Our Family Christmas

Christmas is always such a fun time of year. Sometimes the true meaning can get lost in all the hustle and bustle of the season. We have tried over the past couple years to make sure and tell the kids about the true meaning of Christmas, but some things are difficult to understand when you are just 2 and 3 years old. Easy to understand at that age is all the sights, sounds, smells and fun that comes with the season. We like to decorate the whole house inside and out. This year the kids got to help out with some of the decorating.

I decorated the outside of the house in early November because I wanted to get them all out while the weather was still rather warm. The kids enjoyed watching me from inside the window.

The kids loved decorating the Christmas trees. We had seven total trees that we decorated and placed around the house.

Landon was so proud of his decorating. He liked placing his all together in bunches. We had to go behind him the whole time and move a few of his ornaments around.

We got a picture made with the big Christmas tree in downtown Lexington before heading over to watch the Christmas parade.

Waiting with the little ones for the parade to start. The kids got so many compliments on their hats that lit up.

Our adventures at Southern Lights at the Horse Park. This is always a hit with the kids. I think their favorite parts of the night are riding on the train and getting some fresh cooked kettle corn.

Every year we have made ornaments for the grandparents and for ourselves of the kids footprints. This time we waited a little late and I needed to get them started so I made them one night by myself with the kids. It was frustrating because the kids were more interested in playing with the flour and making a mess than helping with the task at hand.

I think that I did pretty good turning the kids feet into Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer.

We also took the kids up to Cincinnati Zoo for the Festival of Lights. It was a really neat experience, but the nice weather made for a really huge crowd.

Every year since the children have been born we have celebrated with just us and the kids for a family Christmas. Since the kids don't have any idea about what day of the week or the date we just pick a day in December and tell the kids that it is Christmas.

Brinley is usually the one that wakes up early, so we went ahead and woke Landon up to come down and open presents. Here the kids are pictured with a gifts that Jennifer and I got them.

Brinley only asked Santa for one thing this year. So, Santa got her exactly what she asked for - a sled! There is also the yearly debate in our household if Santa wraps gifts or not. This year Santa didn't wrap just like when I was a child.

The kids with their sleds from Santa.

The kids wanted to sit in their sleds while they opened up their gifts from mommy and daddy. We got them a little game each and some pajamas and socks. 

Mommy opening her gifts from the kids and me. She was excited about this shell cracker because she always has trouble getting the meat out of her crab legs.

The kids helping me open my gifts from them and mommy.

I will definitely be wearing this to some of the remaining games this season. 

I just couldn't help myself when I saw this one day at the store. Golfing has become one of my favorite things to do and the kids are always sad when I leave to go play without them. So, next year I will try taking one of them out with me on occasion to give them a feel of the game. Who knows, maybe they will love this game too!

We had one really special gift for the kids this year and it is the gift that keeps on giving all year long. Jennifer and I debated for a long time about this gift, but in the end we thought it would be a lot of fun and exciting for the kids. We had a box with a note in it along with their magic bands from last year and some Disney gift cards. That's right we are taking the kids back to Disney World!

Brinley didn't have a clue what this said, so I read it to her and she was so excited. She asked if we were going right then. I had to break the news to her, but explained that it wouldn't be too much longer before we went back to Mickey's house. Jennifer and I decided on season passes to Disney for the family because the kids had such a great experience last year. We also wanted to see it at different times of the year and because our work schedules are more flexible than most we decided why not. This is also the last full year that we could do something like this before Brinley starts school.

We all had a great Christmas celebrating with the most important people in my life. I am so happy to be Brinley and Landon's dad and I want nothing more than to make them happy. Sometimes we spoil them, but they make life so much more fun for Jennifer and me. We are excited to see what a year at Disney is like and I will be sure to share many pictures and stories about it all. Thanks for reading and God bless!

Heflin-Maitland Christmas

We had some visitors over the Christmas holiday season at our house. My family all came to stay with us for a few days and we sure packed a lot of stuff into the few days we had together. Each year it seems like it gets more difficult to get everyone together with work schedules and everyone living in different cities. As soon as everyone arrived in Lexington and got their luggage in the house we all loaded up the car to head out for a Christmas Eve dinner. We had planned to eat at Sal's, but unfortunately we didn't make reservations which were apparently a must so we just headed on down to eat at Drake's. We all had a good meal and even enjoyed playing with a few of the games they had in the bar of shuffleboard and ring the hook. We headed home to decorate some sugar cookies to end our night.

Helping mommy make the sugar cookies turned out to be quite a mess, but the kids both had fun and that is way more important than a mess!

Landon and mommy working on some decorating.

Brinley really loved decorating cookies this year. She actually was asking for colors and made some pretty nice designs.

Uncle McKinley and the grandparents working on their masterpieces.

We even had a little competition online to see who had the best cookie decoration. Here are the decorators for the different cookies. Top row from left to right are Brinley, Grandma, and Landon. Second row: Jennifer, Andrea, Grandpa. Bottom row: Chris, McKinley, and then mine. The votes were all tallied and McKinley's depiction of Tyler Ulis bleeding in the Louisville game last year was the winner. 

After sleeping in late on Christmas morning we all got up and the kids were ready to open some presents. It was so much fun to see them both excited with opening gifts this year.

This was the third time this Christmas that they had opened gifts and they had become pros at it.

The Maitland's opening their gifts from McKinley. Chris got a 6-pack of Ale-8-One and every bottle was wrapped as well as the box.

Brinley showing off some penguin pajamas that she got.

McKinley got a pretty neat hoodie from dad. It is an EKG that turns into an outline of a buck. He got this because just a few weeks ago he shot a buck of his own.

