Christmas

Christmas morning was finally here!!! These boys were so excited!

These two sweet little boys play so great together

We spent about 4 hours all building Legos as a family. The boys were really thrilled with their big legos. Peyton kept declaring "Let's Do This" before every new activity we did.

Conor was really excited about his kitchen.

Banging on pots is a favorite of this little boy

Elefun game

My three little buddies

We headed over to the Mulloy's house for a Christmas night dinner. These goodies were waiting outside for the boys. The corvettes are from Santa last year, but the jeep's and small riding toys were new this year.

Precious cousins

Parents and kids

The jeeps were FAST.  It made me a nervous wreck watching these kids drive around in the complete dark. Peyton was the absolute worst and kept smashing into the babies (luckily I caught Conor and made him go inside before he cracked his head open). Peyton wasn't quite old enough for driving the fast jeep yet :)

Oh Conor! You are just a handful these days. He skipped his nap because he was just too excited about everything that Santa brought him. So by about 6:30pm he was exhausted and ready for bed. He pitched a fit after dinner and finally fell to sleep while the rest of us opened presents.

It was such a fun Christmas with family. I just love these days with my sweet boys.

Christmas Eve

We headed to the children's mass at 4pm on Christmas Eve. Conor was a complete nightmare and he and I actually ended up leaving the church and sitting in the car for half of mass. The big boys did great and were very quiet in mass. Afterwards we headed to my parents house for Christmas eve dinner. We got a great family picture, which is rare these days!

Unfortunately I do not have a single picture of anyone else or of the boys opening presents. I think I was too busy keeping up with the boys! After Big and Allie's we came home and put out the cookies for Santa that we had made earlier in the day. Bailey promptly tackled the boys and ate all but one of the cookies about 1 minute after we got them out.

Santa elves worked hard all night putting together Santa's goodies for the kids. We started at 9pm and finished at 3am. The kitchen ended up taking Michael 4 hours to build. He had to hand screw every single piece since the electric drill broke the bolts. It was exhausting!

So many tiny pieces!! 

The big boys mostly asked for Legos this year. They also really love to play games, so they got a bunch of new games to add to their collection.

Surprisingly we bought this easel for Patrick 2 years ago for Christmas and have forgotten to put it out for the past 2 years! This year we finally remembered!

Conor's side

Peyton's toys

Patrick's toys

We couldn't wait for the boys to wake up in the morning!

Cheekwood Lights

The night before Christmas Eve we headed to Cheekwood to see the Holiday Lights. We had planned to be there at 5pm, but we were running a little late and ended up leaving the house at 4:45pm. When we pulled up to Cheekwood the line was backed up all around the whole neighborhood. There were so many cars that people were parking at Percy Warner Golf Course and hiking up to Cheekwood. We waited in line for 35 minutes before even making it to park. It was PACKED! If you plan to do Cheekwood Lights I HIGHLY recommend going a different night, there were just so many people that it was hard to keep track of the children. It took much longer than we anticipated, so my children were starving by the time we got there. I am normally so on top of it with snacks and being prepared with extras but I was pressed for time with getting ready for Christmas and did not bring a single snack. Michael ended up waiting in line for 30 minutes to get gross popcorn that he said cost more than Disney World popcorn, LOL!

Conor was a bear almost the entire time we were there screaming and crying and just in no mood to be there, so I did not take any pictures. Sharon took some family photos, but the flash was pretty bright so it was hard to get everyone looking.

Our group

Uncle Mark

Uncle Matt

The boys just love their uncles

One of their favorite activities is wrestling with Uncle Matt...boys!

Overlooking the water with Grumps

My big boy

Group picture

The five boys

The boys still really love the trains at Cheekwood. We have to drag them away every time

It was so pretty, but next year we will definitely go earlier in the season!

Visiting Santa

A few days after we got home from Disney we headed to Belle Meade with my parents to see Santa. We decorated some stockings and ate lots of cookies.

The many faces of Conor

Conor roamed around as usual

The finished product

Patrick had a rough day the day before we visited Santa. He was so nervous to get in line to meet Santa because he was scared that Santa would tell him that he was getting coal (we have never told him that he would get coal, lol!!) Right before it was our turn to meet Santa he told Mrs. Claus that he had been a bad boy and didn't deserve any presents. When Mrs. Claus asked why he thought he had been a bad boy, he said that he hit his brothers too much the day before :/.  Michael tried to lighten the situation a little and told Patrick that as long as he was good most of the days that he would still get presents. Patrick asked how many times he could be bad and still get presents. Michael threw out the number 20 to which Patrick replied, "I have been bad way more times than 20 this year!" LOL! Santa assured Patrick that he was getting presents and had been a good boy this year! Whew!! Crisis averted!

Peyton was terrified of Santa and Conor was fast asleep, so this was the best we could do! 

Since our picture was just terrible at Belle Meade we decided to head to Chick Fil A one morning to meet Santa again. It was PACKED, but there was no line for Santa so we jumped in!! Patrick told Santa that he wanted Nexo Knight Legos and Peyton told Santa he wanted Ninjago Legos. Both the boys were really excited to see Santa this time.  Patrick commented that Santa talked a little differently than he did last time. Only Patrick would remember how Santa talked a week before!

Patrick's Kindergarten Program

Patrick had his sweet little Kindergarten Christmas performance. He was a jingle bell and so excited about it.

Their gingerbread houses were on display for everyone

And here is a little video of my cute little jingle bell