Christmas 2009

We had a great Christmas this year. Each year it is more fun as the kids get older. We have tried to keep a tradition of doing santa at our house and if family wants to come over that is fine, but that is our time to celebrate at our house with our own little family. Things can get so busy with going from here to there that we try to keep it as simple as possible. This year my family came Christmas Eve and spent the night and we did Santa Christmas morning and ate lunch and did Christmas with my family and then went to Ryans families for the evening. The kids enjoyed every minute of it. We also do a tradition of the children getting 3 presents from Santa and usually one or two things from us. We say that Jesus REceived three gifts so that is what Santa brings to our house. It really keeps things in check......now if we can just keep our families from going over board! we need some neices and nephews to take up some of the slack!! I am sure when the kids are older those three things will get more expensive but right now it has really helped not to spend overboard either. We are thankful for the time we got to all spend together and are now enjoying watching the kids play with all the new toys.





Kyleigh wanted a zhu zhu hamster (which i had no idea was the number 1 selling toy this year until shortly before thanksgiving.....the story of how i ended up with two is a whole other blog post!), Kai-lan doll that talks, and a puppy that swims when you put it in the water. All of which i was thankfully able to find. Brayden is really too young to say what he wants, except like kyleigh, he wants everything that he sees on tv. So we kind of plant in his head what he wants santa to bring him !:) he got a rifle or as he would say "a big gun," a "weed weeter", and a big fire engine. Santa also brought the kids a new table for their play room.





Hope everyone enjoyed their Christmas this year!!






Kyleigh's preschool choir





Kyleigh and Makenna singing their duet of the second verse of Away in a Manger

Brayden and his "weed weeter"

Kyleigh's Zhu ZHu hamster....they are SO fun!!!

eating breakfast at their new table in the play room

Spider man helmet, knee pads, and elbow pads.....too cute!

Gee dad, are we that boring????

Trying to open that silly box that is taped shut...poor guy

My sister and brother in law

Grandma and PawPaw

Kyleigh and Aunt Sheila

The Bump

I have had a request for "the bump"....so here it is at 16 weeks!

The Polar Express

We had so much fun taking the kids on the Polar Express ride from Palestine to Rusk on the Texas State Railroad. We took Kyleigh 2 years ago but decided to go again this year so that Brayden could go too. We left Gilmer at 4pm and our departure time was 6:45.....to make a long tortuous travel story short....due to tyler traffic and GPS misguidance...we arrived as the train was pulling from the station at 6:45 on the dot. I ran into the station with both kids while Ryan went to park, in hopes for a miracle, and thankfully they switched our tickets to the 8:15pm ride.

The kids enjoyed singing Christmas carols, listening to the Polar Express story, drinking hot coa coa.....all in their pjs...on a train. The ride is about 30 minutes to Rusk....or should i say...the North Pole....Where there all beautiful lights lighting up the North Pole, and then Santa makes his appearance.....and then back to Palestine. If you haven't ever had a chance to do it is really fun for the kids!!






Wainting to board


Brayden cracks us up because his ears are so sensitive to sound and he is always putting his fingers in his ears to block out noises.....and the train whistle was no exception

drinking hot coa coa

listening to the Polar Express

Say Cheese with the train conductor!

Brayden was so funny when Santa boarded the train at the North pole, he was yelling as loud as he could....."SANTA!!!!"

Kyleigh's School Christmas Play

Kyleigh's Pre k Christmas program was just so cute. It amazed me at how each child remembered their lines just perfectly. They all did such a great job. Kyleigh as a gift and when she told me a few days ago that she was a gift in the play, she said, "can you tell me what a gift is anyways?" she didn't realize it was the same thing as a present. Gotta love it!

santa

We did it!!!

The Buckeyes, that is! Another 3A State Championship title!!! The guys played awesome saturday night and pulled out a victory over Abilene Wiley 46-23....it was a great game! Ryan feels so blessed to have been a part of two state titles just 7 years into his career. GO BUCKEYES!! WAY TO GO!!