Merry Christmas!!

What a wonderful holiday!! We are reminded at this time of year how much our cup truley runneth over. It was a very busy couple of weeks starting with the Aloha welcome at the airport for Cyndi which was Dec 20th and finally culminating with a birthday party for Mom and Dad (their 60th) on January 3rd. It was pretty much non-stop fun in between. Enjoy all the pics - we sure did!!

Since we had several places to go over the holiday this was Christmas morning for our kids. Ben was thrilled with his gifts. The Diego Rescue Pack was the big hit of the day. Over the month leading up to Christmas neither of the kids really had any ideas for "Santa" On our "Christmas Eve" during the day he mentions how he can't wait to get his Rescue Pack from Santa. Chad and I both asked again thinking it was a fluke - No! At 3pm on Christmas Eve Santa did not have a Rescue Pack in his sack. Thankfully our local Wal-Mart did so come Christmas morning Ben was thrilled and Santa was a hero! Macy was on a night gown kick so she loved her Dora gown. She is so easy to please! I really can't offer any commen on her outfit with the doll house. She disappeared for a while after we opened gifts and came down in that outfit. She is really big on changing her clothes lately and does NOT want to match! On top of that I'm not sure what's going on with her hands - she didn't need to use the bathroom - I guess it was just a good place to put them. I imagine some day she will be livid that I shared this picture with anyone!

Christmas with the Lawsons. The cousins had a great time together. The girls and I are wearing our new sweatshirts from Dad. The picture of Mom and Dad celebrating 60th birthdays - what a cute couple!Check out Aunt Cyndi and Sophie - what a cute couple!

Christmas with the Whites. We had great fun playing games and watching the The CeCe and Macy show. CeCe had songs prepared and taught them to Macy - thankfully, CeCe got a microphone for Christmas so they could really perform! Unfortunatley, after most of these pictures were taken half of the family came down with a yucky flu. Seems like that happens more often than not - one of these days we'll just give each other hand sanitizer!!

Getting ready for Santa

The weeks leading up to Christmas are some of my favorites. I love putting up decorations, baking goodies, singing Christmas songs the whole works! Some of these things are catching on with the kids now. Gratned, they celebrate in their own unique ways.

I tried to make this larger so you could see how Macy wanted to decorate the house. I was working on the tree singing along to Celine Dion (yah, that's right) and looked up and there was Macy going to town. She worked on this for a good hour. She was having so much fun I just let her go. I'm thrilled I will have a decorating partner in years to come!

We spent a day baking and decorating cookies with Becky, Natalie and Sophia. The kids again, have their own way of doing things which is not exactly the way Becky and I would decorate, but everybody had a great time!

Snow Day

I love the first few snows of the winter, especially if it stays warm enough that you can stand to be outside (preferrably 30 degrees +).  We have a great hill in the backyard that we all love to sled down. I also think the kids like to play outside because they know they get hot chocolate with lots of marshmellow cream once we get back inside!

It was so pretty outside. I love the way the trees look in the snow - at least at first!

Macy was evidently dehydrated since she kept eating the snow.

Ben took a little snow in the face on this one. As I got down to him he was kind of crying/whining because he was cold and had snow in his face and was stuck in his sled. When he looked up and saw the camera in my hand he immediately said, "cheese". I cracked up!!

Check out Chad's face in this picture. He looks diabolical. Ben's laughing - he doesn't know what's coming!

Mommy and Macy Day

I got to spend the day before Thanksgiving in Macy's pre-school class. It was a lot of fun to see what Macy does in class and meet more of her friends and teachers. They had special games and treats for us to do. It was a really fun day!

These cookies could put anybody in a diabetic coma!!

The picture below shows Macy making her Turkey. The kids put their whole hands in paint to make the feathers - it was cute....and messy!!

Happy Birthday Macy!

Our Macy turned five years old on November 19th!! Unbelieveable!! Since her birthday falls right before Thanksgiving she does get a little shortchanged on the birthday celebration. We usually just wait and celebrate with our families when we're with them for the Thanksgiving holiday. We had a party for her with the four of us where she got our presents and her favorite dinner (pizza) eaten picnic style in front of her favorite movie. We all ate together on the floor and that seemed to be her favorite part of the night! She got her first cool Barbies from the Trolingers and Guerreros and we got her the Disney Princess Castle - it was a magical night!

We also took the kids for a night to Chuck E Cheese. One of the many sacrifices parents make for their children, we endure a night of total chaos so the kids can "be a kid".  Meemaw and Papa joined us which shows just how crazy they are about their grandkids!

I don't remembe what she opened here but she was excited!!

While we were at the White Thanksgiving we celebrate Macy, Ben and their cousin CeCe's birthday (she's two days older than Macy). They all get along so well together and had fun sharing their birthday!

It doesn't seem possible that five years have passed. I would have sworn when Macy was born that she was the sweetest thing ever but she has continued to surprise me and get sweeter every year! We are very blessed to be her parents.