Christmas 2011

Christmas Eve was spent at Grandpa and Sissy's house.  Jack opened many presents but seemed interested in sitting on his new found "car" (chair).  Grandpa and Sissy's big gift was a manly kitchen.  Jack's teachers had been saying how much he loved the home center so we thought it would be perfect for him.  I'll post a picture below to show him playing with his new kitchen.

Christmas Eve night was spent watching "White Christmas" and helping Santa put together Jack's gift.  We also put together Jack's kitchen so he could play with it in the morning.  We also had the excitement of knowing we were going to tell our parents the next day about Baby #2..

Christmas Morning...Santa came!!!

Jack playing in his playroom, showing Grandpa and Sissy his Racetrack

The walk down the stairs to see what Santa brought.

This year was mommy's turn.

"Look Jack!"

Jack's first thrill was putting the lid on and off of the paint pen.

Drawing with his paint pen

It was time to open the stockings and see what other things Santa had brought.  Jack pulled out a small basketball net with 3 balls to go in the bathtub.

Here he is looking at the orange basketball fish.

Opening his new Elmo book

This is a cute pose

Another snack trapper.  These come in handy in the car.

Showing Jack some more lavender bubble bath.  

Scribble Scribble, an artist at work

Grandpa and Sissy watching Jack play with his new toy

Before breakfast we had my dad and Sherry open one gift that morning.  It was a book that said "I'm a new Big Brother".  My dad was shocked, I think this is his "Wow, I'm so surprised, I don't know what to say laugh".  They were happy for us.

As everyone was sitting down for breakfast Jack played with his new kitchen (the one Grandpa and Sissy gave him)

Checking everything out, cooking some tomatoes on the stove

Taking the food out and putting it back in.

After Grandpa and Sissy left, Ben, Jack, and I opened our presents to each other.  The timing all seemed to go well.  Christmas this year was on Sunday, not my favorite day to have Christmas although I know Ben totally disagrees with me.  But we were able to do Santa gifts, eat breakfast and open our family gifts, get dressed and ready for church and leave on time.  I already had the car packed because we had a full day ahead of us. 

Jack got some more art supplies from mommy and daddy.  Santa gave them a hint of what Jack would be getting.  He got some paints, brushes, finger paints and large crayons.

Jack of course just wanted to take the finger paints out of the box and then back in.

After church we headed over to KK and Papa's house.  There we had lunch although it was WAY past Jack's normal lunch.  Then we put him down for a nap.  Jack gets night terrors if he doesn't get a good amount of sleep during the day.  While he was sleeping we did stockings, opened some presents and ate dessert.  Then Jack woke up and opened his presents.

Jack has started to enjoy playing on KK's piano's.  He's very precise...he can play soft and then he can play loud.

Goodyear family picture.  Jack was extremely tired at this point and we hadn't eaten yet.  I who hadn't announced that I was pregnant to them yet was STARVING!

KK got Jack his own cell phone as well as they got him this cool Toy Story chair that pulls out into a "bed".  He loves it!  It currently sits in front of our couch at home and he'll sit on it with his puppy next to him.

Watching and listening to the puppy dog on his phone.

So focused, furrowing his eyebrows.

KK opened the "I'm a big brother" book.  Excited, can you tell?

After KK and Papa's we traveled two streets over to Mimi and Papa Steves house.  There we met up with my Aunt Linda and Sherwin and we ate dinner with them.  

Jack sitting on top of his big gift.  

Papa Steve and Mimi gave Jack a Black and Decker Tool Bench.  I thought it was neat because it reminded me of my Granddaddy.  He was always working with tools on some project.  Although, since this cool new toy was still in the box and had some assembly required to it, Jack loved playing on top of the big box.

These are some after Christmas pics of Jack enjoying some of his new toys.

Here is a video of Jack playing with his tool bench:

A Month of Christmas Festivities

So the month of December was pretty full of getting ready for Christmas.  Jack was a lot more fun to watch this year experience everything.

Jack playing basketball in the house

Yogurt time!

Reindeer outfit with his Santa and reindeer placemat

Ready to go somewhere

Maybe out to ride his tricycle

Jack's preschool had a Santa and cookies night.  So we knew this was going to be our one time, for only $4, to get Jack's picture with Santa.  We knew he wouldn't be happy so we thought spending $4 was better than the $25 it costs at the mall.  We got there right as the "older" kids were finishing their program so we were second in line to see Santa.  This was good because Jack also doesn't like to wait.  

Here is Jack's picture with Santa...hilarious!

After his picture, he got to decorate cookies.

His favorite part was eating the sprinkles.  Mommy and Daddy iced the cookies, then ate them later.

Decorating the cookies with sprinkles

One day Jack got a hold of Mimi's Scarf and loved playing with it.  It was furry like his bear that he loves so he liked the way it felt.

Posing

One night we went to church to hear Dr. Wiles tell the Christmas story to all of the preschoolers.  We decided that we would go a little early and take some pictures of Jack in front of some of the decorations at the church, hoping that we would use them for our Christmas card.  

* That, in the end, did not happen.  I was in my early first trimester and did not feel good the whole month of December so I had no desire to get a Christmas card out.  So, don't feel like you weren't special this year, no one was  :)

Before we went to church Jack had some dinner.

Yummm

Gicken (chicken)

Jack by the BIG tree

Bear

Gircle (circle)

A runaway elf

heheheheheh

Stairs!

Jack had his first Christmas party at school this year.  I tried to get a picture of him in his cute outfit to send to Ben but this was as best as I could do.  He was ready to GO, GO, GO!

Another night, our church had a Family Night.  A Christmas concert for families.  We decided to arrive about 30 minutes early.  Mostly so we could get a good seat and so that Jack could "run" around the church, get some energy out and be ready to sit and watch the show.  

The background for the show

One of the cool things was they had a goody bag for the kids. In each bag they had this glow stick, crayons, a coloring book and a few other things.  This was great for times when there was more dialogue than Jack preferred.  He'd turn around facing the seat and color.

There were a few songs that caught his attention.  This was one of the times when Jack was into the Fresh Beat Band so it was like he was watching them live.

After the concert Jack explored the stained glass windows.

Cheese

One of the things I was most worried about this Christmas season was Jack messing with the Christmas tree.  Surprisingly, he never really messed with it.  There were maybe 5 times total where we would have to say "Uh oh, just look, no touch" otherwise it seems like he totally ignored it.  I posted this video below because about a few days before it was taken Jack had randomly gone up to the Aggie ornament and said "Aggie".  Ben and I were totally shocked. 

 One of the things that I wanted to make sure I did with Jack was to bake Christmas cookies so he could decorate them.  So one day I made some and wanted to see what he would do.  I also thought this would get him used to using spoons more.

So... it looks like Jack has iced some cookies....

...but really ALL he did was eat the icing...pure sugar

Here are the finished products

I thought I'd include this...his teachers made this as a Christmas present to us.

I don't really know what this hat is, a Santa hat? elf hat?  I don't know but it was cute.