Watching Friends

Our friends spent the day with us.  Their father took their older brother to a Texans vs Titans game in Tennessee this weekend.  He asked if I'd watch them today.  

McKenna's Reading Party

McKenna finished her 100 reading lessons and we got to celebrate at her ice cream party. McKenna is the cutie standing between Lexi and Jordan.

Disney Live

For Christmas, my boss and his wife sent us tickets to Disney Live - Princesses & Pirates.  We went this evening.  The first half of the show was a princess story.  The second half was much more entertaining for us.  My kids like Jake and the Neverland Pirates.  Captain Hook is always a fascinating character.  

Christmas Evening

This evening we went to our close friends' house for dinner & fun.  

Papa Steve played the accordion.

Picture of me with Aunt Melissa - we were very good friends in high school.  Now, the kids adore her and are very excited every time she comes to town.

Christmas Morning & Day

This morning, I got up around 6:30 to turn on the Christmas lights and start breakfast.  I pulled out the mixer to make cinnamon rolls.  I didn't really feel like making or eating them. Before starting, I heard giggling upstairs.  I found these two in Lexi's bed.  They were quite excited.  I asked them if they wanted cinnamon rolls and they said nope.  Lexi wasn't "in the mood for all that sugar." They wanted cereal.  We started the morning with photos.

Empty Santa Cookies Plate

Fresh Juice

Stockings

From Grandma & Papa - Lexi had been wanting a jersey since school started

Exchanging Our Gifts to Each Other

Presents from Church Members

Nintendo DS

Gifts from Santa

All the Gifts

Skating Queen

Play Time

Outside

Christmas Eve 2013

We were invited to have Christmas Eve dinner with families from church.  They are families we know, but don't socialize with very often.  It was great to get to know them better. We had a wonderful dinner and a wonderful time.  Before we left, one of them said he had packages for us to take home.  He had quite a few packages for the kids.

We got home and opened one present.  Following my family's tradition, the kids got pjs.  They put them on and quickly got ready for bed.  My kids are not horrible about going to bed, but they were very excited about it.  Lexi was so excited she could not contain herself.  I took a video of her silliness.  It took a while for her to fall asleep.  It was after 10 pm.

Too Excited

Disney Movie

This morning, I thought it would be a great day to watch Frozen.  Lots of people have told me that this movie is amazing.  I had it all planned out and then I got a text from a friend asking what our plans were.  She asked if they could go with us.  I had to get a picture.  These are some of the kids' closest friends.  We have quite a few playdates at their house.  It made watching the movie so fun for all of us.

Christmas Talk at Church

Lexi gave a talk in Primary this morning.  When we got home, she asked me make a video of her reading it.

Big Christmas Show

This evening, a friend took us to his church's Christmas show.  It is the Second Baptist church. They have amazing train villages set up in the lobby.  It was quite a spectacular show and seemed very Disney live show-ish, which is a bit different than we are used to for the story of the birth of Christ.