The Stevens Family

Last Christmas Dylan looked like this…

And this Christmas he looks like this…

I am amazed every day at how much he has grown in one year. He is still as sweet and as handsome as ever! We look forward to all the Christmas celebrations to come. Until then, here are some photos from Christmas this year.

Dylan has been blessed to celebrate Christmas SEVERAL times, and he even has one more to go (with Uncle Chris). The first presents he opened were from his teacher, Ms. Luisa, who gave him a cute stuffed frog and his Uncle Neil and Aunt Amy who sent him a stuffed Pooh bear. He then opened the gift cards from his Aunt Dana and the Martinez family (we haven’t bought him anything with them yet because we have been so busy). I was bad and didn’t take any pictures of him opening any of these presents, but I can assure you that he enjoyed it!

For Kyle’s birthday and Christmas Eve, we headed to Kansas to celebrate with family there. Our first stop was Lawrence to see Uncle Anthony, Aunt Jessica and the girls. Here he is spending some time with Jasmine and Samantha before bedtime. The girls gave Dylan a cute Jayhawk sweatsuit, but again, I failed document the present opening. He had so much fun playing with the girls and getting their undivided attention.

Since we were in Lawrence, we had to go visit the KU campus for some shopping and photo opportunities (Warning - LOTS of photos to come).

Here is Dylan posing with the “mythical” Jayhawk outside of the student union.

And here he is relaxing from shopping and practicing his basketball shot in one of the stores.

Dylan could actually stand in front of the statue of Phog Allen outside the Field House for his yearly pose.

And here is yet ANOTHER photo of Dylan with dad in the Field House (I might have taken hundreds of such pics… or at least it felt that way).

After spending time on the campus, we drove to Kansas City to see Uncle Andy’s house and eat at Jack Stack’s Barbecue where Dylan tasted a little brisket and pork; he wasn’t sold on it.

Then, it was time to head to Wichita, Kansas, to see Nana and Papa Smith and spend some more time with Uncle Andy. Dylan took a haul of presents away from Wichita! One of his favorites is the beautiful wooden rocking chair they had made for Dylan (which was technically a birthday gift, but he opened it on the 23rd so I am including it in the Christmas post). He thinks he is such a big boy because he can move back and forth and rock himself.

And, here are some of the other photos from our trip to Kansas.

Dylan is taking a load off in his new Mega Blocks wagon (again, technically a birthday present). He loves unstacking the blocks and putting them back in to the wagon. He hasn’t actually gotten the hang of building with them yet.

Dylan was a little astounded after opening all of his Santa presents and seeing his pile of toys. So much to play with!

More presents upstairs (non-Santa gifts)! Dylan got a Sock Monkey!

Here is Dylan giving Nana Smith some cuddles after all the presents were opened and everyone got dressed. He loved seeing everyone, opening presents and getting TONS of attention.

We had planned to leave Wichita on Christmas Eve after dinner to be home for Christmas Day. We intended Dylan to wake up in his own bed and have Christmas morning at home with Mom, Dad and Abbey, but the snow in Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas kept us in Kansas until early afternoon on Christmas Day. It turns out that it was okay because we got to spend more time with the Smith family and have a fun-filled Christmas!

More Christmas posts to come…  Christmas with Mom and Dad (and Papa and Grammie Stevens’s gift) and Christmas with Mamma and Pappa Stevens.

You can check out all of the Christmas photos (at least the ones I have posted so far) at Dylan’s Flickr page if you are interested.

I hope all of you had as wonderful a Christmas as we did! We are grateful to have you all in our lives.