Roper Mountain Lights

Another family tradition! Here we stood in line for a very long time to get our picture taken with Santa. The boys still will not sit on Santa's lap but are will to stand next to him, in our arms!

Christmas Morning

This picture isn't from Christmas morning but it too cute not to share.

He came!

I tried to get them to sit and take a picture before we started opening gifts..but Henry could not take his eyes off the kitchen that was behind Luke's bike!

So excited! A kitchen!!

New rainboots! Luke got Batman rainboots.

Head lamps for both boys

A big boy bike for Luke!!!

Beyond excited! "Just what I wanted!"

I have to say that this Christmas was the best yet. Can't wait for more to come!!

Everything Christmas!

We had such a fantastic Christmas! I can't even explain how exciting it was with the boys. Luke being 4 understands everything and gets us all in the Christmas spirit, not that I needed any help. From feeding reindeer at Hollywild to Christmas Eve service, we have had a wonderful December preparing for the coming of Christmas morning and the birth of "baby Jesus". The boys got a kitchen for Christmas and we baked "cookies" and Luke insisted on singing Happy Birthday to "baby Jesus" before we "ate" them. We had Christmas Eve celebration with The Ellenburgs (Anny's family) last night after church and celebrated this morning with just us 4 and Gail and Phil joined us in the afternoon for lunch and more celebrating. This coming weekend we will celebrate with The Carlisles and Saturday is Thomas' birthday!! He will be 32 incase anyone was wondering! We are very excited to continue our celebrations!! This has been the best Christmas yet! My heart is so full seeing the excitement and joy in Luke and Henry's eyes! It took us over 3 hours just to complete our (the four of us) Christmas this moring. Not becuase we had so much to open but because the boys took a few minutes to enjoy each gift as they opened it. Luke got his first bike! And his words when he opened it... "Oh its just what I wanted!" Such excitment, such happiness. If I could only bottle it up and save it forever! Enjoy our pictures! There will be a few more Christmas post coming, mostly for my record and memory, but enjoy! Merry Christmas!!

Our Elf on the Shelf

This is mostly for my record, my memory. So I can remember this next year. This year we got our first Elf on the Shelf. We enjoyed his daily trickery! Here are a few of our favorites...incase we want to remind Copper what he needs to do next year when he visits! ;)
I am blogging this one from my phone and can't control the order of pics so I hope it's not too mixed up!

He arrives!!

 Bath time

Luke was so excited when Copper left hima special message for breakfast!

Copper made cookies for us!

Happy Birthday Balloons for Luke!

fishing for goldfish

 Hang-gliding

 Dressed up like "Ho-Ho"

 Guiding his sleigh!

 Luke and Henry were being such good boys that Copper brought us a Gingerbread house as a surprise. We got to make it and decorate it! A yearly tradition for us!

The note that came with our goodies from Copper 3 days before Christmas. The boys had to find the prize though by following the clues!

The last night with Copper!

His last night note.

Special reindeer breakfast and he also left us reindeer food to feed the reindeer that night.

Our gingerbread house

Each year we have a tradition of making a gingerbread house. Today we made ours for the year! Copper left it for us last night. (Copper is our elf from Santa) We did a pretty good job!! The hardest part this year was keeping Henry from eating all our toppings!

Rudolph the red nosed reindeer

Loving Harley

Need a ride?

I can already tell that Henry will be one wild driver one day!!

Stockings hung with care

Finally we got Henry's stocking in!! And Copper surprised us this morning by hiding in Luke's stocking...maybe he will be in Henry's tomorrow! Wink wink.

Ho ho slippers

Thanks for our ho ho slippers yoo-hoo!!

Birthday Boy

Luke turned 4 last Thursday, December 6th! I cannot believe we have a four year old and I cannot believe how fast the past four years have gone! Our family of four celebrated Luke's birthday on his birthday. Today, Sunday, we celebrated his birthday with the rest of the family! Anny, Papa, Jimmy, Yoo-Hoo, Uncle Chris, RaRa, Adaline, Aunt Natalie, Uncle Patrick, Emma Kate and Tyler all came to celebrate with us! Luke was so excited to have everyone here! Its always fun to get all the children together! Thank you for helping us celebrate Luke's birthday!!

 A farm cake for the big boy! Our gift to him was a "farm set", by request of course.

 My handsome fellow with one of his favorites, Woody from the Toy Story movie-Thanks Anny and Papa!

 Four fingers!!

 Just a little embarassed that everyone was singing for him! He is a shy, bashful one!

He chose a pig for his birthday treat!