Is it over yet! Since Friday night (Dec. 26) Charly has been not keeping things down. After washing tons of bedding and santizing everything I hope it's all gone!

Our Christmas!

Christmas Eve we usually get with my side of the family at my parent's house. This year we were asked if we would host it. I was excited and my husband was really nervous and apprehensive. The reason my husband was so nervous was because that meant we were going to have 36 people(adult and kids) at our house at one time. That's all my siblings and their families, my parents, my dad's mom, and my dad's twin brother and his family. We had some great food and were able to do a different kind gift exchange this year.
I personally didn't take a lot pictures this Christmas. Once I sat down to download the pictures I could tell who did get a hold of my camera. My brother Wowo and my two girls.






After everyone left Wowo stuck around with his dog and they played with the girls. I think that might have been the girls favorite part of the evening. Thanks Wowo for hanging out and letting the girls play with your dog.

Our Christmas day was so quite and we were able to enjoy it here as a family. We got to play our new Wii (our family gift) most of the morning and into the afternoon. We then went out and spent the evening with Eric's sister and her family. We ate some yummy soup in bread bowls. It was a nice balanced holiday being with family and friends.

O Christmas Tree!!

One of our traditions is to make these yummy cinnaball trees and take them to friends. This year I made only three. One for us to eat Christmas morning, one for our neighbors across the street (they take great care of us), and one for a great family in Plano. I wanted to make many more, but with me having all my family over for Christmas Eve it just didn't happen.

That time again!!

Mackenna decided it's time to cut her hair again to donate to locks of love. Lately it has been a fight to do her hair. She has become tender headed and hates for anyone to brush or even look at her hair. So Mom and Dad agreed and we cut the pony tail off.

Before:


After:


This is not the best picture of her but it will give you a good idea of how short her hair is now. She's excited to go to school to show her teacher.

Christmas Outfits!

When I saw these dresses at the store I fell in love with them and made the decision that these were going to be the girls' Christmas dresses. Just beautiful. They look like ANGELS!



Since I went with an all off white dress for the girls I knew I wanted to bring out the Christmas colors through Pierce's outfit. It's not my first pick and I actually don't care for it too much. I wanted an all red sweater with his black trousers, but when I started to look, they were all gone. This blue sweater was the only thing I could find. Mental note for next year: DON'T WAIT UNTIL THE LAST MINUTE, KRISTI.



Just another picture of the girls that I love.

These are my great friends Sarah and Jon. I grew up with Sarah as a youth and she has always has been someone that I can trust. We saw each other a few times while we lived in Idaho a few years back. The above picture was taken at their house during our visit. They have had a hard time getting pregnant, but I'm so EXCITED to say that she's 15 weeks along. She's due the beginning of June. Sarah I love you and know that you're going to be a great Mother. I can't wait to see you next year and to get our babies together. Congratulations!!

This past weekend we went Waxahachie to walk through the city of Jerusalem that they set up. They reenact the story of the birth of Christ. It includes King Herod and the wise men seeking his permission to enter the city to find the new born King. The sheppards and an angel appearing to them. It has the kings guards and the tax collector. Anyone that doesn't pay there taxes are thrown in jail. It shows Mary and Joseph seeking a room at the inn but being turned away to the stable.

This is a picture of the kids getting started. They're all warm bundled up in their jackets, hats and gloves.


This is a scene of the three Wise Men talking to the King.


Throughout the city there was various things you could see/touch. This is where Kenna got to help grind olives to make olive oil. Other places were you got to see what they used to die the cotton to make different colors for quilts, bags and clothing.


The end of the story is where you see Mary and Joseph in the stable with the baby Jesus. The three Wise Men find them by following the star and bring gifts to the new born King.


Inside the Presbyterian Church that puts this event together, is found the quilt in the picture below. It's of The Last Supper and called "The Supper Quilt". It has 51,816 squares of cotton fabric(many hand dyed). It was planned and put together by a dentist in Waxahachie, Dr. Don Locke. He was there that evening and we were able to talk to him. It's an amazing piece of art. The quilting (the part where someone stitches decorative lines throughout the quilt) was done by Linda Taylor a member of the church that used to live in McKinney. Small world.


We're so grateful that we were able to go again this year. The girls absolutely love it. It gives us a great opportunity to talk with them about the story of our Savior and for them to visualize it at the same time. What a great feeling we had. It was worth the traffic and travel time.

The girls were able to ride a pony for the first time at a friends birthday party. They both loved it. Charly chose to ride only one time. She wanted the pony only to walk. It was a nice calm ride.


Mackenna chose to ride the pony several times and asked if it could gallop. I think she fell in love with ponies and animals that day. They had a lot of animals to feed and Kenna couldn't get enough.


Thanks Raegan for the invite to your party. We all had a great time. We hope you have a great day on your actual b-day.

BOYS! BOYS! BOYS!

I just don't what to do with this little boy. He's an accident waiting to happen. He's into everything and always getting hurt in the process. He had two accidents in one day.

Accident #2: I was gone for this one. As I was picking up my friends kids to watch them for the evening I get a phone call from Eric saying that Pierce had an accident. He said, "he's okay but hurt". I didn't know what that meant but I wasn't too far from home so when I get there this is the the face I saw. He decided to pull down Charlize's stocking, which something very heavy quickly followed the stocking holder. It got him right on the head.



Accident #1: He has figured out that if he stands on the handle of our nice lazy boy recliner he can get on the chair by himself. Well he did that on Tuesday. One moment he was in the chair the next he was landing on his head in the kitchen(don't ask me how). If you can't tell he has a big knot and bruise on his forehead.



I'm afraid we're going to need invest in better insurance because something tells me we're going to have a lot ER visits with this little guy(which I hope we don't-the first one wasn't fun).

Welcome Ellianne Bishop

Our great friends had their baby Monday morning. We went to visit them that evening and it was busy. She had a ton of visitors. We didn't stay as long as we would have liked, but just enough time for us to hold the cute Ellianne. The girls loved holding the baby and did a great job. They're really looking forward to ours in June. I'm sure they're going to be great helpers.