O Christmas Card

My favorite time of the year includes getting and sending out Christmas cards!

This is what our main Christmas card looked like this year:

Front

Back

Another one I got pretty cheaply was:

My little card gallery!

2015: A Year in Review

2015 was a year of changes for our family!  A new job for Stephen, me no longer teaching and now staying home, construction on our house, new schools for Taylor and Parker, and more!  With change comes uncertainty, but, overall, it has been a good year of growth and experience for all of us.

Here are the highlights!

Places we visited:

• The Mountain House - three times
• Waycross- twice
• Jacksonville, FL- twice
• Day trip to Athens
• Day trip to Clemson, SC
• Weekend trip to Columbia, SC
• Day trip to Helen

Fun events:

• Celebrating ten years of marriage!
• My "retirement"
• Six Flags
• Several visits to Stone Mountain
• Sydney turned 7!
• Taylor turned 5!
• Parker turned 3!
• The addition of our playroom

Fun activities for the kids:

• Karate
• Cheer Camp
• VBC
• Swimming lessons
• New school for Taylor!
• Redecorating both girls' rooms
• New school for Parker!
• Soccer

Looking forward to and praying for a year of consistency, so I can get things figured out a bit better with our new changes.  Here's to 2016!

Christmas!!- Part 2

After doing Christmas at our house, we drove up to my sister's new house, which is about an hour away.  We hung out there for most of the day, while my parents, my aunt, and my brother and his family all got there a little later.  It was SO (!!) warm outside that we walked to a nearby park and played.  I didn't pack very well for our mini-trip, so we were all sweating like crazy.

That night, we ate our Christmas dinner and opened more presents under the tree.  We tried to control it better this year, but with 7 grandkids, 12 and under, it's not that easy!

The range of emotions for my mom, when she opened our present:

Shock!

Tears!

Happiness! (You see where I get it from, now, don't you?)

The next morning, Stephen and I took advantage of having some babysitters and went out for a run.  When we got back, we all walked to the park again.  This time, tennis rackets came with us.  I had already showered and dressed- in what is NOT tennis attire- but ended up playing anyways.  I'm talking, jeans, cardigan, fake Toms. no socks.  And 70+ degrees.  But it was SO much fun to play tennis- I haven't played much since my old college days!

The latest popular tennis attire.

After lunch, we headed over to my parents' house to see them and my aunt some more.  Parker's first request was to go to the barn (DeeDad's workshop) so they went off to do manly things.  My brother and his fam came along to the house, so we got to hang out with them more before heading back home.

Drilling some holes in DeeDad's barn!

Giving his little cousin, Ava, a kiss!

It was a truly wonderful Christmas.  It's my favorite time of the year.

Christmas!!- Part 1

Christmas has arrived!!  All this anticipation and now the big day was finally here.  We actually "slept in" a bit... the kids didn't start stirring until 7:30 AM!  I got our breakfast casserole heating in the oven, and made sure that Santa had actually come.  He did.  Whew.  (Sydney was a tad bit afraid that he might not.)

He came!

The kids came barreling down the stairs to check out their loot!  And luckily, they got the very things they had wanted!  Sydney had asked for a Frozen alarm clock and Minecraft.  Taylor had asked for blue Converse hightop sneakers.  Parker had asked for a "big truck", with the late addition of a train.

Santa also surprised them with a tablet for them to share.  Yay!

We ate breakfast, sang happy birthday to Jesus, and then headed to open the presents under the tree.  The kiddos unwrapped presents from us, and each other!  There were some class-made presents from Parker to us, and the girls' school does a Santa Shop where we can send in money and they can shop for whomever they decide.  I gave them money to shop for their siblings, and to see their faces light up when their gifts were opened were just priceless.

Getting excited!

This was to Parker from Taylor... some Jake and the Neverland Pirates body wash!

Sydney shopped for me... an adorable pen that said "Mom" :)

A necklace to Sydney from Taylor!

After the tree, we cleaned up, packed up, and headed to my sister's house!

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve morning started off with lots and lots of rain.  And thunder.  And warmth!  What is with this weather?

Anyways, our friends Monica, Tim, and Raegan came over, bringing a CFA nugget tray for lunch.  We ate, decorated cookies, exchanged presents, and played a few games.  The first game we played was Pie Face, which was hysterical.  You spin a number and then have to twist the contraption that many times, in hopes that the plastic hand with whipped cream on it doesn't pop up and hit you in the face.  We all had fun with that one!  The kids played upstairs while we adults played Taboo and the 90s Game.

We then headed to church, for the Christmas Eve service.  It was beautiful, topped off with the candle lighting at the end.  My favorite.

After church, we headed to our friend's house for the 6th annual Christmas Eve dinner there.  Everyone brought some food to share, drinks were had, and the kids all got to play together while the adults hung out.  It was a fun time.

They've all known each other since birth.

We headed home and got ready for bed so that Santa could come!...