The Last Christmas for the Year

After returning home on Wednesday we left town again on Friday evening after Cary got off work to celebrate Christmas with his side of the family. This picture is of his sister, Chiara and brother-in-law, Travis's children. The cousins, including our two girls, range in age from 6 years old to 21 months. They look a little wiped out in this picture due to playing hard, a little sleep deprivation, and having just taken professional photos a few hours earlier. I think they were a little tired of looking at the camera and smiling. Yes, you heard me right I said professional photos that morning. Somehow 7 adults and 5 children got up, ate breakfast, got dressed with the use of two bathrooms, and made it to the photographer's on time. I was pretty impressed with us. If only the photographer had not been running an hour late it would have been perfect. The pictures turned out good and all is well that ends well. I am so glad that all of the children smiled and were happy for the shoot.

After pictures we returned to Grandma's to eat lunch. This year we were joined by Cary's grandmother, her dog Whiskers, and Aunt Angie for all the Christmas fun. Since they live in the Panhandle this was a rare treat for us to be together with them. I was not sure what Campbell would think of Whiskers, but she adored him. When she was awake (which was a lot of the time) she was looking for Whiskers or giving us a moment by moment report on his where abouts. It was pretty funny. It was so nice to be able to visit with Grandma and Aunt Angie, I just wish we could have had a little more time to talk

Once we were done eating lunch we gathered around the tree to open presents. Campbell had the best time helping to deliver the gifts to everyone as Daddy handed them to her. Kaylee was happy to just sit back and watch all her gifts roll in. Campbell got the cutest dress up outfit which you will see in the next post, she had to immediately put it on over her clothes. She also loved her baby doll with crocheted blanket (from Great Grandma) and pajamas. I think her absolute favorite gift came from Aunt Landrea and it was a Barbie electronic purse, we have yet to leave home without it.

Kaylee loved everything that she received too. I think the two things she has played with the most are her Leapster Pet Pals game from Grandma and a poster size coloring sheet with crayons and markers from Aunt Angie. Since the Pet Pals game is a lot like Webkinz, she loves it! The girls had a great time playing with their cousins and their toys too.

After the children were all tucked into be Saturday night we played a fun game called Loaded Questions with Landrea, Chiara, Travis, Grandma, Whitney (a sweet friend of Landrea's from High School days), Cary, and me. The game gets really interesting when it is past you bedtime and you have half lost your mind. One warning though, this is a long game. We laughed until we almost cried. I do not know how anyone stayed asleep through it all but somehow they did. The next morning we went to church, enjoyed a quick lunch, and hit the road to make it back home for Cary's work party that night. If you made it this far then you survived all my Christmas posts:)

A future artist and a future make-up artist.

Santa Came!!

After the last Christmas Eve festivities it was time to get the girls ready for bed. Cary helped them pick out cookies and pour a glass of eggnog (evidently our Santa likes that) just for Santa. Then I helped Kaylee write a note to Santa telling him about what good girls she and Campbell had been. It was really cute! Next it was time for Daddy to read "Twas the Night Before Christmas" to the girls before bedtime. They both just sat there and listened, I do not know if it was out of exhaustion or if they were both really into the story. Neither girl put up a fight but went right to sleep in anticipation of the next morning.

On Christmas morning Kaylee actually slept until 8:00am!! Campbell had to be woken up to join in on the festivities so the first few pictures of her opening her stocking stuff she is sitting in my lap trying to wake up. It usually takes her about 15 minutes to full be awake and aware of things around her. Both girls were very excited about all the presents and the audience there to watch them.

Kaylee did not give Santa a very big list this year...well at least not a consistent one. The only things on her list repeatedly were the Hannah Montana doll that sings "Best of Both Worlds" and a glow in the dark Care Bear. These were the only things left that were not on a family list so Santa had to think of a few things he thought she would enjoy. I have to say that he did a great job with all the presents for Kaylee.

