Making Memories

Some of my fondest memories from childhood are from Christmas.  Now, growing up with parents that love the Lord, I know we were always taught that Christmas was Jesus' birthday and that was the REAL reason we celebrated.  But of course, as a child, my best memories from Christmas are all "secular," but still important.  First, traveling to my Grandma & Papa's house, with 12 other cousins, lots of aunts and uncles, to the loudest, most busy house in Fayetteville.  But as a kid, I loved it!  I remember my Grandma having Puppy Chow ready for us to eat when we walked in the door, Santa Clause coming to visit on Christmas Eve, all of us piling into 2-3 cars and driving around the Fayetteville Square to see the lights, putting on our "Christmas" pajamas and all of us cousins sleeping together in my grandparents king size bed, and then waking up at 5am, anxiously awaiting to see what Santa brought!  I have vivid, clear pictures in my head of all that happened.  I believe it's those memories that help create the excitement I still have today around Christmastime.  Thus, we hope Caeden, too, cherishes all of his Christmases in his heart.  This was a great one!!  Last year, he was only 4 mos old so he still slept a lot of the day and just laid around. :)  This year, he was totally into it!!  Without telling about our whole week-long trip in Missouri, I'm just going to post some pictures with a short caption above each one!  Enjoy!  I hope you had a great Christmas as well!  And I hope you are starting off your New Year with a positive attitude and some things to look forward to!  (Keep a lookout in the next few days with a post on MY New Year's Resolution!)

This is my BFF from high school, Stefanie!  We only get to see each other once a year since she lives in Florida!  So this was a our annual visit! :)

Caeden & Uncle Asher wore matching outfits to the Christmas Eve service

Santa made his annual visit to our house before he started on his journey around the world.  When he first walked in the door, Caeden wasn't so sure...

And when it came time to sit on his lap, he KNEW he wasn't sure!

This is Caeden and I singing songs with Santa.  Then Santa read us "Twas the Night Before Christmas" and handed out a small gift to each kiddo.

These are some pictures of Christmas morning at Nana & Papa's house!  This is everything that Santa brought Caeden.  His favorite part was the grill.  He immediately grabbed the spatula and started turning over hamburgers...It made Daddy proud! ;) 

And here is the AWESOME gift that Reid got for Christmas!!  (For those of you who know Reid well, he is a fanatic about "A Christmas Story" and we have leg lamps all over our house at Christmastime).

After lunch we went to Nonnie & Grandpa's house (Reid's parents) where Caeden had a second Christmas.  This was one of his "big boy" presents from them.  It's a Power Wheels Four Wheeler.  He got right on and took off around the house.  However, he doesn't know how to steer yet...So there were lots of bumps into Nonnie's walls and furniture.

 


And with a Grandpa who loves to hunt and fish, Caeden got his first camo sleeping bag from him!  Here he is trying it out:

Uncle Ryan playing with Caeden

Uncle Rhett playing with Caeden (ie...teaching him how to climb on the back of the couch) ;)

And lastly, when we arrived home Thursday, there was a large Christmas present left under the tree.  There was a note from Santa that said he had to leave it at our house in Arkansas because he knew Mommy & Daddy wouldn't have room in their car to bring it home.  Hmm...Santa is smart!  And the present was...A toy kitchen!!  Caeden took right to it and played with it the rest of the day!  It was great for giving Reid and I time to unload the car and unpack!  It's now in his playroom and it has provided us all hours of fun!

Well, that's it for the Pierce household!  Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!