Festival of Trees

My cousins Alicia and Lauren were performing with their dance group at the Festival of Trees so a bunch of us decided to go watch them and check everything out. There were quite a few of us there. My Aunt Lori and Uncle Lamont, Cousin Krysta and her friend, and my mom, me and Azlyn.

Azlyn loved the performances. She sat in her car seat and sang along with them and even bounced in her seat a little bit. Alicia and Lauren did a great job! It was fun to be able to see them.

After we saw them perform we went to go look at all the amazing gingerbread houses and such. They had a lot of fun ones.

They also had a lot of amazing ones. They just had so much detail!

Then it was over to the trees. I love looking at all the creative trees. They had some really cute ones this year. I didn't really read any of the stories this year. They are just so sad. I just couldn't do it. Anyways here are some trees that I thought were fun.

Here are some more that I thought were really pretty.

This one with Santa riding a wave was so cool. There were a ton of details and it was just so creative!

Of course we had to take pictures of the girly ones. So pretty.

I couldn't leave the guys out though. They had a tree covered with tools, one covered with gears and a tree made out of tires! I of course had to get a picture of Santa driving a jeep for the guys as well.
It was so much fun and I really love going almost every year with my family.

Christmas Decorations '09

I love decorating for the holidays. It just makes the house seem a bit more cozy. Here are our Christmas decorations for this year.

Christmas at the Brower's

After we were done opening presents at our house, we loaded up the car and headed over to Dev's parent's house. We are usually the last ones there (because Mathias likes to check out all of his toys) but this year we were actually the first to arrive. Once everyone got there we were all able to open up our presents and then eat the traditional brunch of omelets.

In Dev's family, all of the kids rotate names and have one family for Christmas each year. This year we had Rick, Melissa, and Audrey. We got Rick and Melissa a gift card to Cafe Rio and we got Audrey a super cute outfit (man I am in so much trouble when we have a girl). Scott and Mel and family had us this year and got Mathias some cars and a cars book. He absolutely loves them. They also gave Dev and I the best gift ever, they got us Adobe Photoshop Elements and Adobe Premier Elements, which is for editing videos. I am trying to figure it all out but think I will need to get a Photoshop for Dummies book. We also got all of Dev's siblings to pitch in to get his parents some new faux wood blinds for their big front window. They needed some new blinds really bad. The ones they had were really old and falling apart. If you wanted to open or close them you had to get the stick that fell off, try to get it on the part that twists, and do it all manually. I think Dev's mom was really excited, she kept saying how she needed new blinds. We had such a great Christmas, getting to hang out with both sides of our family. We feel so blessed that most of them live so close by and that we get to see both sides off the family on a regular basis.

Oh, and don't you just love the picture of Mathias kissing his Great Mema. He loves her so much and they have been entertaining each other since she came to live with Annette and Jerry over a year ago. It is so much fun to watch them together!

Hope you all had a great Christmas, we sure did!

Lastly, here is a picture of all the Brower grandkids this year.

Christmas day

Christmas morning, Dev and I woke up at about 7:15 , got up, made some hot chocolate and waited for my mom to show up. The past couple of years she has been having Christmas with us at our place. She got there at about 7:45 and Dev went to help unload her car while I went to wake up Mathias (yes I had to wake him up). When he came out he was excited to see Mema and that Santa had brought him lots of presents and that he had eaten the cookies that Mathias made for him.

Mathias is very into Little Einsteins this year as well as anything with wheels. So that is what he got a lot of. He also got a few other fun toys, like Lincoln Logs, Gator Golf, a fireman's hat, Magna-Doodle, playdough, a pin board thing, and a piggy bank. Oh, and three flash lights (he liked to steal dad's work flashlight and kill the batteries, so he got his own). He also got a few things that he needed since he is just growing way too fast, like some new sweaters, a church shirt, and snow clothes. This kid is just plain spoiled! I love this age because he is just figuring out the whole Santa thing and it is fun to watch his face as he opens his presents. He would also hand us ours and watch us open them. He is just so much fun!

