Uncle Dougs

Hayden snooping around in all Dougs "STUFF"

Tonight we went to visit Great Uncle Doug, and Great Grandad. The kids sang Christmas Carols and they were rewarded with a piece of chocolate and some hot cocoa. What a treat. We even went next door to a neighbors house (a little old lady) and sang for her. She cant hear very well, so she didn't know what they were saying. She loved having the kids over at her house though. She showed them her mini tea set collection (about 150 sets) and all her "toys". She said she didn't have a baby doll when was little so now she collects them anytime someone doesn't want them. She was really sweet. She gave the girls 2 barbie dolls, one being Ken, which secretly got left behind at Doug's. The lady said all little girls needed a ken doll. Uncle Doug is always giving gifts to people who are less fortunate so we knew Ken would find a good home :)

It was a great visit. We left about 7:15 to get the kids home and ready for bed.

BIG present!!!!!!

We got the kids a big present to share this year. They both have been wanting a trampoline for about a year now. So, we finally got them one. Shane and my dad started putting it together Christmas Eve before dark (which is like 6pm). Then Christmas Day after we were done with gifts and stuff they went back out to finish it up. Unfortunately they had to retake all the springs off and rotate the trampoline to get the net straight. So, it took a little longer than planned. By the time the girls got to see the trampoline it was 10:30 (note Christmas Celebration started at 6:45 am) . Mom and I were having so much fun playing with the kids and watching them jump, that we forgot we should be cooking lunch. About 11:10 we ran inside to start cooking. We already had the ham and turkey cooking, so we didn't have 5 hours of cooking, just longer that a normal 12:00 meal. Shane even eventually came inside and helped make the broccoli and Rice casserole. Yummy! Thank you babe! It was fun. No one seemed too bothered by the wait. We fed the kids earlier since they only will eat the meat anyways. My dad ended up taking a nap. He was too hungry to stay awake :) I promise it was worth the wait. The food was great. Even better than thanksgiving. Just not as much.

Happy Birthday JESUS!

Hayden banging his drum!!!!

We got her a stuffed horse to lay on in her room. She loves anything to do with horses! She is our little Cowgirl!

Hannah on her horse. She wanted a REAL one, but we couldnt do that, so Mimi and Papa bought her this. She LOVES it.

Hailey and Gabriella in their matching pj's

*All Hayden wanted to do was eat the candy cane he discovered as soon as he woke up and play with Hannahs horse. He had absolutely NO interest in opening gifts OR the wrapping paper!

Wow, what a CHRISTMAS!!! The kids got so many presents this year. We talked about making it smaller this year and I think they ended up having the biggest one ever.

Santa brought Hailey a radio, cds and high school musical dvd. Hannah got the Diamond Castle Doll and a sleepover kit for her A.G doll. Hayden got a stuffed mickey mouse and goofy doll. They were super excited.

After opening the gifts from Santa, we celebrated the birth of our savior, by having birthday cupcakes and talking about the REAL reason we celebrate Christmas. Surprisingly the girls were not too interested in having cake for breakfast. They preferred the sausage mimi cooked. Thanks mimi! After breakfast we headed back to the tree for the rest of the gifts.

They got so many wonderful presents that I cant even name them all. Some of the favorites were...

Hayden : Drum, BIG truck, Spiderman Car

Hannah : BIG horse and American Girl Doll Bed and acessories

Hailey : Labtop (not new) and American girl Doll matching pajamas

We had a good time watching the kids open their gifts. I love to see the excitement in their faces.

We of course opened our gifts last. The kids got us some cute things. Hailey made us a beautiful wreath at school with her picture and she picked me out a cross necklace. Mom said she took alot of time trying to find the perfect cross for me. She knew what she wanted and wasnt happy until she found it. Hailey got daddy two funny shirts. I will have to blog on them later.

Hannah bought me a mens cross keychain and got daddy a hot chocolate kit. She knew her daddy would love that :) Their gifts are always so much fun to open. They put so much thought and love into them.

