Christmas at Grandma Thacker's

Christmas night is always reserved for Grandma Thacker's house.  We all gathered with my aunt and uncle, my two cousins, and my new cousin-in-law for a meal and gifts. 

After dinner it was time for a bit of horseplay.  Ryker loves blowing raspberries on Cam's stomach.

Ryker didn't want his picture taken so I was running around chasing him.  I snuck up on him and snapped this one.  He was genuinely spooked and the evil mom that I am, I thought it was hilarious!!!

We always open gifts youngest to oldest.  Hudson really enjoyed his new puppy!

Cam got this adorable hat and gloves set that he LOVED modeling for everyone.  He cheesed it so bad and everyone smiled and cheered for him, which only encouraged him more.  He kept laughing and clapping for himself.  It was hilarious!  (PS- I think this picture is just way too adorable!)

Cam showing Hudson how his new toy works. ;-)

Ryker was psyched about this Hot Wheels track from Uncle Mark and Aunt Carol

Grandma perusing her new calendar.  I've made one for her, Grandma and Grandpa Sheepie, and Aunt Karen every year for the past 3 years. They are a hit and will likely be the go-to gift for years to come.

Unfortunately, Ryker's temperature soared again while we were there and his cough got worse.  He was miserable!  We cut out pretty quickly in order to get him home and medicated and to bed. 

Christmas Eve

Mom spent the morning baking her famous cinnamon rolls.  They are so delicious and are synonomous with Christmas.

Aunt Karen and Jo stopped by to bring the boys their Christmas gifts around 10:30.  Ryker got some new games, clothes, a magnetic moose (that he loved), and a cardboard train that he can climb in and even color.  Back in September while at the Country Living Fair I lamented the fact that you can't find cute aprons for boys anywhere.  My boys both love to help in the kitchen and I told Jo I would love for them to have some cute aprons to wear.  She said a gal she works with makes them in her spare time.  She and Aunt Karen picked out some fabric and had some made for each of the boys.  They are so cute!

Cam was asleep while they were here so I had to send them a few pics of him opening the gifts later.

This set of foam blocks are so cool.  Cam LOVES them! 

We went to Aunt Chelle's in the afternoon to celebrate with the Brown's.  We had a great meal and then opened gifts.

Ryker turned Cam's inch worm box into a race car.  It cracks me up that out of tons of toys, kids will choose a box to play in!

After Aunt Chelle's we stopped by Grandma and Grandpa Sheepie's to give them their presents and spend time with my cousin Mike, his wife Jalyn, and their kids Ashlyn and Carter, along with Aunt Karen, Jo, Nana and Papaw. 

Cam was being as rotten as ever.  He was hanging all over Grandpa's legs.  He's such a cute stinker though!

We came home, sprinkled our special reindeer food on the lawn, and set out our treats for Santa.  Ryker wasn't feeling very good and after some meds and a breathing treatment, they were both out like lights!

Santa came!

We sorted the gifts and put the ones for the 4 of us in front of the tree so we'd have less sorting in the morning with two antsy boys.

Santa even left each of the boys a note!

   

Christmas with the Brown's

Sunday was a full day for us.  We had nursery duty at church in the morning and then headed over to the new house to measure for the new fridge and sink before driving downtown for lunch.  We met Grandma and Grandpa Sheepie, Aunt Karen, Jo, Nana, and Papaw at the Old Spaghetti Factory.  It's one of our favorite places but we don't get there very often.  It was a great time and the food was delicious as usual.  After lunch we went home so the boys could take a quick nap.  Then it was time for Christmas with the Brown's.  Robert's Aunt Robin had everyone over for food and fun.  We had a great time visiting with everyone.  Ryker loved playing with the kids and Cam loved the attention from the older girls. ;-)

Heather and Jay were great with Cam and kept him entertained most of the night.

Jay sent this to me.  She is so good with kids and I loved having her hang with him.  It let me enjoy the company of others instead of chasing him around.

We had such a great time but stayed way too late and Ryker wasn't feeling too good by the time we got home.  I started giving him breathing treatments and some meds when we got home.

Jolly Days

We met Aunt Chelle, Uncle Robert, and Nathan at the Children's Museum to check out the Jolly Days exhibit and go down the Yule Slide.  It was pretty crowded and hard to keep track of the three kids, but we had a pretty good time anyway. 

Ryker and Cam both loved making it snow inside the giant snow globe.

We headed to the Yule Slide first thing.  This was so comical I wish I would've had Robert video it instead of take pictures...allow me to explain...

1. Ryker rode down with Cam on his lap and I rode down with Hudson.  Michelle and Nathan were in line behind us.  Robert was downstairs to photograph the fun.

2. Wee!

3. Yay!  We made it!

4. Hudson was giggling like crazy...too funny!

5. Camden got up and immediately started climbing back up the slide.

6. The poor bag collector tried to collect him too. Meanwhile, Ryker thinks Cam's idea was brilliant and tries to follow suit...

7.  ...and falls instead.

8. He quickly recovers as I try to wrangle both Cam and Hudson.

9. I tried to get both boys situated all while Ryker climbed up the slide (unbeknownst to me).

10. I hurriedly tried to get out of the way blissfully unaware that we were causing even more trouble.

11. I realized Ryker was climbing the slide and yelled for him to get down.

12. He quickly turned around and slid down.

Yeah, it was quite the ride!  Never a dull moment when I'm out with these three boys!  LOL

Santa wasn't there yet, so we went into Teddy Bear's Playhouse to pass the time.  Ryker created this lovely artwork with some sort of Silly Putty-like substance on this mannequin.

