Big Kids Now

Konner and Kassidy are now officially in their OWN beds. Since they have been born until three nights ago they have always slept together in their crib. But they are babies no more!! (Insert small sniffle here.) Konman now sleeps on the bottom bunk in the boys' room (no longer just Kyler's room!) with Kyler moving to the top bunk and Kass has her own toddler bed all to herself. Next project is to girlify (I know it's not a word) the babies' room into Kassidy's room - I've got some ideas but it is still in the works. Now they just need to learn to stay in their new beds - I know one thing at a time!

Christmas, Christmas and More Christmas

Every Christmas, it is the same for us. Lots of family time. Things is, there is a lot of family to spend time with. Here's how we did it this year. We woke up to Santa's gifts at home. Grammy and Granddaddy joined us for this part to see how the kids reacted to what Santa brought them. (Funny story...at 12:03 Christmas morning Kyler burst into our bedroom exclaiming that Santa had come and the stockings were FULL! Good thing "Santa" had gone to bed a little earlier. I put him back to bed and he was just as excited when we all woke up at 7.)Then it was over to Grandma and Grandpa's for breakfast and more presents. Later in the afternoon we visited with Great-Grandma and Great-Grandpa and had some snacks back at Grandma and Grandpa's.Last stop was Grammy and Grandaddy's to meet up with the rest of the family for dinner of, our now, traditional tamales. After dinner it was more, more, more presents! Kyler was just waiting and waiting all day to open those guys. My kids were very happy, and me too, with all the clothes they got. We played a new game, Bananagrams, that G-mama got and filled our bellies all up with yummy desserts.

Another busy Christmas day. It is tiring but totally worth it when you think about all the family we have so close by to love and love on us!

Ready for Santa

Christmas jammies on...check.
Cookies and milk out for Santa (minus two the babies ate!)...check.
Watching Elf...check.
Santa we are ready for you!!!

Christmas Eve at Gramma's

Today we got to hang out at Gramma's house. We opened presents (man my kids are loved). We ate yummy food (good thing calories don't exist during the holidays). We played new games (fun and clever). We had fun family time (always the best gift).

Steal! Steal!!

After G-mama's Christmas on Saturday we had another party to go to. For years we have been getting together with everyone from church to have an ornament exchange party. Well it's not really an exchange but more of an eating and stealing party. We do the game where when it is your turn you can either steal someone else's ornament (up to two times) or open up a new one for yourself. It always turns out to be a super fun time and this year was no exception!

Play Time

Since G-mam's Christmas is so early we actually have some time to enjoy the gifts we received. In the past two day the kids have had two tea parties. Kyler loves to pour the tea with the giant holder of the set, Konner is extremely adept at slurping his tea and Kassidy pretty much has the tea thing down - tea, cookies, etc. Kyler and I also got to play a few rounds of his new Disney Rumikub game and Connect Four. Fun. I like not having to go to work.

G-mama's Christmas

Yesterday morning was G-mama's Christmas. As is tradition we get together on a Saturday before Christmas to celebrate with this part of the family. G-mama makes a breakfast of pig-in-the-blanket and eggs for ALL of us (there are 25 of us right now) and then the kids get to open some presents. This year we all went together to get G-mama a digital frame preloaded with about 270 pictures from everyone in the family (that was quite an organizational task!). We play games, reminisce, and have a fun day. Another year of memories!

Visiting Santa

Visiting Santa should be fun right? Well let's just say we got through it this year. Kyler did eventually tell Santa what he hoped for (only after having to stand in line twice because the first time didn't go so smoothly). I never could get the kids to all smile at once, or even make a pleasant face for that matter. Here's the best picture of the three I got. All I know is Santa is one patient guy who have one tought job. Thanks Santa!

4th Annual Christmas Tea

The first Saturday in December I like to hold a Chirstmas Tea for my family, both actual and from church. This year my inspiration came from the parable of the talents. The master in the parable gave each of his servants money (talents) to work with according to their abilities. We always stress that no matter what your ability is, you are to do it to the fullest. I also wanted to point out that each servant got something, there wasn't a servant who couldn't do anything. To help us realize what we were good at, we had an assignment (there is always and assignment at my teas!). We wrote a short note to each and every other person in the room letting them know what we thought they were good at. Then we all had to share two of the notes - one that we knew already and one that surprised us. They notes were very heartfelt and heartwarming, and some of us even shed a few tears (another must at my teas!). It was a lovely way to start out the day and the holiday season. Thank you ladies for continuing to uplift and inspire me!