Christmas Day!

Chloe woke up bright and early on Christmas morning. Gee, I wonder why?;) Unfortunately, Chris and I got to bed pretty late. Chris assembled toys while I wrapped presents. Of course, we dragged ourselves and Evan out of our beds, so we could let the excitement of Christmas morning begin!

Chloe's big gifts from Santa were a karaoke machine and baby doll stroller.

 
Evan's big gifts from Santa were a train table and red ryder toy wagon. I figured he needed something to tote his stuffed animals around like Sissy.

The sock monkey refused to sit up. Evan claimed he was tired:)

Chloe had spotted a cute Hello Kitty wallet on our trip to Texas. She had just about convinced herself that Santa would forget the wallet, but guess what she found in her stocking?:)

The littles enjoying their presents!

I was feeling icky that morning, so after watching the littles play for a bit, I headed back to bed. I emerged a few hours later because my brothers were coming over Christmas evening dinner! (Lola was out of town visiting her boyfriend's family in Louisiana and attending a Saint's game.) We had a low-key night planned, left-overs from our first three Christmases and movies! My brothers also brought baby back ribs. Yum! We watched "Brave," one of Chloe's gifts from Nana, and we rented "Pitch Perfect," so funny!

Chloe and my youngest brother, Jose

Uncle Rob, Uncle Jose, and the littles!

Aunt Sara stopped by to drop off a few gifts from Aunt Lian (Chris'great-aunt) and visit. While here, she got a riveting performance of "Call Me Maybe!" Ha!
 

We weren't at our best, but I wanted a family pic!

I have to say, we had an awesome Christmas, filled with family, love, great food, and celebration of Christ's birth! Merry Christmas!

Christmas with Grandmama

We spent Christmas Eve day with Grandmama (Chris' grandmother)! She is one of my favorite people. My only surviving grandparent lives in the Philippines, so she has really taken on the role of being my grandmother and is such a blessing in our lives!

As with all our family gatherings, we had a great lunch! (Funny that this sickness didn't taken away my healthy appetite. By this day, I was really beginning to feel bad.) The kids played for a bit and even stopped to pose for the cutest cousin photo!

The first photo was minus one, so we had a re-do with Baby Ace!

After a little play time, we opened presents, which was a real sight at Grandmama's!

Ohhh, Pez! These were Evan's favorite presents!

Evan showing off his goods to Grandmama! I had to sneak this one in;) If you know Grandmama, then you know that she doesn't like having her picture taken.

We also took a few family photos.

All of Grandmama's grandchildren!

Aunt Renee's children and grandchildren!

I'll spare everyone the rest because there were a lot taken that day:) Unfortunately, the ones of Chris, I, and our littles are on another camera, so I'll have to come back to add those pictures at a later date.

After a day at Grandmama's, we went to see the tacky lights at a house just a few blocks away from ours. I figured that this was one more Christmas activity that we could squeeze in. We only went to one house because we had a lot of preparation to do for Christmas morning. Our house looked like a tornado had hit it with all the running around we had done that week. Also, I was ready to get home and medicated! But believe me, this house had enough lights and decorations to make up for the rest of houses that we didn't get a chance to see!

Aunt Sara was sweet enough to join us on this last excursion and took a photo of us.

When we got home, we made sure to read our final Christmas book, one that Chris has read on Christmas Eve since Chloe was a newborn. I remember the first year we read it; Chloe cried the entire time. She wasn't an 'easy' baby, actually, she was down right fussy. This year there were no tears or screams, just two sweet littles sitting next to Daddy as he read 'The Christmas Story' about the birth of Jesus Christ!

This brings us to the final week of our reading list. Keep in mind, there were only 3 days (22nd-24th) in this week

Week 4 Reading List:

Day 1 - The Twelve Days of Christmas (Chloe and I sang this in our raspy sick voices. I think I see signs of the wall paint peeling.)
            - Santa's Toy Shop
Day 2 - We "read" two this night too. Nana read and recorded a sweet book for each of the littles
             Evan's book - The Night Before Christmas
             Chloe's book- The Very First Christmas
Day 3 - The Very First Christmas (Our Christmas Eve tradition! Same title and story, but it was a different book from the one above:))

We had just enough time to leave a plate of cookies and milk for Santa before we shuffled the littles to bed. The meds were starting to kick in, so I didn't do as well as I should have in recording our evening.

