Christmas in Houston

Next stop was in Houston with my dad's family. It's so great to see everyone! We all come so it's a big crowd and so much fun. One of my favorite things at Christmas time. 

 My little girlies ready for the Christmas party!

Wheel barrow rides from Papaw. A tradition. Super sweet

Vintage toys are the best!! I played on this toy 30 years ago with my cousins:)

Sweet pic of Adalyn and Riley. 

Cousins, Seth, Avery and Hunter! These three are the same age and we get a cute pic of them every year.

Adalyn could have done without the present from Santa:)

 Avery and Elise

 Little cousin cuties! Adalyn and Campbell

Pinata fun!

 My Memaw and Papaw:)

 cute pic of Nini and Addy:)

Christmas in Abilene

We had a great time with family in Abilene for Christmas! The girls really love their cousins, Gage and Griffin. It was such couple of days! Nana and Grandpa have lots of fun things to do at their house! Luke's dad has a train station that is pretty cool. The kids are fascinated by it! Sweet memories.

The cousins digging into presents!

Adalyn got a new baby and she was obesessed.

Grandpa and his littles

The train depot. This thing is no joke!

Sweet Griffin and Avery. They love each other so much!

Adalyn learning the ropes:)

Our Christmas Morning 2012

We had a wonderful family Christmas at home. I love experiencing Christmas through my kid's eyes. So much magic and so precious. Luke and I had so much fun making it special for them. 

We did an Advent tree this year. All of our kids at church got ornaments and the verses and stories behind each ornament. Such a neat thing! Avery loved it and learned so much.

Avery spent a lot of time making gingerbread cookies for Santa on Christmas Eve. She loves baking!

 My little cuties all ready for bed on our Christmas Eve!

 Avery was so excited to leave the cookies and milk for Santa. She made enough for each reindeer too.

 Santa came!! 

 They ran in giggling. So so precious.

 This little cutie was so excited about her new babies and grocery cart:)

 New rides!

 The main thing she asked Santa for, Cookie the dog:) She was SO excited

Those cheeks are too much for me!

 So excited to get her American Girl from mommy and daddy.

Our traditional birthday party for Jesus! Hope my girls always remember why we celebrate.

Christmas Program 2012

Avery's preschool Christmas program was a few weeks ago right before Christmas break. It is just the sweetest thing! I cry every year. She did great and really loved being in the front and got into the hand motions:) All my pics were blurry for some reason. I'm wearing my camera out, it's on it's last leg!

She waved at every single person who would look at her on the way in and out. Cracked us up.

 Some of Avery's friends and one of her teachers. She is blessed with sweet little friends in her class and a teacher who I LOVE. I wish she could be her teacher every year in every grade! She is amazing and such a Godly example. 

 Sweet sisters! Adalyn really enjoyed watching the kids sing. When it was over she was tired and grumpy, thus the paci:)

So proud of her and love her so much!!

Christmas 2012 blogs to come!! Whenever I can find the time that is:)

December

I can't believe Christmas is in 8 days! This month has really flown by because we have been so busy. Hoping to slow down this next week and enjoy Christmas with the family. Avery is getting super excited about Christmas and I LOVE seeing it through her eyes. She thinks Jesus' birthday is the coolest thing ever! Probably because she gets presents but I'll take it! We have been doing the Advent ornaments this year and loving that. A lady at our church handmade all the ornaments for every child. Amazing! We've hosted three parties at our house in 3 weeks, seen Santa twice, driven around to look at Christmas lights dozens of times and listened to Rudolph and Jingle Bells hundreds of times:) I'm exhausted but loving every minute! Here is the recap of the month so far in pictures:

One of our trips to see Santa. Each trip looked the same. Poor Adalyn! :)

My sweet babies in their Christmas dresses

We put some lights outside and Avery enjoyed helping

Addy enjoyed chilling and watching all the work:)

Venture play date Christmas party. We had a book exchange and it was lots of fun!

Our sweet friends, the Jacksons moved to Corpus Christi. We had a going away party for them at our house and it was a bittersweet time. We will miss them so much!

Avery will especially miss her bestie, Avery Kate.

Adalyn and Crews. I'll miss watching him grow! :( 

We had our first ladies retreat at church and it was SO much fun! Almost half of our group was able to go. We had a great weekend together!

The lake house we stayed in was breathtaking!

I gained 10 lb after all the yummy treats;)

We also had a tacky sweater Christmas party at our house. So hilarious! 

I laughed all night at some of the sweaters.

Loved seeing Luke in a Christmas tree turtle neck:)

In the midst of all the craziness, these sweet babies have made me smile every single day.