Christmas with the Barteau's

Jeff's parents came to Kansas City on Christmas day and we celebrated Christmas with his family on Dec 26th. His aunt, uncle and cousin also came in town. We found it pretty funny that Owen kept calling Jeff's aunt Sharon "Greg" which is his cousin's name. We exchanged gifts for one last Christmas this year. Owen's favorite gift today was the car ramp he got from Grandma and Grandpa. Jeff's mom cooked a yummy roast for dinner. Owen was crabby during dinner and only ate carrots! I was wondering who this child is! He would never even eat baby food carrots, and now he was eating carrot after carrot right out of the serving dish....

Christmas morning

"Christmas morning" happened on Christmas eve at our house. Since Owen does not know the difference this year Santa came a day early because I had to work Christmas day. We had told Owen the night before that Santa was coming to our house and bringing him presents. He acted surprised that Santa was coming to our house! Owen must have been very good this year because Santa was very good to him! We came downstairs on Christmas morning and Owen actually ignored the gifts for a few minutes. We spent a good portion of the morning opening gifts because Owen insisted to play with each gift after opening it. He was pretty spoiled this year! We had a great time opening gifts and watching the snow fall. It was a lazy pajama morning! Owen's favorite gift from Santa was a box of Sesame Street play dough accessories.

I tried to make homemade cinnamon rolls for breakfast on Christmas morning. I thought it could be a yummy new tradition for us to start. Come to find out they are a LOT of work to make. They turned out pretty good, but not worth all the work. Needless to say that will not be a new tradition for our family.

Playing with his favorite gift!


Helping Daddy open his present.
Bringing mommy her new Coach purse! I must have been good this year!

Putting money in his new piggy bank that his Godmother painted him


Trying on Mommy's new necklace! Sooo pretty!



Jumping on his piano mat!


Watching the snow fall

Jumping in the bounce house

Christmas in St. Louis

We went to St. Louis the weekend of Dec 18th and 19th to kick off the week of Christmas celebrations. On the 18th we went to Jeff's Aunts house to celebrate with his dad's side of the family. Owen was kind of crabby at first. We had drove to St. Louis that morning and he fell asleep for the last half hour of the drive, and when we got to my parents house he would not go back to sleep. He was happy as could be to get out of the car and was bouncing around. I was really wanting him to go back to sleep because I knew it would be a late night and I did not want him to be crabby. He was fussy though dinner, but once we started opening presents his attitude changed. Once he realized that there were toys in the packages, he was trying to open every present he could get his hands on, even if it was not his! After opening presents he got a second wind, and was running around like crazy with his cousins Elizabeth, Addison and Riley. They were dancing in Mady's room to Justin Beiber music and acting like total crazy monkeys! When Owen brought his light up turtle in the room they decided to turn off the lights and dance under the stars. At this point I was just waiting for the meltdown. He was happy until about 9:30, and he had a total meltdown, so we headed back to my parents house for bed. He was asleep in the car in about 2 minutes! His favorite toys he got were his magnadoodle and his turtle that shines stars on the ceiling.






One out of 5 kids crying is not such bad odds!

"Let me show you how this works Riley."

A Christmas with the Barteau's just would not be complete without Addison taking my camera and taking pictures of everyone. I have to admit that over the last 3 years her photography skills have improved greatly! Some of these pictures would even be pretty good if they were cropped!







OOPS...cut off Grandpa and Xavie's heads!





And then Riley took over the camera....

Addison striking a pose!

OOPS...zoomed in a bit to much!


On Sunday morning I took Owen over to see Jeff's Aunt Sue while Jeff was at the Rams football game. He had fun playing with Elizabeth and Riley again and seeing all their new toys. Sunday afternoon we celebrated Christmas with my parents and brothers. Owen had fun playing with Uncle Matt, Kev and Ky. Owen's favorite gift was his bounce house from Gramps and Mimi. He kept asking to open it, but we were not going to open that until we got home!



Monday we traveled back to Kansas City in the afternoon

Meeting Santa

I honestly thought Owen would be screaming in his picture with Santa this year. The first time he saw Santa we were at the mall in St. Louis the day before Thanksgiving. We walked by Santa and Owen talked about "anta" the whole way through the mall. Jeff and I decided to let him go see Santa. He sure talked a big game about liking Santa, but when we got close to him Owen decided he was not going anywhere near him. That was honestly the reaction I was expecting.

The next time we saw Santa was the weekend after Thanksgiving when we went to get our Christmas tree. Owen would not sit on his lap, but he was willing to take a candy cane from him!

I took Owen to Story time with Santa that was held by the Parents as Teachers program. He watched a lot of kids sit on Santa's lap and once he realized that Santa was giving the kids bouncy balls after they sat on his lap he was happy to get in line! He sat on Santa's lap stiff as a board, but he got his bouncy ball!

Through the whole holiday season we spent a lot of time talking about how Santa is nice and Santa brings toys. I think it finally sunk in with Owen that Santa is a nice guy. I took him to the mall to see Santa one last time. He was excited to see Santa this time. He went right up to Santa, sat on his lap and told him "want toys!"


This guy was about the worst Santa ever!