Two of her favorite gifts from Santa were the Disney Mix Stick (an MP3 Player basically) and a flying airplane. The airplane was requested out of the blue about two days before Christmas by Kaylee. She said that she wanted one so Daddy could fly his remote controlled helicopter and she could fly her remote controlled airplane with him as a special time together. If that wasn't the sweetest reason ever. Somehow Santa ended up bringing the plane. I am so glad he did because this face made it all worth it. Have you ever seen a more excited face? I think Kaylee was done opening gifts in about 30 minutes and was busy playing away while Campbell was still unwrapping.

Here is Campbell moving at her own pace. Just as the day before she wanted to open ever box and take the toys out to play with them before opening the next present. I think that the process took about an hour for her. She loved each think and was so excited they were hers. It was fun to watch her get the opening presents process down this year. I am sure that she will enjoy things even more next year when she understands the magic of Santa even more. She kept saying Santa's sleigh each time she saw any picture of Santa. A few of her favorite things were the Care Bear, baby Alive that wets only, and the Little People School bus.

Campbell playing with her School bus.

Kaylee trying to figure out what to play with next out of her loot.

Christmas morning went great! There are a few pictures on my list to make sure we take next year like one of our whole family together and one of the girls under the tree Christmas morning before opening their presents. Maybe I will get a better camera this year so that we can take more pictures faster. Yes, that is a hint to my sweet Husband:) The present opening was followed by a delicious breakfast.

This is hands down my favorite picture of our girls from Christmas. It just shows their love for each other after all is said and done at the end of the day.

Christmas Eve Part Two

After taking our annual girls trip to look at Christmas lights we came back home to warm up and open presents from my parents as well as Papaw, my Uncle Don, Aunt Trudy, and cousin Duncan. This picture is of the girls trying as hard as they can to occupy themselves before the unwrapping begins. Kaylee had already read the labels on her packages and could not wait to get started. Campbell just wanted to open any of them that she could get her hands on. I have to admit I was excited to see their faces opening all the presents too.

Here are a few of the cameras pointed and ready for the excitement of it all! I think Dad is resting for another moment before capturing all the memories.

Here the girls are getting started with their first presents.

Kaylee was excited about each gift but quick to move on to the next since she has had many years of practice. The funniest part was when she started opening her American Girl doll clothes for a doll named Emily. She looked at Nana and said these are Emily's clothes....I have Molly. It did not even cross her mind for a second that one of the packages under the tree might be Emily since she has been asking for her since last Christmas so Molly could be with her best friend. My Mom offered to send the clothes back but Kaylee told her she would just save them for Emily when she finally got her one day. about 30 minutes later she opened the box with Emily inside. I do not think her smile could have been any bigger. A few of her favorite things under the tree that I can remember were Emily, AG clothes for Molly & Emily, High School Musical 2, Ratatouille Leapster game, Hallmark snow globe ornament, High School Musical sheets, Barbie phone, and a china doll.

Campbell understood the process of opening the presents this year, however she wanted to stop and play with each toy. I think at one point she had Papa, Mommy, and Daddy all opening different boxes to try to get her toys out so she could play with them. Gotta love those toys being locked up like Fort Knox=) Her face would light up each time she got to the actual present. At one point she kept telling me to open them because she was too busy playing. A few of her favorite things that I remember were a china doll, Leapster Learning letter activity set, Barbie phone and cash register, Little People airplane, charm, Bitty baby clothes and bouncy seat, and Dora radio.

Here are a few of my favorite pictures from Our Family Christmas.

My parents with the girls. All coordinated in their matching pajamas picked out by Papa.

My Mom always goes the extra mile to make Christmas special for all of us. From the time we arrived until Christmas Eve the girls had a present to open each day under the tree in their room. All of our favorite foods were fixed as well as a steaming pot of cider at any given moment. I love my parents for all the many ways they show their love for us and the examples they are to us each day. Thank you both for the gifts, memories, and making each moment special.

Kaylee snuggling with Cousin Duncan, he is one of her favorite people in the world!

Papa and Kaylee just relaxing together.

Campbell playing with her favorite playmate Great PaPaw. I love how he is always so willing to play whatever she wants whenever she wants. They have a very special relationship. Thank you PaPaw for being such a wonderful example to all of us of a Godly man. You are such a treasure to our family.

