Christmas Afternoon

We headed to my mom's house in the afternoon.  We all enjoyed spending time with mom, HL, and Russell.  My mom never lets me take her picture, but I think this one is too cute not to share.

 Caroline and HL

 Caroline and Russell

 Lots of packages to open

Next, it was off to my dad's house.  The kids all got a new Christmas ornament.

 The big kids all got a puzzle cube with money in it.  They had to get the box open in order to get to the money.  It was pretty challenging!

 A little help from Andy

 

 

Finally it was Caroline's turn

Both of the kids were very happy at the end of the day.  They were also exhausted!  It was a great Christmas filled with lots of family and fun.

Merry Christmas

We had a wonderful day.  The kids started at 6:15 this morning.  I tried to convince them to go back to bed, but that did not work.  It was a much smaller Christmas in our house, but the girls still made our really well.  Caroline got her perfume, headbands, and a surprise.  Here she is with her new Leap Pad.  I think she is going to love it.

 Kayla got a few little things, and her big gift was a Nintendo 3DS.  She did not ask for it, but she was pretty excited about it.

 They both got new purses.

 Kayla spent the rest of the morning playing with her new game.

 I thought Caroline would be playing her new game.  However, she spent a lot of time playing with the silly gel clings that were in our "You Got Elfed" basket.  She did eventually play her game.

We spent the morning taking it easy at home before all of the fun family festivities began.

Christmas Cookies

We always try to make a few cookies to leave for Santa on Christmas Eve.  This is not always easy.  We are usually pretty tired from our trip to Texas, but it has become a fun activity to do with the kids.

 I think they have more fun spreading the flour on their faces than anything else!  But they are so cute!

 Even daddy helps.  Actually he took over.  I really did not do anything at all!

 The each frosted 2 of the cookies.  They got to eat one and leave one for Santa.  Here are Caroline's cookies.

 And Kayla's...

Yummy!

Christmas in Waco

We just got home from our annual trip to Waco for Christmas.  It is a wonderful few days spent with all of Andy's family.  I have no pictures from the trip.  I intended to get copies of the pictures Jenny took, but that did not happen.

We arrived on Wednesday afternoon.  Thursday morning we opened gifts with Andy's family.  Thursday evening we had Christmas with Mamaw and Papaw.   Friday morning is the annual Cloverland Bowl.  Andy invited RG3 to come, but I guess he was busy!  Kayla has a great time playing in the football game.  Andy looks forward to it all year.  He did end up with a bruise above his eye and a bloody lip, but he loves every minute of it.  That afternoon is Granny's Christmas.  Jim and Darlene have everyone over for appetizers and dinner.  Then we all head over to Granny's house for dessert and the gift exchange.  There is also a visit from Santa.  Caroline was so happy when she saw him walk in.

 She waited very patiently for her turn.

Caroline once again gave Santa her list:  sparkly headband, perfume, and a surprise.  I really hope she likes her surprise.

 Kayla was a good sport.  She got on his lap, but told him she had no idea what she wanted.

On the morning of Christmas Eve we head home.  We stopped in McKinney to see my grandma.  I have not seen her in several years.  I have some great memories of her and my grandpa from when I was younger.  It was great to see her again.  My girls made me so proud.  They were so sweet to her and extremely well behaved.

What a wonderful Christmas is has already been!

Santa Visit

I finally took the girls to see Santa.

Caroline was really excited.  Kayla pretty much just humors me.  She feels like she is too big for all of this.  I think she still believes, but sitting on his lap is just not cool.  I told her she could stand next to him, but it did not happen.  Caroline has a fairly simple list:  perfume, a sparkly headband, and a surprise.  Kayla wants the last Diary of a Wimpy Kid book.  That is it.  That is not very helpful!




I guess it won't be long before we find out what Santa brings.  Merry Christmas!

Caroline's Big Day

 What started as a trip to the mall to see Santa turned into something completely different.  Caroline decided she wanted to get her ears pierced.  I can't believe it, but we did it. 

She was a very brave girl.  She did not even flinch.  Kayla was nervous for her and could not even watch.  Caroline is so excited about her new pierced ears.

Earthquakes

This has just been a crazy few days!  I experienced my very first earthquake Saturday night.  I slept through one at 2 am (with the help of my beloved Tylenol PM), but I felt the one at 10:55 pm.  I had gone to bed because I was not feeling well.  I think it was the noise that initially woke me up.  It took me a few seconds to comprehend the fact that everything was shaking.  It is just not something I ever thought would happen.  It was really kind of creepy.  It lasted about a minute, but it seemed like forever.  I walked out into the living room.  Both girls stayed asleep.  Andy came down from upstairs.  It was just very strange.  The next morning I was telling the kids about it.  Caroline did not know what an earthquake was.  I reminded her of an exhibit at the zoo.  You stand on a platform and it vibrates like the ground would in an earthquake.  She asked me "Is it dangerous?"  I told her that the one we had was small and things were fine.  So she said "Is it just to make the city fun?"  Like it was a ride at an amusement park.  I thought it was pretty funny!

I saw this on a friend's facebook page.  I had to steal it.

I stole this from the website of a local news channel.  I don't know what any of it means.  I do know they said that it was a 5.6.  

We just had an aftershock that was a 4.7.  I did not really feel the shaking so much.  It just sounded like thunder that went on for a long time.  I think for a while I will panic just a little bit when I hear thunder always wondering if it will be an earthquake.

Happy Halloween!

We had a great Halloween.  Here is Kayla as "an 80's chick"

 And here is Caroline as a Dallas Cowboys cheerleader.

On Sunday we went to a Fall Festival with Kayla's friend, Emori.  The girls had a great time.

 Kayla loved this...they got to beat on an old car with a baseball bat.

 We ran into all of the cousins at my dad's house.

Kayla wanted her daddy to dress up.  Here he is as the tacky tourist.  The girls loved it.  Andy was a great sport.

Kayla actually had dance tonight so we got a late start.  I don't think we even made it half-way through the neighborhood.  I could not get over all of the activity.  There were kids everywhere, almost all of the houses either had their lights on or they were outside passing out candy.  There is one place where the road kind of dead ends in a cul-de-sac.  It opens up to a field where a group of people had a large fire, hot dogs, chips, candy, and drinks for anyone who wanted to come by.

We got home and let the kids dump out their candy and pick a piece to eat.  Only one - it was 9:00!

We had a great night.  I hope that next year we can get an earlier start.  We all had fun.