I just LOVE christmas!!

Christmas Eve

Look a all the Lights! It was a packed church. We barely found a spot to sit. Note to self *Always get there EARLY*

My mom (mimi), dad (papa), and my brother (uncle Tim) came over on Wednesday to spend Christmas with us. Shane and my dad started putting the girls BIG present together (a trampoline) outside while the rest of us were doing crafts and other stuff. The girls never even noticed they were gone :) We left the house about 5 pm to go to our Christmas Eve service at our church. Which was GREAT by the way. The girls were really well behaved. Hayden had a little trouble staying still, so Shane and my dad ended up taking turns walking with him. Hannah couldnt wait until she got to light her candle. We ended up taking a potty break and almost missed it. Thank goodness we made it back in time before it was over. That was a great start to the night. We always want to keep the CHRIST in Christmas and make sure the kids understand the REAL reason we celebrate.

After the church service Grandma Kelly, Grandad and Aunt Gloria came over. We had a big meal of turkey, dressing and all the fixings from Black Eye Pea. Yummy! The kids exchanged presents and we all just relaxed and had a good time being together.

After they left about 10:30 the kids got ready for bed. We set out the cookies and milk for santa, the reindeer food, and the special key so santa could get inside our house. (just in case we decided to make a fire) :) We read our stories, said our prayers and got into bed. Good Night!!!!!

I just realized most of my pictures from Christmas Eve are on my moms camera :( I forgot to charge mine. Oooops!! I will post them another time. There were some CUTE ones!!!

Christmas Lights

Last night we took the kids and Hannahs friend Maggie to Diamond Loch to look at Christmas Lights. On the way we stopped at Sonic and Starbucks for icecream / cookie treats. Shane got a coffee and I got a hot chocolate. (we didnt want to be left out) :)

The kids had a great time singing, eating and looking at all the beautiful lights. We took Maggie back home about 8:30, and then headed home ourselves and got ready for bed.

After listening to 4 crazy kids screaming (not necessarily singing) christmas songs for 2 hours, I was ready to hit my pillow. Shane and I ended up staying up watching some terrible movie. i am not sure it was worth losing sleep for. But, the time with shane was great.

Christmas Party

Hailey and Mrs. Rhodes

Girls Playing Musical Puzzles

Decorating cookies

Mrs. Rhodes PM Kindergarten Class

Hailey and Ashley

Friday Hailey had a Christmas party at school. They had a lot of fun. They decorated cookies, made reindeer food, played musical puzzles (each kids brought a wrapped puzzle for a gift exchange), and had a yummy snack. The snack consisted of pretzals, chex mix, grapes, cheese, pineapple, apples and cookies. Between doctor appointments and other personal things we have had so many babysitters in the past 2 weeks. I felt terrible about having to ask someone else to watch the kids AGAIN! Thanks to my dear friend Cari, I was able to attend her party. She quickly volunteered to watch Hannah and Hayden. She even had to listen to my sweet little guy cry because he didnt want to take a nap. But, by the way, she DID get him to bed. I will let her tell the story sometime on her blog carihudkins.blogspot.com

Thank you Cari! It is such a blessing to have friends like you.

Merry Christmas Everyone!!!!!

Special Gift from Mrs. Rhodes

Hailey's Kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Rhodes, made all the kids a very awesome pillow. The girls all got a pink pillow with the first letter of their name on it. She had to make 47 of them. Isnt that crazy? It was really cute. She has a really great teacher. We are so thankful for her.

Apple up the nose

Tonight during dinner Hayden decided to stick an apple up his nose. He started yelling "AP, AP" (his word for apple) and started grabbing his nose. Sure enough there was a huge chunk if apple lodged up his left nostril. I tried to pull it out, only to lodge in it further. To make matters worse he kept sucking it in further as well. I ran to the bathroom to get the tweezers. A slimy apple is hard to grab by the way. Finally I got smart and mashed his nose down where the apple couldn't go in further, and shane tweezed it out. Only seconds later, he tried to do it AGAIN! Crazy little boy!

