Christmas morning

The highlights of Christmas morning were:
Austin - candy, remote controlled truck, guitar, and Mickey Mouse ears
Lilly - baby doll named Emma, remote controlled dog named Rosie, guitar and Minnie Mouse ears

This was a great Christmas!  The kids were so excited to put out reindeer food (for Rudolph and the girl reindeer according to Lilly) and milk and cookies for Santa.  Although we had to wake the kids up and also speed up their present opening process (as each one felt the need to put every tiny piece of wrapping paper in the trash bag before they ripped off another piece) we had a fun morning before heading to Richmond for Christmas with Dustin's mom's side of the family.

After 4 full days of family gatherings, much fun was had and many gifts were opened, but we were all glad to get some rest.  (All 4 of us got severe colds after Christmas; we're all still fighting them and slowly trying to get back to normal around here.)

Christmas Eve with the Plunketts

Santa Parker, 1 yr

Brooke and Kenzie, 12 yrs

Brooke and Shelbie, 10 yrs



Brooke and Parker

Erica, Billy and Max, 3 yrs

Max

Chloee, 7 yrs, and Shelbie

Kenzie, Lilly, Chloee, Shelbie, Austin

Kenzie, Chloee, Austin, Shelbie and Lilly playing on Kenzie & Shelbie's new laptops

Kenzie with Papaw

Billy & Erica, Will & Brooke, Dustin & Andi



(Naked) Little Drummer Boy

Free Ride

The kids love it when there's laundry to be carried upstairs.  Occassionally, they'll talk Dustin into carrying them in the basket with the clothes. 



(I have no doubt about Dustin's strength, but at the rate the kids are growing these days, I don't know how much longer they'll be able to enjoy this free ride.) :o)

Haircuts

You know you have a great daycare when they even ofter hair cutting services. :o)  One of the babysitter's daughters comes to the daycare every so often to cut the kids' hair.  Being a boy, Austin gets his hair cut fairly regularly.  Lilly has only had 2 haircuts, one of them being the last one at the daycare.  She thought she was pretty hot stuff since she doesn't get this sort of treatment very often.

Christmas Cookies

The kids and I tried our hand at making Christmas cookies this year.  They actually turned out decent, and the kids had a blast with the whole process...

from rolling the dough and using their cookie cutters,

 to decorating and eating the icing,

 and even doing the dishes and cleaning up.



Fun at the mall

Time flies when you're having fun...

May 2008

2 and a half years later

 

The last 2 and a half years has certainly flown by! 

Breakfast with Santa

The kids got to have breakfast with Santa (and Grandma Jan and Papaw Bob) this weekend.  They did great with him again; went right up and got on his lap, told him what they wanted and smiled for pictures.  They were pretty fascinated with the reindeer food and candy cane he gave them.  They're still trying to grasp the concept that Christmas isn't tomorrow and they still have to wait a little longer before he brings them presents. :o)

 

 

This has been such a fun Christmas with them.  I think we've watched a Christmas movie or cartoon every day since Thanksgiving.  (Being the Christmas lover that I am, I'm thoroughly enjoying their excitement this year!)  They LOVE the Christmas lights on all the houses, and if they see the lights aren't on, they immediately deem them broken.  Every, single evening when we pull into the garage, they say, "Mommy, the Christmas lights are broken.  Daddy will have to fix them again."  My reply every, single evening is, "They aren't broken; it's just not dark enough yet."  Maybe one day soon they'll get it. :o)  Nonetheless, we're having a blast this December!

Say CHEESE!