The Keene Family

The weather recently has been clear but very cold. We took advantage of the sunshine and spent some time at the elementary school playground nearby. The girls The boys Testing out the fireman pole Hooray! The slide JT sees something funny... Dad!

Jim and I woke up before our children on Christmas. I wonder how long that will last? Anyway, I had time to pop the coffee cake in the oven and we opened our stockings... then we couldn't wait any longer and we got JT up to do his stocking. Then we had a quick photo shoot in front of the tree before we ate our yummy breakfast. Compare with JT's baby Christmas pic here Finally, we got to open our presents! Jim had no idea what was in his two big boxes. He was so excited to open them! One big box was a chain saw. The other was a bug & stone deflector for the truck. JT did a great job opening his presents. I like to open one person at a time, and that was perfect because he got to play with his new toy while Jim, Haley, and I each opened one. A new Thomas and freight car Crocodile Creek placemats from Uncle Jeff & Aunt Gena A booster seat - no more high chair! Helping Mom test out her new remote for the camera - so cool. "Just like Cole's" Here's a littl...

We spent Christmas Eve as a family of four. JT spent the entire morning in his pajamas playing with new toys. Moon dough barn from the Skagens - soooo messy! New construction worker set Dart gun to shoot at Dad (not at Haley... or mom... or Slider...) Playdough tools After naps for the kids (and A Christmas Story for the adults), we had a prime rib dinner and got dressed for church. Love my family. Haley's beautiful Christmas dress from Shira, and pearl bracelet from Mom Poor Haley... After we got home from church, the kids went to bed. But somebody put brownies in the oven, so Jim and I ate warm brownie sundaes with homemade french vanilla ice cream before we stuffed the stockings and climbed into bed. :)

Thursday we went to Grandpa and Grandma Keene's house for dinner and presents. First, JT had to get Haley in the Christmas spirit by teaching her a song... We had a yummy comfort food dinner of homemade mac & cheese and hot dogs - awesome. Laughing at Uncle Matt Snuggling with Aunt Jennifer Jim and Jennifer and their families The whole crew Haley and her mom :) After dinner, the chaos began. We started with stockings. JT was pretty excited about a new toothbrush. Grandpa and Grandma are happy to just watch and hold Haley. I played Santa and passed out tons of presents - not only from Grandpa and Grandma, but also from the Alabama Keenes and the Arizona Thoens. It was great watching JT get excited about new toys! His first baseball lesson Haley and her new doll (I think in this picture she looks like a girl version of a picture of JT when he was the same age.) We got a blow-up Alabama lounge chair from Aunt Alice and JT loved it! Then again, so did Jim. Trying out the new chair...

On Wednesday, after workout, JT and I made Christmas cookies. He did a great job helping cut out the cookies. After naps, we loaded up the cookies and presents and went over to the Skagens' house for dinner, cookie decorating, and gift exchange. Aly did a great job holding Haley. She was very gentle and held her close. Here are my god-daughter and my daughter. Two cuties! :) The kids loved decorating their cookies. Here you can see Cole sneaking a lick off his decorating knife! JT gave Cole a new garbage truck from Toy Story 3. This information is important if you watch the Christmas montage video! Aly loved her new digital camera from us, and took over 100 pictures in under two hours. There was a lot of "say cheese!"