Merry Christmas 2014!

Our first Christmas as a family of four and, boy, was it busy! Christmas celebrations kicked off Tuesday when we went to go visit Santa with Ginka, Uncle Dave, Aunt Arynn, and Hutch. Up to this point, every time Ethan saw a picture of Santa he would say "SANTA!" and seemed happy. However, as you can clearly see from this gem below, it was quite a different story once we put him on his lap. I posted this on Facebook and people were like, "oh I'm sure that was so hard on you..." Are you kidding? It was AMAZING! I was dying laughing and snapping pictures the entire time! The whole experience lasted about ten seconds - haha. Best $5 I've spent in a long time!

Our big Thoma/Denk/Smith/Graebe Christmas took place on Christmas Eve. We were so excited to have our entire family together this year - all 17 of us! Our gatherings are definitely a lot noisier and messier, but I wouldn't trade it for anything. The more the merrier, right? =)

 

 

It is so much fun to see all the cousins playing together...five under the age of three! And then there's Aidan and Sydney who are so great with their little cousins...they take such good care of them! Ethan didn't really understand the concept of Christmas...we would open a gift for him and he would immediately see the toy and say "out," "knife"! Haha - smart kiddo! He loved his new train set...

Christmas morning was spent with Dad, Kristen, Jayden and Kaleb - the flu decided to come visit Jeffrey :( I love how all three boys are into trains, police cars, fire trucks, etc. Of course we tried to get a picture of all the kids (as we were approaching naptime) and this is the best we could do....Kristen and I just laugh because these pictures really are a true snapshot of where we are in our lives right now..meltdowns, smiles, chaos. Hilarious.

 

 



 

Saturday afternoon, Mary and Steve came over so we could celebrate Christmas and watch the Hoosiers! Ethan got another cool train set that was pretty entertaining to watch Eric and Steve put together (with Ethan's help)! "Tools, tools." =)

 

Between traveling back and forth from Mom's house, napping in a new environment, lots of people, etc., Emerson did such a great job! I am so excited Aunt Laura got her this super cute chair to match Ethan's =)

She sure as heck didn't let anyone hold her for longer than 15 seconds, but she was ALL smiles when I was holding her or she was in her little seat.

All this momma wanted for Christmas was a cute picture of her kiddos...it wasn't easy, but I'll take it.

I can't stand how absolutely perfect they are! And just for fun...a photo shoot wouldn't be complete without Ethan crying right? Bless his heart - this was taken on Christmas night when bedtime was long overdue and all I wanted was a picture of their first Christmas together. Haha, I can't help but laugh  - Ethan crying and Emerson just happy as a clam. I love them to pieces.

We are beyond blessed with an incredible family. We look back now and reminisce on Christmases when there were no kids running around. Before you know it, we'll be reminiscing on Christmases when our kids were babies and we were more worried about naptimes and trying to get them fed. Looking forward to a wonderful 2015 and can't wait to make plenty more family memories!