Christmas Morning 2010

What a wild a crazy Christmas morning! We usually hold the kids upstairs until I get the breakfast casserole in the oven and the adults are all set and ready with cameras poised. I was in the process of doing that when I heard footsteps running into the den. Then I was greeted with squeals of joy I have never heard in my entire life. Anna was in shock at what she saw and just kept squealing and jumping up and down. Marshall started videoing and then somehow Sam escaped the other adults upstairs and Anna started pointing out everything to him. Poor Jack was sitting at the top of the steps begging to come down so we finally let him in on the action.
It was so much fun watching their excitement! After playing with all the new toys, Sam and Anna took a break for breakfast with the adults, but Jack wanted nothing to do with food. We opened gifts until noon and had lots of fun laughing and enjoying Christmas morning through the eyes of our children.

The biggest hit for Sam was the box of packing peanuts!

We're opening up Jack's special gift for us that he made at school. He brought it home last week and insisted that we put it under the tree and wait until Christmas morning to open it. He was so excited about it!

Grandy is showing off the garden flags Jack and Anna made for all the grandparents at school this year.

Uncle Mason was such a trooper this trip because Anna could not get enough of him! She was so excited to see him an stuck by his side most of the time. She even shared her new princess chap stick with him.

Christmas Eve 2010

What a wonderful time we had this year! Ninny and Grandy rolled into town Christmas Eve morning, Pop and Grammy showed up after lunch, and Mason finally arrived after dinner. We had a house full of people and lots of fun this Christmas. The kids were more excited about seeing family than actually getting presents, at least they were before they saw all the gifts being unloaded from the cars!

We had a lazy day hanging out around the house playing. We attempted a photo shoot with Ninny and Grandy, but you see how that turned out.

After dinner the kids got to open one gift - the most annoying animals ever from their Aunt Beverly and Uncle Jim! Just remember that payback is coming . . . .

We also watched videos of Jack singing at school and Jack and Anna singing at church. After that, we watched a special video of my Granddaddy reading the Christmas story from Luke 2 at the Wellford Baptist Church Christmas Eve service from 2006. I love that I have that on video and we will make a new tradition of watching it every year.

After baths, the kids finally got to wear the Christmas jammies that Grammy and Pop sent a couple weeks ago and they have been dying to put on. We attempted a photo shoot of that, too.

This is since sweet Sam never got his individual picture in front of the tree during my Sunday morning attempts.

Next the kids rocked out with their Daddy and had a little performance for everyone.

We finally sent three excited kids off to bed and Hank got to open a gift from Grammy - homemade doggie treats.

It was a fun day and the next morning was priceless.
More pictures to come...

19 Months

My baby boy was officially 19 months old yesterday. Over the past couple weeks, he really seems like such a big boy to me. He wants to do everything his siblings do, and he's pretty good at keeping up with them most of the time. He's both a stinker and a snuggly sweetheart multiple times a day. He's still not really saying much, but understands absolutely everything and follows directions better than the other two! He has a speech/language evaluation scheduled for after the holidays and I'm pretty sure he will qualify. He had his 18 month well-visit about a month ago and with the exception of speech, was right on track for everything else. He weighed in at 27 lbs (75 %ile) and I can't remember how tall he was but he's still a shorty (25th %ile)! He absolutely loves balls and he's got great aim most of the time. It's hard to believe that my sweet baby boy will be a big brother in just a month. Oh how we love our Sam!

Santa

Today did not pan out how I had originally planned, but we ended up having a great time. I had a doctor's appointment scheduled for this afternoon (in Columbia) and my friend was planning to keep the kids. Her poor son got sick, though, so I rescheduled my appointment for this morning and packed up the kids, snacks, and toys and hit the road. I had the fastest OB appointment in my 4 year history of OB appointments - we didn't even have time to unpack the toys. After that we headed to see Santa and have lunch and play time at CFA. The kids were wonderful and we all had a pretty fun time.

Jack was thrilled to see Santa and sit on his lap. Sam was interested enough to sit there for a bit but not very long. And Anna, well let's just say she did not want to even look at the sweet man!

Sam is getting a little ticked at Santa's hand on his arm, Jack is still giddy, and Anna is slowly cutting off my airway as her grip around my neck gets tighter and tighter!

Church Singing

Today was a special day at church because all the kids got to sing two Christmas songs for everyone. And yes, this is ALL the kids (with the exception of the two little ones still in the nursery). To say that we go to a small church is an understatement! Even with such a small group they did a great job! They sang Silent Night and O Come Let Us Adore Him and the two oldest kids even had solos.

Anna woke up with a runny nose and cough this morning and coughed throughout the entire performance, but at least she covered her mouth every time (almost). At one point someone handed her a tissue and she took it, wiped her nose, and then handed it back to the sweet lady who took it even though it was not her snotty kid's tissue!

Anna's wiping her nose while Jonas and Jack look a little grossed out!

Mid-sing for Jack and mid-cough for Anna.

Pretty typical - Jack's hands in his pockets but he is participating, while Anna is singing her heart out up there!

After the service we tried to get a picture of all the kids. Jonas didn't want to participate, but I managed to get him in the picture anyway!

I think it looks like we coordinated all their outfits on purpose, but I guess when you only have nine kids at church the odds of everyone wearing the same color scheme are pretty high.

I knew it was just a fluke!

We tried to get a picture of the kids in front of our tree before we left for church this morning and proved once and for all, the last picture was indeed a fluke!

Since the group shot wasn't working out, I tried to get individual pictures.

Sam wasn't very cooperative, though, and I only have a blurry picture of the top of his head as he is running away from the tree.

Merry Christmas

Love,

Marshall, Megan, Jack, Anna, & Sam

It's a Christmas Miracle!

They are all looking at the camera and smiling . . . at the same time!