Then it was time for Santa.  I stupidly parked the double stroller outside of the line because I thought it would be too hard to navigate through the line.  Not my best idea!  After several escape attempts by Cam all while I held 20 pound Hudson, we arrived at Santa's chair.  The boys were happy, I was sweaty...  I took several pics on my phone (yeah, we seem to have lost the charger for my camera so I am without a decent camera for the foreseeable future) and this was the best one.  Please forgive the creepy eyes, I can't seem to edit them out. :(

Robert, Michelle, and Nathan took off after seeing Santa.  The boys and I stayed for a bit and enjoyed the Jolly Days exhibit.  Cam especially loved fishing.

He really liked to sit in the fishing hole with the fish which was pretty funny.

Hudson, for some reason, thought a fish sign on the wall was hilarious.  He kept smiling and giggling at it.  So funny!

Ryker sliced his finger on his last trip down the slide in the ice castle which was met with an overly dramatic reaction requiring a makeshift bandage out of a diaper wipe.  I had already packed us lunch, so we went ahead and ate in the cafeteria before heading home for naps (and a couple real band aids for Ryker).

Unexpected Treats

We had plans to meet Aunt Karen at Texas Roadhouse for dinner tonight.  We typically go the week before Christmas and tonight was the perfect night.  To our surprise and delight, Santa Claus and one of his elves came tonight.  The elf passed out candy canes to all the kids and Santa was available for pictures and lap-sitting.  They also had free face painting. 

Camden was quite fascinated with Santa and wouldn't look at me.

Ryker, on the other hand, wanted nothing to do with him.  I think he is now noticing that not all the Santas look alike and is a bit suspicious.  I think it's time to tell him that these are just helpers. I may wait for him to say something first though. I'd like to let him believe for as long as possible.

Next up was face painting.  He was so excited!

Full Spiderman mask...awesome!

 Unfortunately, in spite of these extra goodies, it wasn't our best dinner out.  The kids were not exactly calm and collected tonight.  Camden wanted nothing to do with sitting in his highchair...or sitting at all for that matter.  Ryker was pretty good up until he got in trouble with Robert for not listening.  I think his feelings got really hurt and he burst into tears.  In an effort to get him to calm down I told him he was going to ruin his face paint.  Wrong thing to say!  He proceeded to cry even more as we tried to salvage his face paint by blotting his tears with a napkin.  Eventually, I had to take him to the bathroom to calm down.  He made me take a picture so he could see that it was still ok.  Here's what we got:

Yeah, you can see that the white around his eyes was gone from the tears and there are streaks down his cheeks.  This one is a Drama King for sure! 

We survived the meal and got out of there in one piece and I managed to hold on to the majority of my sanity.  All in all, not too bad in my opinion.  Lol!

Small Group Christmas Party

Tonight was our small group Christmas party.  We joined a new small group in early fall and meet every other week.  We are currently reading through The Story which is the Bible in chronological form.  We are really enjoying this awesome group of people and they are helping us grow in many ways.  We got together to enjoy some delicious food, play games, and have a white elephant gift exchange.  We laughed and laughed...it was a great evening!

Jessie was the lucky recipient of a Santa snuggie

I was blessed with an ever-useful 7ft. CAT-5 ethernet cable. lol

Robert took home two of these beauties.  They are from Gander Mountain....pretty sure they are meant to be used inside of a sleeping bag to add extra warmth, although I could be completely making that up.

With Robert's beard he looked alarmingly like Joseph, so I threw on the other one and we posed as Mary and Joseph.  We said this could be on AwkardFamilyPhotos.com

We played a game where we had to draw a picture on a plate while it was on top of our heads.  Robert's was horrible!  Mine, however, was the winner!  Yay!

All the girls. L to R: Jessie, Me, Anna, Nicole, Andrea, and Jamie

Anna and her awesomely long arms snapped this one of us. :-)

We are so thankful for this group and fellow Christians we can pray, talk, laugh, and do life with! 

Robert's Graduation

He made it!!!  Today was Robert's graduation ceremony.  He has been working toward his Master's degree for the last year and a half at Indiana Wesleyan University.  He has worked so hard and sacrificed so much to get to this point and I am so incredibly proud of him!  He even graduated with a 4.0!  My parents graciously offered to watch the boys for us so we could enjoy the ceremony in peace.  We drove up to Marion, IN in the morning and anxiously awaited the ceremony at 2:00.  Robert's parents, Pepaw, brother, sister, and brother-in-law all came as well.  It was great to have so many people there to support and congratulate him. 

The ceremony was held in the campus' new Chapel.  It was a beautiful building and perfect for this event.  I was so impressed with the ceremony.  It's a Christian university and it was so refreshing to hear Christ praised and discussed so openly.  The main speech was given by the Chairman of the Board and was SO good!  He could be a preacher!  It was titled "Life of Hope, But.."  He spoke on the popular and familiar verse from Jeremiah 29:11,"'For I know the plans I have for you,' declares the Lord, 'plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future.'"  The best part was that he said it's important to keep reading....there's where the "but" in the title of his speech came from.  Verses 13 and 14 say, "'You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you,' declares the Lord..."  I loved that he proclaimed God's promises to everyone, but loved it even more that he didn't stop there.  You have to seek him!  Anyway, I was really impressed with the entire ceremony and truly enjoyed it!

Robert put on all his gear before we left so we could get pictures with the boys.  Camden was particularly enthralled with his tassel.

Daddy with his boys.

Walking in to the chapel.

All the professors on stage.

His moment to shine!

Michelle and I....it might have gotten a bit boring after a while listening to all those names.

Proudly displaying that diploma (well, not really, it will be mailed...but, ya know!)

Proud Mom and Dad

Michelle and Dave with the graduate

Pepaw's turn.

All the Brown men

The Roberts

Robert (Pepaw), Robert (Spangler), Robert (Brown), and Tony (who actually began life as a Robert until his parents legally changed it later) 

Me and my smart man!