Christmas with the Carney's

Because of the Snow storm christmas eve.... we couldn't make it home. But we were able to infuse a little magic this year. Stu was starting to wonder (I won't say what, just in case

little kids are reading this) but with a little help from my brother, all of his gifts were under the Christmas tree where we were. We ended up crashing at Matt and Crenda's. Joseph and I shared a twin mattress on the floor in the nursery with Andrew, my parents had the airmattress in the office, and Stuart and Aaron slept on the floor in the upstairs hallway. Crenda loves tradition, so we put up the baby gate at the top of the stairs and rigged it with jingle bells so no one could sneak down stairs. Stuart wasn't very excited, he was expecting to not get anything until we drove home later that morning, so he slept in. The funniest moment for me was when I got up in the middle of the night to use the little girls room, and EVERYONE (and I mean everyone, including Andrew and Stuart) were snoring like I've never heard before. I wish I could have taped it, it was unbelievable. We got up the next morning, and had breakfast all piled on Crenda's bed (another tradition) before we headed downstairs. Stuart began to be excited for Andrew.... who was bouncing off the walls -all though I'm pretty sure that was becuase of all of the people, not that it was christmas. Needless to say, when Stu got downstairs, the first words out of his mouth were "there really is a Santa!" It made Christmas fun for all of us. Of course, my parents out did themselves, but they always do and they love doing it. It was nice to have everyone together. The only one missing was Dan.

The Picture on the Top was from our Christmas Lunch on Christmas Eve, when we did our traditional Christmas Pie and Scripture reading (not in that order) Stu loves his Nerf Pellet gun, but I'm not sure how I feel about it, especially since the several of the pellets (which have suction cups on the end) are now stuck to the windows in the living room -the windows at the top of the vaulted ceiling, 20 ft up. They haven't fallen down yet, and I don't own a ladder that tall, so I guess they will be there for a while, unless someone has a suggustion for getting them down.

The middle picture is Andrew on his new trike. It's kinda cool, the handle that you see on the back is so the parents can push and steer until the kids can do it themselves. He loves it, and love when Stuart takes him out for rides. Stuart is becoming his favorite person, Stu is one of the 3 words that he says. Mama and Dad are the other 2. He follows Stuart everywhere and has to be doing what ever stuart is doing, or eating whatever stuart is eating. Stuart had something profound to say about... "this means I have to be good, huh? Cause otherwise I'm going to screw him up right?" Of course, if this is the motivation he needs, I'm all for it.