Campbell with Great Aunt Trudy. I do not know who is laughing harder. I think they like each other a little=) Great Aunt Trudy is willing to play any game or just sit and give her undivided attention at any moment.

My Uncle Don, Aunt Trudy, Cousin Duncan, and PaPaw are very special to us. My Aunt, Uncle, and Cousin travel each year to be with us over Christmas. It is a special time for all of us. Thank you for spoiling our girls and showering us all with love.

Christmas Eve Part One

Well another round of Christmas started around dinner time on Christmas Eve. My grandmother was able to come a spend a few hours with us and enjoy the girls. I thought this picture was sweet of us minus the very unflattering angle. My Mom fixed a delicious spread of snack type foods which could have fed a small army for us to enjoy. The girls were so excited to see GG and open a few presents. Kaylee loved her new Leapster game so much that she started playing it right away. As you can see from the bottom picture in this post Campbell was very pleased with her new Veggie Tales movie. Most of all it was just good to have a little time to slow down and visit with each other.

Cookie Fun!!

On Friday I decided that we would all frost Christmas cookies that night as a family activity to take to my parents house and to leave for Santa. I have to say it went much better than I expected. Kaylee loved getting to pick from all the frosting colors and sprinkles. She had her cookies done faster than me. Campbell did a great job too with a little help from Daddy. Her favorite part was adding the toppings to the frosting. Let's just say that she was very generous with all the topping choices. It was a fun activity for us and I cannot wait to see how our cookie making progresses over the years.

A Kindergarten Christmas Party

This is the face of a sweet little girl whose Mom just showed up for her class Christmas Party. I definitely want to save this picture to show her one day when she is begging me not to come to the party due to embarrassment. For now I am going to enjoy every moment. The Room Moms worked so hard on this party and I thought it was a huge success. The children made Gingerbread ornaments with their photo on the head. There were cute Christmas cards with their hand print on them that made a reindeer. They even played a few games and heard some Christmas stories. Lets not forget all of the food that they brought home from the party. It was just as I remembered from my years of teaching, non-stop action. All of the children seemed to be having a wonderful time and were so excited when their parents entered the room. I just love times like these when I can just focus on Kaylee and see her with all of her friends. She is really in a sweet class this year. I am so thankful that God is so good to place her in just the right environment each day.

Here are some of her favorite "boy friends" in her class. They were all waiting patiently for the book exchange so I decided to snap a quick picture.

This of course is her wonderful teacher Mrs. O. She is such an amazing person and we are blessed by her daily.

Living Nativity

On Wednesday we went to the annual live Nativity at our church. Kaylee looks forward to this each year. Campbell of course had no memory of this since she was only one last year but she was very excited about animals being at church. The first picture is of an Angel, Joseph, Mary, and baby Jesus. There were more people in the Nativity but some were tending to the sheep and goats.

Much to our surprise Campbell was the brave one feeding all the animals whether they were hungry or not and Kaylee was just happy to stand back and observe for a little while. Eventually Kaylee got in on the action too and even rode the donkey. Campbell wanted nothing to do with the donkey but was happy to pat baby Jesus.

After all the animal fun we headed inside to watch a puppet show they put on for the children about the birth of Jesus. There were also refreshments. Kaylee enjoyed the hot chocolate and Campbell ate her weight in pigs in a blanket. All in all I would call the night a success. The girls talked about all the activities and the story of Jesus the whole way home. It is so nice to see them so excited about Jesus.

