Christmas with Nana & Papa D

My boys were SO excited when we arrived at Aunt Janai's house the evening of Dec. 26th. Our oldest especially, because when Daddy had to take little brother to the doctor that morning before we left town, he was afraid we weren't going to be able to go! Poor thing - we've had to cancel the same trip due to LJ getting sick after Henley was born so I couldn't blame him for worrying! Luckily, the doctor was comfortable with LJ making the trip, and after getting our prescriptions filled, we hit the road.

The best picture I took of the boys. Not terrible considering three of them are only 2 years old!

This guy was in his baby cousin's face most of the time we were there. Can't blame him, it sure is a cute face!!! She didn't seem to mind. He made her smile a lot.

A sweet picture of Miss Henley's pretty face.

J gets the present he has been waiting for all night - a REAL Dallas Cowboys football jersey. Can you tell he likes football???

So, this is the last picture we took in Midland, I am ashamed to admit. My sweet sister-in-law took some super cute pictures, thank goodness! As my hubby was snapping this picture, I could literally feel myself getting sick (you know the feeling, throat on fire, can barely swallow, head pounding, getting flushed...ugh). When we got back to the hotel, I took some meds, went to bed, and slept for maybe an hour. Fever, sinus pain, and misery were waiting for me as I got out of bed, and cut our trip short. I'm sure I didn't make any sense that day before we left for home, but at least we spent a few more hours together so our boys could play some more. They have so much fun playing together!

Christmas with the Ags

It has become a tradition to spend Christmas evening with our dear friends, the Birds. What a blessing this family has been to us. Our kids love each other. I mean, really love and care about each other. Even though their oldest princess and our youngest prince are 7 years apart in age, they all get along so well and I know it's because they understand how much their parents care about each other.

This year, because of the fantastic season in football by our alma mater, we choose our theme for Christmas dinner to be the Aggie bowl game. (It also made it easy on us adults as far as meal planning goes!) After visiting a few foreign locations in years past, we decided to keep it close to home this year. And just relax and enjoy the good friends that God has blessed us with. 

Christmas morning

 My little guys did not wake us up very early this year. But, as soon as they were awake and realized it was Christmas morning, downstairs we went!

 Maroon Aggie Football pants! Just what he wanted!

 Santa brought LJ the coolest pack of Piston Cup cars. I love this picture. I can still hear him screaming, "CARS!" as he realized what it is.

 Our little man had the unwrapping gifts thing mastered by this point. His third and final present from Santa - a BUZZ! This kid was in heaven!

 We forgot to do stockings first, hence why Buzz is in this picture.

The best gift that his dad and mom gave him - costumes! Spiderman and Iron Man. (HINT: shop the after Halloween sales. I promise it will be the least expensive present you buy!) LJ got Superman, but at his age, is not quite as big of a fan of dressing up as his big brother is.

 I found a SkippyJon Jones puppet at ACA for J. We've been reading the Skippyjon books ever since Ghee bought him his first one when we was 2 or 3. They are awesome. Very imaginative and encourage readers to use different voices.

 Talking to Mack. :) Don't know if you can see, but he has snot dripping out as he is talking. We have SOOOO many pictures like this from the few days before and after Christmas. Little guy was sick and not until the morning after Christmas would we know he had a double ear infection and needed his inhaler!

Who do you think was most excited that J got this present??? I should've bought my hubby a matching one!

Christmas with Ghee & Papa

We started our family Christmas celebrations in mommy's hometown. The boys and I went down ahead of Dad - he had to work a couple more days before taking off. We enjoyed spending time with Ghee, Papa and Grandma before everyone else came in. And I decorated my 3rd and 4th trees of the year! I'm getting pretty fast, and I work cheap. ;)

 After Tina, David and Daddy arrived, it was time for Christmas. Ghee sent a note to Santa to let him know that her house would be a good place for a "practice run" and the kids were excited to find that SANTA had left some presents the morning of Christmas Eve. WOW! The youngest grandchild just wanted to OPEN PRESENTS PEOPLE!!! And eat the Oreos Santa left in his stocking.

 My dad did good this year! Check out what he bought for Ghee!

 After our fun morning, we headed over to Grandma's for our traditional Christmas Eve gathering. The kids immediately took off the shoes and started running around like crazy people.

 One still moment...very, very rare.

 THIS sums up our crew! L not wanting his picture taken and rest of the monkeys acting silly.

 Finally, cousin Austin got our little man to smile. My boys love seeing their older cousins.

 I am so happy my photo touch up worked on this picture. It started out super dark and kind of a funky color. Yay for modern technology and a good picture of my family!

 Is it time yet?

 The escape. L tries to make off with cousin Ty's Evil Dr. Porkchop ship. You would have though the Rex would be enough to make him happy. Good thing I found the same ship on after-Christmas clearance for our L. Because he needed another toy.

These two boys are pretty inseparable when we're all together and I caught them showing Grandma some of their goods. Sweet picture.

And this is as good as it gets this year! lol Maybe one of the other cameras caught a better one. My streak is broken. Good thing the memories from taking this picture will still be there every time I look at it.

