.

All the kids had a blast on all the different stations throughout the gym.

Such a cute cake!

I helped with baking some cookies for the party.

We visited Santa.  Ford told him he wanted a remote control car.  Jake was so excited he couldn't get any words out, so Mommy helped him express his wish - Lego Lightening and Lego Francesco.

Santa gave Ford and Jake a pencil, stickers and erasers.  We also got to paint a wooden train car.

Jake, Santa and Ford 2011

We painted some "stained glass" ornaments.

We also decorated cookies and a gingerbread house.  This was the day before Christmas Eve and Jake woke up with a horrible ear infection.  He wasn't feeling very good that day, but between naps, he came in and helped a little with the gingerbread house.  Thankfully he felt back to himself on Christmas Eve.

Our finished house!  Poor Jake just wasn't feeling great.