Bumbo Brothers

February 9. 2009

Kaiser - 11.5 weeks old

December 28. 2010

Porter - 11 weeks old

Braly Christmas 2010

My guys and I had a relatively quiet, but wonderful Christmas weekend together. On Friday Brett went to the gym early, and I, of course, woke up to this precious little elf.

Good morning to you!

Locked in on his mobile. 

We hung around the house most of the morning, then decided to go grab a bite to eat at Eat n Park. Daddy and Kaiser loaded up food from the breakfast buffet, which was about to shut down when we arrived.

Pretty sure I set the record for "Most Pics of Your Child Eating".

That evening we went to our church's 5:00 Christmas Eve service, which was lovely. The children stayed upstairs with their parents during the first few worship songs, and then were invited to come sit in the front for a "family moment" where our children's ministry director told the story of the first Christmas. They had people dressed up as Mary, Joseph, a shepherd, and Daddy volunteered to be a wise man! It was really creative and engaging for the kiddos. I had Porter in the Bjorn and sat down on the floor with Kaiser, and he loved every second. When it was over, we took him downstairs to the nursery for the rest of the service. 

After church, we went over to our friends Doug and Amy's for a little get-together. Amy's parents and sister were there, along with their neighbors from down the street, and another couple from our small group. We had a great time snacking and chatting while the kids played. Kaiser arrived starving (it was quite a bit later than his normal dinner time) and put away a ton of crackers, cheese, apples, and tomatoes, then enjoyed decorating and eating a snowman sugar cookie (with Daddy's supervision) while Mommy was upstairs feeding Porter. 

"May I have more cookie pease?"

Once we distracted him from the food table, Kaiser had a blast playing with Koen's extensive collection of toy vehicles. He has a forklift and jeep that Kaiser adores and talks about whenever I mention going over there.

Lining 'em up on the couch.

Trying to blow on the helicopter to make the propeller spin.

Daddy was swinging him back and forth by his pant loops. Fun!

Porter had a nice time at the party, too. He got plenty of attention and split the time between Mommy's, Daddy's, and our friend Megan's arms. 

Unusual to have the baby looking at the camera and the adult looking away.

Before long it was well past both boys' bedtimes, so we loaded them up and headed home. Porter fell asleep in his carseat and transferred to his crib without a peep, and Kaiser hit the pillow hard after changing into his Santa pjs, brushing his teeth, and reading The First Christmas.

The children were nestled all snug in their beds...

Once the babes were down, Mommy and Daddy got busy getting ready for the next morning. Fortunately, Brett had spent a couple of naptimes putting together the big items, so there wasn't too much manual labor to be done.

Presents under the tree -- CHECK.

Stockings stuffed -- CHECK.

Toys set up in basement and garage -- CHECK.

I was hoping that Porter would give me the gift of sleeping until 7:30 (which he has been doing off and on the past couple of weeks), but alas, he woke at 5:15. Once he was re-swaddled, though, he calmed down, and I took advantage of the early wake-up call to shower and get ready for the day and prep for our breakfast. We definitely had a white Christmas here in PA. Here was the view from our back door that morning:

The babe was back up and ready to eat a little after 7:00. I dressed him in this monogrammed outfit, a sweet gift from cousins Lindsay, Mel, Carter, and Murphy in Denver. It was an absolute perfect fit and, as you can see, looked just darling on him.

Daddy had woken and joined us for the early-morning photo session. We were blessed to receive our gift from Jefe and Nana in the mail the day before -- a Canon Rebel! How exciting! Brett spent the day testing it out, so, believe it or not, our family has even more pictures of Christmas Day than we would normally. I am excited to play with it, too, and see what kind of quality shots I can get of our boys with this caliber of camera. (Some of the pictures in this post were taken with our regular Sony, and some with the new bad boy.)

 Daddy & Porter

Mommy & Porter

Around 8:00 I could hear Kaiser whining to get up. I came in to wish him "Merry Christmas" and found a toddler who couldn't wait to get downstairs to see what Santa brought!

He was saying, "Kaiser is stuck!"

We let the boy peek in his stocking while Super Daddy whipped up pancakes for us.

What's hidden down there?

