All Things Christmas 2012

Like every year preceeding, we started our Christmas celebration off with Christmas eve at my brothers house. First year in their new house. It's huge with a big open floor plan and makes for the perfect place to host so many people!

Ashton found her way to pinterest again and we enjoyed some of her yummy finds!

Lots of adorable chocolate goodies!

YUM

 

the Cheese ball snowman was impressive, but it was the Rollo smashed turtles on pretzels that were my favorites I think. It always amazes me with how people come up with this stuff!

Whoever has the time to set around and think of things to melt and smash and rig and make.. I'm jealous of that person!

 

Cameron and Ashley were in Cameron and Ashley form this year.. ha

always entertaining to say the least :)

I personally think he should make this next one his profile picture.. stunning!

hats and scarves are always a hit with our crew!

 

Jaxson was ecstatic with his gift from Mimi and Pops this year..

he got a real bow from Cabela's and loved it.. good job Mimi and Pops!

 

We broke out Just Dance 4 and Jaxson was the only participant at first.. so he entertained the masses with his mad skills.

Lily and Kellen were more interested in running around playing and holding baby Z.. but they decided to join in on the dance fun. HOOT

another successful Christmas eve in the books!

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We opted to leave Oreo cookies and a glass of milk for Santa this year....

too many sweets around the house and didn't have time to make any homemade cookies for the big guy.. maybe next year we'll break out the food coloring and ice up some fun shapes or something. Oreos are just as good, I'm sure Santa would agree.

wink

Christmas morning at the Davis house was a good one. Santa brought the boys new baseball gear and Mom and dad got them fishing poles and lots of movies and goodies.

Notice the Thirty-One bins with their names on them.. we are deciding if these are going to be filled each year with their stuff from Santa or if Santa will just bring them a new one each year as their Santa sack.. were still working out the tradition kinks!

 

Kellen showed some fun excitement for his gifts, but I still think Jon was my favorite Davis reaction on Christmas morning. I surprised him with the Tablet hes been wanting and his reaction says it all. I was actually successful at surprising him. he had no idea it was coming! This is the guy that knows every dollar that is earned or spent and accounted for.. and I managed to get our Sam's card updated and this thing purchased and wrapped and hidden in our house for three weeks.

go me !

(thank you Pam for your participation in this as well.)

I tell ya what, getting gifts that require being outside on a freezing cold morning like Christmas was is just almost more than K could handle.. he was so eager and ready to try out his new baseball gear and fishing pole. Jon rigged up a bobber and they did a little early morning kitchen fishing. do what you gotta do !

he helped me put all of his bate into his new tackle box and wanted to know what everything was called. he is beyond ready to go fishing with his dad and his Pops.

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Christmas morning breakfast at Gramma's was good as well.

Her trees were cute as usual and as you can see by the enormous pile of gifts we all had plenty to open and new gifts to be had!

Brody is getting to the age that he cracks me up and I get a kick out of watching him and Kellen.

Fortunately they didn't fight over each others gifts this year, but there were a couple of Kellen's that Brody thought he needed.. funny stuff.

Gramma made Reece a super hero scrapbook that he loved.

Best smile from Reecer all morning!

Jax and Kellen picked out ornaments for Gramma and decorated and wrapped them themselves. they were adorable and made with loves and hugs!

Papaw was happy about getting some new spectacles... Papaw is not hard to please on Christmas morning. He is content just watching everyone else open their 85 gifts.

Uncle Jon has been given the rap for being 'hard' on his nephews but hes actually a good uncle. He wanted to get them both baseball cards this year for Christmas in hopes that they would get a good one in their box. We're always so impressed with how many sports facts Caden has memorized at such an early age.

and not seen is that Gramma got Kellen and Brody matching lightning McQueen bikes.

Of course being cold outside it wasn't played up as big as it could have been, but Kellen has it at home and plans to ride it when the weather gets better.

His first real bike! my baby is getting to be such a big boy!

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and he is a BOYS boy! allllll boy!

wants to be outdoors and playing sports at all times.

We wanted to try out their new baseball gear so bad that we braved the ice cold temps of Christmas day and bundled up and headed to the closest baseball field.

The boys hit the ball off of the tee a few times and ran some bases.. they were troopers but Jon and i were ready to go about 15 minutes into it. just too stinkin cold out!

We have big plans to wear in those gloves and tear up those fields this summer though!

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From our little family to yours...

