TRAINS!

 

This is our adorable, handsome Evan with his trains the day after Christmas.  He is even wearing his Thomas shirt.  That smile just makes me giddy.   I sure do love this boy. :)

Christmas 2010 (Our final post on Christmas. Almost took all of Jan. to get it done, but we did it!) :)

This year's Christmas was one of our family's best yet; celebrating Evie's first Christmas, Evan's third, and our first Christmas as a family of four.  For us this year we were really able to focus on the true meaning of the season, Jesus' Birthday!  The awesome part was Evan seemed to really understand this concept.  

Christmas morning we enjoyed reading the Christmas Story out of the kids new Big Picture Bible that they got as well as opening presents from Santa and Mommy and Daddy that were under the tree in celebration of Jesus' joyous birth!

Above is what our Christmas tree looked like after Santa arrived on Christmas Eve.  He even made a special appearance on our television. :)

Here are the stockings too.

And now for a picture of the kiddos Christmas morning in their holiday pajamas.  Evan did have some adorable red and green stripped pants, but we woke up to a pretty wet diaper and wet pants, so we had to sub them out for a nice pair of red pants instead. :)

The first present to be opened Christmas morning was by Evan and he picked the one we were hoping for, the special package wrapped in Thomas the Train Christmas paper (thanks to our good friend Diana).

 

In it was his top item he requested from Santa- James (from Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends).  He was SO HAPPY!  He wanted to play with it instantly. :)  Santa sure didn't let Evan down this year.

 

Evie had a good morning too.  Here she is opening up her first present.  She was really getting into how to open up the packages.  Evan was always happy to help assist, but she was getting it.  We were all really proud of her.

 

Jim and I felt like real adults/parents this year (I had to wrap presents for myself) and Jim got socks and underwear as witnessed in the picture below.  Gotta love it! 

However, Jim did surprise me with a wonderful gift of slippers!  I had been wanting a pair for quite some time, but just hadn't found a pair that I loved.  Jim found me some that were just PERFECT!  Do I have the best hubby or what!  Here I am modeling them below.

Evan got more Thomas stuff that morning too including Thomas pajamas and a shirt.  Here he is posing and saying CHEESE with the items.

 

He also got some "Cars" characters wrapped in special Cars Christmas paper.  This picture makes me smile.

Our family had so much fun Christmas morning and the kids just couldn't believe all the goodies Santa and Mommy and Daddy had got them.  We actually had to take three intermissions during the present opening festivities for the kids to play with the goods, eat, and take a little rest.  Below Evie is passed out asleep.  What a morning!

 

Pictured below is Evie after her little rest and now ready for more Christmas fun- look at that smile. 

It was time for the stockings.  Here are Daddy and Evie with her very first Christmas stocking. 

 

Inside the kid's stockings they got refrigerator magnets.  Evie got her ABC's and Evan got his numbers.

We spent our Christmas afternoon with Pops Knight. Here is a lovely family photo with Pops, except Evan didn't look at the camera.

We made delicious honey, raisin game hens, apple, cranberry stuffing, and green beans with almonds for dinner.  Pictured with the meal are the men (Evie was taking a nap and I took the picture).

After dinner play time

 

Then presents, with Evan of course helping us all with the unwrapping.

Pops came equipped with his very own Santa goodie bag with gifts for everyone.

Evan got some awesome coloring books featuring Thomas the Train and Cars.

Mommy and Daddy got to get in on the fun too and of course little Evie as well. :)

We had a fantastic visit with Pops and felt so blessed by all the Christmas gifts.  Thank you Pops!  We love you!


Christmas evening we headed off to my parents for a final Christmas Celebration with a few more presents...are we spoiled or what!?!

Here are Jim and I with our little princess during her first Christmas.

A nice photo of my brother and Debra with a gift they received from my parents.

Our family got them this special keepsake ornament noting their new home this year and featuring all their names including their two pets.

Evan was very spoiled by my parents on Christmas and hit the Thomas the Train jack pot.  He was soooooooooooo excited and immediately wanted to open all of his new trains and play. :)

Evie got a tricycle that will grow with her for several stages from Grandma and Grandpa that night.

 

She was pretty excited!

Another picture of the very happy Evan!  He is loving Christmas!!!

And of course the tickles from Grandpa. :)  Pictured in front of my Dad is a new Lego Sorter that our family got him for all of his Lego's.

Evie also got this new shopping cart.  Evan was enjoying it too!

Mommy and Daddy were also given many special treats Christmas night.  The picture below shows a beautiful necklace I received.  Evie wanted to check it out too! :)

A very big THANK YOU to my family too for all their generosity and Christmas love! :)  You are all such a blessing to us!


Wow!  What a day!  It was truly a wonderful time of family, love and generosity and most importantly celebrating our Savior's birth.  We never want to forget the true meaning of the season and always hope to get that message out to our kiddos with our family traditions.