That was our Christmas Eve, family time with the ones we love and preparing for Santa! Merry Christmas!

Christmas with Aunt Dana & Uncle Tommy

On Sunday, we celebrated Christmas with Aunt Dana and Uncle Tommy!

I had to get a few shots of the littles before we left the house. After all, we haven't taken any pictures on our front steps recently:) Also, a big thanks to Wanda at Lily Kat Lane for custom making Evan's outfit!

This photo was courtesy of Chloe. She's a chip off the old block:)

One thing that we were looking forward to this Christmas was getting to see cutie pie Jack, and his mom and dad too, of course! We weren't able to make it to his first birthday party, so it's been a while since we've seen him. Aunt Dana, Jack's grandmother, got him a set of ear muffs for his ride on the Polaris.

 
Shortly after we arrived at Aunt Dana and Uncle Tommy's, some of us took a ride around the property on the Polarises.

 
Meanwhile, Evan was perfectly content playing with Jack's toys inside!

I know that Jack's daddy, Todd, got a great picture of the 3 littles, but I wanted to go ahead and post these. Chloe may have smoothered Jack a tad too much.

After a delicious spread of appetizers (which we snacked on all day), dinner, and desserts, it was time to open presents. As usual, Chloe was our little helper elf and passed out the presents.

The littles' pile was growing. It really is a lot more fun to shop for litte ones! I always say that Christmas is for the kids.

After we opened presents...

...they set up a tent!

We also squeezed in a few photos!

It was great spending time with family, and all the delicious food didn't hurt either. Aunt Dana and Uncle Tommy are such loving people and there is such a sense a family whenever they're around. Also, it was great to see baby Jack, and my dear friends, Shannon and Todd (we go back to college and now we're family:)). Merry Christmas!

Christmas at Nana & Granddaddy's with Pawpaw & Granny Kay

Rather than try to fit all of our Christmas family celebrations into one long post, I decided to break our four days of Christmas into four posts.

On Saturday, also my birthday!!!, we headed over to Nana and Granddaddy's (Chris' parents) for the first of four Christmas celebrations. We generally just have one get-together with this side of the family, but since Pawpaw and Granny Kay (Chris' grandfather and step-grandmother) were visiting from Oregon, Nana decided it would be nice to have a special day with them.

Before I go any further, I must throw out this disclaimer...I was battling the "Christmas crud" (cough and congestion) during all of these celebrations, which later developed into a sinus infection and bronchitis. (The littles also have runny noses, so I'm hoping that they remain fairly healthy.) Although I enjoyed each and every one of these celebrations as much as I could, most of my time was spent trying not to hack-up a lung and enjoying our time from the sidelines.

When we arrived at Nana's and Granddaddy's, I had a few birthday surprises waiting on me. They were so sweet, and it was nice to have a moment, aside from Christmas, to recognize my birthday. Thanks y'all!

We had some time to visit (although I enjoyed the babies from a distance because I didn't want to risk passing on the crud).

Papaw and Big Chloe! (Mine is "Little" Chloe)

Emma and Granny K

David and Ace

Baby Ace is getting big!

Little Chloe playing with Ace

Nana also let the kids change days on the Advent calendar by getting a piece of candy.

We ate a delicious lunch and then it was present time!

 

Pawpaw and Granny K's grands:)

 



Afterwards, the kids went outside to play on the tire swing and with their new toys! Nana and Granddaddy live on gorgeous family land. The scenery is beautiful!

As you can see, my camera still works even with the crud:) This was actually one of my better days. We all enjoyed the quality time with family, especially Pawpaw and Granny K, in celebration of the birth of our Lord and Savior! Merry Christmas!