New Hair Cutt

Hailey has had LONG hair for as long as I can remember. There have been times when I thought we should try something different, but she was very adamant about not wanting it cut. She ALWAYS wanted long hair, until now. Most of the girls in her class at school have short hair, or just got their hair cut short. She has been asking us if she could cut her hair for about 2 weeks or more. I was hoping she would forget or change her mind, but that didn't happen. She has beautiful curly/wavy hair, but when short it just poofs and frizzes. (I know from experience). I talked to Shane about cutting her hair, as I know he LOVES it long. Surprisingly he was okay with it being cut. So, today since all the kids need trims at least, I took Hailey and Hayden to Cool Cuts for Kids. Hailey cut her hair off to her shoulders. It was about 4 inches chopped off. I almost cried. Nonetheless, she loves it and is so happy. I had to use the hot iron to straighten the frizzies out. It is cute, but I hope it grows FAST!!!

She is super excited so that is all that matters. :)

New words

Well in my last post about Hayden being 18 months old, I forgot some of the most important words that he is saying.

Mama
Dada
Daddy
"Gigi" for JESUS
Yuck (not important really but a word non the less)
Bubba (that is what the girls call him most of the time)

Hayden - 18 Months

My sweet baby boy is already 18 months old. I can't believe time has gone by so fast. He is such an amazingly funny and smart little boy. He is saying quite a few words. Some of the words he is saying regularly are... "ball, thank you, stinky, I dirty, papa, dog, juice, "ap" for apple, up, no, and many more. He gets into EVERYTHING - from the refrigerator to the fireplace. He loves to climb and bounce on things, which scares me to death. I know he is a boy and he needs to learn on his own, but I am not ready for an emergency trip just yet. He can open the refrigerator, doors, cabinets, and anything that he wants to get into. His favorite toys are balls, trucks/cars (anything on wheels), playing baseball with his tee (he is actually really good), books - favorite "Elmo-n-daddy Take Me Out To The Ballgame", drums, skateboards, tools, phones and any of his sisters toys he can get his hands on. Hayden loves music. It has to be upbeat though. He doesn't have much interest in slower songs. He is quite the dancer as well.

He also loves shoes, and always wants to be wearing someones, whether his own or someone Else's.

I am just so blessed to have this little guy in my life. I love him so much and the past 18 months have really been amazing.

I can't wait to see what the next 18 months have to hold :)

Graduation - Yeah!

Tonight at 3 pm, Shane graduated from Regis University with his MBA in Business. I was unable to get any clear pictures during the ceremony as there was a LOT of people there. They had over 900 students walking the stage out of about 2500 that graduated. I walked up as close as I could when it was his turn, but still was not able to capture any good shots. I guess we will just have to pay for the ones the photographer took. The graduation lasted about 3 hours. We unfortunetely forgot to discuss where we were going to meet after the ceremony was over. I walked around looking through thousands of people trying to find my wonderful husband. After about 15-20 of looking like an idiot, I finally found him. At that point my head and eyes were extremely bothering me and I let my frustration take over and I just wanted to get out of the auditorium. I regret that now as we have only 1 picture to show of the graduation (that is clear). None of us together or anything.

I am glad he was able to walk the stage and I am glad I was able to be there with him. Thank you mom and Dad for watching the kids for us.

After the graduation, we drove down to the 16th street mall and walked around. We stopped at a nice little cafe that was there to eat. It was cold outside and we were so tired. After a few hours we headed back to the hotel to relax. Once at the hotel, we went to the restaurant and shared a good $6 slither of apple pie (definitely not worth the money) in front of the fireplace. Then we went to our room to watch a movie and relax. We got to bed EARLY and slept in LATE. That was the greatest night in a LONG time (sleep wise). Ahhhh!!!

That night the temperature dropped to 0 degrees and it snowed ALOT. The next morning at the airport the temperature was -2, and when we arrived in Texas, the temp was 75 degrees. What a change in body temp. :) Then this morning the temp in texas was in the low 20's. What is going on? I love the cold weather though.

