Enjoying the Weather

We had to take advantage of 70 degree sunny weather after all the wet and cold days we have been having. Lillian got some good practice on her new bicycle and is getting the hang of it. Andrew followed around on his trike. Marjorie just relaxed out on a blanket in the grass for a bit taking in the fresh air. It was a great day to get out!

Christmas Day in Shiner

We spent Christmas day at Shiner with Brandon's side of the family. They had awesome homemade food and goodies and we opened gifts and enjoyed the time together. Andrew loved his new race track and Brandon helped him get it going there. Lillian's favorite gift there was her new dress up dress. Then when we got home, they opened their tents that they got there as well and I think they may be the hit for this year. They are playing with them everyday. I love them because they just pop out like those pop up hampers you can buy and are easy to fold away to not have out all the time. We had a great Christmas 2011! I can't believe this year is almost at an end. I think Marjorie enjoyed her first Christmas very much too!

Christmas Morning

Christmas morning, the kids got up to see that Santa had indeed visited overnight. Lillian came into our room telling us that Andrew was downstairs looking at the presents. I asked, "There are presents??" Lillian replied, "Yes! There are lots of them, come look!" So Brandon and I went down to see them check out all of their new toys. Lillian got the big bicycle she wanted and Andrew got some playsets he loves....especially the Toy Story Landfill playset. He just loves all the Toy Story stuff! Then we opened gifts for each other and Brandon was happy about his new shoes and I love my new Ipod Nano! I was still working out with the original iPod video, so it was bulky to run with and this is so tiny and neat! I love that it has the radio option as well. Afterwards, Marjorie finally woke up and we showed her her gifts which she loved. Then we had to quickly get dressed to head to Shiner for the day.

Lillian's Santa gifts

Lillian checking it all out

Andrew playing with his Toy Story Landfill

Andrew's Santa goodies

Marjorie and her Santa gifts

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve, Brandon was working a long shift and we were stuck at home. It was a rainy and cold day. I wanted to do something special, so we went out in the late afternoon to throw out our reindeer food for Santa's reindeer before it got dark. The kids enjoyed it, but were shivering to run back in the house fairly quick. Then we came in and watched Christmas movies and had hot cocoa and ate some of the cookies we made for Santa earlier that day. The kids were so excited to get ready for the next day! Oh, and of course Andrew didn't dump all of his reindeer food outside, he had to save some for the house, so I had him clean it up and he went and got his vaccuum! ha ha

Marjorie rolling over

Christmas at Grandpa JD's

Last Sunday, we spent the day at my dad's house for Christmas. Everyone had a great time opening gifts, the kids played outside a lot, and we broke in Molly's new poker set!










me and Marjorie


















Katy in her new footed pajamas

















Grandpa JD

















presents

















Tory and Jory

Grandpa reading to Lillian

Christmas at Grandma Teddy's house

We had a great early Christmas visit with my side of the family this past weekend. We spent Saturday at my mom's house. The kids had an awesome time at Grandma Teddy's opening gifts and playing inside and out all day. I could tell Andrew was wiped out because Brandon and I took him with us to Rusk to pick up pizza that night for everyone and we were in the car a minute and he passed out!





Grandma Teddy and Marjorie
















Grandma Teddy's annual tradition of reading the Christmas
story to the grandkids.






















Marjorie looking at her new gift from Grandma Teddy



















Parker on his new riding toy from us




















Lillian and Andrew opening gifts...Andrew's dino from Katy and Clay

All the kids in their matching pjs!

Lillian sings with her preschool class for Christmas

Andrew sings with his preschool class

5 Month Old Baby Girl

Marjorie turned 5 months on Monday! She is still our happy, easy-going baby! Only on this past Sunday, she popped her first tooth on the front bottom right side and the matching one is about to pop as well! So she has understandibly been a little cranky. But she has still been very happy mostly. She absolutely loves watching her brother and sister play and they make her laugh often. She also loves watching all the kids play at the gym daycare while mom gets a work-out in!

Marjorie has rolled over a few times, but doesn't have it down yet, but loves to grab her feet and roll to the side and look around. She has also been trying out baby food. I feed her once a day usually around 4:30 just so it is easier when not trying to feed the other kids at the same time. She loves bananas the most so far. She has also tasted momma's sweet potatoes when we are eating dinner and seems to enjoy them too.

Preschool Christmas Parties

The kids had some great holiday parties at school today! To put it how Lillian did,"Mom, this was the best party ever at school today!" ha ha!

I recorded both kids singing with their classes and I'll share those videos in seperate posts once they are uploaded.

They also had lots of goodies, exchanged books with classmates as a gift, and made some cute crafts. I'll have to share some pictures of the crafts too! I was lucky enough to have Brandon home this morning as well, so he watched Marjorie so I could be a little more free to enjoy the kids' parties.

St. Nick's Day 2011

We celebrate St. Nick's Day every year. My husband grew up celebrating it due to his German heritage, so we wanted to continue it with our kids. I have posted about this the last several years, so you can look back to read more about it. St. Nick came and left things in the kids' stockings last night and after me finally reminding them this morning about it, they finally ran in to see. They were very excited about their Veggietales DVDS and a couple of little stocking stuffers and Marjorie loved her fairy wand rattle! Lillian helped show it to her! It was a fun morning.

Laughter

SANTA

We got dressed up today and went to visit Santa! The kids were so cute this year. They went right up to him and Andrew looked all shy as they sat on his lap. Lillian leaned across and and whispered in Andrew's ear to remind him to tell Santa he wanted dinosaur toys for Christmas! ha ha....Then Andrew said "Dinosaurs" softly to Santa and then Lillian went on tell Santa what she wanted. I was so glad we didn't have any scaredy-cats this year! Marjorie was a little unsure of being held with her brother and sister, but it was a cute picture!