Party Animals!!!

The only right way to celebrate Christmas is with THREE Christmas parties!

Christmas Eve was spent at grandma and grandpa Boyd's.
Can you say Tacos???

And yummy brownies with icing and peppermint drizzled on top!
Thanks Cheryl!

uh huh... we had literally JUST walked through the door when I caught Michael digging into the salsa. I bet he double dipped too

Collin had his own little kids table!

Cheryl giving Collin his Christmas present

This is the look Collin gave us when we told him to rip into his presents.
"um...Is this a trick? I'm pretty sure you've been telling me NOT to do that all month, but now it's ok? Grown-ups are so confusing!"

Uncle Ken and Aunt Amy got Collin his own train set. Pretty much his favorite toy.
Looks like uncle Ken might have played with this before wrapping it. He sure did know how everything worked. hmmm....

However, despite all the toys he got, nothing made him squeal with joy more than cousin Laura's iPhone. After receiving a few surprise charges to our phones, he lost his privileges, so he wasn't use to having someone actually hand him a phone to play with.

Uncle Richard in his "Florida" version of Christmas attire.

Christmas day we started things off right again. With FOOD!!!
This time the party was at Great Grandma Ponder's

Next year I need to be better about getting more pictures of everyone. All these pictures seem to be about Collin :)

The last party was at our house on Christmas night.

My parents got Collin a tent and tunnel. Michael had to go through it a few times (not as easy as it looks) to convince Collin to try it out.

He eventually gave it a try.

And of course it wouldn't be a party without food right!?

More great toys from Aunt Patti and Uncle Dan!

Although, the adults ended up hogging the puzzles. We had races to see who could put the puzzle pieces back the fastest. But you had to do it with your eyes closed. Way harder than I thought it would be.

Michael won at a little over 2 minutes while yours truly came in last at...well, I don't think the time is really that important. The important thing is I didn't give up right?...

And of course we had to finish the night off with Just Dance on the Wii.
Thanks mom and dad for the awesome present!
(Although I spent all of Collin's nap yesterday trying to break Michael's record on Wii resorts and got nothing accomplished. I didn't even break his record, but I am totally going to kick his bum in sword fighting next time since I now have tons of practice!)

And what was Collin doing the whole time???
Dancing too of course!

I played my grandma in a game of bowling. She said "Now go easy on me, I haven't bowled in over a year so I won't be that good." 5 strikes later... yeah she pretty much trampled me... As she was leaving she said with a smile "Sorry I beat you at bowling tonight." I said "No you're not!" To which she just laughed. I just LOVE her.

The day after Christmas was Monday and Michael had the day off. We spent the whole day just relaxing and playing together.

It was a great year and a great Christmas.

Saved by Directions!

I ran out of baby wipes this morning and went to open a new pack. But then I realized I had no idea how to open the package!
Thankfully, I turned it over and saw these picture directions! In 5 easy steps I was able to open the package and get the wipes I needed!
I'm especially grateful for steps 2 & 5 that show me how to lift and close the lid.

Maybe I shouldn't be so sarcastic. They are baby wipes after all. That's it! The directions are for the babies! So that's how Collin learned to open the wipe container and pull out all the wipes the other day! I guess they forgot to add the step that shows that you only pull one wipe out at a time :)

How Much Toilet Paper Does it Take to Blow Your Nose?

Apparently A LOT!

Collin has been sick this past week and I've been teaching him to blow his nose instead of wiping his nose on my couch or my pants! (Which is really embarrassing by the way when you go out in public only to come home and look in the mirror to see this long streak of dried up snot on your shoulder. I know "TMI".
Anyways, I heard Collin sneeze the other day and immediately went to find him. I found him right here, in the bathroom surrounded by toilet paper, blowing his nose. I almost cried with joy! Sometimes they really do listen!


A couple days later I heard this quacking noise and went to investigate. I found Collin in the tub playing with his ducks.
He might get his looks from his Daddy, but he gets his cuteness from me ;)

A Little Pre-Christmas Show

December has been a little hectic this year. We have been so busy I don't feel like I had any time to prepare for it or get in that Christmas Mood. Which is a shame since we had a little helper this year who is soooooo excited by lights and presents!

I wish I had made more time to enjoy the Christmas stuff with him as well as the season in general. This will NOT happen next year! Next year, presents will be bought by Thanksgiving, our Christmas stuff will go up the next day, and we are gonna go Christmas Crazy!!!! We're gonna go caroling, drink hot chocolate while we watch Christmas movies, and YES we will even wear our ridiculous Christmas sweaters!

I'm serious! I've even marked my calendar in September to remind me to start Christmas shopping!


At least we have a tree we can enjoy and Michael set up the train track around it which Collin LOVES! And I mean LOVES!!!

He also loves the ornaments on the tree...maybe a little too much...

I did not put my glass balls on the tree this year for this exact reason. These were in one of our Christmas bins and Collin was never suppose to see them. I had brought one bin in and went out to the garage for the other one (I was seriously only gone 30 seconds) as I was coming back to the kitchen I heard a little voice say "baa" translation: ball, right before I heard glass shatter.
Before I could remove Collin from the shattered mess around him he began to eat it!
No blood was spilt though and no glass was actually consumed so emergency thwarted!
Thank Goodness

And we did take Collin around the neighborhood one night for FHE to look at lights. That was fun. At every house Collin would say "Oooooh". It was cute. So we did do some things. But next year we aren't messing around ;)

And this Fisher Price Manger scene that my mom gave us might just stay out all year round. Collin plays with this thing ALL the time!