McWane Center

We were finally feeling better on our last day in Alabama and were able to use our Sci-Port pass one more time to get into the McWane Science Center in Birmingham. It is HUGE! 4 floors of crazy fun for the kids! There was an indoor train, a huge story-to-story slide that the kids went down probably 10 times or more! and just tons of fun play centers!

of course Jonas found the water table!

 The train ride!

Hang on Jonas!

The big slide!

 Jonas in the big fish! But he wasn't there for 3 days....

 They also had a place where you could touch some sting rays and hammerhead sharks. I thought that was really neat!

And then some food from the food court.

And what grandma wouldn't love this! Jonas was so tuckered out from all our fun!

Thanks Grandma and Grandpa for having us! Can't wait to see you again!

Christmas Day

Christmas morning the kids were very excited to open their presents! ok maybe Sydney was a little more excited than Jonas. She was ripping through hers really fast while Jonas' pile was getting higher because he was taking his time! But they loved their guitars, books, airplanes, dresses, and more!

Jonas posing in his jammies:

Jonas liked the gift tissue! easy to rip out!

another dress-up outfit for Sydney!

Jonas first Thomas train set! he loved that!

 Rocking princess!

We also missed one of Sydney's presents and she found it a few hours later much to her excitement! It was a Hello Kitty Bingo game and she loved having us play it with her. We must have played at least 2 hours that day! I think it might become a new tradition, hide a present on Christmas day to find later!

We then went to go visit poor Grandpa Tuck in the hospital.

We are glad Grandpa Tuck later got out of the hospital on Saturday of that week but sad he had to spend most of our visit there. Hopefully next time we'll be able to see him more!

We had a lot of fun spending Christmas as Grandma and Grandpa Tuck's and this was the first time we were at their house for Christmas! A very memorable Christmas!

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve we read the story of Jesus' birth and had the kids help build a nativity scene.

It was also fun to get to see the ornaments on Theresa's tree and their significance like this missionary angel ornament for when Brian was on a mission.

Then we let the kids each open one present. Jonas opened a present from Sydney, a toy car. And Sydney opened her present from Grandma and Grandpa Tuck, a Rapunzel doll whose hair glows when you brush her hair.

Sydney rushed to Dad giving him a hug thinking Rapunzel was from him and we had to tell her to thank her grandma!

 Then this is cute, she started dancing while brushing Rapunzel's hair! big hit!

Then, Brian started a fire for us and we enjoyed some time by the fire and roasting some marshmallows.

Day before Christmas- outside fun

I want to be politically correct and say the DAY before Christmas, we did these activities. Got some pictures of Christmas EVE. in the next post.

So our little family went to see Grandma and Grandpa Tuck in Alabama for Christmas. The kids did great on the trip there. Unfortunately, Jonas and I had had a stomach bug earlier in the week and brought it with us despite having felt better for a few days before our visit to Alabama. By Sunday of our visit, the Sunday before Christmas, Grandpa Tuck had contracted the bug as well as developed an obstructed intestine and would spend the rest of our visit in the hospital. That was a big dark spot on our visit, as well as giving Grandma Tuck our stomach bug! It was a very sick Christmas week! We also took Jonas to the Emergency Room on Sunday as he had developed a cold but was also breathing rapidly. We were told he had bronchilitis, and we treated him with an inhaler every 4 hours for the rest of the week. Not fun! So we spent most of the week just chilling at the house trying not to get anyone else sick!

The day before Christmas the weather was gorgeous! We had on jackets but had to take them off because we were getting too warm! We spent some time exploring the forestation behind the grandparents' house.

Sydney took this one for us!

and my man posing! 

We also had some fun making some 3-D animals.

Next post, Christmas Eve!