December 26th

The day after Christmas we went over to Grandma Susie's house to do Christmas with Grandma Susie, Auntie Jessica, Uncle Nino, Haley, Cash and Gia.  

Again, I did a poor job of taking pictures, but here is Wes opening one of Mommy's favorite gifts, a box of See's Candy!

Here's Gia with the puppet theater we got her.

We kept the afternoon mellow and had pizza for lunch and then blew up Grandma Susie's bounce house and the kids played outside for a while.

It was such a gorgeous day, definitely a California Christmas!

That night Wes and Daddy started figuring out Wes' InnoTab, his present from Grandma Susie.  It's pretty amazing with a touch screen and lots of learning and game apps.  (I love the looks of confusion on their faces!)

But Wes is too darn smart and figured it out pretty quickly.  It quickly became one of his favorite toys!  It was another wonderful day of celebrating Christmas.  I always like spreading out our celebrations, it makes Christmas last that much longer!

Christmas Evening

We were actually able to get Wes down for a little nap after all the morning and afternoon excitement (and sugar) and Mike and I got dinner ready because Grammy, Grandpa, Auntie MoMo and Uncle Chris were coming over at 5pm for more Christmas fun!

Cora was pretty exhausted, so she took a nap on Auntie MoMo.

Wes opened a few presents before dinner...

...like this cool remote control car from Great Grandma.  It's a little big for him, but he'll love it before we know it!

Here's Wes getting excited to open one of Cora's gifts.

We had a delicious dinner of ham, scalloped potatoes, green beans and rolls.  And Grammy made a chocolate mouse pie.  I wasn't doing so great with the picture taking, so this one was kind of an afterthought.

Then we got to opening more gifts!  Uncle Chris got Wes this basketball hoop!

And here's Mike and Wes opening a gift from Grammy...

...matching shirts!  Grammy made these shirts out of the leftover fabric from when she made Wes' baby bedding.  Wes will grow out of his, but I'm glad Mike will have his forever, it will always remind me of when Wes was little.

We kept saying we needed to get a group picture and we never did it!  Like I said, I did a poor job with the picture taking.  But we had a wonderful day of seeing most of our family and celebrating our Savior's birth!
Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!  

Christmas Afternoon

After we cleaned up from our Christmas morning, our good friend and former neighbor Barr and his girls, Jessie and Leah, stopped by to deliver homemade eggnog which is their family tradition.  Then Papa Ron stopped by with gifts for Wes and Cora and then Grandpa Al, Grandma Missy, Auntie Madison and Auntie Caitlin and Uncle Ben came over for lunch and presents.

Wes was definitely into the presents this year and asked if every present in the room was for him!  He really liked getting to open Cora's gifts too...don't think she'll be ok with that next year :)

Wes got this light up constellation turtle from Auntie Caitlin and Uncle Ben.  He loves playing in the dark (crazy kid) so this turtle is lots of fun!  He also got the Chicka Chicka Boom Boom CD that goes with the book he got for his birthday.

And from Grandma Missy he got a golf set.  I think he'll be ready to hit the links with Dad any day now!

And from Auntie Madison and Uncle Nathan (who was working) he got a Poingo (a neat book that help him learn to read), a magnetic drawing board and a new Veggie Tales CD!

We had a great lunch together and lots of desserts that Auntie Madison brought.  We were so glad they all drove in to Orange County to spend Christmas afternoon with us!

Christmas Morning!

 Happy Birthday Jesus!

Like I said in my previous post, Mike was working Christmas Eve, so when we woke up Christmas morning it was just me, Wes and Cora.  And since I had finished wrapping the presents while Wes was at church with my parents, I had put them up in the garage.  After Wes went to bed, I decided not to get all the presents out since we would be waiting for Daddy to get home before we opened all of them and I wasn't sure how long Wes would have to wait.  Then I finally made it to bed around midnight on Christmas Eve.  When Cora woke up to eat at 1:30, I had a change of heart about the presents because I wanted him to come down stairs and be exited about Christmas morning.  So I fed Cora, put her back to bed, came down stairs, got our family gifts down from my hiding place in the garage and put them under the tree!  Cora woke up once more to eat around 4:30 and then Wes was up at 7:00 so I don't think I got much sleep that night :)  But we were excited to celebrate our first Christmas together as a family of four!  

Seeing presents under the tree! 

Waiting for Daddy to get home! 

Mike got home around 8 and we got down to business! 

Wes played Santa and passed out all the gifts. 

A friend of ours has this game and I thought it was so awesome.  I happened to find just one at Tuesday Morning (if they had had more, I would have bought one for all of Wes' friends).  

 One of my gifts from Daddy, a gallon of lemonade from Chick Fil A.  They have the best lemonade ever!

And my other gift was another charm for my necklace!  This one has Cora's name and birth statistics, just like Wes' below.  Mike got them here.

And after I thought we had finished with gifts, Daddy told Wes to see if Santa left anything on the front porch.  (Here's the back story:  Mike saw an excavator he wanted to get Wes, and I said we have ENOUGH trucks!!  I got him books and puzzles, and I knew he was getting some other vehicles from family, so I figured we didn't need to buy any more ourselves.  But Daddy just couldn't resist!)  So... 

...silly Santa left a present outside! 

And guess what???  All those books and puzzles were immediately forgotten!

Here's my Christmas edition of "Where's Waldo/Baby Cora?"  

After presents, we had a yummy breakfast of quiche, monkey bread and fruit salad.  And then we began to clean up the house because we told our family that we weren't driving any where this year and invited everyone to stop by for food and presents.  Those pics to follow! 

December 24th/Christmas Eve

 On Christmas Eve, Cora was one month old!  I can't even believe it!

Auntie Chrissy got us these great month stickers on Etsy that you just stick onto a onesie to keep track your kids first year.  I probably be a month late in posting the pictures, but I promise to take them on time :)  

Attempting to get a picture of both of them...guess who wouldn't cooperate?

Since it was also Christmas Eve and Mike was working, Grammy and Grandpa and Auntie MoMo and Uncle Chris came over for dinner.  My mom brought her super yummy potato cheese soup and we had salad and garlic bread and "spicy drink," aka sparkling cider.  (Wes thinks the carbonation makes it taste spicy, which he loves!)

After dinner, everyone went to church except for Cora and I.  I was really hoping to make it to Christmas Eve service at Big Calvary with everyone, but I'm not sure I had brushed my teeth that day and I barely got out of pajamas, so I took the opportunity to finish getting ready for Christmas morning.  My mom said Wes walked right into his classroom at the nursery and never looked back! (I wasn't sure how he'd react since we don't attend Sunday services there, but apparently my worries were unfounded :)  He came home in a great mood with a peppermint candy stick.  Though having a newborn right at the holidays kept me in a haze for the most part, I was excited to celebrate the birth of our Savior and have our first Christmas as a family of four!

Cora's Newborn Photo Shoot

My amazingly talented friend Shelly, who loves the Lord with all her heart, took these gorgeous photos of our family!  These were taken on November 30th, when Cora was just six days old.

Taling a little nursing break.

www.shellyyoungphotography.com