Christmas in Georgia

Day after Christmas we headed down to Georgia for Christmas with grandpa and nana.

The perkiest Benjamin was the whole trip.

He ended up with a fever and spent most of his time like this on either his daddy or grandpa's chest, because he had a distinct preference for males all weekend.

Linnea greatly anticipated receiving legos from her nana and grandpa for Christmas.


She was happy when she finally realized that she could take them home with her.

Benjamin finally gave in and let his nana snuggle him for a little bit right before we headed home.

Christmas Afternoon

Right before lunchtime Christmas day, family converged on the house - Grandma, Grammie, Uncle Chase, Auntie Rosalie, cousin Liam, great grammy and great grandpa. Linnea had fun opening up more presents.


Just part of the chaos.

Sipping coffee, opening packages in unison.

Benjamin loves his new rocking moose!
We had a wonderful time with our family it is wonderful seeing our kids enjoy their loved ones so much.

Christmas Day

Christmas day started with the kids opening up their stockings.
Last year Benjamin's stocking was bigger than he was. We could almost fit him in it!

They had lots of fun opening up all the goodies.

When it was time to open up presents Benjamin decided he would rather go explore in the kitchen. Linnea did the same thing at 11 1/2 months her first Christmas.

After exploring the kitchen Benjamin decided to climb his rocking chair to check out the tv.

Linnea meanwhile enjoyed opening up her presents, especially her SnowWhite doll and horse!

Manger Scene

This is Linnea's Nativity set.
She loves it! It may be February before we can convince her to pack it away.

Meeting Santa at Ikea

We were a little suprised to see him there, Linnea loved the stuffed elephant he gave her.

Caught Playing

Benjamin's Rocking Chair

Benjamin received his very own rocking chair from his great grandparents and he loves it! He loves to climb in and sit and rock.
He also loves to climb in, stand up, and rock!

Yep he likes his new chair lots :-)

Cat Tail

Katie is very patient with Benjamin and will often come over to find out what is wrong when he is crying. She also lets him pet her and eat her tail!

Christmas Outfits

Hard to get them both to smile at the same time and impossible to get Linnea to keep a hairbow in hair for more than a minute!

Mullet Baby

Don't know why the picture uploaded funky, but the mullet that Benjamin is sporting met it's match and was chopped off this past weekend.

Rodent Rump

Grammie babysits and Linnea turns into a mouse!

Grrrrrr

Toss Up

A favorite father daughter activity.

Climb to the Blinds

A certain someone determined that he can climb his chair to play with the blinds!

Miss Thing

She loves sunglasses.

Nan swimming in Linnea's sink.

She loves her nativity play set and will spend hours each day playing with it.

Grandpa in a Tunnel

Grandpa decided to crawl through the tunnel per Linnea's request!

Benjamin Turns One

We celebrated Benjamin's birthday with his Merritt grandparents and his grammie.

It is hard to believe our little boy is already one! His first year flew by so fast. He celebrated his special day by deciding to really get mobile and get into everything, it was also one of the first Sunday's that he decided to play the whole church hour instead of needing to be held.

An attempt at a family portrait including the cat.

Linnea was insistent that her baby doll "nan" join us for the pictures.

We love being a little family of four!

Benjamin and His Presents

What a huge difference between Linnea opening presents her first birthday and Benjamin's reaction. He was so excited to see all of the presents.

He grabbed bags and pulled tissue paper out and had fun smashing the bags.

He loves the little blue truck his sister gave him.

Linnea would have never tried to dive into a gift bag and she probably still wouldn't.

He had lots of fun tearing off the wrapping paper.

Linnea tears off very little pieces and hands them to you a bit at the time, she is fairly neat and takes forever to open a present up. It will be so much fun to see him at Christmas! Linnea was very excited about all of her brother's new presents, now we just need to work on her sharing his toys with him!