Regis University

Shane told me we didn't have to do anything else on our trip to Denver, but he had to go see the campus of Regis University where he graduated with his online MBA. It would be kinda strange to say you walked the stage, but never saw the campus. Of course that is exactly what we did. After checking into our hotel, we headed over to the campus. It was beautiful. The pictures don't do it justice. You would have to see it. The campus is backed by the beautiful snow covered Colorado mountains.

Regis has an amazing chapel. It had a handcarved cross with Jesus hanging on the wall directly in front of the pastors podium. It was really neat. What a great place to worship.

The entire campus was beautiful, and we were glad we had the opportunity to see it.

Denver Colorado

Shane finished his online MBA back in October, but couldn't walk the stage until this weekend (Dec 13). So, Shane and I took a quick overnight trip to Denver. My parents volunteered to watch the kids for us, which was a huge blessing. I don't think taking them to a 3 hour graduation would have gone over very well. We flew out of DFW at 7:20 am on saturday morning. When we arrived in Denver, we went to go pick up our rental car, which by the was was 12 miles away from the airport. When we got there and checked in, they sent us outside to get our car. No one was out there to show us to our car. Finally someone walked out and they showed us a lane of cars and told us to pick one and get in it. Note the picture of Shane standing by the cars. We thought we would save the money and just get a mid-size car since it was only the two of us for one night. Now, midsize cars are kinda silly looking. I think there was only one that wasn't. We decided we would go the route of the "silly" car. It was really small and had a very annoying blinker, but it was alot of fun. We never got to actually "pick" our car out before. I didn't know rental car places did that. Anyways! After we got our car we drove into Denver and checked into our hotel. It exceeded our expectations for the price. It was a really nice hotel. Then we headed over to see Regis University. Shane was super excited about getting to see the campus. It was a beautiful campus and had really interesting buildings.

Nutcracker

This is our 2nd Annual Nutcracker Production to take the girls too. We always allow the kids to bring a friend with them. Hailey of course wanted to bring her best friend Abby. Hannah brought Madi Weaver. We started our evening out a little crazy. We had a lot going on today, and the fact that we were rushing trying to get everything ready, we didnt have time to pick the girls up early to play. Shane picked Abby up around 4:30. They stopped at Chick-fil-A to get a quick dinner. They arrived back at the house about 5:25. We sat them down to eat, and hailey spilled abbys sprite all over the place. It was a mess. Then we found out Abby doesnt like chicken without honey mustard. So, shane made his homemade honeymustard (he mixed honey and mustard). That should do it right? No way!! I think she ate a few french fries. Poor girl. We were suppose to pick Madi up at 5:45. Now that didn't happen. We didn't even have the girls dressed. After we quickly scarfed down our food. We quickly dressed the girls in their beautiful dresses, and packed everyone up in the car. We headed over to the Weavers, loaded up Madi and then quickly headed to the stamps to drop off Hayden. Becky had made up some warm homemade chocolate chip cookies. The kids loved that. They quickly ate their yummy cookies. We finally arrived at the Will Rogers Memorial Auditorium. The girls were super excited. When we got inside they kept asking when it was going to start. At 7:30 if finally started. They were so cute watching the ballerinas. They all acted very good. We were shocked. We were expecting someone to do something. At the intermission I took Madi to go potty, and she asked me when the "princesses" were going to come out? Shane had made the mistake and told her that there was going to be princess' dancing. She thought Cinderella and all the other Disney princesses were going to be there. Way to go babe!! :) Madi understood and it didnt seem to upset her. Then, the last 20 minutes everyone started getting really tired. Hannah and Hailey both fell asleep. I think Abby crashed for a couple of minutes as well. Madi was tired and just laid her head on my arm. When the Nutcracker was over, we stopped at Quicktrip and everyone got a treat for being so good. Yes, I know, sugar that late at night is not very smart, but they deserved it. Then we went home and got ready for bed.