Our Christmas and New Year's!

We sent Santa a letter asking that he visit our house on Friday December 31 since we were not here on the actual Christmas Day. Fortunately, he obliged. Trevor was so excited to know that Santa was coming to his house that he could barely fall asleep. Finally we said you have to be asleep or Santa is not going to come and guess what? The little stinker was snoring in no time!

When he woke up on Saturday he right away asked if 'Santa come' and was excited to see all of the presents Santa left under the tree! Trevor isn't too much of a ripper. He's kinda like his Mommy - a slow unwrapper!


He has a very serious look on his face with each gift. He studies them so close to see if he can figure them out...or something!


He knew right away when he was opening a Thomas item!!


And of course, he had to play with it right away!


Mommy got some nice gifts too, including another pair of Smart touch gloves! Yay!!


Besides Thomas gifts Trevor was also super excited about getting a M&M fan like his cousin Sam's!!


Randle was ever present in Trevor's gift opening. He must have been wondering if one would be for him. Actually, Randle got 4 gifts. Spoiled doggie.....but this was not one for him.


This was the one thing he asked Santa for....candy canes! Now he has 60 mini candy canes to eat!


Santa didn't leave Randle out of the candy cane fun though - he got some too!


This picture is hilarious. Trevor has all of his favorite things in one spot: a new Thomas book, his Skip It, his Thomas train tracks...lucky boy!


The last gift Trevor opened was a kitchen. He was super pumped about this. He plays with a kitchen at school every day, he enjoyed playing with the kitchen at Grandma and Grandpa R's, and we believe after he saw his gift he said 'me cook, me cook?' Yes buddy, you can cook all the time!! We even set it up in our kitchen so when we cook he can cook!


Speaking of Grandma and Grandpa R, they stopped over for a quick visit after we opened our gifts. Trevor wasn't all that excited about stopping playing to take a pic!


On New Year's Eve Trevor enjoyed helping Daddy open up our champagne.

He really gets into seeing the cork pop and fly all over! Where did it go?


After Trevor went to bed, Sara and Brian enjoyed an evening of fondue! We like to fondue at least once a year and New Year's seems like a good night to stay in and stay off the roads.

On New Year's Day Grandma and Papa H hung out and played with some of Trevor's new toys including his train table. We also enjoyed going out to dinner at Cowboy Jack's. What a fun way to ring in the New Year both on New Year's Eve and New Year's Day because in the end it really is all about family and we feel so blessed and lucky to have such a wonderful family!!

Christmas with the Hillins!

Grandma and Grandpa Hillins flew in for the week between Christmas and New Year's Eve so we were fortunate to have special time together including a Christmas celebration over at at Jeff and Dawn's. We enjoyed a chili dinner before opening gifts.


One of the first gifts Trevor opened was his fire truck from Jeff and Dawn and boy did he love it!!


He played with it while other people opened gifts and just kept saying 'firefighter' over and over!


And as you can see the fire truck didn't leave his side most of the night!


We hit a home run with Brooke this year! She LOVED her new Tinkerbell Pixie Hollow dollies!


When Leah was over for Trevor's birthday she really enjoyed playing with Buzz and Woody so we got her a talking Jessie for Christmas. Trevor wasn't afraid to show her how it worked.


Grandma and Grandpa got Trevor a big present! What's under the bag?


Ah ha, a basketball hoop! Who made the basket??


A lot of chaos when we're all together, but always a lot of fun! Merry belated Christmas!

Mr. Potato Head

One of Trevor's favorite gifts thus far came from Jim, Annie, and Sam - a Mr. Potato Head. He specifically really likes putting the glasses on himself. Mr. Potato Head can apparently see just fine without them!


We think he's just happy to finally have glasses like Mommy and Daddy wear sometimes!

Candy Cane!

And Trevor finally gets his candy cane that he asked Santa for!!

Christmas with the Roslansky's!

We celebrated Christmas with the Roslansky's this past weekend. We went down to Owatonna on Saturday morning and were enveloped with the Christmas spirit immediately. What a glorious 2 days!!

While there, Mommy learned how to shoot the bright lights in her Christmas photography. What a neato picture :)


Before heading out to Christmas mass on Saturday afternoon we took a few pictures by the tree:


We think he looks pretty cute in his Christmas duds! We think he knows it too!!


We didn't get a full shot, but here you get the idea of his Christmas outfit - Converse shoes and all!


We took a few family pictures too!




One thing about Brian is that he isn't afraid to help out at his in-laws - whether it's cooking, cleaning up meals, or the picking up the house....whatever! Just one of the many things that Sara loves about him :)


On Christmas Eve we opened a few gifts and we had Santa's helpers to distribute them!! What cuties!!


And our angels watching us from above! We miss you Grandmas, Grandpas, Aunts, Uncles and Friends!!


Trevor was very into opening just one gift and then playing with it for a while rather than just ripping open gift after gift after gift. He was especially interested in the recordable Elmo book he got from Grandma and Grandpa! He likes hearing them 'read' his story over and over!




Sara's Dad liked his new cap for Arizona! What a nice new 'do' he has!


We tried to get a picture of Trevor in his new Christmas jammies by the tree but he wasn't having it!


Sam was there to cheer him up quick though! Look at these laughs! These boys LOVE each other!


We left a note and cookies for Santa but not before Sam had a little sample of one of the cookies. We're sure he just wanted to make sure they were acceptable for Santa!


And before bed Grandma Jeanne (aka Nana) read the pop-up 'Twas the Night Before Christmas' story:


Trevor loves books!!


In the morning Trevor checked out the Cookies for Santa plate and wondered where all of the cookies went!




Before opening more gifts, Papa made us pancakes. It's like we're at the Holiday Inn ;)


Santa came and gave Trevor some stocking gifts:


He really loved getting Toy Story fruit snacks!


What else??


We gave Sam the Bat Cave, which he LOVED!!


Sam and Trevor got in on the action of preparing our meal:


After a wonderful Christmas meal Trevor enjoyed 'cooks' and just like Mommy growing up, he got his annual Christmas cookie picture!


After that he had some energy and was busy having the choo choo go under his tunnel!


Sam, who usually runs away from the camera actually posed a bit for Sara with his new Tickle Me Elmo. What a CUTIE (our nephew, not the stuffed animal)!!


We had tired campers all around. After a two hour nap in bed, Trevor was apparently still tired. He cuddled up on Mommy and fell back asleep!


But when he finally woke up (at 5pm) he was a happy, happy boy! Hiding under Papa's chair:


Peek a boo!


We introduced the boys to our annual family tradition - the Mr. and Mrs. Right/left game!


And one last story for the day before bedtime.


Er, make that before they joined in on the Phase 10 game :)


All in all it was nice to spend 2 full days together. Usually when all 8 of us get together it is just for an hour or two here and there so this was super nice. Thanks Mom and Dad R for everything you did to make Christmas so special!