South GA Trip

The day after Christmas, we woke up early to head down to South GA to see Stephen's family for the holidays.  The kids did well on the ride down (thank goodness, because it's about a 5 hour trip!).  We got to their papa's house and they ran all over the place!

We hung out most of the day Thursday.  On Friday, we went to lunch with "Uncle Randy" (Stephen's cousin).  Then, we went to a park for a little while... the kids had so much fun.  The weather was overcast and about 55 degrees, so it was a little chilly, but not unbearable.  Later that day, we went to Stephen's aunt's house to see a bunch of his cousins.

It was a couple of fun, late nights for the kids, but it was great to see all of Stephen's fam!

Parker loved the playground!

Stephen and I had a contest.  I couldn't, for the life of me, do the monkey bars like he so easily could (darn upper-body strength!)...

But Stephen couldn't hang upside down, like a monkey.  That takes agility and guts, right?  I think I win.

Here are some pictures from his aunt's house:

Taylor and Addie Grace (Randy's daughter).  She and Parker are 1 week apart.

It looks like Parker and Addie Grace are conspiring together.

Sweet Uncle Randy.

Our Christmas- Part 2

Merry Christmas, y'all!  We all woke up about 6:30 AM (a little later than I expected!) on Christmas morning.  It was hard to contain the girls' excitement and ask them to wait the 5 minutes it took to get their brother up, diaper changed, etc.  I think it was worth the wait.  The girls had so much fun.  Here are the pictures of the morning...

Checking out the loot from Santa.

After seeing what Santa brought them, we made breakfast and ate.  Then, we hit the tree.

After the tree, we all got dressed and headed up to my parents' house!  There, it was my family, my brother's family, my sister's family, my parents, and my Aunt Katherine from Florida.  It was utter chaos, if you can imagine 6 kids 10 and under unwrapping their goodies.  Good times.

Madeline excited about the hair streaking kit we got her.

Sydney didn't take this off all day.

Taylor getting her hair streaked.  Even I got in on the action!  I had a lovely pink stripe down the front of my hair.

My 2 favorite guys.

We ate brunch, hung out until about 3, and then made the trek home.  Back at home, the girls got a look at all their goods and played the rest of the day.  Parker got to play, too.  Stephen and I were packing for our trip the next morning, which I'll talk about next...

Our Christmas- Part 1

Well, Christmas just came and went, didn't it?  The decorations are now all packed away... presents are out of boxes and strewn on bedroom floors... the house is looking back to normal.  We had a wonderful Christmas this year.  Let me share about Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with you.  I'll break it into two parts, so I don't overwhelm you with pictures!

Christmas Eve, we had 14 family members over for lunch.  It was going to be 17, but 3 people were sick. :(  I hosted it at our house, though my mom did 85% of the cooking.  (Thanks, Mom!)

We got the house decorated with our fine (plastic) china.  

The kids' table is complete, especially with Aunt Kendall there.

Madeline's early Xmas present... braces!

Olivia and Sydney playing their Leapsters.

The girl cousins.

After everyone headed back to their abodes, we headed to church.  

Sydney fought every outfit I picked out, so this is what our compromise was.

Taylor looked SO CUTE (!) but didn't want her picture taken... there's no crying on Christmas Eve!

Getting out the cookies and milk for Santa!  Hoping he will come...

(...don't worry, he did!)

15 months!

• Parker has entered the world of "let's pull everything down/tear anything up that we can".  This includes: the box of crayons the girls use to color; Christmas tree ornaments; Christmas tissue paper/bows; toilet paper; Kleenexes; the girls' plates; anything with cords; and much more.
• Parker has started sitting in a booster seat at home!  No more high chair for him.
• He's continuing to know how to "use" things, but this month I've noticed a lot of girl-related things he is doing.  He knows how to put the phone to his ear, and put necklaces and headbands on...  good thing we got him some manly trucks for Christmas!  Maybe I'll get him some tools, too...
• He knows how to drink from a straw.
• He tried peanut butter for the first time.
• He has 4 molars that have popped through. 
• He celebrated his 2nd Christmas!
• He's showing that he understands us.  For example, if we are upstairs, and I'll say, "Let's go!", he will walk over to the top of the stairs for us to go.  If we say, "Let's go brush teeth!", he will walk over to the bathroom and get on the stool.
• For some reason, he loves to put his foot on the table.  He thinks it's a game when he push it off- he'll put it right back up and laugh.
• He does this "fake cry"- it's hilarious.  He scrunches up his face and cries, but there are no tears and he's back to a normal face within seconds.  Even the girls will say, "That's a fake cry!"
• He puts my phone up to his ear and says a version of hello that sounds line "errro!"

Parker's first selfie.

Little stinker.

Please excuse the lack of a shirt and the spaghetti mess, but here is his "fake cry".

This was him within 5 seconds later.  He's such a mess, in more ways than one!

Curly-Q. 

Christmas Fun

We've had some fun in the last few days, soaking in the fact that I don't have to work and the girls don't have to go to school!

Santa paid a visit to Sydney's school last week.  Each kid in her class got to sit in his lap, but Taylor's class just got to see him.  Her teachers said that she cried when he came in.  Poor Taylor.  She does like to walk around and say, "Ho! Ho! Ho!  Merrrrrrry Christmas!" in a deep voice like that Santa did.

I was given an embarrassment of riches from my sweet students and fellow teachers at school.  I had enough candy/donuts/restaurant gift cards to feed an army.  Luckily, I also got some beautiful scarves to help hide the fact that I soon won't be able to button my pants... 

This particular gift's "to/from" made me chuckle.

On Saturday, the girls on my mom's side of the family met in the middle at Perimeter Mall to go to lunch at The Cheesecake Factory.  I took Sydney and Taylor a little early, just to walk around the mall.  This is the mall I grew up going to, so it definitely brought back a rush of memories.

After lunch, we attempted our 4th annual gingerbread house.  Taylor was way more interested in chewing the gumballs, but it was still fun.

We've been reading bible verses every night from the advent calendar I made.  I was so proud of Sydney, and wanted to give a proud-mommy shout-out.  She read this entire verse, minus needing help on the words "thing" and "Mary"- all by herself!!

Crafts, crafts, and more crafts... the smartest thing I've done in a while is convert our rarely-used dining room table into a craft table.  I bought a thick table cloth to cover it and the girls can sit there and color, paint, glue... anything. Well, most anything.  Let's not go crazy.

Today, the kids were getting a little stir-crazy from being inside from all this rain.  Stephen had to work.  I braved it, and took all 3 kiddos to the bowling alley.  We ended up just playing the arcade games, but I think the girls probably enjoyed that more than they would have enjoyed bowling.

Our elf on the shelf has been around, too.  The girls wake up so early just to run downstairs to find him! (I'm talking, 5:30!!)  I don't have the creativity, nor the energy or, honestly, the desire to have him do funny things, so I haven't been taking pictures.  But, no need to worry... he is with us and has been reporting back to Santa.  Most reports have been good, minus a few days here and there.

So excited for Christmas!