Twas the Day After Christmas...and we were still Celebrating!

The day after Christmas the rest of the Moses clan came to Chattanooga to celebrate. Ken's brothers don't have children, so Kyle and Kevin (now Zachary and Matthew) are spoiled like if they did have children. Kim fixed a delicious Christmas dinner and this year we all ate in the garage so everyone would have enough room and not be squished! Ken spent the last few weeks clearing up the garage, painting, buffing, you name it! They put a heater out there so everyone stayed warm and of course Kim had the tables fixed up very pretty.


Of course after we ate it was time for presents-again! Zachary was taking his afternoon snooze during most of these and joined us at the end. Here are some of the highlights!

The 3 oldest of the Moses generation.

Matthew opening his BIG gift.

Kim and all her Pandora bracelet loot!

Sam, Kevin & Jamie's dog.

Matthew enjoying the big gift box!!

The BIG gift! A Pottery Barn chair!

More Elmo DVD's--WAHOO!!

We all stocked up big and after this one we were definitely all Christmased out!! We all got lots of nice things, and were blessed beyond measure for sure! But I definitely think Zachary scored the biggest...here is most of his Christmas loot!

Now, where do I put all of this?!

Merry Christmas Day!

Christmas Eve night Zachary and I headed over to MomMommy and Brapaw's house since Daddy had to work. I helped them do some baking and wrapping before heading to bed to wait on Santa. (BTW, Santa got in about 3:00 and had a big, icing COVERED cookie from the Piece-of-Cake Bakery waiting on him. Santa liked. =)

It has become our tradition that Christmas morning, we all go to my in-laws for a Christmas breakfast and then open presents. Kim fixed the traditional breakfast casserole and Ken made the gravy. I think Bi-Lo made the biscuits. =)

Breaskfast was delicious as usual, but not without incident. Matthew got choked on a piece of bacon and Brapaw had to do the hind-leg remover on him. A little scary...but we all recovered enough to go open presents!

This is me acting really excited for Zachary's new Elmo toy.

This is definitely the year of Elmo (in case you didn't know!)

This picture CRACKS ME UP!

He loves to prop up his feet, just like his Daddy!

Matthew was very excited to open all his gifts, and was even excited for Zachary's, too.

Zachary got en Elmo shape-sorter, some much needed new socks, puzzles, a Little People play house, an Elmo driving toy, and a Little Tikes tool workbench.

I got the latest Nicholas Sparks book (finally!), a giftcard to Victoria's Secret (bye-bye nursing bras!), and moo-la.

Kyle got some incredibly soft and comfy pajama pants (which I will be stealing ASAP), a TN shirt, a TN nightlight, and more moo-la.

We also got lots of fun stocking stuffers, including a giftcard to Barrel of Crackers. The best stocking stuffer was this....

Zachary's first sucker!

He wasn't real sure about it at first, but once we hid the M&M Mini's and he saw cousin Matthew going to town on his own sucker, Zachary didn't put it down! They played and looked at all their new presents, all the while making a terribly sticky mess!!

After the Moses Christmas, we all went home to take naps before heading out to Kyle's grandparents house for the Wilkerson family Christmas. I have no pictures of this. Mainly because once we ate, Kyle had to leave for work and I couldn't take pictures and keep up with Zachary at the same time! Needless to say, we ate a WONDERFUL dinner, had LOTS of family, and opened even MORE gifts! I think the highlight from this evening was watching Matthew and Zachary play together, and Zachary getting his new baby Elmo doll! He took it, layed down on the floor on top of it, and kissed it all over! Christmas was a very fun-filled, food-filled, present-filled day, but the best part was spending time with the family.

Twas the Day Before Christmas...

Kyle was on his 7 days the week of Christmas, so since we would be busy with all our other Christmas celebrations Friday and Saturday, we decided to do our family Christmas a day early so we could take the time to enjoy it!

As promised, a picture of the completed tree!

We woke up Thursday morning and made a special Christmas Eve breakfast: pancakes from scratch that we cut into fun Christmas shapes, turkey bacon, and Zachary's favorite-Eggs!

Yay, good breakfast Mom & Dad!

(I think he ate 3 or 4 pancakes that morning! With syrup, of course!!)

After we cleaned up from breakfast, we opened up our presents from each other, much to Kyle's disappointment. He likes waiting to open them on Christmas Day, but like I said, we would be so busy the next few days, we wouldn't have time to at home! I thought maybe this year Zachary would be more interested in tearing open the wrapping paper, but he still had to be prodded a lot and Mommy ended up opening up most of his gifts for him!!

From us, Zachary got a Tool Box with some tools (plastic, of course!), a shopping basket with play food, his own broom and dust pan, and a gas pump to use with his big present...

Kyle got me several picture frames, which he had filled with Zachary's special pictures from Reflection Riding.

I got Kyle some long johns he needed for work, so he can stay warm this Winter! And I also got him a 4 disc set of the Police Academy movies! Speaking of cops...THIS is Zachary when he saw his BIG present for the first time!!

Complete with the big red bow!!