We are so blessed to have such amazing family. The eight children above know and love each other due to the foundation built by our Grandma and Popi, and now, continued by Grandma. These kids are her light and I know we all wish Popi was here to see them. How he would have loved them.

Main Street Bethlehem

We traveled back in time earlier in December to Bethlehem. No, not the real one, but WOW! I have been hearing amazing things about this event for a few years, and we finally made time to get there this year. Caravaning with the Bird's and Ferguson's, we had a yummy dinner, bundled up and headed over for a glimpse of what it might have been like when our Saviour was born.

 All of our kids were excited, as were we! J couldn't wait to see Baby Jesus, and he talked about it all weekend before we went. (And to see WAY better pictures of our kids and even the grown ups from that night, go to our best bud's blog. My little point & shoot didn't do a great job as you will soon see!)

L was bundled up and ready to go as we anxiously waited in line to get in. I think our total wait was just under an hour, but thanks to good friends and a line that kept moving, it felt much faster than that!

 J and EK immediately found where to go to warm up as we entered the gates of Bethlehem. The church that puts this on every year pulls out all the stops - characters in costume and "in character" every which way you turn, live animals, real food that would have been eaten at the time, guards taking people to prison. It was all there.

We all enjoyed tasting the fresh, warm bread that was being baked.

 Inside a house, watching a family interact.

The kids all gathered around this man inside the synagogue. I was in the back so it was difficult to hear what he was saying, but J climbed right up beside him to get a better view (that's him in the black coat and cap!)

The outside of the basket weaving building. All of the buildings had similar signs and they all looked so REAL. I cannot imagine how long it takes the church members to set this all up.

 Weaving a basket.

 L loved this camel. He touched and petted it and didn't want to leave. J wanted no part!

 The boys and I knelt down to look at Mary, Joseph and Baby Jesus. J didn't want to leave, he just wanted to sit and stare at them. It was so exciting for him, and if he could have, he would have gone right up to them and sat down. Probably why they have it blocked off! I think it was inspiring and touching for all of us, and I hope, the start of a new family tradition!!!

Going to the North Pole!

We kicked off the holiday season with a ride on the North Pole Flyer, also referred to as the Polar Express. The depot is right here in our sweet little town, about 5 minutes from our house. Thank you again to Ghee and Papa for the tickets and for coming with us! The boys had so much fun and L fell in love with trains BIG TIME after this trip!

 So, so glad my mom took these two pictures. I think they are the ONLY one's we got of the four of us this holiday season. Taking family pictures is not easy at the moment, thanks to a squirming, but precious, two year old!

Love J holding his hot chocolate in his little robe!

LET US IN!!! Yes, we were first in line.

 Brothers having fun and adding a little chaos to our train car.

 Group hug!

 Yes! A picture of LJ smiling. He smiles alot...just not for the camera.

 This was our "home" for the trip. It was divided in half by that wall you see in the back, and our six seats were just by that wall (you can see dad back there). Pretty good location with two loud boys.

 The candy car. And my husband. :)

 Ghee and Jacob, with Doritos all over his mouth.

 Ghee bought the boys the same story they read to us on the train. It's a sweet story and J wanted me to read it again to him that night.



Six Years Old!!!!

Our oldest son was extremely blessed this year. He had not one, not two, but THREE birthday celebrations. When your birthday just happens to be six days before Christmas, it's bound to happen. Your Mom and Dad want to make sure you get a completely separate celebration all about YOU, so they plan a party a couple of weeks before your actual birthday. Due to the fact that it was a weekday party, some of our family can't be there, so they celebrate with you a week before that. THEN, because you are only five, turning six, you don't understand why we aren't having a party on your ACTUAL birthday, so you get a special lunch and cake on that day.

He's totally worth it.

 Cake number #1 for our celebration with Papa D, Nana, Aunt Janai, Brody, Owen and Henley.

 I love this picture. This is pretty much how it goes with these kids. Three of them are two years old, so we can only do so much. At least all five of them are in the picture! And look at Owen on the right...totally cracked me up when I realized he was blowing from afar to help his big cousin out!

 J with THE present. A programmable, remote control Buzz from Nana & Papa D. This one stays out of his little brother's reach.

Cake #2 at the SoccerZone birthday party. This is the coolest indoor soccer field and it's less than 10 minutes from our house! We had a soccer/star wars birthday party.

He was able to invite ALL of his friends, including cousins, bff's and classmates. Of course, EK and Ty were right by his side!

The kids on the soccer field. They played games and ran all over the place for well over an hour. I know my kids were TIRED that night.

The honoree with THE other gift. A "real" football helmet from Papa & Ghee. Ghee has since gotten us A&M decals to put on either side so he is all set now.

My precious boy on his actual birthday holding up SIX fingers (no cake pictures here...I tried writing on it and well, it didn't turn out like my mom's. BUT, he loved it and that is all that mattered!) I don't know where the last six years have gone, but I do know that I love being this silly boy's mommy and I look forward every day to watching him grow and turn into the neat little person he is becoming. We love you JWM!!!!