We hope your holidays were warm and cozy with lots of laughs and

new family memories.

Merry Christmas!

 

 

Our little world meets Zander!

 I'm pretty sure new baby's are a big deal in any ones family, but I will say they are a HUGE happening in ours! Maybe it's because timing wise they have been so spread out.. or maybe we're just a loving family that dotes over all our members. who knows :)

We had all anticipated meeting baby Zander for the first time and we finally got to.

Our first long distance baby, we had to wait almost a MONTH before we could meet him in person. Chris had sent us a play by play of his 6 hour (LUCKY) birth, and Brittany had since been sending us numerous pictures of is every move...but its not the same until you get to hold him and talk to him.

He is a keeper that is for sure! sweet sweet cuddly little guy and we all love him so much already.  

 

The hype of it all was almost more than Lily and Kellen could handle.

Mimi would talk about him every day they were at her house and they would talk to Brittany on the phone and see pictures of him and hear about him. So it was of course adorable the first time both of them got to meet him. Lily reminded me of exactly how she was with Kellen when she held her 'baby Kellen' at the hospital. So serious and so loving.. at that moment nothing else in the world mattered to her. priceless.

and Kellen was about the same way. He was excited and giggly and ready to pose and smile for pictures. He sang to him and played the harmonica for him. so priceless  

He held his little hand and kissed him on the head. I couldn't help but think that this is what it would be like if we had brought home a new baby sister or brother for him. He would be so loving and so proud... he would be my little helper!

 

The newly added to T family is doing great.

They are planning to move back home within the next few months and we couldn't be more pleased. Kellen and Zander will be great buddies.  

He looks a lot like Brittany as a baby. Same hair line and eyes. 

looks like his Momma!  

 My brother is a proud great uncle. We are both  'greats' now.. makes us sound like we're in our 60's.. goodness.

 My sister...aka Gigi.

The thought of her as a grandma has just cracked me up since day one.

Granny Tiff was personally my favorite nickname for her.. and Roxie. that one gave us a good laugh.. but she is settling into Gigi quite nicely. She's a proud grandma and dotes on him and wants to hold him the entire time. Very supporting to Brittany, and I'm proud of her for the friend to Brittany and grandma to Zander she has turned out to be.

 

 

Ashton is a natural at this baby thing now. She was timid with Kellen, but she has it down pat for Zander. I think she realizes that its like anything else she sets her mind to.. she can do it !! We were remembering her long delivery all those years ago. sigh

Ash is like me, she will be so happy when they finally just move back home.

 

And Angie joins my brother and I in the ranks of the 'greats' department.

She loves her some Zander too!

 

We were stoked to finally meet him and get to visit with them.

The weather was too cold for very many outdoor pictures, but we

managed to get some cute ones.

He's a keeper!

the LIGHTS the Santa and a camel!

the LIGHTS the reindeer the LIGHTS the camels the LIGHTS the horses the LIGHTS the funnel cakes the LIGHTS the hot chocolate the LIGHTS the coffee the LIGHTS the glow swords the LIGHTS!

Many fun things happening at once over at the Fayetteville square but the LIGHTS of the Ozarks are why we join the crowds each year for this fun tradition.

Watching my sons eyes and expressions as he stands in the middle of ALL of these fabulous lights makes this entire mess worth it. :)

The one reindeer they keep caged for all to gawk at has no antlers and is pretty much pitiful. I find myself feeling more sorry for the poor thing than finding any joy out of it.. boo. how can you charge people to see one of Santa's reindeer and then have its horns removed??? that's like going to see Santa and him wearing sweat pants rather than his red and white suit.

Give me back my money!

Now the camels.. the camel rides are quite the classy establishment.. Between the worker standing beside us taking his 'smoke break' and the pregnant ticket collector letting us know 'this is my first and last night to work here.' ... I'd have to say they represented the redneck side of the state rather well! but then again were the idiots that paid $10 bucks for our kids to ride the camel around for 30 seconds in a 10 foot stretch of the roped off road... here's my sign!

sigh

On the other hand, despite the mediocre expressions on their faces here they really did enjoy this.

This is my sons game face when he does stuff like this.. Total concentration. but they loved every minute of it. Watching Kellen enjoy his surroundings and listening to him giggle at everything and jump around... makes him so happy...so in the end it was worth the ridiculousness of it all.

(and for the record, a camel can pee a small river while standing.)

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and speaking of Santa in that red and white get- up with that great belt to accessorize...

