Part of December

December began with us celebrating my 31st birthday.  It was a very low key day that I spent with Miles and Brooklyn home from school, but they were sweet enough- with daddy's help- to have my normal bday breakfast (blueberry muffins and lil' sausages) ready and I got to open gifts before Gavin went to school and Brooks went to work.  Our elf, Zippy, made his appearance and decorated the kitchen for my bday.  So sweet! 

Now that we are home in the USA we had the opportunity to get a REAL tree for Christmas and we were so excited to go and find a tree to bring home.  When we lived in Houston, we would go to a tree farm, find the perfect tree, and cut it down ourselves.  We couldn't find anything like that nearby, so instead we settled for a "tree farm" where real trees were already cut and we just selected one.  It was kinda easy since we knew we wanted an 8-9 ft tree and there really was only a few trees for us to choose from, so while it took us an hour to drive there, we spent 10 minutes getting our tree!  It was freezing outside, which made us grateful that we didn't have to walk up and down rows and rows of trees to choose from!  The kids were given hot chocolate and popcorn while our tree got wrapped up and off we went to do some Christmas shopping!!

We had two parties back to back one weekend and unfortunately I only managed one picture, that Gavin took and not everyone was in it!  But still, we opened up our home one night for our small group from church and had an ugly sweater party.  After dinner and visiting we played a few games and laughed a lot!!   The next night, Brooks' entire work team, their wives and kids all came over, we ate gumbo, and enjoyed getting to know everyone.    

Sunday morning at church all the kids sang for a special Christmas program.  Brooklyn and Miles weren't really sure what was going on, but they were comforted by some of their favorite girls!  Gavin had fun and sang as much as he could from the songs he knew the words to.

We battled a stomach bug that passed through all of us and was pretty brutal to experience.  However, our kids are pros at dealing with stomach issues and knew exactly what to do.  It actually makes life easier, except for watching them being sick!  Don't be fooled by Brooklyn's picture below-- Miles had been teaching her what to do when it was her turn to be sick and she was practicing!  

Brooklyn's growing up and getting into more and more things.  One day, I found her in the fridge trying to get string cheese all by herself. Another day, while we were out Christmas shopping, I went into the bathroom and somehow the two little ones got out of their seat belts, moved their stroller to the sink, and started washing their hands on their own!

 

It snowed a few times and we are slowly getting use to the weather.  The kids love seeing snow covering the ground and our house, but don't enjoy the cold as much.
   

December meant time for Christmas presents so I made personalized gifts for all the kids teachers and gave them each a recipe for a sweet treat!

Gavin's school held a Christmas sing a long program and each child was assigned a certain song to sing as a group and a character- Gavin was an angel and a cute one at that!  Brooks and I loved listening to all the Christmas songs being sung and how into it the kids were!  

 

An amazing part of December for us was getting to be with Brandon as he graduated from college!  We drove to Waco one weekend, met up with all the family, and celebrated Bran getting his bachelors degree from Baylor.  It was such a fun experiencing, not just celebrating Bran's huge accomplishment- I mean the guy went through a lot to get to this point- but the fact that he made it to this point!  It was just awesome!

 

 

Christmas Celebrations

For Christmas, we decorated our house (thanks to Geary and Juli for the extra hands)  and went all out since we actually had Christmas decorations to use!  After 3 years of a majority of our stuff being in storage, I had actually forgotten what we had!  I also decided that I wanted to start over in some areas so with the help from my mother in law, I got all new ornaments for our big tree and plan on adding to it each year along with wreaths, mantle decor, and mesh that covered our front door!  Brooks did a great job setting lights up outside the house and in some trees.  The kids LOVED walking outside at night just to stare at the lights and always ooohed and ahhhhed over them!   

I tried so hard to get pictures of the kids smiling and looking happy... they cooperated for the most part!

 

The boys have had their own LSU tree for their room since Gavin's first Christmas, so it was only fitting that Brooklyn get her own tree.  I went with pink, purple, lime green, and turquoise colors and tried making it as girly as possible.  I realized once I started taking off the ornaments to pack it up, I hadn't taken a pic of her and her tree so that's why it looks bare.  Brooklyn loved that the lights on her tree were pink and everytime she walked into her room she would ooohhh and aaaghhh over it!

