Our kids have been back in Kinderswimmer lessons since October, and they are both doing really well. Today, for the first time, I got to go! Usually Jim takes them on days that I work. Today he worked and I was off, so I was very excited to see JT swim “all by myself” and to go in the pool with Haley. Grandpa and Grandma Keene came to watch, too.

Such a big guy!

Backstroke

The slide…

Splash!

Miss Tatum, their teacher, said JT was super goofy today for his audience 🙂

Get set…

Jump!

Haley patiently waiting her turn

A pre-swim snuggle



Haley and Mom go swimming!



Warming up to the water after a few weeks off

Back float

The Lily Pad

This is called “Baby Chuck.” Really.



Haley’s favorite: Peekaboo balls

Miss Tatum says that Haley is ready for the next class up. Haley even closed her eyes and tucked her chin when I told her “eyes in” today. But that would mean Jim wouldn’t get to swim with her anymore, so… we’ll wait a couple of months, I think. 🙂

Thursday was a busy day! First we had a special overnight visitor Wednesday night. Asher spent the night at our house and the boys even have matching pajamas, which made for an adorable picture right before our bedtime popcorn and movie.

Thursday morning, we enjoyed the break in the weather and spent some time at the park.

Haley said a new word: rock!

Christmas morning, we woke up before the kids. As usual. Well, to be fair, I set an alarm so I could put the cinnamon rolls in the oven and start the Crock Pot mac & cheese for lunch. But Jim woke up all on his own and we opened our stockings and then waited until 8:30, when we heard Haley stir and thought we should get a move on already.

Stockings

We ate breakfast and read scripture and lit our last Advent candle before we opened presents. Because that’s the way I like it, and Jim humors me.

Happy Birthday Jesus crown

On to the excitement under the tree…

Amry Strong for Uncle Jeff

What in the world kind of face is that?

JT’s big gift from us: Imaginext airplane set

 Haley got the Pottery Barn Kids baby doll from us, and it was every bit perfect when she opened it. She couldn’t wait to get it out of the box.

Jim got me the Kindle Fire and I love it. It does everything I expected it to do, and it does all of those things very well. I’ve watched movies, clicked around on the Internet, listened to music, played games, and read books, and I have no complaints. None.

Then Jim pulled a move from A Christmas Story. We were all done opening and he said, “What’s over there? Are those more presents?” And he helped JT find some more gifts that he had snuck downstairs without me knowing. He got JT a beebee rifle. JT knew right away it wasn’t a toy (we’ve been working on that) and was serious, excited, and anxious all at once.

If you looked at the picture first, you thought wrong. This isn’t for me, it’s for Haley. That’s right, her first diamonds. Jim said that he didn’t want “some dirty little boy” buying his daughter her first diamonds. It’s gorgeous.

We got a chance to Skype with my family, who were all celebrating in North Carolina. JT had on his army shirt, his new Ms hat, and his rifle. Uncle Jeff decided to match him. So cute! I took a screenshot.

Then Jim’s parents came over because I went to work with Jim. I came home, got two hours of sleep, and got up and went shopping for seven hours with my generous mother-in-law, who bought me and the few kids some things, as if Christmas wasn’t enough. We got some great deals and had a wonderful time. Another great year on the books.

We had a very relaxing Christmas Eve. The kids played all morning while I got the turkey in the oven and made a pear cranberry crisp and prepped the brandied yams for dinner. Then we all took naps (I was fighting a cold). After naps, we got dressed and took our annual family picture in front of the tree. Everyone was well rested and cooperated nicely. 🙂

After pictures, we covered our kids with smocks and ate dinner. I think it was one of my best turkeys yet. You can tell JT is ready to eat! This picture is awesome because Haley has her finger in her nose.

We enjoyed a perfectly-cooked prime rib dinner at Jim’s parents’ house last Friday for our family Christmas. You can tell Haley was ready to eat!

Matt & Jen

We opened presents after dinner and, as usual, were spoiled greatly. Here I am helping Haley open and sporting my new houndstooth scarf (Roll Tide!).

Haley got a magnet art pad and she loves it. She eats primarily right handed but hasn’t decided yet on which hand to color with. Her uncle Jeff and cousin Ali are lefties, so we’ll see…

JT suprised us with a handmade gift he worked on with Grandma Keene. He decoupaged (sp?) a frame with white and silver paper with stars. It looks very nice and is hanging up already with an adorable picture of our two favorite children inside. He wrote the tag all by himself.

JT did a great job saying “Thank you!” with enthusiasm and even gave thank you hugs when he felt like it. After he opened his cool new helicopter, he gave out another hug. (He did open a couple of presents from people who weren’t there and said, “Oh, we don’t have to say thank you for those.” Funny.)

We gave Jim’s parents matching chairs from Camping World for their motorhome trips. They loved them!

Haley got a stroller for her baby doll…

JT testing out his helicopter…

I love sugar cookie dough. I could eat it by the pound. Fortunately, I only make it once a year. (So far this week, I’ve made fudge, chocolate peanut butter balls, sugar cookies, peppermint brownies, pecan pie, white wine cake, and vanilla ice cream. I’ve gained a pound. I think that shows considerable restraint. Anyway…)

We made our Christmas cookies Tuesday night and had so much fun. Jim took the night off work to enjoy the evening home as a family and we had a great time. Of course, I had to make the dough on Sunday and the frosting on Monday to make sure we would have time to cut, bake, and frost on Tuesday. Ah, I’ve turned into my mother. 🙂

JT helped roll the dough and was in charge of the cookie cutter placement and scrap dough. I placed the cookies on the baking sheets. We made a good team.

Once our cookies were cooled, we started frosting. Jim even gave Haley one to frost. Then he took it away when she was done, because she’s not allowed to have cookies. It seemed a little mean, but she got over when we gave her a graham cracker.

See? She didn’t mind at all.

After the kids went to bed, I frosted stacks and stacks of cookies while we watched a movie. It was a fabulous way to spend an evening.

Jim and I went to his work’s Christmas party last night, and there was an ugly Christmas sweater competition. While my sweater was tacky, Jim’s showed considerable effort to be ugly and he got lots of compliments on his ugly sweater and tied for second place. 🙂 We had a great time!

We have two rocking chairs: an adult size and a child size. Until this week, the adult size has been in Haley’s room (for obvious reasons) and the child size has been in JT’s room. But really, Haley sits in the child size one more than JT does. So I asked JT if he would mind putting it in her room instead, and he was so excited about the idea that he pushed it down the hallway himself. Then he suggested moving the big rocking chair to his room. Done!

The perk to the new arrangement is that I’ve moved JT to longer stories at night with fewer pictures and now I sit and read in the rocking chair. I have to sit on the floor with Haley for her shorter book, but that’s just until summer when she gets a toddler bed.

A big thanks to Carlie Curlee for these fabulous photos of the Keene family! We were chilly but had a great time and got several new framers out of the bunch!