 Playing with one of his stocking stuffers.

Called the marbles "peritty bawls".

"Is it time to eat yet?"

Enjoying whole wheat pancakes and pear off his new OU plate.

I had laid Porter down for his first nap when we started breakfast, and he was kind enough to sleep soundly for nearly two hours. That allowed Mommy and Daddy to focus on opening gifts with Kaiser, which ended up taking just over an hour. He had a blast ripping off wrapping paper and discovering what was inside. Of course, he also wanted to stop to open each box and put together/play with his new toys...and we let him do just that. The three of us had so much fun! However, I did realize that there was no reason for us to buy presents for Kaiser. He was completely spoiled by his aunts, uncles, and grandparents! Here are some highlights of the gift-giving process:

"Dis is heavy!"

As you can see, our boy scored big time. The two toys that excited him most (and, to be quite honest, got his daddy pretty pumped, as well!) were a rescue helicopter...

Thanks, Uncle Chris and Aunt Linda!

...and a John Deere "escagator" (a.k.a. excavator)!

Good call, Jefe and Nana!

Here is a short clip of him talking about his new most prized possessions:

We reached our last package right around the time that Porter needed to get up; Kaiser and Daddy had no trouble finding something to do while I fed him. Then we coerced Kaiser onto the couch for a picture with Porter by telling him that the gifts Santa brought were actually still downstairs. (Again, bribery. Clearly we're not competing for the title "Parents of the Year".)

Satisfied with the few good shots we got, we all headed down to the basement for the fun to continue.

"There's more?"

Kaiser bounced from toy to toy in a state of bliss. He made a beeline to the train/Lego table (from Santa),  then decided to take a couple of runs down his new slide (from YaYa). We had to point out the tool bench (also from Santa) and the doggie tent (from Jefe and Nana). I think it's safe to say that everything was a hit!

While his big brother was busy playing, Porter took advantage of the opportunity to open his gifts. 

"Bring on the presents!"

He, too, was spoiled by our family, and loved his new clothes, rattles, mirror, and teddy bear!

Kaiser enjoyed playing with Porter's wacky duck and cow for him.

We spent a good while in the basement together, and I had a great time just cuddling with my baby boy.

But soon naptime crept up on us again...

"Christmas is wearing me out!"

Once Porter was sleeping, we had one final surprise for Kaiser waiting in the garage. Oma and T-Pa had bought a John Deere riding tractor and wagon for him. I'm sure I don't have to tell you how his face lit up when he saw it! (Please excuse the nasty garage backdrop.)

After all the excitement of the morning, Kaiser gobbled up lunch and went down for a nap shortly thereafter. While both boys were sleeping, Brett put in a DVD of Modern Family (I got him season one of that and Community for Christmas), and we watched several episodes. I also attempted to reorganize our living room a bit to accommodate all of our new toys. Later we got to spend some quality time with just the babe after he woke up, but before Kaiser did. 

It took us until almost the end of the day to finally get our act together and attempt a Braly family picture. We set up the tripod, Brett figured out how to set the timer on our new camera, and we managed to get yet another semi-decent shot of the four of us. It's a Christmas miracle! :)

Brett, Kaiser, and I enjoyed lasagna for dinner, and our boy was excited about Jesus' birthday cake (okay, birthday brownies -- long story), which Mommy had baked earlier that day.

I stuck the red and green candle in for obvious reasons, then told Brett they could stand for "Alpha and Omega". I am a dork.

I asked Kaiser a couple of questions about Jesus and the Christmas story before we lit the candles. Here is a bit of our conversation.

Then we lit the candles and sang "Happy Birthday". Kaiser was excited to blow out candles for the second week in a row!

Ready to eat some "chockit cake" for Jesus, too.

We rounded out the evening with bath and bedtime as usual. Porter and I joined Kaiser and Daddy in Kaiser's room to listen to the Bible and The First Christmas. Then we prayed and sang together before tucking our precious children in their beds.

"Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!"

Though we wish we'd been able to celebrate Jesus' birth with our extended families, I know we will look back on these first few Christmases with the boys and be grateful for the time we spent together and the traditions we established. I hope everyone had a holiday as blessed as ours was!