Merry Christmas 2013

Christmas this year was a much happier occasion for us than last year. Last year, Noah had a fever of 104 on Christmas Eve, we ended up in the emergency room Christmas night, and ended up spending three days at Children's Healthcare. This year we were thankful and blessed to have a healthy, silly boy on our hands.

We spent Christmas Eve with my parents. Noah actually enjoyed opening his presents this year. He really likes dinosaurs right now, so one of his favorite gifts of the day was a walking, roaring T-rex (which happens to be his favorite) with eyes that light up.

He also got a dinosaur book that makes noise that he was pretty excited about.

Another favorite gift of the day was his very own motorcycle. It had to be put together immediately so he could ride it around the house, testing out the blinkers and all the other buttons that make noise.

Taylor got several tools that he wanted, including a blower that Noah was quite fond of. Apparently it's really funny to blow it in Mommy's face and 'make her look like a model'. My big surprise gift was a new Nikon camera. I have been talking for a while about upgrading ours, but they are expensive and it just wasn't at the top of the priority list. So I was thrilled with this surprise. Now all I have to do is figure out all the bells and whistles that come with it.

Christmas morning started with checking out what Santa had delivered, which was a wooden tool bench. Noah checked out all the tools that came with it and pounded in a few nails before moving on to other presents.

Noah got more cars and puzzles, another dinosaur book, and all the bedding for his new big boy room. And let's be honest; Mommy was really more excited about that than he was. We opened all our gifts and then Noah got to play with all his new loot while Mommy got everything ready for the rest of the Larkin clan to show up. We had some yummy food and then it was time for more gifts for the kiddos. This included Taylor and his brothers, who all got remote control helicopters from their Dad. They had to be taken out of the boxes and flown immediately. They really are just big kids at heart.

Once everything had wrapped up and the little ones were about ready for bed, we got one of the cutest moments of the day. Noah and his cousin Emsley climbed up on Uncle Spencer's lap for a story.

We had a happy, healthy holiday, and I hope we have many more like it in the future.