Okay, warning, WAY TOO MANY PICTURES in this post. I have a hard time cutting it down because I love getting pictures of my boys with our families. It is amazing to think about how lucky our boys are to have so many aunts and uncles (on both sides of our family) who love them to pieces. They love them almost as much as we do. It is so awesome. Every night, after they would go to bed, Bethany and Austin would recount some of the funny things Dane and Graham said and did that day, and it made me laugh because that's what Tommy and I do in the evenings. These boys are lucky to be early on in the family before all their aunts and uncles have their own kids to steal their attention and love--because they are totally spoiled with it all here.
We got to have Cole and Austin and Bethany here for two weeks this Christmas. I can't say enough how awesome it was. Before they got here, I knew it would be fun to see them but I was worried that the two weeks would feel really long--for them--and that they'd get tired of Dane and Graham running in to wake them up every morning or bored with no friends to see around here. But it ended up being 100% awesome (at least from my perspective). I loved having them around to talk to all day and to play with the boys and helping with making dinner. I was even hoping that they could extend their stay! That's a sign that we had a good time. We spent a lot of days just hanging around the house, going to the gym, and painting some rooms in the house (we put them to work), but we also tried to do some fun outings as well.
I must have a picture of every single family member who has ever come to visit us reading books with Dane. I really don't need to take pictures every time someone reads to them, but I love when they're cute and snuggled up with someone. Just look at Dane just sprawled out on Bethany's shoulder. So cute.
Graham was unashamed in showing how much Austin was his favorite. It was a little less than the summer, since Tommy was home almost the whole time they were here, and nobody, NOBODY compares to Daddy. But he loved, loved, loved running to and sitting with Austin.
Enjoying some Chipotle after they got here.
Dane loved having someone to play Candyland with.
Walking around the Dallas temple one day.
The largest indoor Christmas tree in the U.S. at the Dallas Galleria mall.
We went to the Gaylord Texan resort to see their ice sculpture exhibit. They keep the area at 9 degrees so they give you parkas to wear as you walk around through it. It was really huge and pretty neat to see.
Sliding down the ice slide.
Haha--cute little Graham sliding down.
A Nativity scene made out of ice. It was really pretty.
We also did some of their indoor sledding. I wish I could have gotten a better picture of Dane--I should have used our nice camera. He was SO HAPPY and smiling so huge every time he slid down. It was almost worth the enormous long wait, haha.
Afterwards we walked around and saw all the cool decorations inside the hotel. It was absolutely huge. I was glad we went to see it because I've heard a lot about this resort, and the Great Wolf Lodge, and it was awesome to see what it was like.
Eating some good fried chicken at Babe's with the Myres.
We asked Austin and Bethany if they would help us repaint some walls in our house. I think the nesting instinct must be strong in me, because I never feel any urge to do any changes to our house except for when I'm pregnant. I was almost exactly this far along with Graham when I repainted the wall in Dane's room blue. We were going to repaint our entire bedroom, but then cut it down to just one wall, and it ended up looking almost exactly like the wall in the boys' room--haha! We totally thought it was going to be a grayer blue. But I just wanted to change it up and I think it looks great. It will look even better once I get some more decorations and figure out what to put in these empty corners. Maybe we'll actually get some curtains up at some point too. We also repainted the baby's room/guest room completely white, which I think will look good with our white bedspread, etc. It's just nice to change something up with our completely beige house (although I do like the color it is).
Bethany was so lucky--she got Graham up from his nap and then he snuggled with her for half an hour while watching the Polar Express. He NEVER does that. So cute.
Graham was really into giving everyone kisses.
Austin really loves all the Texas stuff everywhere. He is very disappointed in how indoctrinated into Texas love that Dane is already. It's ironic for someone named after the Texas state capital.
One night we went to this drive-through Christmas light place, which was huge and crazy and pretty awesome. They had a free merry-go-round and Dumbo ride too.
We took them down into Dallas for a day of seeing all the Dallas sights... which took us a few hours. Haha. We are not great Dallas tour guides. I know there has to be more fun things to do with visitors--it's one of my goals this year to find them.
Klyde Warren park continues to be one of my favorite places to take people. Everybody likes lunch from the food trucks!
We had to get some good old Texas BBQ while they were here!
We also went to Top Golf with them. I started out terribly but ended up getting a bit better by the end--maybe we need to go more often and I'll actually learn how to hold the club!
Graham and his favorite.
Dane holding hands with Bubba.
Just two guys watching some football together.
They were so cute sliding down the slide together, haha.
Cole went back to Ecuador on New Year's Day. So sad to say good-bye to him, but I was so glad that he came and that he had a good time! Cole has had the craziest year of everyone, and he was really appreciative of the In-N-Out and American junk food we could provide him.
And then we said good-bye to Austin and Bethany on Tuesday.
We had such a good time with them. Dane and Graham are totally going through withdrawals now that they've left. It made me wish, once again, that we lived closer to them and could see them more often. It was really, really nice to get the benefits of seeing family without having to uproot ourselves and travel to see them. I feel like it was one of our most relaxing Christmases yet. I guess we'll just have to convince people to come visit us at Christmastime every year now!
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