Day After Christmas At Nana & Poppa's House

Ready For Christmas Fun @ Nana & Poppa's
Attempt At A Family Photo
My Wonderful Grandparents
Santa Girls - Megan & Rylie
Don't Ask! He Was Immitating Megan Playing Her Flute!

The day after Christmas we celebrated the holidays with my mom's side of the family! We always enjoy seeing our family! Megan was in from Tennessee & it's always good to see her too! At one point Megan got out her flute (she's been taking lessons recently) & she played a few Christmas carols for us. Chase then decided to try too by playing the "flute" on a large plastic candy cane!!! It was priceless! The kids had a great time & got more great presents! They had a wonderful Christmas!

Christmas Day At Big Daddy's House

Christmas @ Big Daddy's House
Rylie & Daddy Opening Presents
Big Daddy Helping Chase Open His Scooter
Gator & Mommy Love Christmas
Family Christmas Photo

Christmas day around 2:00 we made it to Tyler! We started off at my dad's house. The kids had fun opening up more goodies! After "Big Daddy's" house we headed over to my grandmother's house to see family we haven't seen since last Christmas!

Christmas Morning 2007

Santa's Load For Chase & Rylie
Rylie Got The CD Player She Asked For!
Chase Loves His New "Scoop" Gator & His Pile Of Presents
Wow! A Hannah Montana Dance Mat!

The kids had a great load from Santa along w/ the stuff we got them & the presents they got to open from Ellis's family that they sent w/ us at Thanksgiving. Rylie got her CD player & CDs she asked for & Gator got his cookie! They got plenty of good stuff to keep them busy for a while!

Christmas Eve - Part 3 - "Pajama Picnic/Movie Time"

Rylie & Daddy At Our Family Pajama Picnic
Christmas Eve Pajama Picnic
It's Pajama Time!!!
Snuggling & Watching A Movie

Our main event of the the evening on Christmas Eve was a pajama picnic in the living room & watching Christmas movies. The kids had fun, but nobody really paid much attention to the movie w/ all the excitement of getting ready for Santa. Rylie was basically asking to go to bed so she could pass the time until Santa came to our house! We all really did enjoy our quality time together!

Christmas Eve - Part 2 - "Misc. Pictures"

My Sweethearts On Christmas Eve
Decorating Jesus' Birthday Cake - Pretty, Huh?!
Showing Off The Early Gift - "The Jungle Book" DVD
Gator Looking At His New Book From His Teachers

After decorating the cookies & cake, we got ready for our family fun night! One of the highlights of the evening for the kids was opening ONE present early! We saved the rest for Christmas morning. They each got to pick whichever present they wanted out from under the tree. (They both picked out pretty boring presents of all the stuff under there). Rylie opened up "The Jungle Book" DVD. Chase chose to open up his present from his teachers at school - a Winnie The Pooh alphabet workbook.

Christmas Eve - Part 1 - "Baking Fun"

Rylie & Gator Decorating Cookies For Santa
My Little Chef
Making A Birthday Cake For Jesus
Mmmm - Yummy!
The Best Part Of Making A Cake

On Christmas Eve the kids & I did lots of baking! Our main features were cookies for Santa Claus & a birthday cake for Jesus! I bought the pre-cut sugar cookies (I'm too lazy to actually make dough, roll it out & use cookie cutters). The kids got to ice them & sprinkle them! Chase & Rylie both poured WAY too many sprinkles on each cookie! I guess they think the more sugar the better! Needless to say, they were very sweet! It's a good think Santa has a sweet tooth! The kids enjoyed mixing all the cake ingredients together & then of course the best part - licking to spoons! Normally Rylie won't do it, but this time she figured out the yummy goodness that's left behind! After the cake was done they got to decorate w/ sprinkles & it was definately interesting looking! Once again - way too many sprinkles. But we had fun making it all & that's the whole point!

Santa Send-Off Sing-Along @ La Centerra

Morgan Hartfield & Rylie @ La Centerra
Santa & Rylie

On Christmas Eve, the kids & I went w/ some of our neighbors (the Hartfields) to a Santa Send-Off Sing-Along at La Centerra. It wasn't as exciting as we had hoped it would be, but the kids enjoyed singing some Christmas carols & getting to sit in Santa's lap & make their requests one last time before he makes his big adventure around the world tonight! The only reason Chase chose to get near him today was because he was giving out candy canes!

Pajama Day At School

Morgan Hartfield & Rylie Waiting For The Bus
Ethan Boehm & Rylie
Samantha Thompson & Rylie

On the last day of school before Christmas break, which was also an early dismissal day, the entire school had a pajama day! All the kids also got to listen to a story - The Polar Express! It was a fun day for all the kids & teachers too! Rylie loved being able to wear her warm fuzzy jammies & also her funky houseshoes to school!

Rylie's New Haircut

After much negotiating, Rylie got a haircut! I LOVE her hair long, but it was to the point where it was starting to get stringy & just plain flat!!! So I took her to get a haircut even though she was scared. The only reason that she was scared is because she wanted to go to Cool Cuts 4 Kids, but I wanted to go where I now take Chase (& where I like it better) & also where Ellis goes to get his haircuts. So once we got there, it took some convincing to get her to sit in the chair, but she did. She got to decide how short she wanted it! So we decided to post the before & after shots! (Take in mind that her hair isn't fixed! It should look even cuter tomorrow when I fix her hair for school!)

Preschool Christmas Party

Making A Nativity Scene Craft
Decorating A Christmas Cookie
Chase & Avery Singing Silly Songs
Reading His New Book

Today Chase's class at preschool had their Christmas party! They started off by making a nativity scene craft w/ stickers on paper plates. Then they picked out sugar cookies (Chase picked a Christmas tree w/ green icing) & they got to decorate them w/ sprinkles! Then their music teacher, Ms. Kristen, led them in the singing of silly songs & read them a Christmas story. After that they did a book exchange. Each child brought a wrapped book to give. Chase got the book "A Silly Snowy Day" from his friend Brody Smith!

Eureka - Part 3

On Wednesday, December 19th, the Kindergarteners did their 3rd Eureka experiment! This lesson was all about weather! The kids got to experiment w/ a Van der Graaf machine & learn about static electricity & lightning. They also learned about clouds & rain & how to measure the temperature on thermometers. Their favorite experiment was the tornadoes in a bottle. There were larger ones on display that were used as demonstrations & each child got to make a small one to take home w/ them!

Celebrating Christmas w/ The Hill Girls

Last Saturday the kids & I spent the day w/ Amber, Brynnan & Blaire Hill at their house & we did a gift exchange w/ the kids. Rylie, Chase & Brynnan enjoyed opening their presents & Blaire had a good time find spare scraps of wrapping paper to play with! The Hill's gave Rylie an Eloise DVD which we had the pleasure of watching 2x while we were there & also the High School Musical 2 Soundtrack CD that we listened to all the way home! Chase got cute new alligator pj's, a picture frame for his room, & 2 really cool books!

Amber also made cookies w/ Rylie - she got to cut out a few cookie cutter shapes & sprinkle them! Lots of fun!!!

Chase's Preschool Christmas Program

December 11, 2007 was Chase's preschool Christmas program! All the kids wore their Christmas pajamas instead of doing costumes! Chase's class sang Jingle Bells as they rang bells along w/ the song. Of course Chase didn't sing (since he barely talks), but he did an excellent job of ringing those bells!

I tried to get good pictures, but stupid me left my good camera at home & had to deal w/ the older one that had a dying battery! And to top it off - every time I tried to take a picture, the lady in front of me would move her head right in front of my camera! Ugh! Oh well . . I got what I could!