We celebrated Christmas with Brooks' mom and grandmother, Missie and Hettie, along with Brandon and Kate while we were in Waco for Bran's graduation.  The kids were so excited to receive all their gifts and had a blast playing with each one as they opened it.  We kept trying to get them to open more, but they were so occupied with the previous gift, it took a while.  Grammy always gets creative gifts that the kids love.  They opened gifts and played around until almost 10pm.. then Uncle Bran pulled out The Bible App for kids and things calmed down!    

 

We spent Christmas morning at our house just the 5 of us and it was great!!!!  Brooks and I were up late the night before (3am) finishing building and putting their big presents together.  The kids were getting a BIG gift from Mim that ended up being delivered two days before Christmas, which meant Brooks only had a few hours to set it up-- actually he spent 9 hours Christmas eve day setting it up and then from 8pm- 3am that night and STILL didn't finish, but it was enough.  I had finished wrapping all the kids smaller presents days before so thankfully I didn't have to worry about that.  I fixed our traditional chocolate chip banana bread and had it ready for the morning! Brooks and I prayed the kids would sleep in a little bit, which they did, so we managed to get almost 5 hours of sleep before the mayhem started and the kids were ready to open presents!  We spent the morning watching the kids opening presents and letting them play!  It was so fun to watch their reactions with each gift they unwrapped.  They each had VERY different personalities when it came to opening their presents.  Gavin had all of his gifts unwrapped within 10 minutes or so, which Miles was still on his FIRST one!  Gavin wanted to see everything he had and then play with it all, while Miles needed to study every button, knoock and cranny on his gift before we'd force him to move on.  Brooklyn oooohed and ahhhed and said WOW to EVERYTHING.  She took her time and checked out her gifts, but then willingly and quickly moved onto the next ones!  Too funny.  

 

As hard of a decision as it was for us to decide to stay home Christmas morning, it was really fun and a sweet time for the 5 of us.  Our morning was relaxing and full of playtime!!

After the kids started winding down from all their "little" gifts, it was time to reveal their BIG gifts from mommy and daddy!  We had them hidden in the playroom covered up, so the kids hadn't seen them yet.  We had them close their eyes as they walked in the room!  Their faces and expressions were priceless when they saw their gifts!  Brooks built Brooklyn a grocery store, Gavin a lego tray, and Miles a train table.  They were sooooo excited!!  Still-- a few months later and the kids play with these everyday!  So grateful for a husband who has such an amazing talent and willing to use his skills and creativity to do things like this for his kids!!

After naps, the kids got some VISITORS!!  My parents drove part of Christmas eve, spent the night in a hotel near Dallas, and drove all Christmas day to get to our house!!  We were sooooo excited they came to visit and spend some time here!  it was so great to have them at our house!!  Once the kids were happy after naps and fully awake, they got their gift from Mim and we brought them outside for another BIG reveal!

A SWING SET!!!  Words can't describe how excited our kids were.  They loved the swings, both the slides, and running all around.

After playing on the swings the kids got another round of Christmas with presents from my parents.  You'd think they would have been tired by now of unwrapping presents, but yea right!!  They were just as excited as if it was their first round of gifts!

The next day, we got another round of visitors.... my brother, sister in law, and niece and nephew!!!  Our kids were sooooooo excited to see their cousins and have them at their house!  Playtimes were a blast with all the new, fun, and exciting toys around!  We did a few more rounds of gift giving and opening presents before going bowling with the whole family.

Thankfully, the local bowling alley had gutters and a ramp for the little ones to bowl with and surprisingly, they all did really good knocking the pins down!  You can see just how much fun they had bowling!

It just so happened that my sister in law's 30th birthday was the same day they arrived so we welcomed her with a birthday cake!!

While my parents and brothers family were here-- the kids played together non stop, we cooked meals together-- including roasting hot dogs on an outside fire pit in 22 degree weather and making smores, we stayed up late playing cards and dice and just hanging out!  There was never a dull moment with 11 people under one roof, but it was also a special time with our family!

So after Christmas and Aunt Anna's birthday, we got to celebrate Miles' 3rd birthday.  Everyone was leaving on his actual birthday so we spent the night before decorating Rice Krispie treats and singing Happy Birthday to our Miles.

Early the next morning, we woke up to an empty house.  Sad that our time together was over, but so grateful for all the memories we made.  Whew.... that was a lot of Christmas celebrations!!