Christmas Night

Elye refused to be in the picture so we used Lois the doll as a stand in.

Another snow globe for her collection.

We spent Christmas night with the Westbrooks and Snoddys. My parents also came out for dinner. Reesi was surprisingly all better. Kids are so resilient. Reesi recited Luke 2, we sang Christmas carols, and then we were ready for presents. By this point, Elye has really gotten into opening presents. She had to help everyone open their presents. Reesi documented the whole night by taking videos on her iPad. It was a great way to end Christmas.

Christmas!

Christmas Eve night is one of my favorite nights. As soon as we got home from Mimi and Papoo's Reesi got right to work. Before I knew what was going on she had the reindeer food ready, Santa's plate of cookies out, Santa's milk (with ice to keep it cold), and her jammies inside out in hopes for a white Christmas. She was READY!

We set her clock and told her she couldn't get out of bed before 7:00. Promptly at 7:00 she's standing by my bed ready to open presents! We woke Elye up and were ready. She opened her stocking and then said, "My belly doesn't feel good." That was the start of it. She opened one more present and then left the rest under the tree to go lay in bed. Then she started throwing up. What a let down! We were all excited for Christmas morning and she couldn't even open her presents. Elye opened her presents while I was upstairs taking care of Reesi. Finally at about 11:00 she was better and opened the rest of her presents with Elye's help.

We had to move Christmas lunch from our house to Christmas dinner at Meemaw's house. Since we never eat at our house around Christmas we had nothing to eat for lunch so we got Hardee's, one of the only places open. It wasn't the best Christmas morning, but it did remind me how thankful I am for healthy children. Nothing is fun when your kid is sick:(

Sick in bed and reading a book on her new iPad

Elye playing with her new horses and barn.

Reesi putting out reindeer food and a carrot on our roof.

The potholder she made for Santa and Mrs. Claus.

Four Christmases

Our first Christmas was with Poppy, Cat, Dabau, Granny, Papa, and Steve. We opened presents at Granny's first and then headed to Logan's to do Christmas with Poppy.

Elye got one of those Fisher-Price iXL games. She is loving it!

Reesi and her new karaoke machine. The next day she sang in her room by herself for 30 minutes straight. We had to end up buying Elye her own microphone so she stands next to Reesi mumbling while Reesi sings.

The peanuts at Logan's kept Elye busy for a while.

Reesi sporting her new hat from Poppy and Cat.

Elye is munching on the peppermints that they eat every time we go to Granny's.

Reesi and Elye excited to give Granny her present.

Dinner at Bethlehem

This year Reesi was in the chorus for Dinner at Bethlehem at our church. She loves singing and you could definitely tell. She was smiling, singing, and looking so angelic the whole time. It was a fun night that included food, crafts, pictures, and the show.

Dicken's Christmas

This year we went to the Dicken's Christmas in downtown Franklin. Everybody is dressed up like characters from the Christmas Carol. We rode the horse carriage, went to the petting zoo, and rode a pony. All Elye wanted to do was ride the pony and talked about it all morning. We were leaving and Larry tried to convince her that we didn't have time to ride the pony. She was not happy. So, of course, I took her back to wait in line for her pony ride. It's the first time she wasn't too scared to actually ride. She is such a big girl now.

What Should Have Been

Back when we lived in White House and worked at the Academy we pictured our kids and our friend's kids all growing up together and spending many nights playing together at the Academy games. Unfortunately, everybody ended up on a different path! However, we did get to meet up at a game the the other night. Larry's team played in Hendersonville and our friends met us there for the game. It reminded me of what could have been if things had played our differently:(

Thanksgiving!

We had Thanksgiving on Monday with Larry's side of the family. Unfortunately, my camera's in the shop so there are only a few iphone pictures. Reesi and Sophia loved hanging out with each other and spent the whole night in the back bedroom playing games. Too sweet. Somehow Jack escaped the kid picture, stinker.

She's grown a little

@ 7

@ 3

School Stuff

Reesi at school making a bread dough wreath.

Reformation Day

Hardwoods

We've finally worked some decorating money into our budget. My first mission was to get rid of the cheap carpet in our bedroom and office. To save money I forced Larry to put it in on his own, which saved us around $1,000. I love them! Unfortunately, I'm already out of decorating money until the end of the summer. Boo. Houses are so expensive.

Elye . . .

loves to help me cook. It's one of the only ways for me to peacefully prepare dinner!

Happy Halloween!

We celebrated Halloween night at our house. The cousins and the grandparents. I decided we would keep it simple and get pizza from Little Caesar's. Apparently, the rest of our neighborhood had the same idea because the five minute pizza trip took this smurf over an hour! I finally got the pizza and everyone fed and it was time for trick or treating. The best part of the night was when Larry hid behind a tree with his Jason mask on and jumped out and scared the girls. Candy bags flew everywhere and the girls took off running down the blocks screaming for their lives! We are definitely going to have to come up with another scare for next year. The great night ended with Mimi blowing a tire on a curb on the way home and Reesi throwing up (before she could even get into her candy loot). Happy Halloween!