No tears were shed on this visit, everything went great!

Jaxson took up most of the morning telling Santa his mile long 'want' list.. ha

and Kellen waited patiently and listened and when asked what he wanted for Christmas he leaned over and whispered. 'Can you bring me a sword for Christmas?'

(better believe I saw to it that this baby got himself a couple of foam swords, total sweetheart.)

Two cute Davis boys in their Santa picture for 2012!

Deck the Hallz

Oh the Weather outside is.... almost cold.

 

Drinking coffee at 9pm is probably not the brightest idea in the world, but tonight it's helping me zone out and just relax for a few hours.. Veg out in front of my computer and enjoy some down time before its back to the weekly grind.. boo

Whew! This has been a weekend on the go. Lots to do, so little time.

Friday Jon and I shopped shopped til we dropped. Bought a car load FULL of Christmas gifts and then spent the evening wrapping what felt like 95 gifts! Actually I wrapped 95 gifts.. Jon watched TV.. ha

Saturday we went to our friends the Siebert's for some grillin out with friends. Kristy, Shell, Tara, and I brought our kids and fury kids alike and enjoyed a fun afternoon together. Kellen had a hay-day playing football with the 'big guys' as he called it... and they were all sweet to let him play and make touch downs. he thought he was such big stuff.. he was in heaven!

and then later was my dad's 64th birthday party.. wow, my dad is 64 years young! that's nutts... and so was this Mexican cake my mom made him for his party.. she took the 'spanish theme' night to the edge with this one.. ha

Regardless, we had a wonderful time with family.

Sunday was church and then an Art Center of the Ozarks play.

'The Best Christmas Pageant Ever'

Kellen's first play. He liked it. We will definitely hit up a few more of these.

(sad attempt for a pic right before the play...)

 

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I've been on a mission for the right images to use for some large wall prints for our home so we've taken lots of pictures lately...

Jaxson is getting so tall and seems to grow each week. We work hard at getting him out from under an electronic and outside playing and enjoying outdoors and time with family. He is one that definitely has a positive reaction to attention and genuine time with us. He is not shy about how highly he thinks of himself either.. ha This past weekend we told him we'd probably dance at Christmas eve like we did last year and he would need to bring his A game to keep up with Ashton and he proceeded to let us know that he was practically a professional dancer with some mad skillz. He is 200% convinced he will smoke Ashton and any of us in any dance competition we throw at him. ha.. kidz  

K Powell is also on the grow. He is looking every bit of 3 and we're still a few months away from that milestone. Every single day he says something that is just classic and I think man I've GOT to start writing this stuff down. He's just a fun kid. very low stress and easy going most of the time and entertaining. He and I went to the Mall the other day after work and he just had me laughing the entire time. We walked past the window of manikins at Forever 21, the black plastic ones, and he looks up and sees them and makes a funny face and says. ' Ewww, those are means grillz momma'.. he also told me we needed to go shopping for me some clothes and then as we past everything he would say 'this would look cute on you momma' .. 'this would be good for you momma'.. Total sweetness I tell ya.  

They are such good sports... this one is fun to me, shows how Kellen looks up to his big brother.

...and next he's just showing up a few years early for class...  

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Our Christmas cards look a little something like this:  

as usual I did not order enough. boo hiss  

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~~Boy Tree FuN ~~

Oh the boy tree is just too cool and gets even more so each year..

This annual trip to Hobby Lobs resulted in the purchase of these two fabulous boy tree ornaments you see before you. Jaxson saw this tank and really liked it, so at first he tried to convince Kellen that 'he' needed to pick the tank, making room for Jaxson to select another good one..  it was a valiant attempt on Jaxson's part, but Kellen spotted the blue robot and it was all over. He searched high and low and when his eyes landed on this robot it was THE ONE without a doubt. So Jaxson decided he just couldn't part without the tank so he opted to get the tank himself. and I was beyond thrilled with both of their selections. Couldn't have picked them out better myself. :)  

Gramma contributes to the boy tree each year as well. This year she showed up one day with this little ear muffed snowman. it blinks colors when you turn it on. K man loves it and every time we turn the tree on he has to go over and turn this ornament on as well.

luvs it.  

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This year we opted to book a session with one of our church friends for some family pics. 

Check out the very talented Mrs. Ames!

Lauren Ames Photography 

 

It's great to have some fancy pictures with my Davis boys.

I will cherish these always !  

 

...and I think that's a wrap folks!