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 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

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.

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!

Christmas at Grandma Teddy's

Christmas afternoon, we went to my mom's house. Andrew was so exhausted from the morning activities, that he fell asleep on the way there. He made it the first 10 minutes, but the last 5 from Rusk, he was out! So we just brought him in and layed him on the bed to finish up a nap.

Lillian would not wait to open presents though, so we went ahead and let him open his up when he woke up. Lillian loved her new princess flip-out couch from Grandma and her new Leapster games from Katy and Clay. She sat immediately and played them on the new couch. She would have loved to open her new Fashion Fairytale Barbie palace from Tory, but we knew it would be too hard to pack up and haul home if we opened it, so she surprisingly let us put it aside!

Andrew woke up and got his new guitar from Katy and Clay, movies from Tory, and Toy Story couch from Grandma. He was very excited!

Then they both dragged their new couches out to mom's big extra room to watch tv. They looked so cute laying in there watching.

We had some more yummy food too that evening and Brandon had to leave around 5 to drive home, but the kids and I stayed through the next day before driving home on Sunday afternoon. Although very rushed this year, we had a fun holiday trip to Alto and always enjoy spending time with my family!

Christmas at Grandpa JD's house

Christmas morning was spent at Grandpa JD's house. The kids were excited to see Santa visited them there as well! Lillian saw her new keyboard waiting and Andrew had a fun riding toy! He was a little wary at first, but then was excited to try it out. Then after breakfast and waiting for Brandon to arrive, we opened gifts. Andrew loves loves loves his new matchbox carwash. He has been playing with it at home lots. Lillian got some new Barbies and other toys she also is enjoying. Dad tried on his new snuggie from Tory.

Jamie made lots and lots of good food! I was so stuffed! We enjoyed visiting with them and my sisters and brother-in-law. And we put together Lillian's new Disney puzzle, which took Brandon, Lillian, and I to complete!

Then we had to rush off to my mom's house because Brandon had to leave by 5 that day to be back home and work the next day.

Happy Birthday, Baby Jesus!

My mom wanted to make sure the kids got the true meaning of Christmas, so bought a manger scene that they kids could touch and a book about the nativity to read the kids. It talked about it being Jesus's birthday. The kids learned to hold up each character in the nativity when mom read about them. Then we had a Christmas cake for Jesus's birthday! The kids sang the birthday song and blew out the candles. That was our start for Christmas in Alto.

Santa Came!

Santa visited our house last night. He knows we will be in Alto for Christmas, so he wanted to make sure the kids got their gifts before then. Lillian ran down the stairs this morning and was so excited! Andrew was a little less excited. I think he just wanted his normal morning routine. He came down and stared and then asked for his poptart! ha ha....He finally was excited later and rode his tricycle around the house quite a bit today. Lillian loved it all, but especially her Leapster! She wouldn't put it down to eat or anything! I think we have created a new video game monster!

Preschool Christmas

The kids had their Christmas parties at school today. Andrew enjoyed the yummy food...I think he ate all the grapes in the whole party tray for the class! Then openned up his book exchange present and his gift from his teacher. He was very excited to come home and show his daddy all his goodies!

Lillian's class exchanged books first and then went outside to hit a pinata! Each student had their turn hitting it. Her teacher waited for Lillian and a boy named Isaac to go last since she knew they would hit the hardest. It was cute to watch. The first 5 kids hit the pinata, but nothing happened, but when Lillian and Isaac got their turns, there were finally dents and the pinata was swinging around from the branch of the tree. Then finally, Lillian's teacher's assistant hit it open for them to collect the goodies.

Both kids had a great time and I know will miss preschool until it starts back in January!