Whew, The Maddness Is Over!

We had a wonderful Christmas at our house this year. Just the 4 of us celebrated together on Christmas morning. I think Stella's favorite gift was the $3.99 pack of Princess lip glosses she got...go figure!
Porter on the motorized motorcycle Santa left.

Playing with their new trains and train table.

My in laws and brother in law from Phoenix flew in Christmas afternoon, Stella was very excited to see Grandma!

Over the weekend we hosted the Davidson Christmas at our house. Mike's brother, Scott, and his family drove up from St. Louis. They had a great time by getting stranded in Pella due to fog on Friday night, finally making it here on Saturday after going into the ditch on the interstate due to ice. Then to top it off Scott fell on our driveway on his way to get something from their vehicle and ended up with a broken arm. I just know they are dying to come back to our house!!!!!!!!!!!

Grace

Guy and Nora

Grace and Stella playing with the Magnatiles--a HUGE hit!

Chris trying to earn some brownie points with Linda by giving a foot massage. :)

Chocolate Claus

I let the kiddos have a chocolate ice cream cone this afternoon as a Christmas Eve treat. Needless to say, bath time directly followed. :)

Christmas in the Ayr

We spent the weekend in MA celebrating Christmas with my side of the family. Friday night mom and dad has a "Christmas Eve" party as Saturday morning was our Christmas morning.
Stella reading a book to Vada.

Vada's hair cracks me up, so long in the back!

Friday night the kids had fun pulling each other up and down the hallway in the Santa sack. :)

Steve had to get in on the action!

Saturday morning unwrapping presents.


Nana and Papa started a Christmas tradition of reading Twas The Night Before Christmas to the grandkids. Either the couch is shrinking or the Watson girls are reproducing too quickly!!

Mom with just a few of the 100's of Christmas cookies she made.

Playing outside with the guys.

This one was taken at home this morning, it just cracked me up with their big smiles on their faces!! :)

Wing Man

Okay, so this probably isn't a good sign that two posts in a row involve Porter and beer!!! These were taken in MA on Friday night and we thought they were hilarious. Don't worry Porter's bottle was empty during this photo shoot!!!!!
I think Daddy has found a new wing man! LOL!!!!!!!!!!

Who Needs Toys...

When you have beer cans?!?!?!
This is how I found Porter entertaining himself while I was cleaning up after supper tonight.

Playroom/Sunroom Remodel

Here are photos of the playroom/sunroom remodel. Mike has been working non-stop on it during any free time he's had for the past month. It's so nice to have it finished. We really love how it turned out. We still need to put up window treatments and a few other things, but for the most part it's done. Hip Hip Hooray!!!!

Seeing Santa

I took Stella and Porter to see Santa this morning. Stella was very excited.
Here they are checking out the holiday decorations.

Stella telling Santa what she wants for Christmas. As we were leaving she had to run back and ask him where his sleigh and reindeer were, she was very concerned about this all the way to the mall. :)

Porter did NOT enjoy sitting on Santa's lap, but I was expecting that!! :)

Riding the train, Porter didn't last long, he got off before it even started moving!

We started a new holiday tradition this year, Elf On The Shelf. Stella named our elf, Stanley. Stanley reports to Santa every night on how Stella and Porter behaved that day and each morning he is in a new spot. Stella is so funny, she completely believes he is real. She always wants to sleep with her door open a little bit, but the first few nights we had Stanley she made us shut her door all the way in case he came into her room!!! This picture Stanley had gotten into our flour and cookie cutters and was ready to make Christmas cookies with us one morning.

Silver.....

Tonight the family loaded into our super cool minivan and drove around to look at Christmas lights. Stella was REALLY into it this year, which was really fun. We'll have to take her to Jolly Holiday Lights downtown soon. While we were driving around we had Christmas music playing. Silver Bells, sung by Elvis, came on the radio and I was singing and Stella started to sing from the back...."Silverware, Silverware, it's Christmas time in the city". Mike and I were dying laughing, she really thought those were the words! What a crack up. When she found out she was being silly she started singing Jingle Bells (which was not on the radio at the time) Jingle Bells, Jingles Bells jingle all the way....to Home Depot! Thinks she runs errands with her daddy much?!?!?

Bye-Bye Curls :(

Porter finally got a haircut tonight. No more Mr. Curls.... :( It was getting pretty scruffy looking so it was time for a trim. This was his 4th haircut, but his first one since April!! I almost cried as Mike snipped away the curls, but I have faith they will return!!! :)
A before shot

And after


I brought Stella's bike inside to ride around in the former sunroom since the carpet won't be put down until Tuesday, she's had a lot of fun with that. Here she is doing a stunt! :)

And Porter has his little red bug to play in, he's copying Stella in this photo and attempting to stand up in his bug to do a stunt, too!! Monkey see, monkey do....

Snowman

We built our first snowman of the season this afternoon. It was great weather to be outside in the snow.
Putting in the eyes.

Stella loved eating the snow, luckily none of it was yellow snow! ha ha!!!

Ta Da!

She wanted to bring in snow to eat inside. I'm sure Porter will be wanting some too once he is up from his nap.

And here is a progress photo of the sunroom/play room. This was taken last night after Mike tore down the wall. He put up the support beam this morning, so soon the support joists will be taken down and it will be one big room! The carpet guy is coming a week from today to lay the carpet. Whoo hoo!!!!!!