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Monday, December 26, 2011

Our 1st Christmas with Brayden!

Christmas Day was just wonderful!  Santa came to visit the night before so we got up and opened presents together before church.  Santa brought Brayden a walker this year along with some cool clothes!  Mom and Dad got him some other toys and clothes!  Here are a few pics from the fun!

Helping momma unwrap gifts!

Gonna put these to the test!

Checking out some of his new clothes

Likes his guitar one the best, I think...

A fun ball that lights up, rolls and plays music

Brayden's idea... helps you find your lost keys!

My gorgeous blue topaz ring!  Love it!!

My beautiful new jewelry box!
Some new lights for my car!  :)  I forget what they're called but Brandon worked overtime to get them installed for me!  Thanks babe!

Brandon got a new hunting rifle for Christmas so he was pretty stoked about this scope!
My parents and I went in together to get it.  :)

Was this a selfish gift?  :)

He likes tools and gadgets...  He's a handy man :)

Christmas tie!

After we finished gifts, we had to hurry and get ready for church!  It was combined with Gonzales 1st Ward... at 9am!  Certainly not used to 9am anymore!  Church was great!  We got to listen to a beautiful Christmas Cantata and then we heard from Bishop Shane Richardson.  We just met 1st hour, so we returned home and went to MawMaw Richardson's for lunch.

My two favorite men in the world!


Next, we headed over to Woman's Hospital!  Joel and his wife, Holly had their baby boy Christmas Eve, so we wanted to go meet him.  His name is Kai Benjamin Bonnette and he's super cute.  This is the only pic I could find of him.  He's a really good baby and I got to hold him for about 30 mins!  :)  Joel and Holly we eating lunch (I guess we timed it perfectly!).


Next we went to Brandon's Aunt Melissa's house.  Brandon's dad's family was getting together and they've never met Brayden before, so we thought we'd swing by.  They were super surprised and were so excited to see us!  We really had a lot of fun visiting and catching up.

MawMaw Tingle!  Brayden's great grandma!

Whew!  This was a long post, but I just want to say how grateful I am for the Christmas season!  I'm grateful for the time of year where we slow down and think of the birth of our Savior for an entire month!  I'm so grateful for a Father in Heaven who loved me enough to send his Son, who then gave his life so that I may one day return to live with Him again.  I'm grateful for their love and the hope that the Savior's sacrifice brings!  We love Christmas and can't wait for next year!

Christmas with the Heils!

Our next stop on Christmas Eve was the Heil home!  Brayden just loves his Mimi Kim and Grandpa Todd!  It was really fun to spend the evening with them along with MawMaw & PawPaw Richardson, and Lauren & Jay.   We definitely missed Garrett, but don't think he's missing us too much!  He loooves the MTC, which is just wonderful.  We love you, Garrett!

Anyway, Mrs. Kim cooked some really delicious chicken and sausage gumbo, which... I really need the recipe to!  After we ate, we opened gifts.  This year, Mrs. Kim and Mr. Todd paid for and built us a front porch!  It was heaven sent and we couldn't have asked for anything better!  Mr. Todd really put in some long hours putting together the plans and building it for us, and we are so, so grateful for that!

The "Before" pics... Have to take the "After"


Brayden got some really great stuff as well!  Once again, he was trying to eat the wrapping paper, but loved all of his gifts!  Santa even came early just so he could get his stocking!  How nice, right?!  :)  He got more clothes, toys, and books!  Unfortunately we don't have pics of everything... but here's a couple. 

Lots of goodies in the stocking!  Food, a sippy cup, juice...

He's really checking out the cars, making sure they're ready to race.  ;)


His favorite book was a bear "touch and feel" book!

MawMaw and PawPaw Richardson got him some socks and a little key chain toy.  Aunt Lauren got him some church shoes and they are adorable!  She also got him a little hat that said "My 1st Christmas"... but Brayden's head was too big. :(  We're happy for big brains, but sad that it didn't fit!  Lol!  And then she got him a little stuffed reindeer.  You can see in the pics below that the reindeer was a huge success!


I thought Brandon was zoomed in on Brayden... ooooh well.

The hat was toooo little!  He's loving that reindeer tho!
We got Mr. Todd a toolbox, and Mrs. Kim white sapphire journey pendant necklace!  Brayden helped me pick out Mimi's gift and she really seemed to like it!  She even wore it Christmas day!

A "real man's" toolbox  ;)

Mimi's 1st reaction!

We didn't have a pic with her and her gift, but this was it!


After gifts, we ate some dessert and PawPaw sang a couple of Christmas songs for us. It's kind of a tradition and was really nice!  Definitely brought the Christmas spirit!  Brayden really enjoyed it and gave PawPaw his undivided attention the entire time!  It was adorable! 



Then we played a game a Trivial Pursuit... Boys vs. Girls!  And of course the superior gender won... (hint for any males reading this: the women! *snickers*)  It was close, and the boys almost came back and beat us... but we pulled thru as the champs.  I have to say Mrs. Kim and Lauren are reeeeeally good at that game, and I was really glad to be on their team!!

After that, we went home and hit the sac!  It had been a wonderfully long day, but we were ready for Santa!

Christmas with the Tingles!

Our Christmas festivities began at the Tingle residence!  We went over to Brayden's PawPaw Brette and Mimi Traci's house for lunch on Christmas Eve.  Auntie Lauren got to feed Brayden part of his Christmas Eve lunch - pears!



Afterwards, we opened presents and got lots of good stuff!  Brayden tried to eat the wrapping paper most of the time, but had the cutest reaction to his toys!  I'm so glad that he's 6 months because he's actually interested in toys and was very intrigued by all of his presents.  Mimi and PawPaw did a great job picking them all out!

Eating the yummy tissue paper!

He was even excited for his new shoes!

Awe struck!  Hahaha!
Opening his puppy, taking it all in...

Mmmm... tastes great!
Brandon got lots of hunting gear and a .40 caliber Glock.  I got lots of cute clothes and some really cute boots!




Lauren racked up on some good stuff too!

Mimi Traci got a blue topaz pendant necklace and we went in with Mimi and Aunt Lauren for PawPaw Brette's gift... a lift kit for his new jeep!  We don't have any pics of that, but his jeep looks great and he was super excited about it!
Mimi and her 1st Christmas gift from little Brayden!

Mrs. Vicki and Mr. Roy also dropped by to see us, which was just great!  We love them so much and it was such a blessing to get to see them while they were in town!
Mrs. Vicki, Mr. Roy, and Brayden

We had a great time over at Mr. Brette and Mrs. Traci's house.  Next year will be even more fun!  :)

Saturday, December 17, 2011

Family Pics

This past weekend, we went and had some family pics done with Jane.  Here are a few of our favorites!