December Fun

We all had a lot of fun this December doing various things to celebrate Christmas. Here is a quick recap of the fun we had!

We began by decorating the tree and our house. (We actually did this in November, right before we left for Key West.) We had lots of fun decorating the tree this year, because Evan was really into putting the ornaments on. (I had to help rearrange the ornaments a bit since Evan tended to place them on on one or two branches, but he was REALLY excited to help this year and he helped for a long time.)

We went to Lights Under Louisville again this year, which Evan loved the first time through. (We got a second trip for free!) Unfortunately, on our second trip through we got stuck behind a car that stopped to take pictures of EVERYTHING. This wouldn't have been so bad, except poor Evan really had to use the bathroom! Oh well! At least the first trip through was fun!

"Look! A dinosaur!"

We also had fun eating breakfast with Santa. We were fortunate to to get to eat breakfast with Santa once with The Congletons and once at our church. Evan liked both breakfasts VERY much. Of course, the best part of both breakfasts wasn't Santa, but his friends! Evan had a ball playing with Levi at his first breakfast with Santa and with Leila at his second breakfast with Santa!

Evan with Santa (Indiana)

Evan and Leila with Santa (Middletown United Methodist Church)

Evan and Leila had tons of fun playing together!

Evan had a Christmas party and program at his preschool. I was not able to go, but LOTS of people that love Evan were able to go, which made Evan happy. Grammy, Granddaddy, Bonnie Mom and Daddy all attended the party and the program. (I am looking forward to next year when I work part time and will get to attend lots of Evan's events!)

Evan enjoyed singing in his program. (He also liked the party afterwards!)

Evan and I took Parker to get his picture taken with Santa this year! It was a lot of fun and we got a pretty cute picture too!

This year we decided to try to train ride to the North Pole that was in New Haven, Kentucky. It was similar to The Polar Express, but not nearly as nice. We went with the Congleton family, which made the ride lots of fun. Evan and Levi really liked seeing Santa and riding the train.

Evan, Levi, Luke and David had fun while waiting to board the train to the North Pole!

Riding the train was lots of fun!

Even David had fun riding the train! (Evan got some practice holding a baby too!)

Christmas Card Picture

This year we took our Christmas card picture in Key West! I think it turned out pretty good. I really like the picture because Evan looks really happy. (Of course, he looks that way most of the time we are in Key West!)

Christmas Card Picture

Here are some pictures that turned out pretty good, but that we did not use for our card.

Christmas 2011

We had a wonderful Christmas this year! We started our Christmas Eve festivities on Saturday morning, by going to Chuck E. Cheese, which has become a Christmas Eve tradition for us. We all had fun playing games for a couple of hours. We then went to the cemetery, where we place flowers on my grandparents grave and Evan ran around and yelled, "Merry Christmas!" (His energetic spirit sure did make the trip fun!) That night we went to church and Evan sat through the WHOLE service! (This is a major improvement over last year, when Carl just took him home after about 20 minutes!)After church, we came back home to eat Chinese food and wait for Santa to arrive!

On Christmas morning, Evan excitedly ran into our room around 7:30. We all raced downstairs to open our stockings and presents. Evan was SO cute opening his presents this year! He read his name on the tags of the presents and would happily exclaim, "It's for me!" He also said, "Santa was so nice to bring this to me!" and "It's just what I wanted!" He was really sweet! Evan's favorite toys this year included his Star Wars toys, the stuffed tarpon, and the white horse.

We went to my parents house for lunch and for more presents. Evan and his cousins had a great time opening presents and playing together. Caleb and Evan played with their new Star Wars toys, while Jackson played video games on his Nintendo D S and Emily played dress up with her new dress up clothes and accessories.

After lunch we all came back home for a nap. Once we were well rested, we went to Carl's parents' house for dinner and more presents! It was a really nice evening. We were happy to spend time with our family and it was a fairly relaxing evening. (Evan was not too relaxed. He was too busy playing with his new gifts!)

Evan was happy to see that Santa came to our house!

Evan's checked out his stocking. (He also made sure that everyone else checked their stocking too!)

Evan was so grateful for all of his gifts this year! He was SO much fun to watch as he opened each gift!

"Merry Christmas!"

Family Picture on Christmas Night

Trip to Tennessee Winter 2011

We recently traveled to Tennessee to visit with Grandma, Aunt Karol, and the rest of our extended family. We were happy to make the trip before Christmas, so that we could deliver all of our presents! We had a great visit, even though it was a bit short. Evan and Marlee had a great time playing together, as usual. This time they REALLY had fun wrestling! Both boys are rough and tumble boys, so wrestling was the prefect game for both of them!

Evan happily posed for some pictures with Grandma. He loves her SO very much!

Evan and Marlee had so much fun together. (Evan is already ready to go back and visit Marlee again!)

Thanksgiving in Key West

This year we decided to go with Bonnie Mom and Grandpa to Key West for Thanksgiving. We were able to be in Key West for about a week and we had a really good time. On Thanksgiving, we spent the first part of the day at the beach. In the afternoon, Carl made Thanksgiving dinner. After seeing the beautiful sunset, we all ate dinner, which was delicious! On the other days that we were there, we had lots of fun going to see the boats in the harbor, feeding the fish, going to They Key West Toy Factory, riding a jet ski, snorkeling, going out to eat, etc. It was such a fun week!

We got got to Key West on Saturday night, Evan was very excited to go to the beach. The first thing he did was chase the seagulls!

It was a bit cold on our first night, but Evan got right in the ocean and had a ball! He really liked playing the waves!

It was warmer and sunnier on Sunday and we all went to the beach. Evan had fun playing in the water.

Carl helped Evan build a Star Wars X Wing on the beach.

Evan had fun being buried on the beach!

Carl and I had fun at beach too!

Evan enjoyed showing us the large tarpon at the harbor.

Evan liked feeding the fish at the harbor. (He also liked feeding the pigeons that came to eat the fish food!)

Carl and I liked watching the sunset from the pier at Higgs Beach.

We went to see the performers at Mallory Square. Evan really liked these guys! They did all sorts of tricks while juggling fire!

Carl took Evan to ride a jet ski for the first time. They both had SO much fun!

We liked going to The Harbor to see Light Up Key West. The nautical Christmas decorations were really cool. The best part of the night was seeing Santa! (The funniest part of Light Up Key West was that no one showed up to light the big Christmas tree, so some random guy without a shirt just plugged it in! It worked for us!)

Evan was thrilled to go snorkeling again! He and Carl had lots of fun. Evan liked seeing the barracuda.

I had fun with Evan at the beach. We liked playing in the ocean together.

We went to Smathers Beach one day. The sand was really deep there and Evan had fun getting totally buried in the sand!

We spotted this iguana on the way back from the beach. Evan really likes the iguanas in Key West!

Evan had lots of fun playing in the pool at Casa Marina with his daddy!

Evan had fun flying a kite all by himself for the first time!

There was a small carnival while we were in Key West. Evan loved all the rides, especially the roller coaster. (The pictures are blurry, but I wanted to include them because had so much fun on the roller coaster. He rode it about 10 times!)

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