Christmas

Christmas with Brayden was so much fun this year....he was very into it more so than ever before.  Greg's parents came to spend Christmas Eve with us.  After going to the children's service at our church, we came back for dinner and presents.  Brayden was very excited about opening gifts!  His favorite by far was the new kids camera from Grammy and Grampa.  It has barely left his side since he got it and there are already a ton of pictures on the camera (I hope he'll leave mine alone now!)  After opening gifts, Brayden spread out some reindeer food for Santa's reindeer so they could find the house and we left cookies & milk out for Santa. Here are a few pictures:

On Sunday morning, we woke up to find that Santa had come!  Brayden was very excited about his gifts, especially the Spiderman webshooter he had been asking for.  It was the first thing he spotted!  He was also very excited that Santa had left a new bed for Callie.  Santa also brought an art easel with accessories, superhero cape & mask, hot wheels cars & wall track, games, etc.  Brayden went from one thing to the other.  Greg & I loved watching the expressions & excitement on his face....Greg said he had woken up at 5:00 and had trouble going back to sleep because he was too excited to see Brayden's reactions!  After eating breakfast, we opened our gifts to one another.  Again, Brayden loved opening gifts and kept wanting more : )

We went to church on Sunday morning and then had lunch at my parents house with the rest of the family. It was noisy, chaotic and wild as usual, but I wouldn't have it any other way. The cousins love to play together when everyone is here...it reminds me of the days when I played with my cousins at Christmas. After lunch, it was time for another round of opening presents. Talk about chaos! All the children were super excited to open their new toys...Brayden got some pretty neat stuff Christmas Day, so he should be entertained for awhile, I hope!

We had such a wonderful Christmas with our families...its hard to believe its come and gone already! 

Tis the Season

We have been busy celebrating Christmas and taking part in lots of activities lately.  Last Saturday we had Breakfast with Santa at our church.  Brayden was super excited to go see Santa and tell him what he wants for Christmas this year.  He was not shy one bit....as soon as we walked in, he said "Where's Santa?"  I pointed him out and Brayden bee-lined straight to him and jumped up in his lap!  We took advantage of having all the Grimes' grandchildren in the same spot, and got a pretty good picture of them with Santa.

 

 Brayden is really loving the all of the Christmas decorations.  He was eager to help decorate our house and tree as soon as Greg even mentioned that it was almost time to do so a few weeks ago.  He wouldn't stop talking about it, so we finally gave in.  He was a big help and loved hanging the ornaments...the bottom of the tree is a little ornament heavy, but we left it that way!  Brayden is still rearranging the ornaments every now and then. 

 Last Sunday was our church's children choir Christmas performance.  The cherub choir that Brayden is a part of sang three songs and were adorable.  Brayden really loves children's choir and did a great job!

 Hard to see him, but he is a dressed up as a sheep for the last song they sang, a little to the left of the center.

Brayden helped Greg ring the Salvation Army bell out at Belk's on Thursday afternoon for about an hour.  He loved it!  Greg said that donations went from 3 or 4 out of 10 people giving, to 9 out of 10 while Brayden was helping.   He didn't want to leave when I came to get him.  He helped Grandpa ring the bell for a little while this morning out at Walmart again.  It was much colder, so he didn't stay too long though.  It was very cute to hear him say "Merry Christmas" to everyone walking in and out of the store. 

Can't believe Christmas is just a week away!  We are so excited to see Brayden's reactions on Christmas morning when he sees everything Santa brings.  Christmas is so much fun with a little one!  He keeps asking if its Christmas yet and checks outside for snow everytime he asks...doesn't look like we'll be getting any this year, so I'm not sure what he'll think of that.  Oh well, something he'll have to get use to because a white Christmas is definitely a rare occurence around here!

Thanksgiving

We traveled to upstate NY for Thanksgiving this year to visit Greg's relatives.  We figured this would be the last good opportunity to go before winter weather and baby boy #2 arrive!  Our rides there and back were LONG, but Brayden did great thank goodness!  I bought him a few new toys & DVDs to help keep him entertained during the rides, and they did the trick.  He was very excited to go to NY and see everyone, especially cousin Luciana and Greg's cousin Heather.  Brayden had such a good time playing with them both....and Greg and I enjoyed the break from having Brayden on our heels 24/7!  We enjoyed a nice Thanksgiving dinner with most of the Sharkey family.  We ate too much, especially the desserts, which I took advantage of since I'm eating for two now : )  It was so nice to see everyone and spend time with them.  We definitely had a great time and made some good memories.  Below are a few pictures from our trip: 

Cousins

The Sharkey family

Brayden took this picture of Luciana taking a picture of him!

Glued to the TV

Brayden dressed up in Luciana's "Super Girl" Halloween costume...sequin purple cape & all! So glad we're having another boy so he'll have another male around to help with all his girl cousins :)