Christmas 2011

Christmas was so much fun this year!  We had so much fun finding our Elf each morning (and he was very tame this year), reading Christmas stories, attending parties, shopping, wrapping gifts, and playing games.  One of Jack's favorite "games" was finding different ornaments on the tree. He was great about leaving the tree alone, but I knew better than to ban him from the tree completely.  So, we had names for about 30 different ornaments he could see / reach and we'd ask him to find each of them.  He loved it!!  

Here he is on Christmas Eve looking at the ornaments and finding certain ones:

We also attended the family service at church on the afternoon of the 24th.  We ran into our neighbors from across the street.  This is Hunter or "HuhHuh" as Jack calls him.  Jack adores him and Hunter is wonderful with Jack -- seriously, one of the nicest 7th graders I've known.  

Christmas morning, all of Patrick's siblings, their spouses and his mom came to our house.  We had brunch and opened gifts together.  Jack was in hog-heaven with all the presents to open and he was on major over-load by nap time :)  We had to rush through some of the gifts and even saved some for him to open after his nap.... it was just too much for him to handle in one morning.   What a lucky little boy to have so many people in his life that love him.  

Cousins -- Anna (10 weeks) Jack (almost 2)
and Graham (almost 6 months)

WHOA!  Look at all that Christmas Cheer!!

For whatever reason, Uncle Mark got chosen by Jack
to take all of his gifts out of the packaging.  Lucky Mark! 

We should have stopped with the stocking stuffers - Wheelies!
He was so excited and we hadn't even made it to the big stuff yet.
Live and learn I guess....

His big gift from Santa this year was a F150 truck!  Let's just say he doesn't quite understand that HE'S the one controlling where this thing goes.  He knows how to make it go... but it's anyone's guess where it's going from there.  Luckily, we had Patrick's empty office warehouse to go to so Jack had a safe driving environment.  

Then, on the morning of the 27th, Jack and I packed up and flew to Midland for what is likely our last trip out west for quite some time.  I seriously doubt I'll be flying with three boys in tow anytime soon.  

What?!?!  More gifts??  

I was able to see my high school friends Ashley and Jennifer one morning... so much fun!  And, so fun to see everyone with their sweet kiddos!!

Here's Jack's first experience with trying on boots.  He pulled them out of the box and hugged them!  haha  He walked all over the store in them before I decided he was still a little too young to start this obsession.  

We also were able to celebrate my niece Carley's 12th birthday while there.  I couldn't resist taking this picture of Jack sitting with the other kids at Carley's party.  Gosh.... he's growing up so fast!