Christmas and New Year's Eve

Well, I hope this finds everyone having a happy new year. I am posting this today because I am a little behind. We enjoyed our holiday and we are enjoying cleaning up and out after the fact as well trying to begin to make room for Ellie Beth.
The day after Christmas we took the kids to Kiddie Kandids to get our annual Christmas pictures done. I have found that we can get in and out in less than an hour if I go the day after Christmas instead of trying to get in to get them done before the holidays. Here are our shots from this year.


The Sunday before Christmas we had a children's program at church Michal Kate and Noah both were a part of it. It was an uplifting experience to watch our kids remind us why we celebrate this joyous season. Though the much laughter was caused by Noah, our performer, for playing his imaginary guitar and looking through his imaginary camera all while singing with the rest of the kids! He was the talk of the church. We had our friends, Matt and Tracy, in town this weekend so they were able to capture a rare family photo of us by our tree.
On our anniversary the 5 of us went out to eat and to the mall in Texarkana. We took this moment to get our annual picture with Santa. Michal Kate really seemed to enjoy it this year. Noah didn't fuss though he didn't speak either. Jack screamed until they turned on the dancing Santa just in time to get a non-crying picture.


Christmas Eve is when my family has always celbrated Christmas together so we all met at mom's that morning and enjoyed the whole day together. Here are pictures of the family that were taken throughout the day.

Papa and Gram
Tracy, Jeff, and CarsonJason, Suzanne, Allyson, Austin, and Aidan


Our annual picture in front of mom's treeThe traditional picture of the grandkids on the stairs (age order) Allyson 10, Austin 8, Carson 8, Michal Kate 4, Aidan 4, Noah 3, and Jack 1. This year Tracy found them all matching shirts to wear on Christmas Eve!

Christmas morning under Gram's tree.
On New Year's Eve we ventured back to Dallas to get to a level 2 sonogram appointment with a parinatologist in Dallas. Richard and I both really liked this doctor and were pleased to recieve yet another great report on Ellie Beth. She is growing beautifully and is perfect! She weighs about 1.8 lbs and is about 14 inches long right now. Both the sonographer and the doctor were able to get some good shots of Ellie Beth unlike the original 20 week sonogram. Here she is at 24 weeks.
The profile with her head on the right of the screen trying to put a hand and her foot in her mouth at the same time.
The three white stripes near the arrow are what identify her as a girl.
If you look straight in the middle this is her hand making a guns sign! The sonographer thought this was funny.
For dinner that evening we all ventured to Tracy and Jeff's to eat together. We had a great time. Tracy had bought some confetti poppers that we let the kids pop in the garage.
Here is a shot of Gram with the grandkids who were there.

The five of us at Tracy's, though interesting I know!
Richard and I (and Ellie Beth poking out)
A princess in a tree skirt?!
Tracy, Jeff, and Carson (Carson is putting confetti on his daddy's head)
Jeff and Tracy
Gram and Papa
Sorry this is such a long post. I will try to stay more caught up from here on. I hope you all have a safe, happy and blessed 2009!

And the baby is....

It's
a
GIRL!
Her first name is Ellie Beth and middle name is Lynn! Everything on the sonogram was great!

Getting Ready for Christmas

20 Weeks

I'll be the first to admit it has been harder this time around to get these pictures. I am not sure why, but I forget mostly. Here I am at 20 weeks. My regular doctors appointment is tomorrow and he is going to do a sonogram to check out the baby and hopefully find out what it is.

Putting up our Christmas Tree

Last Monday, Michal Kate didn't have school, they were still out for Thanksgiving, and we spent the day decorating our house for the holiday season. The older kids really enjoyed getting to put the ornaments on the tree this year, and were asking about each one.

Jack liked going behind the kids and taking the ornaments off that they have just put on the tree.Noah reaching for higher than he go.

Decorating their Christmas Trees

Last year after Christmas I found a princess tree on the 50% off sale at Wal Mart. So this year I also bought the boys a tree. We let them decorate them all by themselves, which is hard for me to release and not come in and fix the limbs that have 3 or 4 ornaments on it, but I did it.
Here is Michal Kate and her finished tree.

Noah with the boys tree.Fun with Lights

I got this idea from a friends blog and loved it so I had to try it with my kiddos. I used a black table cloth for my back drop and bought one strand of colored lights. I put Michal Kate on the table first to test out my camera and see what I would have to do to make her and the lights show up. I think for the most part they turned out pretty cute. Michal Kate and Noah loved it, but Jack thought I was nuts and was not crazy about the lights.

The big kids were blowing the lights on like Barney.

Breakfast with Santa, Or Not

On Saturday the kids and I went to Idabel to Paul and Adria's church Breakfast with Santa. The only issue there was Santa was sick and couldn't find his suit so it was breakfast without Santa. It is a really incredible morning where they ate donuts, sang carols, listened to the Christmas story, then got to decorate gingerbread houses. They had a great time.
Michal Kate and her finished product.

Trying to keep Jack trapped so I could help Michal Kate and Noah.

Noah was very serious about getting his Fruit Loops on his roof.

They also had someone take pictures of all the kids. Of course I had to take my own and this is the best it got.

Connor and Cambri in front of the tree.Christmas Train

After the breakfast we went and got McDonald's for lunch and went back to Paul and Adria's house to eat and let the kids play for a bit before we moved to the next event of the day. We then drove, all together, thank goodness, about a hour and a half through the mountains to a little town were the Kansas City Express was pulling through with their Christmas Holiday Express train. The drive and waiting in about a 40 minute line was well worth it just to see the boys faces when they saw the engine for the first time. They thought it looked like a Thomas the Train car and it even had a name, Rudy.

After waiting in the line you get to walk through 5 of the 6 cars and they have it all decorated with trains and Christmas decorations.
The cars were amazing inside and out. Here is Michal Kate on the car, above, and standing outside waiting in line in front of one of the cars, below.
Connor and Noah waiting.
Cambri waiting in line.

Once on the train, in the very first car you get to see Santa. Michal Kate had even written him a letter, drew him a picture, and took it to him. He put it in his mail box next to his chair to read later.
I thought the older kids did great with Santa, though Jack was less than thrilled.
Connor and Cambri with Santa. Again, Connor did great and Cambri didn't care for it to much.
After the train, which only takes about 10 minutes, we took the kids to a train car restraunt. The food was good but it took forever. The good thing was when we left it was dark and we were able to go back by the Holiday Express and see it all lit up.


Sorry for the long post. I hope this finds you having the happiest of holiday seasons and a Merry Christmas. More to post tomorrow assuming we know what we are having!