Bringing up Boys

I don’t know if y’all realize it or not, but around our house, we’re raising men…

Christmas Day 2010

Christmas Morning…

I awoke at 7am to the smells of sausage cooking and coffee brewing; and to the sound of….nothing but kitchen noises.  The one morning that I’m all excited for the boys to wake up and they sleep in.  This was a huge deal.  Our kids are ALWAYS up by 6:00am at the absolute latest…every day.  I kid you not.  Every day.  Except for this day.  I got up and joined Jesse in the kitchen to get the cinnamon buns going, and the boys FINALLY graced us with their presence around 7:30. 

They were both really excited to see what they were getting for Jesus’ birthday.  They sang Happy Birthday to Jesus, which was really sweet!  Wyatt then blew through all of his presents so fast while Waylon took his time, examining each thing, and wanting to play with it.  We actually had to convince him to move on to the next one!

They both got guitars and gun sets…

…which were obviously a big hit!!

Christmas evening we went over to my Mom & Dad’s house for Christmas with my family.  We had a great time & ate lots of good food.  And also thought it’d be fun to take multiple pictures of each other.

So maybe my Wyatt is a bit obsessed with Woody…except I don’t think Woody totes a gun…but this is what he wanted to wear and hey, it was Christmas.

Me with Mom & Dad…they’re horrible pictures of me, but they’re special because I don’t have many of me with either of my parents.

Papa & Kaelyn…

This Nerf gun that Tyler got turned out to be one of the highlights of the evening…I think I may need one for my birthday.  Talk about getting out some pent up aggression, ha!!

Tania really surprised me by putting together this Photo book commemorating our trip to Savannah…I almost cried over it.

Kaelyn was super excited about her new cell phone and was having to take pictures of her with each one of us on the camera phone!  (And that’s my kid, whom I think may be picking his nose…gross.)

Kaelyn & I, it’s become a tradition that every time we’re together we take the ol “reach out your arm & get a self portrait” picture!

This is what happens when someone who’s never used your camera takes a picture…I get left in the dark!

15 or so years later, Chuck and I realized we don’t think we’ve ever taken a picture together….or maybe we did on their wedding day, but I was about 13 with frizzy hair & braces...best not bring that up out of the archives!

Nana with Tyler & Kaelyn…of course my crazies wouldn’t get still long enough to take any pictures with anyone!‘

I love the time that we get to spend fellowshipping with our family.  We always have such a great time with lots of laughing!  These holiday times are truly special to me and I’m so thankful for the crazy crew I’m proud to call my family!

Hoping all of your Christmas’ were as Merry as ours!!

The Days before Christmas 2010

This Christmas season has definitely been a busy one for the Rodgers’ crew.  It seems like every weekend we’ve had something going on leading up to the blessed Christmas Day.  We’ve had lots of fun, and I think to keep it simple, I’m just going to have a Christmas in pictures post.  Here goes…

Christmas Parade and Church Christmas Program

School Christmas Program and Build a Bear Fieldtrip to the Mall

Christmas Party at School

As we go through the rest of our Christmas Day at our home and at Nana’s, the busyness continues.  But one thing, no matter how busy it gets, we always remember the true reason for this season, the whole reason we get to have all of this fun and all of these blessings, the birth of our Savior, Jesus.

“For unto us a child is born, to us a son is given….And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Might God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace”  Isaiah 9:6

Corrected Video

Obviously, with my new lack of free time, I have figured out how to incorrectly upload a video to my blog.  Well, I uploaded it right, but apparently you can’t set it to “private” and expect people to be able to watch it.  So, for those of you who were DYING to see Wyatt’s mad hopping skills, the video settings are changed in the previous post!  And if you don’t want to watch it, that’s cool too, you just don’t know the amount of cute & funny you’re missing.  Enjoy!  

Wyatt’s New Trick

Wyatt is pretty proud of himself.  He’s recently learned to hop on one foot and is all too happy to show off his mad skills.  (And yes, my house is a wreck.  The playroom is a wreck.  I have 13 blankets on my couch.  I may or may not have wiped the ketchup off my kid’s face before taking this video.  It’s supposed to be 20 degrees tonight, and his arms are going to be nice & toasty while his legs freeze.  That’s how we roll.  I am new to the 5 day a week working world, and all the kinks of how to keep the house and children clean & under control haven’t been worked out.  Wait, who am I kidding…my house was like that even when I was home 4 days a week.  Let’s blame it on the kids….anyway…just watch my cute kid & don’t judge me.  Ha.)

PS- In case you didn’t catch what was going on at the end….he was “melting.”  Not sure what that’s all about, but I am sure I love that boy.

Christmas on Main Street

Last night we took the boys downtown for Christmas on Main Street.  This was the first year they’d ever been, and we had a really good time!  Most of the local businesses opened their doors and gave out treats of cookies, hot apple cider and hot chocolate for those of us that braved the chill to come out. 

There was a “snow” area with a slide for the kids to sled down.  The boys didn’t know what to think about the snow at first, but then they decided it was ok.  They both loaded up on a “sled” and went down the slide, which made my heart stop for a minute because it was actually pretty fast and at one point they got a little sideways!  It was so fast, in fact, that my slow camera wasn’t able to capture the moment.  Afterward, Jesse asked to see the video…yeah, wish I’d thought of that!  Their little faces looked scared as they were coming down, but they were all smiles and ready to go again once they got off.  Unfortunately, the mile long line was a  bit of a deterrent for going again. 

We headed off down the street in search of Santa, and found the doors of the Journal open with plates of cookies and warm apple cider!!  We stopped in for a snack and a visit with Carrie and our friend Allie Claire.  My kids were way more interested in the office supplies than they were in visiting!!  We tried to get a picture of the crew.  They were all so excited.

After our visit we went and got in line to see Santa.  I was a little nervous, since last year’s Santa experience didn’t go so well, but they LOVED him!!  They both hopped right up on his lap and told their Christmas wishes, then Wyatt proceeded to sing, “Up on the Rooftop” for Santa!  It was the funniest thing, I don’t think ol Santa knew what to think!  I hope Wyatt sings at his Christmas Program as well as he did for Santa!  (Did you notice I put “Santa” 5 times in the last paragraph…Mercy.)

  

After all that, we headed back down the other side of the street for the live Nativity.  The boys were super impressed with the donkeys (donkies?!) and Waylon, who is all into Shrek right now, had some  Nativity donkey vs. Shrek Donkey confusion.  (Lord please forgive us for getting the donkeys mixed up!)

At this point it was getting drizzly and becoming obvious our boys needed to get to bed, so we went on back to the truck to go home.  Not before we did some window train watching though!!

I’m so glad we took them out, we all had a great (not to mention free) time!!