Christmas Morning 2013

Emily was up at her normal early wake up time and after coming in to our room, went out to have her first peek to see if Santa had come.  That one magical moment - caught.

She was allowed to go down earlier than normal and she made a beeline for her new Barbie Beetle!

 Then she checked out the new Radiator Springs set.

After a little while, it was time to get Everett out of his crib and walk him (first peek)...

 down the stairs...

 and into the living room.

 He was very interested in the Radiator Springs set right away.

But he also really liked his new drill from Santa and, for about 30 minutes, rotating the Santa toys was enough.

Then, I tried to get a picture of the two kids together and it didn't go very well...

so we went in to open stockings.

 Grandpa had a couple of special stocking items that he was itching to play with.

 Emily...

and Everett enjoyed watching...

the quad copters flying around.

 And just before breakfast they were able to open the gifts that they bought each other.

Everett got a new guitar…

and Emily got a Jessie doll.

Of course, the kids didn't want to eat the yummy Christmas breakfast I had prepared but chose frozen waffles instead.  (Emily DID love the pumpkin cinnamon rolls I made though...

 Everett did not.  (CRAZY!!)

 Once we had a nice breakfast, it was time to return to the living room to pass out the gifts...

and open them!

There was only one gift that ended up in the wrong pile.

(Everett was like, "HUH??!!")

I had to take a picture though of Everett with two of his new golf balls - one for each hand - as he opened his "popper fing" (the one gift he kept asking for because he had tried it out in Lakeshore and liked popping the letters all over the place.  fing=thing).

Then we made another attempt at a picture and did alright...

 but not perfect.

Once the gifts were opened and playtime began, Everett was excited to find that Nana and Grandpa had left him an unwrapped gift in the playroom - a train table!!!

While Emily moved through a couple of gifts, one of which was a rainbow loom, in the kitchen...

Everett played with his new battery operated engines on his old train track which was already on the floor.

Then, when the new Radiator Springs set was transferred upstairs, he happily moved over to play with it too.

Outdoor Fun In The December Sun

The weather here has been gorgeous and very warm so we decided to get out in nature a little today and go to a wildlife sanctuary nearby.

Emily was our leader...

and took us down many different paths.

Everett liked stopping along the way, showing Grandpa what he found,

 and then running to catch up.

One of the coolest things to see there were the woodpeckers...

and their granary just off the path.

There were also very large grey squirrels along the way.

It is clear that they are very used to people passing through.

 Everett found some of the squirrel's seeds and ran over to see the squirrel...

and throw the seeds to "feed" him.

I am not sure the squirrel thought Everett was being helpful.

Before we moved over to the science center, we stopped for a little picnic break.

Then we went in to see the animals (including snakes) up close. 

There were also cool discovery drawers to peek in.

One was a touch and feel drawer.  Everett liked the pinecone but avoided some of the others.

So, when he moved on to the caged snakes, frogs, and lizards...

 I surprised him with the rabbit fur he had been too afraid to touch.

As if all of the hands on fun inside wasn't enough… they also had crafts outside (and cocoa and cookies!).

We made picture frames, Christmas trees, butterflies, and bracelets before our final event… a hike!

 (Again, Emily was in the lead.)

It wasn't a super long hike and pretty easy with built in stairs, but it was still fun to reach the top...

and look back out toward the sanctuary.

We had a great time and the shade cover on this 77 degree day was perfect.  The only time we warmed up was when we hiked in the sun.  Ahhhh...