Monday, December 27, 2010

The Best Christmas EVER!!!

Before Christmas was here, Alex assured me,
" This is going to be the best Christmas EVER!"
The Truth is, he was right.
This was the first year that both Alex & Tyson knew exactly what
they wanted for Christmas.
Alex has been making his Santa list for months.
His list included: Cheetahs, Big Tea Set, Helicopter, and a Shark Book.
While Tyson has not yet developed the language skills to articulate a list,
he managed to communicate what he wanted most.Every time we went to a store that sold Barbie cars he was quick to locate them and do a silent display of interest or a "sit in". He would park himself in front of the item for a VERY LONG time...until I finally had to carry him out of the store.
When Matthew or I were on the computer,
he would come up to us and say, "Ba-be Ca." Needless to say, we have spent a great deal of time looking at Barbie Cars.
In preparation for Christmas, we blew and racked tons of leaves .
Matthew began this great project Thursday Evening after work.The boys loved "helping," by jumping in the piles & By making Leaf Angels.

Thursday Night was also the Extended Shumway Family Caroling Party.
Since the boys were tired, and it's too hard for them to go to events of that magnitude, I represented to Foote Fam.
Rekah, my brother Dave's daughter came over for a sleep over.
We had lots of fun! And the boys were so happy
to discover our guest when they woke -up.
Christmas Eve. We are blessed to live pretty close to both Sides of your family so we got to spend a nice chunk of time with Footes and Shums.In Matthew's family, the Footes have a tradition of setting up & organizing the lighting of luminaries for their entire street. This is a picture of Ty playing Ring around the rosy in the front yard with his cousins. After a delicious Mexican food and a cousin gift exchange,
we headed to Gma & Papa Shumways for the Nativity Scene & Program.
Here's some photos from the program.

Here's the You Tube Link to the nativity After the Nativity, there was a Shumway Cousin's exchanged gifts & Santa Claus called to talk to all the children.
Finally, we headed home to let the boys open their Christmas Puppy PJs.
Christmas Morning
Alex & Ty were asleep by 10:00 While Santa and his elves were busy in the Back yard assembling the Boy's largest gift.
Alex was so excited that we woke up at 2:30 saying Momma, It's time to open presents. Once I got him conviced that it was still the middle of the night we were all asleep until 6:30 am.


One of Alex's favorite gifts was a Ocean play set. Tyson, as you can see thought it also made a great swimming pool. They fed Ken to the sharks too.I think Ty wanted to be one of the Sharks
because he to was taking a bite out of Ken's head.
Christmas Linner
(you know that meal that encompasses both Lunch and Dinner)
Matthew is quite skilled at making a moist and delicious Turkey. We decided to invite both sides of our family to come over for Turkey, Ham, Scalloped & Mashed potatoes and what ever else people wanted to bring.
It was a lovely feast! And the kids had fun breaking in the Trampoline. I wish I had more photos of this fun event but, I was too busy to take them.
These kids don't look very happy because Alex was making them mad.
(He was pitting and getting all worked up)Night Time
That is about it accept our absolute FAVORITE Gift is Charlie Brown. We adore his. He is a great addition to out family.
We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas too!

Saturday, December 18, 2010

Cousins

One of the biggest blessings of life is family.
They will help in a crisis, listen to you complain. And above all, they will always love you, even when you don't necessarily deserve it.
There is also a special group of family members that are extra priceless. Built in friends you can call for play dates and countless hours of fun. (Tessa, Mark's oldest daughter w/ Ty)
My Children are blessed to have 27 Cousins! 23 of which live less then 10 miles away.
Here are a few snap shots that inspired this post.
Ty, Griffin & Lincoln at Burger King

Lincoln, Alex & Ty on the train ride at the zoo
Westin, Michael, Griffin & Lincoln
Scarlett & Tyson