Later Christmas Eve

Laney and Claire were pumped about eating their tamales together at the kid table. Laney ate everything on her plate and then everything on Claire's plate, and then what was left on G's plate. Sheesh!After dinner, the kids were sent into Bobbis and Kevin's room so that we could get all their presents out and ready! Here is a shot before the mayhem begins!
Plasma cars from my mom and Kevin were a huge hit with Grant, Claire, and Laney. They are really cool. Laney has been trying to make hers work on our carpet at home, but it will be more fun on the back porch when it warms up a little!

Laney got this Rody horse from Grant, Claire, and Tess. It is so cool. She loves rocking on it right now and soon we will take the rocking attachment off so that she can bounce around the house on it. It is like one of those balls with handles that we used sit and bounce on. It is pretty awesome! My mom got Laney this amazing doll, Ling. She is a little Chinese girl and when you squeeze her hand she says phrases in Chinese. I love it!!! She says "I love you","I like to play", she says colors and counts in Chinese!
Laney loved driving her little Crayon TaDoodles car full of markers around my mom and Kevin's house.

Grant was so much fun all night! He is such a good big brother/cousin. It is wild to me that this is our sixth Christmas to celebrate with him. Time flies!!!!! It makes me want to treasure every second with Laney, because before I know it she is going to be a big kid in kindergarten like G-man!

Laney got cutie pie vans from Aunt Caitlin. Cait definitely keeps us all cool!!!

Early Christmas Eve

My mom, Cait and I went to the early candlelight service at our church on Christmas Eve. We got to sit near Todd in the sound booth, and Laney was sneaking looks at her daddy during the service! Afterwards we passed by the nativity scene and Laney stopped to check out Baby Jesus and blow Him some kisses!

After our churches' candlelight services, we all meet at my mom and Kevin's for a Christmas eve celebration. We have tons of traditions and it is always a fun night usually lasting until well after midnight!
Laney was excited right from the get go!

As soon as her cousins (in the cutest matching dresses ever...except Grant of course) arrived, the pretzels came out!

This is such a sweet picture of Laney in her gorgeous Christmas dress!

Laney and her Bobbis! Bobbis is one of Laney's few words. She says it when we pull up to her house, when she sees her car, when I am on the phone. She loves her Bobbis!

After lots of pictures, all the kids, and all the girls opened up their matching Christmas jammies so that we could be comfy cozy for dinner and presents!

Changing into jammies gave Laney the perfect opportunity to try on some of Aunt Caitlin's shoes. The girl loves shoes!

Todd, Jack and Kevin don't get matching jammies, so they just have to stay in their church clothes for the duration. I think that they are okay with it. Here we are all set for the fun to begin!

Christmas Eve Eve....

Also known as Kevin's birthday. We get to get the celebrating started one day early with my family, because Kevin's birthday is the 23rd. My mom had a little party for him tonight and of course, we had so much fun. Laney loved playing with Claire after their week of separation due to Claire's tummy bug!!!!
ALWAYS, as soon as we get to my mom and Kevin's house, the kids head straight to the walk in pantry, grab the giant bucket of pretzels and start to chow down. It is a huge draw at Bobbis's house

Laney sitting at the kid table and loving it!


How cute is my sweet nephew!!!

The girls ran laps around my mom's house, laughing so hard at each other the whole time.


Claire loves when she and Laney wear their matching converse. At this point she was helping Laney take them off with her. She sang "Jingle Bells" to her for the whole process, which was not a quick one!


The girls were loving pop up books with Todd.

The best part of any birthday party is the cake. All the kids got to help Kev blow out the candles!

Photo Session!

About a week ago, I put my sweet daughter through what felt like hours of endless torture. Posing for a christmas card picture! Who knew how hard it would be to capture the joy that we are experiencing this very first Christmas together!

We got to my mom's house and started playing on the floor with Kevin and the cars. Lots of smiles there.


Then I started trying to take some posed shots......where did that smile go???






As soon as we got home and started playing in the yard, the smile was back in full force! Lesson learned, next year you might be seeing watering cans and sprinklers in our Christmas pictures!!!

Santa on the Roof!

One of my favorite family traditions that has been in place since we were little kids is Santa on the Roof. My mom used to invite nearly every single kid that we knew to come over and sing carols on our front lawn. She told us that Santa was in the neighborhood and if we sang loud enough he would find his way to our house. We would follow along in the songbooks that my mom made and inevitably when we got to "Up on the Housetop" Santa would find his way to our roof!!! He would walk down to the edge of our roof and begin calling each child by name. Every child had a gift in his sack with their name on it. It was so exciting!! My mom, who never worked less than two jobs while we were growing up, organized this entire thing! After having just two SotR parties under our belts, my sister and I are amazed that my mom did with such ease. My mom is amazing! So, we had a blast! Since Jessica lives in the house that we grew up in, it was kind of surreal standing and singing on the lawn looking up at Santa in the same exact place I did as a child. It is even more fun with Laney in my arms waiting to get her special gift from Santa!!!
Here is a picture of my mom with the girls before everything got started. It looks like she was checking to see if Santa made an early arrival on the roof!


This looks like I took a picture of the tree, but I was trying to get one of all the kids singing. There were LOTS of little carolers!

Of course, Ella and Joshua came to see Santa. Joshua brought french fries with him, which made him even more popular than the main attraction!

"Up on the Housetop!"

Aunt Caitlin held Laney as she waited with bated breath!!

One of my best friend's from high school, Jennifer, got to come with her precious daughter Kamryn. Jen used to come to Santa on the Roof when we were young, so it was so fun to have them!



Once Santa came down off the roof, he was ready to pose for some pictures. Laney and Ella were so excited to sit on his lap!!

After all the singing and gift throwing is complete, we all go inside for hot chocolate and treats! Claire and Laney were enjoying a lollipop from their gift bags.

Jessica and I have started a lollipop bouquet business, Pop Culture! Santa already placed an order so that he could put a lollipop in each gift bag. We also made bouquets for SotR to showcase our product. Visit our blog if you would like to see what we are about. Lollipops are yet another tradition in our family. My mom had a business, Lickety Sticks, when we were little.