A Little Early Christmas

The other night we celebrated our family Christmas a little early. For several years now we go ahead and open gifts from the girls to us, us to the girls, and the girls to each other. We first decided to surprise the Kaylee and Campbell with dinner at one of their favorite places which is Cracker Barrel. I cannot blame them because they do have the best pancakes. We were all very excited to be celebrating together and enjoyed a very good meal. Next on the agenda was a drive around town to look at Christmas lights. It has been so much fun this year to see the excitement on both girls faces about the Christmas season. Comments from the back seat included..." Awesome!, Cool!, I see lights out Campbell's window, I see lights out Kaylee's window, look at lights, I see Santa!, I see more Snowman! Choo Choo train right there!" and those were just from Campbell. Kaylee's comments included..."Look that Snowman looks like the real Frosty! That house has the same snow globes on both sides. I love all the beautiful lights. Why would some people not put lights up because they look so pretty? I love Christmas time. This is great family time! Wow! Those are a lot of lights...that must have taken a long time". After driving around for about an hour it was time to head home to open gifts. Campbell has really gotten into the opening of gifts this year. Both of our girls actually like some of the same things this year too which would include Littlest Pet Shop stuff and stuffed puppies. Kaylee's stuffed puppy was of course a Webkinz and Campbell's included a puppy in a kennel with pet doctor stuff. Those were the gifts that the girls picked for each other and I thought they did a pretty good job. I also found a Day by Day easy read Bible for Kaylee which she loved and Campbell got a little hard back Bible with various Bible stories in it. The most important story to her was about Noah because that is her favorite one right now.

Here is Campbell doing one of her other favorite things which is combing Mommy's hair with the brush she got for her stuffed puppy. We had a really special time together and the girl really got into giving Daddy and Mommy their gifts too.

Thank you Lord for times like these when we can just slow down for a minute and enjoy the memories we are making together. I love these precious faces and the spirits that are behind them.

Kaylee's Christmas Program

On Friday we attended our first Kindergarten Program at Kaylee's school. This picture shows only half of the kindergarten classes because there are so many students this year they broke the program up and had different classes on different days. Kaylee was sure that she would have "stage fright" but I am happy to say that she sang her heart out. It was just precious to be able to watch all the children sing songs about the holiday season. Is there anything sweeter than a child's voice? I think not. They even sang one song in German and one in Spanish. What patience her music teacher must have to take on such a task. All the children were very well behaved and seemed to really be enjoying themselves.

I think you can tell from the picture that my sweet girl had a great time. She is even talking about the next program already.

The North Pole Express

Last weekend we made the trip to Fort Worth to celebrate Kaylee's Birthday with Cary's Mom (Grandma)and sister (Rae-Rae) as well as to attend a wedding. Since we were making the trip around Christmas we decided to go ride the North Pole Express in Grapevine. It sounded really neat and I was sure that the girls would enjoy it. I did make one mistake by telling Campbell before we left Abilene that we were going to ride the train. The whole trip she talked about the train. I did put the Polar Express movie in the DVD player to pass the time but that did not keep her from talking about riding the train every few minutes. Once we arrived the girls were so excited to be in their pajamas and ready to board the train. Lucky for us there were different activities for the girls to participate in such as making an ornament, seeing Santa, looking at different Christmas decorations, and eating a yummy carnival type dinner. Speaking of Santa both girls did so well sitting on Santa's lap this year. I was not sure about Campbell at first but she perked up and did great. Of course, I cannot post the picture because my scanner is not working so you will all have to take my word on the fact that it turned out really cute.

Before boarding the train there was a mini concert by an up and coming music artist. The girls really enjoyed the Christmas songs but did not want to join the other children on stage for a sing-a-long session.They were more than happy to just sit in their seats with the rest of us and sing there. When it was time to get on the train I thought both of the girls were going to explode with joy and excitement. I had no idea what to expect but was pleasantly surprised by the train ride. Each train car was decorated in different Christmas decor and there were a few people dressed up who sang songs from the Polar Express movie and danced in the aisle. Of course, before we started moving the conductor came around and stamped all the tickets and said a friendly word or two to the girls. Campbell had a huge smile on her face and I think Kaylee actually stopped being shy for a moment to say "hello" to him. Once all the tickets were stamped the train started to move. This is where the entertainment started. They asked the adults to stand up and dance in the aisle. Luckily for me Campbell did not want me to move but she was more than entertained by her Daddy's and Grandma's moves. I have to say we all got some good laughs in. Then there was a singing contest between the men and women. I think it ended up being a tie. Finally the big moment arrived when Santa came to our train car and shook all the children's hands and gave them a hug if they wanted. Both of our girls were thrilled to see him. After he left Campbell kept asking where he went for at least 5 minutes. After that the train came to a stop and we all got off. I am so glad that the girls got to enjoy the train and am sure they will remember it for a long time. I know that I will!