2.5 year old genius drummer

Elijah is such a stud with his rhythm! Already at two and a half he uses both sticks and the foot pedal; mommy just learned to do that!

Christmas Pics

OK, I finally got around to downloading my camera pics onto our computer and now I can post them. These cover a few weeks during the Christmas season, so be ready for a long post! We actually had a few different "Christmas Celebrations" with the family this year.

Ian and I trade off years with our parents and this was our year to stay in Texas for the holiday. My mom's side of the family could only get together a week before Christmas, so we all celebrated a bit early. The Kirkland's sent tons of boxes full of presents so the boys got to open all those and celebrate the Kirkland Christmas a day early.

Then, Adam and Chandra flew in from China with their two boys on Christmas Eve. My dad's side of the family came over on Christmas day so we had that celebration together. Then, about 4 days later my mom's brother and his daughter came into town and we all got together again to go to the museum.

So, this year involved about 3 weeks of straight Christmas time! :) Of course the boys were in heaven. Here are pics from the holidays.

Elijah, Noah, and Joaquin getting their baths before heading to bed. It was quite a chore to have the boys all sleeping in rooms next to each other at MiMi's house. They loved to shout through the walls to each other and see how long they could resist falling asleep! :)

They LOVED playing together, if you can't tell

Cynde (my dad's sis), mom and dad. Cynde brought over all these old pictures of people from my dad's family for them to look at. They had so much fun remembering all the faces.

Chandra and baby Tristan in his cute little Christmas outfit

the boys having some snacks at the booth table

Christmas morning. The kids were so excited to see all the goodies in their stockings!

Playing legos

Joaquin, MiMi, Namama and Elijah next to the freaky mannequin mom dressed up as Santa. It scared everyone at night to see him in the light of the hallway.

Namama and Bill gave the boys little Peter Rabbits and the book series for Christmas. It was a special treat for them to all sit down and read the book together!

And, this was the mega-gift of the season... the mini-drumset

Uncle Bobby, Aunt Mary, and their girls gave the boys a drumset just their size and, as you can imagine, it blew them away!

The biggest issue has become sharing time with the drums...

Christmas is so much more fun with little kids around.

Their little faces just light up with joy when they get to unwrap something!

Another musical toy the boys love!

Uncle Brett gave Elijah a cool cat keyboard with a microphone!

The reading of the Christmas story is a tradition. Someone is selected every year to read Luke 2 before we open all the presents.

Uncle Bobby was the reader this year. It has become a very special reading and we all say a prayer of thanks afterward.

Joni's outfit for Christmas day

There is always music when the family gets together.

Before everyone heads to bed at night the guitars usually come out and we all sit around to listen to the guys play.

Almost asleep while cuddling with Uncle John

Elijah was getting sleepy...

Uncle Jeff, Elijah, Joaquin and cousin Brett watching the Veggie Tales story of St. Nicholas

Uncle Jeff and Elijah became fast buddies

And Uncle Bobby and Joaquin became fast buds too!

Uncle Bobby reading a night night story to Joaquin

Uncle Jeff let go of Joaquin hanging onto that kitchen library ladder pole!

typical scene from the guys playing pool upstairs

Our room at MiMi and Papaws house for the holidays

Brett concentrating on his shot :)

I'm not sure who won that game, but Joaquin couldn't stand not getting to roll the balls around on the table! It was all Ian could do to keep him from storming the table.

Papaw and Joaquin; they have the same baby-blues

the gals- Namama, Mary and mom

getting ready for dinner; Em, Namama and Elijah

Namama and Elijah saying cheese

Elijah and Namama had so much fun together

Joni's Rudolf T-shirt (says "Rudolf's got nothing on me")

The typical, everyone always ends up congregating in the kitchen!

Elijah, at his MDO Christmas party, eating all sorts of sugar goodies

Joaquin at his school Christmas Party.

This is one of my favorite pictures of my little sunshine!

The Mayborn Museum

A couple days after Christmas, all the little boy cousins, Uncle John, Cousin Natalie, and mommy and daddy's to a trip to the children's museum at Baylor. As we walked into the museum, Noah and Elijah were holding hands walking towards the trains and it was such a precious moment!

And of course Uncle John had to jump in the Middle Eastern head hole. It was so funny and the boys of course think Uncle John is hilarious!

The Native American room was an instant favorite of the boys with the Tepee and the drums!

And, then Ian caught a quick shot in the wall of mirrors with the boys!

Everyone had such a great time that day! Elijah and Noah are such great play buddies and they are all so much fun to watch now that they are older and get really excited about learning!

Christmas Videos

I haven't had time to process the photos from Christmas yet, but it is fast to just upload the videos. So, here are some clips from this Christmas! This first one was of the boys opening one of their gifts from Gamma and Gampa!

Here is a video from Christmas morning. We spent the night of Christmas Eve at my parents house in Moody with Adam and Chandra, their two boys, Noah and Tristan, my Aunt Kellye, my younger brother John, and my parents. It was so special that Adam and Chandra and their boys were visiting from China and that Elijah and Noah got to play together. This video is of the cousins (mind you they are only one month apart in age) playing the piano together.

This was the first Christmas where Elijah was old enough to learn about St. Nick. He still isn't to the age where he is waking up and running down the stairs to see what goodies Santa brought, but it was so much fun to see the boys eyes light up when they realized their stockings were full of toys on Christmas morning!

Christmas Lights

Ian had a wonderful idea when we were playing outside in the backyard this weekend. He decided the boys should put up Christmas lights on their playground clubhouse. The boys had a blast winding the lights around their playhouse and through the tunnel underneath and around the slide. :) It was so precious and in the end they were so proud of their little clubhouse!

Hide and Go Seek

It is so precious now that the boys can play together. They have just recently gotten into playing Hide and Go Seek with one another and we keep encouraging them because it helps them practice their counting skills! Here are a couple playful clips of the boys...

The Christmas Show

Elijah and Joaquin had their annual Christmas show at church for the Parents Day Out program they attend. The kiddos were supposed to get dressed up in their "Christmas best" and perform their Christmas songs they had been practicing. Last year it was hilarious because Elijah wouldn't stand still long enough to stay on the stage. This year it was practically the same thing with Joaquin. Ian and I were switching back and forth between sides of the stage because Elijah's class was positioned on one side and Joaquin's was on the other. Those "performances" are crazy! Whew, it made me glad I was never a teacher for little kiddos. They were way too unorganized for me with kids and parents running all over the place. It seemed more like a designated photo op on a stage in their Christmas clothes than an actual program. Anyway, here are some cute pics from the "event".

Joaquin did ring his jingle bell bracelet for a couple minutes at the start of singing Jingle Bells.

Proud Daddy and his boys after the show. (Elijah attempting to say "cheese" for the camera)

Elijah singing (standing) on stage for the Jingle Bell song.

Kiddos from Elijah's class

He was NOT putting on a show for anyone.

Getting all dressed to go to church