Merry Christmas!! Love, Us.

Christmas Eve.

We spent Christmas Eve day cleaning the house, and organizing/cleaning all of the kids toys, to get ready for the new toys that Santa would soon bring.

Our Christmas Eve was magical, we had a scrumptious ham dinner, and my first try at 24 hour fruit salad. YUM!

Then we made and decorated Christmas cookies, and prepared some special ones just for Santa.

We did baths, and then the kids got to open one present, which was brand new Christmas "hot jammies". They were thrilled, but they wanted to be sure that the presents they opened in the morning would be toys. (I think they were worried it would be all clothes!)

Santa came, and brought lots of presents!! Here is the tree before Cam and I put our presents to each other under it (I forgot to take a picture after!)

Members!!

We are officially members at our little Discovery Center. The first time we went, I thought it was cool and everything, but I didn't buy a pass. Since then I have realized that there is not much else to do with the kids here (especially in the winter, when it is too cold for parks & pool) So, about a month ago we got a membership. We have really been enjoying it!!

Especially this little Indians area.

the kids sit there and make me some delish food over the fire.

we ride horses

and some cute Christmas trees and reindeers, which were Sissy's favorite.


- Posted from my iPhone

i need a silent night.

One of my very fav non traditional Christmas Songs (other than Nsync Christmas, obviously ;) ) is a song by Amy Grant. It's lyrics say, "I've made this same mistake before, to many malls, to many stores..." and then the chorus sings "i need a silent night, a holy night"

I love that song. I bought it on iTunes a year or two ago, and it gets me every time I hear it. There is so much shopping, and craziness, and sometimes I just feel like I need a silent night. Fortunately I got many, with my sweet hubs. It has been a wonderful Christmas season... despite the craziness, and just having kids in general :)

This is just one of those crazy moments... too many malls, too many stores. I had bribed them with an ice cream cone, if they could make it through it all. She made it, to the ice cream cone, but not much further, she totally crashed with cone in hand :(

- Posted from my iPhone

buddies.

This is at another bday party for Jade's cute little friend, Isabella. It was at Jumping Party again, and they had so much fun!

I LOVE watching him grow and learn how to play and make friends. This is one of Jade's buddies at school, Marshall.

- Posted from my iPhone

gingerbread house 2010.

special time with Jaden.

After baths, and books, and tucking in, and singing, and such, Sissy usually falls asleep pretty quick. Jade is usually up at least 1 or 2 hours after her. Many nights he suckers Cam into letting him come out of his room and hang with us.

Although I complain many times, because at that point of the night I am ready for a break from the kids... I actually really like that special time with Jade. He is waaaaay more talkative, and willing to answer questions about school, and his day and such. So it's actually a really special time.

The night after his pageant he was really chatty and singing songs for us and everything... so we got a little video of it!

Jaden's Christmas Pageant!

All the 4 year old classes at Jade's school put together a Christmas Pageant for the families to come watch! We practiced Jade's part over and over to make sure he would get it right!

Cam, Sissy & I showed up to cheer him on, and he was SO excited when he saw us all sitting in the audience. He did really great! Here is a little video clip of the songs, and then just of his little part! Enjoy!

after the program there was a special Christmas Party!

Good job Jadey-bug!! We love you!!!!

utah fun part 3 {live nativity}

our second last night in Utah we had planned to attend a live nativity.

jade came down with a high fever, and was feeling really crummy, so we decided to stay home. Sissy decided to go with Grandma & Grandpa to see the Nativity. They said it was awesome, and Sissy still brings it up ALL the time. It was special to her to have that alone time, and I'm glad she got it!

utah fun part 2 {discovery gateway}

we had to keep ourselves busy with lots of fun indoor activities because it was FRIGID cold the whole time we were there.

-jumping party (all to ourselves)

-made cookies

-going to uncle Tanner's basketball game

-playing (trashing) at grandma's house with all of her fun toys

and my favorite:

discovery gateway

this place was awesome with a capital "A"

they had tons and tons of hands on activities for the kids...

and the bigger kids too ;)

an entire grocery store, complete with checkout stands, shopping carts, a bakery, and all different kinds of food. this was for sure the kids fav part

a huge water discovery center

and a real helicopter!!

a place to practice up on our theater skills

and of course since we were down at gateway anyway, we snuck in a little shopping :)

utah fun part 1

we took a trip up to Utah for Thanksgiving to spend some time with my parents & siblings. cam was able to come for the first couple days (including thanksgiving day), and then had to head back for work. somehow the first couple days we didn't manage to take any pictures!!

a few days into the trip:

we went sledding with kenz

lots of cuddles with the puppies!

(notice her hanging on tightly to sadie's collar, she tried to get away for about 15 minutes then finally gave in to the cuddle... as soon as sissy released her collar though, she was outta there!)

and cuddles with mamma for jaden :)

caley's birthday party.

one of jade's very bestest girlfriends at school had her birthday party the day before we left to go to Utah. We were so excited that we weren't going to miss it!

We love jumping party & toy story! :)

Thanksgiving Feasts!!

the kids both had special thanksgiving feasts at school the week before thanksgiving.

jade's was a special Grandparents feast

we were sad to be the only ones without Grandparents there, but I think he enjoyed having me there just the same! :)

sissy's class just had a feast for the families, it was so cute to watch her in her class with her cute teachers.

mel's baby shower.

i had some shoots in waco (mid november) and got the chance to meet up with some of my favorite girls. mel is having her new baby girl next month, and so we threw a little mini shower for her. we ate, talked, laughed, video chatted with Em, and made bows.

it was a great night.

our texas thanksgiving day.

we were actually in Utah for Thanksgiving week, but the week before we did a little celebration of our own... basically just an excuse for cam to make his delectable turkey!! as always the kids had fun helping daddy make it!

pumpkin bread & my babes.

the kids love baking, or helping in any way in the kitchen. we made a batch of pumpkin bread (sometime before Thanksgiving) and they were my big big helpers! i love this time with them. every day seems so exhausting, and it feels like everything i can do to keep my patience, and honestly, i don't always do the best job. but i am so grateful for my babes.

i love them more than words can express.

first snow of the year.

i wish i could say these pictures were from just yesterday... but no...

we are still in Texas, just a WAAAAY different Texas than we have grown to love... the cold part of Texas :(

so, yes these pictures were taken all the way back during the second week of November

despite the frigid cold weather, the kids were SOOOO excited and so we toughed it out and headed out into the snow to build a snowman.

it was really, really, really cold, so we built REALLY fast.

he still turned out pretty cute though :)