Christmas Eve 2011

I know I am a little behind on blogging, so be prepared for multiple posts!  On Christmas Eve we went to the Bradley household to celebrate Uncle Mike's Birthday and, of course, Christmas.

Here's a picture of Neely looking cute.

Later in the evening we opened presents.  Liam enjoyed tearing the paper as usual.

Alex opening her gifts.  Faith was unable to come because she was sick.  Poor little lady.

The kiddos going to town.

Aunt Trudi helping Liam open his gift.

Liam enjoyed climbing over all the boxes more than anything.

Neely sat in her own little area with Jess.

Eventually, Liam came over to check things out.

Liam started to act really tired so we went back over to my parents house.  He ran around for about 20-30 minutes and knocked blocks over with Aunt Sadie.  Then he crashed in anticipation of Santa Claus.

Matt's Graduation

It's official, my LITTLE brother is a police officer.  I am still a little weirded out by the whole idea.

Chris and Liam waiting for graduation to start.

Matt's graduating class.  He is on the far right end.

Preparing to sit down.

They had to sit like this the whole entire graduation!  It was about an hour and 15 minutes long!

They played a video at the beginning showing a little bit of the training they had to go through.  I found the pepper spray and the tasing they had to endure hilarious!  I can honestly say I would NEVER want to go through it myself!

Matt won the physical fitness award.  Apparently, he can jump a six foot wall without even touching it.

Here he is getting his badge.

Mom pinning his badge on him.

Uncle Matt and Liam.  He really liked Uncle Matt's shiny badge.

Matt, Mom, Sadie, and Dad

Chris, Liam, Matt, and me with the graduate.

Eating, VA Christmas, and Seeing Gavin!

Lately we have been letting Liam learn to eat on his own with his silverware.

 He tries really hard to make the food on the spoon go into his mouth.

He was really proud of his accomplishments...

...and a huge mess!

On Monday, the night before we left for Arizona, we celebrated our own little Christmas.  Chris was thrilled about his new Ninjagos.  He can't wait until Liam is old enough for Legos.

Liam as usual enjoyed opening his gifts too.

Dad and Liam placed bows on their heads.

He enjoyed his new Farm Cube.

We flew into Vegas late Tuesday night and stayed the night so we could meet up with Beth and Gavin Wednesday morning. The boys had fun playing with each other in their high chairs.

They ate some breakfast and then became very antsy and wanted out.

This one cracks me up.  Gavin is cracking up at Beth as Liam is scowling at her.

Chris and Gavin.

Liam attacking Beth.

It was great seeing them and I wish we could do it more often.  Unfortunately, we left our camera at the restaurant!  On Thursday Bryan, Hayley, and Isla came over for a visit and I wanted to get some pictures but could not locate the camera!  I was stressing big time.  We called the restaurant and discovered they had it.  So around 4:30 PM my mom and I were getting ready to head towards Vegas, and as we were driving mom was lamenting Dr. W couldn't pick it up for us (Mom works for Dr. W  and he lives in Vegas).  Suddenly, my mom yelled for me to pull over because she realized that Dr. W would be in Lake Havasu on Friday and that is where Matt would be graduating from the police academy.  We sat in the car for about 15 minutes with out fingers crossed that Dr. W. would call us back.  He did and was about 20 minutes away from the restaurant where we left the camera.  He was wonderful and picked the camera up and brought it to the Lake Havasu office.  We picked it up just before Matt's graduation!  It was very nice and I owe Dr. W BIG TIME!  I was SO happy it all worked out and we got our camera back!

Christmas Cookie Decorating

On Friday night we invaded the South by way of cosmopolitan Montpelier, VA to visit the Hardens, Ives, Kinderknechts, and Great Grandma Bradley.  On Saturday we had a cookie decorating contest.  Liam attempted to decorate one himself.

He enjoyed shaking all the sprinkles.  

Then he REALLY enjoyed eating his cookie and was in a sugar coma later. HA!

Kyle, Ryan, Michelle hard at work.  Lauren was to the right of Michelle but away from the table when I took the photo.

Chris was worrisome and probably needs some serious therapy.  Every cookie he made had blood and snowmen with stitched on necks [This is libel.  I made one zombie cookie-man (with victim) and one with his head stitched on.  Others I made include Grandma's initials in a shameless attempt to curry her favor as judge-wcc].

Kyle, Randy, and Ryan.

Mindy was hard at work making plenty of frosting.

Michelle loved on Anderson.

Great Grandma judging which cookie is the best.  

Table full of cookies

Ryan's winner.

Ryan won last year with a manger scene (seen above).  He joked as we were decorating saying he needed to do it again.  Sure enough he one with the manger scene.  After that we decided that is the way to win.  Beware next year all the cookies may end up with the manger scene.

Then we opened a few gifts.

Liam loved his from The Harden's

Anderson worked on opening his too.

Lauren and Kyle.

Liam and his new hat and mitten set from Great Grandma.

Liam discovered the piano this trip to Aunt Mindy and Uncle Randy's

He's gonna be the next Beethoven. 

It was a lovely trip and it was great to see everyone before Christmas!