Oopps! Christmas in September as well!

Well, I'm even more embarrassed now that I realized I never posted about Christmas Day. In my defenese I did post about all of our December happenings except the actual day of Christmas and the week after and that is because we got a new camera and so half the pictures were on the old one and half were on the new one. We put the old one away for awhile and I just never decided to get it back out to download the pictures until we had to for Ryan's high adventure trip.

Anyhoo, Christmas was great and we were able to stay most of the week at my parents house and enjoy good food and company and all of those Christmas type festivities. Owen thourougly loved opening up all of his gifts and was far too spoiled, remember this was before Benson was around to help balance out the attention. It is so weird to be writing about something before Benson was around, it is hard for me to remember back to those days. It was also nice for me to have some help with Owen since I was hugely pregnant. Ryan had to work alot of the holiday week (not Christmas) so it was nice for Owen and I to be able to have some company.

The whole Christmas break we were wondering if Benson would in fact show up early and give us a tax write-off. He obviously didn't but funny story I did start having hard contractions on January 1st, the night we got back home. We actually almost went into the hospital but just went into the doctor the next day and I had dialated to a three. It is a good thing he didn't come then, not just because that is pretty early but also because we would have been thinking, really you couldn't have just come a day sooner:) haha, just kidding.

Well, let's get on to the pictures.


Owen wrote a letter to Santa telling him what he wanted. When we were writing this letter I asked Owen what he wanted to ask for and he said he wanted crayons, diapers, and Elmo. What a funny little buddy!


Owen mailing his letter, he loves putting mail in the mailbox.

I joined our ward's quilt group and I completed my first truly quilted item. I pieced it, sewed it, quilted it, and did the binding all on my own. If you can't tell I am very proud of this!

We went to the mall during Daddy's lunch break one day and visited with Santa Clause. Owen was so excited up until we got up to Santa's lap. He had a death grip and wasn't going to let go of Mommy for anything. Right as we were walking away Santa gave him a little stuffed Christmas dog. If Santa had handed Owen that at the beginning, things would have went a lot smoother. Santa was Owen's new best friend after giving him that little gift.

Here Owen is with his Christmas dog, he was so proud and talked about it all afternoon.

On a sad note we had to find Truffles & Rue a new home. I ended up have really bad allergies to the hay they had to eat, which was causing me to get hives every time I picked one of them up. I also just felt like having to clean and take care of them was going to get neglected with a new baby around. It was so sad and hard for me to give them away. I know now that I made the right decision, with all the little health issues Benson had going on, I don't think I could have taken anything else at the time. And, we found them some cute little boys that were so excited to get Guinea Pigs on Christmas. I know those little boys play with Truffles & Rue a lot more than they would have gotten played with here. We do miss them though!

Every Christmas Eve my family opens little Christmas poppers. You pull on the sides and they pop open with confetti,little tiny prizes, riddles and a crown. We always wear the crowns at dinner and then tell the riddles to each other and try out our little prizes. Here is Owen opening his Christmas Popper.


Look even Chase got a crown!

This year while reading from Luke 2 about the story of Christ's birth my Mom got these wall stickers of the nativity scene for Owen to put up on the wall as the story went along. He loved sticking them on and you will notice that Owen's rendition of the manger scene isn't quite traditional, but he sure loved putting them up!

Owen opening his first Christmas present on Christmas Eve of his Christmas Pajamas.

Then, we read him 'Twas the Night Before Christmas.

And, we put out our milk & cookies for Santa and some carrots for his reindeer.


Mimi & Pop Pop got this house for Owen and he absolutely loves it! I think this was probably his favorite gift. He had us all(not me I was pregnant at the time) going in and out the little door, ha ha, it was quite the site!

Owen favorite thing to do while opening gifts was to play with the boxes they came in. There was a package with a bunch of packing peanuts and that just made Owen's Christmas. He sat and threw them up in the air time and time again. I seriously think this year we may just get him a box of packing peanuts and he'd be the happiest little buddy on Christmas.


I found this Thomas the Train that you ride on at a consignment sale for a very good deal so we decided to get it for Owen for Christmas. Ryan and I were so excited to see him find it down in my parents basement on Christmas day. As you can see he was super excited until he got on it. Then, he was terrified. I don't know why it doesn't go fast at all. Anyway, our big Christmas present this year was a flop, he has gotten a little more used to it now, but for some reason is still apprehensive.


It took a lot of coaxing to get him to take this picture and look how nervous he looks.

And Daddy's favorite present of Owen's came from Grandma & Grandpa, a huge basketball hoop! Much to Daddy's dismay Owen played with it for like 5 minutes and then didn't want to play anymore. Owen ended up playing in the box the hoop came in for a few hours. See, I told you he would have been happy with boxes.

Here he is playing with the box by bending himself in half and scooting into it. He is so flexible.

These next few pictures were all taken with our new camera! That was Mommy & Daddy's big gift, yay! It came just in time as well, it has video capabilities as well and for long durations of time like a normal video camera and the day before we had Benson our normal video camera stopped working. Luckily, we had our new duel camera to keep us covered. Well, here are a few pictures of my parents Christmas tree.


I love the panoramic picture taker on our new camera.

During the Christmas holiday all of my Dad's family who live here went over to my Grandparents to celebrate with a nice dinner and time together. Here is the group of us while opening gifts.

And, here is Owen with Popsie! We love going out to their house to spend time with family. It is always a wonderful time!

We took a walk outside one evening to try out our new camera. Here is Daddy & Owen by the lake.

I love this picture of little Owen.

Some ducks on the lake.

Buddy & Mommy walking down the path.

If you were ever wondering where Owen was during the holiday week, you could bet you would find him looking something like this. Owen would often seek out Pop Pop and ask him to play the 'quack quacks' video for him. This is an Elmo video on youtube.com. He would always start off sitting next to Pop Pop, but as the music video went on Owen would gradually inch his way onto Pop Pop's chest so he could see the video square on. It was a pretty funny process to watch.

And, finally Owen has new little nook at my parents house. This tiny ledge is at the bottom of their main level staircase and one night while Owen was drinking his milk before bed he found it. It was just his height and a perfect little spot for him to sit. So, now when we go over there, he will walk over and sit there and tell you that, "this is Owen's spot, Owen's spot" what a cutie! We sure do love him!

Well, as you can see we enjoyed our Christmas holiday and are so grateful for the wonderful family we have all around us to celebrate it with.