A Very Merry Christmas!!!

What a year that 2009 has been! I am so looking forward to 2010 as it is quickly approaching!
I took the boys to see Santa. Of course Brad at 13 is pretty mortified I make him do this every year. I kindly explained that even when he is in college that is my ONE Christmas gift I will always want to receive. With Gabe and him being 13 years apart we will have MANY more times to see Santa. I do appreicate him being such a good sport however!

Christmas Eve we spent over at my in-laws house. Gabe hasn't been there in a while and he was in heaven. Oh the toys that Grandpa and Grandma have!!! This work bench by far was his favorite. It didn't make his Christmas list, but thankfully his first birthday is coming up shortly!!

He was eating a screw. I don't know why but it cracked us all up!!

Matthew and I on Christmas Eve!

Everything is funny to this kid. I have no idea why he is laughing, but with the red rosy cheeks he is just picture perfect!

Brad and I. Taking as many pictures as I can these days. I am realizing before I know it he will be all grown up and in college. I love that he is taller than me. I had heels on too. :)

Elizabeth spent Christmas Eve with us. Pretty sure it's been most of our Christmas Eve's in the past 10 years!!! At this point I think the wine was making our smiles so bright!!! :) I love you honey!!!

A half family picture!! I never knew how hard it was to take a picture with 6 people in it. Seriously. We have many pictures with 2 or 3 of the kids, but always seems impossible to get all 4 of them with us in one picture!

Grammie and Gabe just chilling before dinner!

Mommy and Gabe!!! Those cheeks!!

Here is Christmas morning BEFORE the kids were up! You can see it's still dark out. Gabe was up at 6:30 and JT didnt' get up until almost 8am!! I couldn't belive he slept in so late considering he was so excited for Christmas!!! We woke up the older boys when he came down.

So Gabe was NOT interested in Christmas at all. This is the one picture I got of him opening anything or even attempting to open anything. He got a lot of new cool toys and still only wanted to play in the cabinets with the dog treats and tupperware!!! He is too funny!

JT loves his new Karate Sponge Bob! There is just nothing better than watching Christmas thru a child's eyes.

Here is the after picture when all the presents were open! Looks like we had a very MERRY CHRISTMAS!!! We sure hope everyone we know did too!!!

Christmas Day is not only a day to Celebrate the birth of Jesus, but it's also my mother in law's birthday!!!! So we always have cake too!! Happy Birthday Mom! Hope you enjoyed your day!!!

Now on to 2010....

Recap of Thanksgiving and November and such...

This year for Thanksgiving we had it at our house. My mom flew to Chicago to be with my brother, niece and nephew so we had over the in-laws, my cousin and a friend. It was a very relaxing day as I didn't have to cook too much. I made my Mom's famous stuffing (not as good when she doesn't make it) and my awesome creamed corn...(Yum) Probably drank too much wine but isn't that what Thanksgiving is for?

This man and his crazy smile. His shirt says thankful for mommy!! I hope so!

This is Gabe cracking himself up. I don't even remember what was so funny, but oh boy it was!

Our delicious turkey courtesy of the in-laws. Yummy!!!

Here is a picture of almost all my favorite boys!! JT was with his dad. I love having my cousin, DJ, living in Phoenix!!

This is where Brad's team played the State Championship in Tucson, Arizona. It didn't matter if we won or loss because Tucson declined to travel to Orlando, Florida even if they won. However, yah we beat them!!!! Go Firebirds!!

Brad with the State Championship trophy. Now if only all the players got one of those!!

This picture truly makes me smile. My son is growing all up right before my eyes. What amazes me in this picture is 1. he is for sure taller than me now and 2. I think we kinda look alike. I don't know if I ever really saw it before. People would say to him or me that we did, but this picture I can really see it!! I can't believe in 2 months he will be 14. 14....

We also celebrated JT's birthday in November. This was him opening up a present. The expression on his face just cracks me up. Oh how he loves gift opening!!! Especially with friends!

Here is such a great picture. Since he got the DS for his birthday we just kept his party to family and his best friends. Brad is missing because of course he was at football practice!! Such handsome boys!!

JT blowing out the candle on his homemade cake! He loved it!! See who needs expensive store bought cakes anyway. :)

Gabe was getting in on the pizza eating action. He loves the crusts. I wish he ate more "normal" food, but I am guessing when you are 10 months and still have NO teeth eating "normal" food probably isn't on your list of things you are dying to do!!!

This picture was after the Firebirds won the Regional Game here in Scottsdale.

Here is Brad with the Regional trophy!!! Because of this win he got to go to Orlando, Florida for 8 nights. He is still there as I type this. Too bad for his team because they lost in the 2nd round of the playoffs to a team from Naperville, Illinois. (oddly enough I was born there and my aunt and brother live there) Final score was 32-24. (8 points is a touchdown if you kick not 7 like normal) So heartbreaking for his team and for him, but tomorrow they play their final game for 3rd. I am so proud of him!! Now we are ready for lacrosse season!!!!!!