Christmas

We had a great Christmas!  On Christmas Eve, Grayson and I made sugar cookies and decorated them.  I found a new recipe on pinterest that I think is the BEST sugar cookie recipe I have ever had.  They were super soft and tasted great!  It will definitely be my "go to" recipe from now on.  That night we were going to have our annual family dinner, followed by Grayson opening his gift containing Christmas jammies and a book, then all watch "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" together before leaving cookies out for Santa and going to bed.  Unfortunately dinner took alittle longer than expected to cook and we had a very difficult two year old on our hands.  After we finally ate dinner, we rushed through opening his present, put some "food" out for the reindeer and decided to cut our losses and get Grayson in bed.  It was sort of disheartening that the evening didn't play out as planned, but we were hoping a good night's rest would make for a better Christmas day.

On Christmas morning we woke up and let Grayson open his presents from Santa while breakfast (french toast) baked in the oven.  We let him take his time opening each gift and allowed him to play with them so he could truly enjoy them.  He also helped open a couple of gifts for Beckett and give Aspen the gifts that were left in his stocking.  It was a really nice Christmas morning.  After gifts, we wanted to capture a few family pictures but the difficult two year old made another appearance so those would have to wait for a later day.  Shane's parents, grandmother and aunt stopped by that afternoon for a couple of hours and then we made a trip over to my brother's house for Christmas with my family.  It was a pretty busy, whirlwind of a day.  Grayson had a few moments that day where he seemed frustrated and uncooperative which we can only assume were other instances of his routine being disturbed.  Shane and I were looking forward to the rest of the week where we could get him back into his normal routine.  After one day, our sweet, loving, cooperative son was back!

The rest of the weekend was spent dealing with a water leak in our attic upstairs.  We had one earlier in the week, and our plumber repaired it but I noticed there was still water dripping from the ceiling.  The day after Christmas we had to have the plumber come back out and he found another leak.  The leaks were in our copper pipes that were attached to our hot water heater.  I had my electrician come by and he discovered the grounding wires were not hooked up to our hot water heater when we had it installed two years ago so holes in our pipes formed.  We think this may have also caused the leak in the pipe that we had to have repaired back in September.  After all of the leaks, the bathroom upstairs needed some drywall repair so we had a contractor come out to complete the work.  We also took the opportunity to have the wall repaired properly in our game room and paint our game room and bathroom a different color.  I went with a light gray color and it looks so good!  I haven't had a chance to take pictures yet as we just got everything put back together today, but I will take some and add them to the next post.

Here are pictures from Christmas and a few others from December.  Unfortunately I did not get any photos Christmas evening at my brother's house. :(

 I'm pretty sure he's saying "I do it!"

Yes, they were just as delicious as they look!

 I was able to get him to sit for one picture with

mommy on Christmas Eve.

 Leaving food (oats and glitter) to help the

reindeer find our house.

 Santa came!

Riley just had to be in the photo. 

 Getting Aspen's gifts out of his stocking.

Aspen playing with his dinosaur toy from Santa

 Grayson going through his stocking

 I love his face in this picture!

 Now it's time for gifts!

 Playing with his fishing pole.

I think this is actually Shane's favorite toy.

 Beckett was cooperative that morning

so I was able to capture some photos of him.

 And then there's the two year old...

We would not let him have one of the ornaments

since he accidentally broke one the day prior.

 Beckett's first Christmas!

 Beckett meeting his Great Nanny for the first time.

 Grayson got another train from Granddad and Grammie D

 A couple of days after Christmas I was able

to get my sweet boy to take pictures.

Beckett has a very concerned look on his face...

My three handsome men!

Someone was tuckered out after a crazy Christmas morning

 My sister in law asked me to take their family

pictures this year.

My nephews, Aaron (8) and Andrew (6)

 We had my mom over for dinner one night and 

Grayson helped her with the green beans.

 Grayson discovered his headphones in his closet

so now he loves to wear them and listen to music.

Here he has Shane's phone, but we took Shane's small

Apple shuffle and loaded some songs on it just for him.

 My boys watching a movie

 Beckett enjoying his Sophie toy

Beckett loves to sleep on his tummy.

I promise he is breathing.

 Our new bedroom furniture finally came a couple of

days before Christmas!  We love it!

Disregard our bedding.  I'm on the hunt for 

some new stuff.

Beth, the lady at Gray's school, asked if Beckett

and I would be on their Christmas card.  I was confused at first

but then she explained they have always wanted someone to 

be the Virgin Mary and baby Jesus.  Their church has a 

nativity scene so we went up there one night

so Beth's husband, Scott, could take our pictures.  

I hope everyone has a Happy New Year!  This New Year's rivals the last couple of years in excitement.  As you can see, we are having a wild and crazy night at the Bybee house.  I'm updating the blog while watching the news, Grayson is asleep in bed, Beckett and Aspen are sleeping on the couch next to me and Shane is over at the kitchen table grading papers.  It's pretty cold outside so we will most likely be spending the next few days at home.  I go back to work on Monday and Beckett starts daycare so I will be trying to enjoy as much time with him as I can this weekend.  I can't believe my time off is finally coming to an end.  I am looking forward to going back to work so I can contribute something to society, but have definitely loved my time off with Becks.  I'm not worried about him going to daycare at all.  I know all of the ladies in his room and he will be in good hands.  They will take great care of him and show him just as much love as they did to Grayson.  See all of you in 2015!