Catching up with pictures

It suddenly dawned on me yesterday that I had not downloaded pics from my camera in a while. Imagine my surprise when I discovered almost 200 shots dating back to before Christmas. Gee, Wendy, way to stay on top of things! LOL! That's me. I live on the proverbial rode to hell, full of good intentions but always a little short. So here is my first attempt at catching up. It will take several posts but i will get it done. Eventually.....

Christmas Eve, three little boys scrubbed clean, dressed in holidays jammies and so excited. Note the steri-strip on Seths forehead. It's the result of boy versus yo-yo. Don't worry, the yo-yo was OK.

Seth got a DS which was his #1 request. We immediately put a clear protective case and screen cover on it. Maybe this way when he drops it 4 thousand times it might survive.
We dragged the presents out over 2 days. The final opening was all the wrapped gifts under the tree from family. We waited until Kaytee and Ashley got here from their Dad's house so it was afternoon by the time this even began. We always open only one present at a time so everyone else can see what they got and say thanks to the giver appropriately. With seven people this takes a looong time and creates a lot of mess.

The day was quite festive. And silly. Isn't he just beeeyoootiful!

By the time each child got gifts from Mom and Dad, brothers and sisters and grandparents, the pile was quite large. This year, to help teach the lesson of giving, each boy got to go to the store alone with me one afternoon and pick out small gifts for all of their siblings. (<$5) Then they got to get a special treat to eat with mommy and then we came home and wrapped their gifts together. It was really special and a tradition I want to continue. Santa brought new bicycles fro all three boys and several group gifts. Some were big hits, like the standing punching bag set. Others, like the candy crane game below, are now stashed in the back of a closet. The kids LOVE this game, but it plays loud obnoxious music that gets faster and faster as they try and snare candy. Then the boys figured out they didn't have to play the game, they could just pull off the access panel and grab out the candy. By the time we figured out what they were doing Seth had eaten literally 30 pieces of candy, hiding the wrappers all over the place.
Even Jingles got a little gift. I knit him a little scarf to help him stay warm on his trips back and forth to Santa. He was very appreciative.
Levi got two more books in the Wimpy Kid series and was so excited. He is reading at a 5th grade level and loves to read. These are his favorite books. We will often find him curled up in a chair reading a book.
By the end of the day, as we were opening the last of the gifts, the excitement of the day got to be too much for Ahren. We actually had to wake him up to open his last present. Isn't that just the sweetest picture ever!
The last couple of weeks the weather here has been warm and wet. Not a good mix for letting three small boys work off energy outside. Every once in a while a Mama just has to let boys be boys. Notice they are barefooted. It was that warm and Mama did not want to have to clean up muddy shoes. Hah!

Boys or piggies?

After a good scrub in the shower (too dirty for a bath) we discovered they were actually boys again, not piggies. Levi kept trying to fool me and pull away his towel as I snapped this picture, but you know my horrible fear of toots. I just snapped and ran!