Still recovering....

Playing with Mommy's new computer.

Still not feeling 100%. Haven't gotten out of pajamas in the past 4 or 5 days. :/ 

Isaac is feeling better. He is still extremely clingy, and very whiney.

It's been a slow going couple of days. 

Hopefully we will all be well by Christmas. 

Speaking of Christmas, all of you in Michigan may have to wait a little while longer for Christmas presents to arrive. :/ Sorry about that. We're trying to get moving around here. 

Christmas is now just 2 days away!!

Hope this finds you all in better spirits  :)

xo

Christmas Forts

This morning finds us with no Christmas song in the blog post title. In fact we even missed a couple days of my "12 Days of Christmas" theme. Such is life, I suppose. This morning finds us recovering from the flu that ravaged our little family over the past couple of days. All 3 of us, pretty much at the same time, sick. as. dogs. Not the best Christmas memories we have made, of that we can be sure. BUT this morning finds us all feeling a little bit better. Good enough, even, to build Christmas forts with mommy.

xo



Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree

Or in this case, the cookie table....

These cousins are very loving. There were lots of hugs and kisses going around!!

The dogs even got some loving! Ok, the dogs got a lot of loving. Maybe a little too much. By the end of the night Lexie was sighing loudly every two seconds, and Brown had uncontrollable nervous ticks....

"Help Me"

Can't you just see the anxiety in this poor dogs eyes?

ALL 3! IN 1 PICTURE!! AMAZING!!

Isaac LOVES to give kisses, and has recently learned how to pucker up...

Maddie--"Don't mind if I do!"

Christmas Cookie Decorating

Every two seconds, "Isaac don't eat the frosting. Frost your cookie!" As Isaac slow motion moves the icing towards his mouth, while making eye contact with me.

The sprinkles were a hit

But the cookies were better. We didn't get many frosted, especially since two little boys kept eating the cookies instead of decorating them.

Calum swiping one of Maddie's decorated cookies. Tis the year for giving and receiving...

Some of the best memories ever. Every day that these 3 get together is my favorite.

The "Baby" boy aftermath

xo

Joy to the World!

Here are the other Christmas card contenders who didn't make the cut:

This one looks like he is singing to me. I always think of Chevy Chase in Christmas Vacation every time I see this picture. Hence todays blog title. If you haven't caught on, I have been doing a different Christmas song for each day. A fun way to ring in the "12 Days of Christmas". Some people think he looks like he is conducting. Either way, SUPER cute picture!!

This one was my personal favorite, and my choice for the Christmas card. :) But as I'm sure most of you have already found out, this one didn't win either.

Precious baby boy. It was SO hard to choose!!

This one was Daddy's favorite, and it was our Christmas Card winner! With such a precious baby boy, you could see why we had such a difficult time choosing!! 

We hope you are enjoying this Christmas so far! We sure are. Things are so busy and chaotic, but we are loving it just the same. We wish you all Peace, Love and JOY!!

xo

We wish you a Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from the Payne's

xo

Zat you, Santa Clause?

Isaac did so wonderful with Santa this year! We were worried that he would freak out again, like he did last year. Of course, when we arrived to see Santa, they were roping off the line because Santa was going on break! The EXACT same thing that happened to us last year. We must have some really poor timing! Thankfully, they flew through pictures faster than expected and we were able to see Santa before his break, instead of waiting another hour. Thank goodness!! When we were next in line, Isaac was SO excited to see Santa. He was smiling and yelling "Ta"! It was awesome. We were excited. When it was Isaac's turn to sit in Santa's lap, we did have a mini melt down. But thankfully we brought our dancing, singing Santa, silly mommy and daddy and some very helpful "elves" to elicit that precious smile pictured above. The whole process took about 3 minutes. It was glorious. Before we ever left the house, Dan and I resigned to the fact that it was going to be what it was going to be. No reason to stress. If he had a meltdown because we put him in some strangers lap and walked away, we would understand. If he smiled and laughed, and took the most amazing picture, we'd be happy just the same. We resigned to just enjoy these precious moments in little son's life. Moments that are flying by way too fast. 

Baby, It's Cold Outside

My loves

Bye now!!

xo