Besides our Christmas celebration, we did a lot of playing and loving on our cousins!
These two are so cute together. They are best little buddies. Which totally doesn't surprise me, because all of Taylors BFF's are boys.
So cute...(She's a year older than him!)
Angelynna had a birthday before Christmas, so she got her gift from Grandma:
Love that we can play outside (not in the snow) at Christmas time when we're down there. Totally comfortable and nice out. This boy, of course, found the dog food and really, anything dog, and wanted to play in it.
He was so happy in this little car. We definitely need to get him one!
Before we had our Christmas, I was tasked with the duty of helping grandpa decorate the outside of the house. He has been accused of being a little Clark Griswold-esk, and it's true, he usually buys any sort of outdoor decoration he can find, and had them all arranged in the front yard and on the back deck. My mother in law is less than thrilled about all of these decorations, but I was tasked to help, so that I did. Here was the little corner I was in charge of:
Another thing we love about grandma's house is the delicious food!!! Every meal is wonderful there, and I love that their tastes in food are so similar to mine, Endless amounts of cheese and dips and chips and soda and snack foods, along with the delicious traditional southern home made food my mother in law always makes. It's heaven, I tell ya!
We got to spend lots of time working on and playing with our new Christmas toys. Tucker got a science project gift where you use the energy of a lemon to power a clock. You literally 'plug in' the cords from the clock face into the lemon. It was pretty cool!
Josh being Josh:
This is my favorite picture of Lynlee. She has all the kids piled on her, they are, of course, playing on the I pad, and she is intently watching football. I don't think she was, but she sure looks pissed about all of them being there! :) ha ha!
Sophie got a laser pointer in her stocking, and seriously, I have never seen Jackson so excited about/ intent on something. It was so cute, she would point it on the ground, and he would chase and chase and chase it around! I need to get me one of those for him! Sweet Sophie was so good to him all weekend, letting him chase her around!
One night Ben gathered the kids before bedtime to tell them a scary story. I was a little nervous, as sometimes Ben takes things too far, and, of course, he did. But for the most part the kids were totally into it. I think some of the little girls were the ones who got scared. I can't even remember what the story was about, but he is so good at making these things up on a whim. I don't know how he does it!
I don't remember the ending, but this was the reaction...
This little stinker was just happy to be a part of the big kids gang...
Oh, and it happened to be this guy's birthday. I always feel so bad because we are usually in Alabama. I can't plan anything fun, because we are usually home bound while there, and dependent on others for any form of transportation. He is the one that is in contact with his friends, if we are going to see them. I don't want to step on his mom's toes if she wants to do something, but most of the time, there's just too many people and things going on to focus any time on him for his birthday. It really sucks!! December 28th is an awful day to have a birthday. But, I did snap this picture of him with the kiddies so that I could give him a little shout out and love on facebook.
{I can't let today pass without wishing this guy a happy day! The best daddy and a pretty fun partner in crime. Too bad the laryngitis kept him in bed all day, but here's to hoping 35 only gets better from here}
That is what I posted on facebook. I forgot that he had been in bed all that day not feeling well, and his voice had totally left him. He, of course, made fun of me for 'diagnosing' him with laryngitis and asking me where I went to medical school. He never actually went to a Dr. but we all knew. :) I sure do love that guy! He also looks really hot in that picture withe kids! :)
Spent many hours putting together toys. Really, how many Pypers does it take to put together a mini toy car?
I think that the kids had more fun with the packaging than with the actual car. OK, that's not true, the car was a total hit, but still, the packaging was super fun!
He's on grandma's lap with a 'bop' in each hand, life is good for this little dude!
Tucker got a cool pogo stick from grandma, but was a little nervous to learn how to do it for some reason. It was kind of big, I don't know if that kind of intimidated him. But it was very cute and sweet to see his cousins rally around him and encourage him. Also, grandma stepped right in to help him. (as did I--I didn't just leave him to learn on his own) :)
OK, the car was a HUGE hit once it was assembled. And it is seriously so cool for them to be able to drive around. It's actually our car. Grandma got one for each family, but since we can never bring our big things home, ours are the ones that get to stay at grandma and grandpa's house. Just like BOTH of those rip riders that you see in the background of this picture. The red one and the pink one. Both ours, one is Tucker's and one is Taylor's. But they stay at grandma's house because we can't bring them home. :(
These two cuties got matching jammies. I love that Sophie girl. We had a little incident with Sophie. Ben is totally unaware of how these young kids socialize. Sophie was texting one of her friends in Nashville, and somehow Ben got a hold of the phone and texted this girl back about how Sophie liked this boy that they had just been texting about. Ben was joking, and when Sophie saw what he did, she burst into tears. I felt so bad. This is when I entered the scene, I was unaware of what had happened. He tried to make it right, but she was concerned that this friend was going to text everyone in the school about how she liked this boy, which wasn't true. And blah blah blah. Ben tried to make it right, and I think that he learned a very important lesson on not messing with a tween's phone. This is serious business these days. I don't know what we're going to do when our own kids are that age!! Taylor reminds me a lot of Sophie. Sophie was the first grandbaby born after I became part of the family, so she always holds a special place in my heart. :) Love her!
Of course, cousin I Pad bonding time. These two are so cute together!
Had to document the head to toe Alabama outfit. Grandpa and his outfits. :) Love them!
Terra was my New Years date this year. Seriously, all of the other adults were in bed. It was so lame. I do always know that I can count on Terra to stay up with me. We were watching murder mysteries. That's pretty much what we watch every night while we're there. Ben's mom is obsessed. She gets us obsessed. Funny thing is, I never watch them here in Spokane. Only there. Ben's sisters I think watch them all the time too, at their homes. Anyway, Terra and I were up chatting and watching our mystery shows, and having a great time. We kept on hearing fireworks going off all around the neighborhood, and probably the whole town.
{This was the crappy quality of my old phone pictures when I turned the camera around. But I do love that Terra!! :)}
This boy's personality it totally starting to come out. Now that he can walk, he thinks that he owns the world and is just so much fun to play with! Can't wait for him to start talking and really hearing what he has to say! :)
New year's day dinner. Since they were all in bed at midnight, we let them have a little party with soda and/or sparkling cider for dinner on New year's day.
Can't complain about our wonderful Holiday season this year. We truly are so very blessed to have wonderful families and wonderful friends and people in our lives.
