Christmas morning

Sorry in advance for the marathon of pictures post! My family loves these, though! :)

We had a wonderful Christmas Day at our house!! The day began early, however, when Phil and I stayed up til 2:30am getting everything ready to make the day wonderful for the boys (and others!). Here's what our living room looked like at 2:30 in the morning!


Then, Bennett woke up as always just like an alarm at 7am sharp! So, we hopped out of bed. We were pretty giddy to get the kids out of bed. Here's a pic of us before we got to have fun with the kids


Room #1 - "Merry Christmas Bennett!!!!!" We took the video camera into his room and sang to him and he looked at us like we were nuts!

Room #2 - "Merry Christmas Pax!!!!!!!" Same video camera, same song, another odd look at his crazy parents...

(and by the way, here's a comparison pic of Bennett last year on Christmas morning! Deja vu!)

We opened stockings first... Bennett LOVED his Cars slippers!

Then, we opened a few gifts from mom and dad. Ripping into his first present!

Pax enjoyed eating his first present!

Bennett got his first basketball goal from us! He actually wasn't too impressed...

Then, after we finished up our little family's Christmas, we got ready to go to my parents' house for Christmas morning over there... We cracked up at Bennett all bundled up in his hat, gloves and boots... and pjs. Ha!

Pax just LOVES his bro!

This was the car ride over to Gammy and Pops' house. Poor little guy was already worn out and it was not even noon! (The day just went downhill from there. He's sick on top of missing out on both naps! Let's just say he didn't have his most well-behaved day of his life.)

Pops with his grandsons!

Mommy and Paxen

The four Goodsons on Christmas morning! I think the boys look so cute in their matching pjs!

Here's the annual hallway pic before all the Jeffers kids run into see what Santa brought us!

Bennett and Pax opening their stockings from my parents. Bennett was so excited to get his first steering wheel to have when we go places in the car and also a dr kit... (we have been having major issues with going into the doctor's office and hopefully this will help him learn doctors aren't bad people!)

That's our Christmas Day in a nutshell. It was so much fun, even with the icy roads. I loved spending my day with Phil and my boys, and my parents, sisters and brother!

It's Christmas Eve!

We are having so much fun being together with our family of 4 in our comfy, warm house! It's snowy, sleety and very cold, but we're hoping for a White Christmas!

Here's the boys on Pax's first Christmas Eve. It's hard to get a good pic of them right now... they move so much!



We hope you have a very Merry Christmas tomorrow and enjoy time with your families! We are thankful for our Savior and his birth this Christmas!

Just call me Pioneer Woman...

I have been cooking up a storm!!! I LOVE this time of year for making all kinds of goodies! Here's an inside look at a few of the things I'll be bringing to our various Christmas gatherings tonight, tomorrow and Saturday!

Christmas Crunch


Chocolate Chip Gingerbread Cake (a Williams Sonoma recipe.. yummm!!)


Sausage Balls for Christmas morning!


Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Brownies

More pics of more dishes to come! :)

Phil's work Christmas party and a not-so-happy visit with Santa

Last week we went to Phil's work Christmas party at the Tulsa Air and Space Museum. It was a really fun place to have it for the kids.

They had a Santa Claus there and of course you could put your kid on his lap and take a picture. He gave each kid a candy cane full of hershey kisses and also a stuffed animal.

We had Bennett watch as the kids in front of us cutely and peacefully sat on Santa's lap and told him what they wanted for Christmas. Bennett actually did fine watching that part of it.

The time came for his turn on Santa's lap. Phil took Bennett up to him and he began to get a little uneasy. He was clinging on tightly to Phil!


Phil tried to get Bennett to warm up to him by having him shake Santa's hand. He did that... but pretty cautiously!


Then, Phil put him on Santa's lap, and the following happened...


...and let me just tell you that the screaming was L-O-U-D! Pretty embarrassing really.


So, this was the best picture we got...


So, you know those stuffed animals I mentioned that Santa gave the kids... (Bennett should thank his lucky stars that Santa gave him one considering the way he behaved. Ha!) Look below to see how we just gloated over Bennett for actually sharing his stuffed toy with his little brother! I mean, how cute is that and we have been working SO hard on that! Yay! We were so happy!


And then look below to see Bennett's reaction to our praise of his kind gesture. Backfired. And look at poor Pax's face! He had enjoyed that little toy for the 2 seconds he got to slobber on it :(


Paxen is 5 months old now!


And here is Bennett being an astronaut...

My Boys!

I LOVE this pic! What a great family I have! :)

Phil has told me to stop taking pics of him and the boys everyday when he comes home from work! It's too cute, I can't help myself! When he walks in the door, Bennett runs to him and I hand off Pax and it's a perfect Kodak moment!

Baby Blues and Sweet Potatoes

Just have to show off my little Pax's bright blues ...

... and this way cute expression! Kinda reminds me of a Phil expression... maybe that's why I think it's so cute! ;)

And here's a pretty cool pic of Pax eating sweet potatoes for the first time. It's pretty cool because his mom is amazingly talented... I was able to feed him with my left hand, snap a picture (without an lcd screen meaning you have to look through the silly hole) with my right hand, yell at Bennett who was getting into something in the kitchen, and shoo the dog away who wanted to sit on my lap all at the same time! High Five!

Tasting the goodness of real food...

And another bite...

Mmmmmm!!!!

Bennett thought it was cool that his brother was eating off a spoon!

The tradition continues...

OK, so even funner than Thanksgiving Day for my side of the family is the Tuesday prior to the holiday. For as long as I can remember, we have made it a yearly ritual to make homemade rolls with my mom for the big Thanksgiving meal. It's an entire family tradition, and this year, Bennett got to participate! It was so much fun!!

Here's me and all my sisters with Pax


Phil teaching Bennett how to make the perfect roll


He was so excited to play in the flour!


Working hard to roll out the dough


After making all the regular rolls, as kids we got to each make a roll shape of our choice. Molly chose to braid hers...


Bennett LOVED it!


I love watching my son do things that I did as a kid! It's so much fun passing down traditions ... they seem more fun when your kids do them!


Ah, the ending to the evening... Each year, we have to bust out "All I Want for Christmas is You" and jam. Funnest part! However, sometimes the husbands get embarrassed. We don't care.


All I want for Christmas is YOOOO-UUUUUU!!!

C-E-R-E-A-L

Pax had cereal for the first time! He was pushing 4 1/2 months, so it was time! He had no big reaction, other than spitting it out, but for the most part liked it. That happened last week, and he's been getting better each day!

It cracks me up... when the spoon comes close to his mouth, he goes cross eyed trying to watch it as it goes in his mouth!

Yummy! Cereal!

Smiley boy!

I just love that bib! :) What a cutie!