Childproofing

This is what happens when one of the childproof cabinet locks is broken.

Christmas: Part Two

This post is dedicated to Christmas Road Trip 2011. Late afternoon Christmas day, we loaded up the car for a 9-hour drive to Indiana. We got to spend a few days there visiting with our wonderful family and we even got to see snow!

There are lots of fun things to do in Aunt Vickie and Uncle Ace's game room.

 Pinball with Daddy

Bowling with Jake

 Dancing with Papaw

 Boys being silly with Josh

 Most of the Grandkids and Great-grandkids (we were missing TJ and Brody)

 Benton climbed into Addison's doll crib. 

 Snow!

 He just kept eating it.

 Baby snowman

Then we drove a couple of hours east to Ohio and spent a couple of days with that side of the family. It was great to see everyone all in one place!

17 Grandkids and 1 Great-Grandson

 The Six Timmerman Siblings

My sweet grandparents

Presents!

 Benton is ready to learn poker.

 Family bowling!

 Watching Phineas and Ferb on the iPod while everyone else bowls

Yesterday, we went to Alabama to have Christmas with Brack's grandparents. We ate delicious food (as always), opened some gifts and enjoyed the warmer weather.

Benton and Bunk riding the tractor

 Pawpaw Rick sleeping with his new neck pillow

 Bo and Eun-hui

 Benton playing with his new Cookie Monster keyboard

 Opening a present from Aunt Mick

 Helping Mimi open her present

 Singing with Elmo

 Loves playing with his Daddy!

Thanks to all our family for a wonderful Christmas. We enjoy every second of the time we spend with you all! It's so much fun to see how much Benton is loved. 

Christmas: Part One

Christmas was a lot different this time from a year ago. For one thing, we drove up to Indiana and Ohio to visit my family as well as having our own family Christmases in Newnan, Fayetteville and Rome. We even have one more celebration to go this weekend in Alabama! But on top of the traveling, it was like a whole new world watching Benton really get into the holidays. He had a blast playing with all of his grandparents, cousins, aunts and uncles and was really excited by the presents, junk food and decorations.

In an effort to document all the fun so that our family can see it all, I'm going to have to do more than one post. Sorry, but there's a lot to cover.

Our first party was the Hassell family Christmas in Rome. We got to celebrate with Granny C, PawPaw Rick, Aunt Sunny, Aunt Heather and Uncle Scott and Benton's cousin Cooper.

Apparently there was no need to buy these boys any new toys 

because they were pretty happy with this basket full of old Hot Wheels.

Cute boys in their Santa hats.

 Opening a present, one shred of wrapping paper at a time.

 This kid LOVES his new Let's Rock Elmo.

 Roasting marshmallows in the fire pit.

 All those new toys but they're playing with the cardboard box. 

They loved Pawpaw Rick pulling them in the sled.

 The sled quickly turned into a bed. Worn out!

A few days later, we had Christmas with the Stanleys in Fayetteville. It was nice to be all together in one place. It doesn't happen often!

Still trying to figure out the best way to open a gift.

 He got a turtle Pillow Pet and immediately laid down on it.

 New Georgia jacket!

 Reading a new farm book with Nana. He calls it "EIEIO."

 Cookie Monster music player. 

 He's not mad about the bow on his head, he's mad about the gift bag.

If it's not wrapped in shiny paper and tape, he doesn't want to open it.

 All the kids opening stockings. One of my favorite Christmas traditions!

 Pretending to cuddle with Uncle Zach so he can steal all the candy.

On Christmas morning, we woke up at home to see what Santa brought. Benton was amazed!

 We made him wait to open presents so we could have our 

second annual Christmas breakfast at Waffle House.

 I'll have one of everything, please.

 Then it was time to go home and dig in. He was excited about every single thing he opened.

New shoes!

 Oooh, a potty. 

 Plain white onesies!

 Seriously. He even loved the socks.

 Now we're talking. Aquadoodle is fun.

 Really intrigued by the big box.

 It was a grill!

 Taking after Daddy and cooking some hamburgers.

 New hat and mittens. Those served us well on our trip. More on that soon!