Christmas for Dev and I this year was pretty practical. Dev got me an awesome jewelry box (all of my jewelry has been clumped together on a plate in our room), a couple of books, and hubcaps. Yes, you read that right - I got hubcaps for Christmas. Apparently it has really bothered him that one of ours was missing so he bought me new ones. Gotta love him. Mom got me a couple of really nice coats that I have been in desperate need of, along with a scarf, some work out clothes, a T-shirt, a cute CTR ring, some perfume, and some fun socks. My brother Dust got me some really yummy smelling stuff and some great gift cards. Our dad also gave us a webcam so we can chat and see each other more often. We truly got way more than we should have and we feel very blessed.

Dev made out really well this year as well. My mom got him a couple of North Face pullovers, a North Face jacket, a hoodie, an REI gift card, with which he bought his North Face sneakers (can you tell he likes north face), and a T-shirt. I got him some games (he is always saying we need more), a new fancy bottle to hold his olive oil, soccer cleats, thermals, and I took Mathias to Color Me Mine were he painted a mug for him. It is fun to be able to include Mathias in getting presents for people (he also painted a plate for my mom). Oh, and mom also got both of us 72-hour kits and some food storage stuff. What a great thought, things that we would need but unfortunately would never spend the money on our selves.

Izzie even had a good Christmas.

Even though we complain about how our life isn't perfect, I love looking back at our life around Christmas time and realizing how truly blessed we all are! I love hanging out with all of our families and just being together. I hope that everyone had a great Christmas.

Tradition #1 Taking a picture with Santa

Since Christmas is so close, I thought I would post some traditions (thanks for the idea Jeri). Some are traditions from my childhood, and a few are new ones. When I was little, I remember my brother and I getting pictures taken with Santa. Now, while I hate to stand in the crazy lines, I love to see what Mathias' reaction will be and I love having the pictures to compare year after year. It is also fun to see how much he can grow up and change in just a year.

(10 months old)
This was Mathias' first Christmas, and as such, this was obviously his first time seeing Santa. He absolutely loved him. He loved to feel his soft Santa suit and I think was memorized by his beard. This visit went a lot better than I thought it would.

(22 months old)
Mathias' second year of visiting Santa. Since he was a bit older, I was curious to see his reaction. He was terrified and clung to me for dear life. So we ended up having a family picture taken. I love the look and body language on Mathias. "Get me out of here! I am not even coming close to touching this guy!"

(2 1/2 years old)
This year, Mathias is obviously a bit older and since he can understand more, we tried to talk Santa up. We told him that if you are a good little boy, Santa will bring you toys, however you need to sit on his lap and tell him what kind of toys you want him to bring you. When we walked up he still kinda clung to me like, "I don't think so." When I set him down he just kinda looked at us like "I am really not sure about this but I want new toys." When Santa asked him what he wanted this year, Mathias told him, "I want cars and trucks." So like Mathias! I will be excited to see what next year brings, and if we are lucky, there might be another little one on Santa's lap.

Disclaimer: We are not pregnant.

A visit to Santa

(there was a guy there taking the pictures and then he posted them on a link to walmart and I just copied them off of that page so they are kinda grainy and not the best quality, sorry)
A couple of weeks back, my mom's real estate friend, Kenny Parcel, had a Christmas party for all of his clients. We took Mathias because we heard there were treats, gifts, and best of all, Santa. I was really curious to see how Mathais would react to Santa. Last year he was a little scared of him. So this year we tried to talk him up and tell Mathias that he was really nice and since you have been pretty good this year he is going to bring you toys! But you have to sit on his lap and tell him what kind of toys you want. He seemed all right with this and while we waited in line he told us that he was gonna ask Santa for cars. Once we got up there though, Mathias clung to my neck for dear life. I pried his hands away and set him on Santa's lap and he did not cry or anything, he just kinda sat there with a funny look on his face, as you see in most of the pictures. Then Santa told Mathias that he liked his hair and then took of his hat to show Mathias his hair. Mathias kinda thought that was funny. He was such a good Santa! When Santa asked him what he wanted, Mathias very quietly said "cars" so I had to get him to say it louder. All in all it was a pretty good experience, I think. We are gonna go to the mall Santa next because that is a tradition in my family, we did that as kids growing up. Hopefully we can get a better picture there.