Hope you all had a fabulous and blessed Christmas with your families.  I know it is the middle of January while I write this, but really I hope it was amazing!  Happy New Year too!  We love you all, The Knight Family- Jim, Kim, Evan and Evie :)

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve was VERY eventful at our house starting off with a morning accident involving Evan's face and one of our bar stools falling on it.  Poor baby!  It swelled up instantly like a big golf ball on his forehead.  We put ice on it and called the doctor, but luckily he didn't appear to have signs of a concussion.  We just tried to take it easy for the day, which is pretty hard for a 2 year old boy, and gave him Tylenol for the pain.  Luckily Jim was home for the day so that made things a little easier. 

Christmas Eve night we were able to attend our church's Christmas Eve service.  It was a nice event with little kid's singing, treats for all the kids during the service, and a good message for the season helping us to remember the true meaning, the celebration of the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ! 

Here we are right before the service.  You can see the bruise on Evan's face, but a happy boy! :)

Mommy and her sweet girl in her Christmas dress.

After the service we headed to meet my family for a Christmas Eve meal at Coco's.  It was a great dinner and we had wonderful service.  At this point in the evening, Evan started to become pretty clingy and didn't want to eat any of his food. He really only wanted to be held.  We of course forgot to bring any medicine and decided to stop at the drug store to pick some up before heading back over to my parents house were we were going to be opening family presents.  

Once arriving at the house we gave Evan some medicine and he was sitting with Jim just resting while we took these pictures below...

My parent's beautiful Christmas tree.

Evie with Grandma and Grandpa Thompson and Great Grandma Shirley

...and all of a sudden he THREW UP all over Jim! 

Of course we didn't have any extra clothes for Evan or Jim.  Evan ended up just wearing his a diaper and socks and we draped him with a towel and Jim borrowed some clothes from my dad.  Good times! :)

Here is our family after all the excitement.

It didn't take Evan too long to perk up a little when he realized that we were going to be opening up presents.  Especially, after he opened up the first one- Percy!  He had been asking, and asking for this friend of Thomas the Tank Engine.  He was so excited and thrilled and I think immediately felt a little bit better. You can really see the bruise in the pictures below.  From the side we thought he looked a little like a Star Trek character, one of the Klingons- poor little babe.

Then it kept getting better and better when he also received two new Thomas track add-ons.  He was thrilled!

Evie got to get in on the fun too!  She got a Little People bike from Grandma Shirley 

and a cool doll house to name a few of the generous gifts she got from family that night. 

I love how she is looking at the doll house in this picture.

This picture cracks me up....Evan helping Aunt Debra open her present in his modified Christmas Eve outfit.

Here is a wonderful picture of my parents together that night. 

Evie also got this beautiful name sign from Aunt Debra and Uncle Rhett.  It was very special, especially since, they also got us one for Evan last Christmas.  I just love personal gifts like this!

All in all it was a wonderful Christmas Eve.  We definitely have some awesome and very memorable stories to look back on in the future.  Here is one final picture of our little guy at the end of the night.  He was pooped! 

Christmas with Grandma Knight and Aunt Alison

Our family got to have an early Christmas this year with Grandma Knight and Aunt Alison during the weekend of December 17th.  They got here on a Friday night and we decided we would have our Christmas celebration Saturday morning, so the kids were able to wake up and find presents under the tree.  It took Evan and Evie a little while to notice them under the tree that morning, but as soon as they did Evan was ready to start opening.

One of Evan's favorite gifts was a soccer ball from Grandma Knight. 

Evie got several adorable outfits and some books from Grandma.  This outfit is one of the favorites in the bunch.

 

Jim got some awesome things too.  Including this contraption below.  He was super excited about it!

Evan was having a great time helping everyone open their presents this year.  Here he is giving Aunt Alison a hand.

Mommy got some special things as well from Grandma Knight and Aunt Alison, two beautiful Christmas decorations from Hallmark that she had been having her eyes on - an Advent Ornament and a Precious Moments music box.  Aunt Alison, got her a groovy new sweater and some beautiful earrings. I love them all!  Thank you both! 

Here is Grandma Knight reading one of Evie's new stories to her.

The big gift this year from Grandma Knight was a new play table.  The kids are having a lot fun using it these days.

Here is just a cute picture of Evie with her new clothes, including a fun t-shirt that Aunt Alison actually had given her at her baby shower before she was even born saying, "All I want for Christmas is my Auntie."  It was so cool that she got to wear it now at almost a whole year later.

During our visit Grandma and Aunt Alison had some good times with the kids.  Aunt Alison didn't get to have as much fun as she was hoping as she didn't feel 100% during the visit, but we were so glad she was able to be here.  Here is Grandma pushing Evie on one of our vehicles around the house.

And a fun picture of handsome Evan playing with his trains.  He and Aunt Alison had fun making up stories about the trains together.

Lastly, during our visit we all got to hang out at the Fountains Shopping Center and ride the train.  It was a real special treat because it was decorated for Christmas.  Another reason this was so special was because it had finally stopped raining.  It pretty much rained during the whole weekend and it was really nice to be able to get outside. 

Here are the kids with their Grandma and Auntie in front of the engine. :)

Thank you both for coming to see us and for all the fun and memorable times we had together.  We love you!