I think he likes it!!

Creating and Discovering...for Free!!

Zachary has had a very big and busy past few days! The day before Christmas Eve, the Creative Discovery Museum downtown had free admission for the holidays, so since Kyle and I are both home during the day on Wednesdays, we took Zachary to go play for awhile. You can't pass up free!! This was Zachary's 2nd trip to the museum. The first time was right after his first birthday, a few days before he really started walking, but I had forgotten to bring my camera that day.

There is plenty to do at the museum, but some of the events and activities are for kids a little bit older. However, there is one section called The Little Yellow House that is perfect for toddlers, so that was where we spent the majority of our time. It is set up just like a huge play house, with all the rooms like a kitchen, playground, tool shed, dog house, flower garden, etc.

We ventured out of the Little Yellow House for a bit, and let Zachary lead us to where he wanted to go. We had planned to avoid the water area this day, but that was not the case!! He loves the water and loves to play in it! I think he looks so cute in that little smock!

Back at the Yellow House, Zachary gets busy doing his chores: sweeping, cooking, and then both at the same time!! He loved those little brooms, which was great since Santa was bringing one for Christmas!

Zachary loved playing at the Museum and we plan on using some of his Christmas money to get him a year membership so we can go play whenever we want to, especially while it is too cold to go outside!

snow...Snow...SNow...SNOW!!!

(In case you couldn't hear me singing the title for you, it was supposed to get you singing from "White Christmas!")

We were given an early Christmas present here in South Tennessee this year! The first weekend in December we woke up to a beautiful blanket of SNOW! Zachary's first REAL snow!

We had all slept in that morning, so when I woke up and saw that the weatherman was really right this time, I quickly got some warm muffins cooking and woke the rest of my sleeping beauties!! We ate quickly so we could go play before it all melted away!

Zachary was none too impressed with the snow. He just wanted his swing!

I sure do love his little hat!

Not enjoying the cold and wet snow!!

He was ready to go inside rather quickly, but he did have to wait for Mommy and Daddy to take a few minutes to play in the snow! Maybe next year (if we get any) he will enjoy the snow! I'm hoping this early snowfall is a sign for a snowy Winter for us!!

Trimming the Tree....Part 2!

Apparently we were not finished decorating the tree before! One day while laying on the couch, I looked and noticed there was an ornament WAY back in the tree and thought that unusual. When I looked closer, I realized it was one of Zachary's toy trucks. =)

I have also found wooden nesting blocks and plastic toy dishes in the tree, too! Such a helper!!

Trimming the Tree

We were good little boys and girls and waited until December 1st this year to put up our tree. We weren't quite sure how it all was going to go with a little toddler this year!

Here is a look at our tree when Zachary first saw it. While he napped, we put it on the stand, got the lights on, and decorated it with bows.

Checking out the tree...quite mesmorized!

Getting ready to hang his first ornament on the tree-with Mommy's help!!

Not the finished product...but close!

We didn't put near as many ornaments on our tree this year. And we kept the bottom third of the tree all soft ornaments-for Zachary's sake AND the cats! Zachary got to help decorate the tree, too! I unwrapped the ornaments, he took them to Daddy, and Daddy hung them up-it was so much fun having him help us this year!! I know lots of special memories are being made this Christmas!

We Are Thankful

Kyle had to work on Thanksgiving this year, so since we couldn't travel to be with the family on Turkey Day, I decided last minute to prepare my first Thanksgiving feast for just the 3 of us.

I made a quick, last minute trip to Bi-Lo and found a huge turkey on sale for just over five dollars. I had no clue how to cook a turkey, but thought for 5 dollars, we could give it a shot! Along with the turkey, we fixed dressing, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, and apple pie from scratch. Kyle actually ended up fixing the turkey, and even though it was still partly frozen when we put it in the oven, it turned out pretty good for two first-time turkey cookers! We all really enjoyed our small little Thanksgiving together!

Thanksgiving leftovers?

This was the only picture I got...bummer...Zachary LOVED getting to eat his first Tukey dinner FIRST-hand and we were fortunate enough to drive up to Knoxville the next day to join the rest of Kyle's family for a second meal. Again, no pictures...bad Mommy!

Reflection Riding

When we were choosing where to have Zachary's one year pictures taken, this one of the top places on our list. Even though Kyle has lived here practically all his life, he'd never even heard of it. My boss told me about it and it's Beautiful! Especially in the fall. So we decided to go out and try some not-so-professional photography shots with Zachary. Out of about 150 pictures, here are a few of my favorites (mainly because these are the few you can actually see his face in...kind of...)

He had no idea we were trying to take pictures. He just thought this was a super big playground!

Little blond head!

Yes, he has his paci in every picture! Would NOT take it out that day! Probably a good thing, though. That week he had fallen two different times and gotten big boo-boos on his mouth. The paci actually kinda helped to cover them up!

All he needed was a little fishin' pole in his hand!

My two favorite boys. This picture is priceless to me.

If you'd like to check out more about Reflection Riding, or visit it sometime, go visit their website here: http://www.reflectionriding.org/