Christmas in February?

I've only had about fifteen blog posts "drafted" for two months now! I guess it's about time to start catching up! Turns out, I hit my limit for adding photos to Blogger. So I opened up a Flickr account. As soon as I uploaded some of the pictures from our little family photo session, I maxed out the monthly limit. DOH! Now that I'm finally all straightened out (I think), it's back to playing catch up! First up, Christmas 2012!!

Let's start off by taking a peak at the most awesome Christmas present ever from the hubster....

BAZINGA!!!!

Yuppers. Mommy got upgraded.

::: giggle :::

Granted, I'm still learning about my new baby and still practicing so starting out was a bit rough and a lot of the pictures at the end of this post are proof of that (the Christmas Tree Farm pics are with my original DSLR). But hopefully things will get better as I learn more about my new 60D. So excited!!! Okay, here we go.

Like we have done the past couple of years, we continued with our tradition of heading to a local tree farm to cut down our Christmas tree. This is such a fun tradition for us and it still seems new to me since I never did this growing up. In the beginning, especially with the kids, it was sometimes hard to figure out on big holidays like this, which traditions we were going to do. Wes and I had lots of different traditions we grew up with, so figuring out which ones we would do as a family was sometimes tricky. Having said that, I think we finally got the hang of it and I am absolutely loving taking both sides, smooshing them together, and making the traditions our own. I always have grand ideas on what this yearly trip entails (I know, big surprise there right?), but usually it ends up raining, or with a sick baby in tow. This year, we lucked out though. I snuggled up the babies with about 14 layers of clothes, only to realize when we got there that it was unusually warm. If that's the worst that happens, I call that a success. So as you can tell in the pictures, the kids starting stripping layers of clothes as the Great Tree Hunt of 2012 went on.

Jackson's first trip to the tree farm was when he was just about 8 months old (seems so long ago). He was strapped to Mommy with our Baby Bjorn and holy moly did my back hurt after carting around that 20lb toddler. Needless to say, my back quite enjoyed the break this year. The kids weren't exactly interested in picking a tree, but they sure did LOVE running through all the rows of trees. Jack was having a blast playing hide and seek, especially when he found 'baby trees'.

Just like last year, my Emma Kathryn was more into jumping on and off all the little tree stumps that were left in the ground. Once Jack got wind of what his big Sissy was up to, he was all over the tree stumps as well. Although he isn't the most coordinated toddler (God love that little man) and usually ended up tripping over them and landing on his rear end. That seemed fine to him, because he could then just roll around in the mud.  

Seriously. How beautiful is my baby girl?

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, while Mommy was on baby duty, Daddy was hard at work cutting down the tree...

Although these trips involve all four of us, we usually seem to have to split up most of the time. Daddy takes care of the tree, while Mommy tries to keep the babies from, well, everything. So while Daddy was busy hauling the tree to the car and tying her down, the babies and I headed back up to the farm for some cold weather treats.

Here is where Mommy thought "OH! This is going to be the best picture ever! Both kids, sitting by the fire, trees in the background, etc" Yup. Not so much. Despite the strangers cruising around in the background, Jack would look at me, Emma would refuse. Emma would look at me, Jack would refuse. Mommy would then burn her rear-end on the giant bonfire behind me. Maybe next year. :)

After sitting down for all of 30 seconds, we headed over to the snack barn to grab a cup of hot chocolate and apple cider. Luckily, Jack was open to the apple cider since Emma wasn't a big fan and decided the hot chocolate was hers.

Then it was back to go watch the tree gets its grove on (i.e. get put in the shaker to shake the dead needles off). I did manage to catch this picture though. It may not be perfect, or at the right angle, but I absolutely love it. The babies were holding hands, Jack's hair is sticking up (LOVE) and they are stinky and sweaty since Mommy dressed then like it was 20 degrees out and it was probably in the 60s. Every time I need a little reminder about what really matters in life, I look at this picture. How is it possible to love two tiny little things so much?

Okay, so back to Christmas. We were a little late getting our tree this year, so we only had a week or so until Christmas...can you tell Emma was getting excited? Oh, and notice that chunky little hand gripping snowman in the background? Yup. The Squishy LOVED the Christmas tree. Needless to say many ornaments got rearranged multiple times this year. But he only broke two! That's not bad! :)

So far, our strategy for Christmas has been to buy the little crazies one big present for the both of them, and then buy them each the smaller things. Of course Santa usually takes care of most of the gifts, so this year, Santa lost his marbles had a great idea and brought the kids a brand new Mustang! Wowza. Is it wrong to be jealous of your kids Christmas presents? :)

I took a ton of pictures and videos of the kids driving around in their new car from Santa, and hopefully I can post a few. But for now, here's one quick iPhone shot. For now, Emma's the driver since Jack's a bit too little to reach the peddles, which seemed okay with him. He was happy as a clam to just be along for the ride. Luckily, Christmas Day was sunny and relatively warm so outside we went!

What still amazes me about the kids is that even though they got a MUSTANG for Christmas, they were more excited about their little boxes of goldfish that Santa brought them in their stockings. They wouldn't let go of those little goldfish all day.

As Emma was busy ripping through her presents, Jack just wanted to chill in his new ride. It even has cup holders for his milkies. :)

Santa, once again, overdid himself just like usual. The kids had an absolute blast though and were EXHAUSTED for days afterwards.

Emma modeling her new Dora slippers. :)

Jack kissing Rex. :)

Every year, I keep saying that "this year" is going to be the best Christmas ever. And every year it seems to top the year before. I can't help but get sentimental and think about how awesome Christmas next year is going to be. I am so incredibly blessed, and Christmas is the perfect time to remember that.