Aunt Andrea and Uncle Chris reading Brinley one of her new books that she got for Christmas.

 We spent the rest of Christmas day playing games and just enjoying spending time with each other. Our family is pretty competitive so a couple of times it got pretty heated, but it was all in good fun. We didn't get around to taking family photos so we had to get up early the next day to take some before McKinley and I headed out to the UK game.

A family picture was something that Grandpa wanted, but it can be pretty difficult with a 2 and 3 year old.

Uncle McKinley with Brinley and Landon.

Aunt Andrea and Uncle Chris with Brinley and Landon.

Grandma and Grandpa with their favorite grand kids! Just so you know, they are the only grand kids at this point in time.

A little more festive with the Christmas tree in the picture.

McKinley and I then headed downtown to watch the UK vs. Louisville game at RUPP Arena. It was a fantastic game and McKinley really enjoyed his Christmas gift from me which was my extra ticket. We even went down after the game and got a ball signed by Coach Cal and a picture of us on the court. I could barely talk from all the yelling that I was doing.

After the UK game we headed over to Breakout Games. This is something that I have wanted to do for sometime now, but had just never made it until today. The general concept is that you are locked in a room and you have to find clues to complete tasks in the room to ultimately find the your way to break out of the room in less than an hour. It was pretty intense and we all worked well together and finished with a little over 16 minutes to spare. 

Our Christmas card this year. We didn't order enough, so next year we will have to print out even more so that we can send them out to our family and friends.

We always have a good time when our whole family gets together and I wish that it could happen more often. Since it doesn't happen all the time we sure do take advantage and do as many things together as possible during the time. Thanks for reading and God bless!

Christmas with Jennifer's family

Christmas began after having our Thanksgiving meal at MiMi's house. She likes for us to take pictures for her Christmas card at this time and the past couple of years have proven to be interesting with adding children into the mix. The past two years she has even thought up a fun picture for the kids to participate in. Last years fun picture involved a lot of marshmallows being thrown up in the air to look like snow falling and this year's picture was confetti paper falling like snow. The kids loved it both years and I can't even imagine what MiMi will think up next year.

Brinley in her Christmas outfit dancing around.

Brinley and her cousin Elam. 

The three kids all sort of looking at the camera. If we could only get them all to smile too!

Here is the whole crew - The Prock's, Heflin's, Frye's, and Rock's.

This was little Elam's first Christmas! I am not sure what he thought about all this craziness of taking pictures.

Our little family. The kids are growing up too quick!

Another picture we took was of all of us drinking our peppermint hot chocolate. The kids didn't even want to look up at the camera because they were drinking their's.

Confetti snow! Brinley and Landon loved it and I think Elam just wanted to eat it.

Our little elf Landon.

Jennifer and the kids traveled back home to celebrate with her grandparents in McLean County. The kids got a tour from Great Granddaddy Clayton of his cabin that he has in his backyard.

Great Granddaddy and the kids.

Brinley with her huge Frozen themed art supplies.

Landon opening a gift from Aunt Lisa.

These are my absolute favorite people in this world. I am sad that I had to work and couldn't be there to enjoy the day with them, but unfortunately being a grown up means that you have to work to pay the bills.

A few weeks later we got together again to celebrate Christmas at MiMi's. They chose to have a breakfast and then a gift exchange on Sunday morning after I got off from work.

Amanda and Jessi with Elam. He was sick with RSV so he didn't look like he was in that great of a mood. He apparently didn't sleep well the night before.

Brinley opening one of her gifts. She was pretty good at unwrapping them this year. 

Landon also got better at the unwrapping this year, but he is much slower than his sister and he also wants to make sure and get every single piece of paper off  the gift.

Brinley got some Minion Play-Doh.

Landon got lots of boy themed toys like this military truck and helicopter. He also got some dinosaurs that were a big hit with both kids.

The toy that both kids really liked was the play mat that you drive your cars on.

The biggest hit of Landon's Christmas was the Star Wars gun and light sabers that Aunt Amanda and Jessi got him. The kid didn't even want to put it down during his nap.

It was fun to celebrate with all of Jennifer's family and the kids always enjoy seeing their aunts and uncle. The kids got way too many toys, but we have enjoyed playing with all of them around the house. I hope all of you had a Merry Christmas! Thanks for reading and God bless!

Polar Express Pajama Party

Our friend Ashley opened her house up to friends to have a pretty amazing pajama party. It was themed around the movie The Polar Express, which they actually had showing on the TV during the party. We got to spend some time with some of our work friends and their kids. 

Brinley and Landon enjoying some snacks while watching the Polar Express.

They had a cookie decorating station, too. It was a huge hit with the kids, but they weren't the tidiest so it was a good decision to have it outside.

Brinley enjoyed the cookies that she made. A heavy coat of icing with some red sprinkles.

Playing with her buddy Riley.

There was a special guest that showed up near the end of the party and all the kids were excited.

These little ones couldn't believe their eyes! Santa showed up and told about the night before Christmas. They were all pretty amazed.

Brinley and Landon meeting with Santa. Brinley again said that she wanted a sled. Landon didn't mention anything that he wanted.

Landon was pretty excited about the orange and candy cane that Santa gave him.

Sometimes when I get busy taking pictures I actually forget to have anyone take a picture of us. Thankfully, I didn't forget today. I am so blessed to have Jennifer and the kids in my life!

Christmas is such a fun time of year when little ones are a part of it. They find so much joy in all the little things and have none of the stress that this time of year typically brings. If we could all live with the joy of a child then the world would be a much happier place! Thanks for reading and God bless!