Christmas Eve

Last weekend we celebrated Christmas as a family since we will be heading North very soon for the actual Holiday. We started out by baking Santa's cookies. We made chocolate crinkle cookies and the kids had a blast making a mess!Then we headed out for dinner at one of our favorite local restaurants. Don and Mary joined us for dinner and we had a great time. It was nice to sit and relax and just enjoy a meal.Megan loved her spaghetti!Maddie...well....she ate alot of bread. We are really working with her to get her to eat more variety and she is doing better- I promise!Then we went "ice" skating downtown. The kids had a blast. At first they could only walk on the skates, but by the end they were actually gliding around.Then we went shopping around downtown. Troy was disappointed the sporting goods store was closed, but we had fun at the antique shops. They also had some bounce houses set up and some carollers singing. When we were leaving a band had started to play. It was very relaxing and fun. I was a little shocked when I saw some toys from my childhood in the antique stores. I'm either really old, or they are pushing the antique thing a little! Then we headed back to the house and the kids opened one gift. They all got Christmas Pj's and dressed in them for Daddy to ready the Christmas story. They were so excited I was afraid they might not go to sleep, but ice skating really took it out of them and they just crashed! I love seeing all their excitement and remembering how exciting Christmas was when I was little. Such sweet kids!

The Children's Museum

A few Sunday's ago the kids got invited to a Birthday party for their sweet friend Sydney at the Children's Museum. They had a blast! It was just the kids at the party there so they got the run of the place. They had alot of fun playing with their friends and just checking out the exhibits. This was giant piano room where when the kids ran around different piano notes played.They had a large room with animal exhibits also. Lots of live snakes, frogs, lizards ect.... Then some animals that had been stuffed. They also had tons of puppets in this area and the kids put on some shows. After they had a few hours to run around and check things out they went back to the large room for some organized games. Sydney had chosen a "pirate" party so they had a pirate ship war with newspaper cannon balls.

At the end they did a treasure hunt where all of the kids found a gold coin and a big treasure chest full of goodies. This is Maddie, Sydney, Emilee and Sam with their eye patches on. It was a great party and a great way to take in the children's museum.

Yellow Belt

Last night Sam tested and passed his yellow belt for Karate. We are proud of how hard he has worked to get his first belt.Eight boys tested and did some demonstrations for us.

It was unbelievable cute! They were all very serious and great at following directions.They did some group kicks, punches and blocks and were told to count. It went something like this "one, two, three, seven, nine....ect." They were never really together, but they all tried really hard!Then they had to spar with their teachers. Sam was going after this guy like crazy even though he is three times his size.Then the dads got to tie on the new belt color. He was pretty excited. We really enjoyed getting to see how the instructors interacted with the kids and really made it fun for everyone. He can't wait to start in his new class next week!

Kisses

Megan's new Kissy face..... And she tries to kiss everyone! Sweet girl, but we need to teach her some restraint!

Santa

This past Friday night we all bundled up (that is right... it was actually cold here!) and headed to the park to see Santa arrive. The park was decked out with lights and is very historical telling how Panama City played a roll in the civil war ect... Alot of the building are miniaturized and put into lights with signs telling the significance of the building. The kids weren't real impressed with that, but the adults had fun reading about it! Megan actually enjoyed getting her coat on, and left her hat on the whole time. She loved the lights, but was not impressed at all with Santa!While we waited for the big arrival they served hot chocolate and cookies.The kids had planned their list of one thing to ask Santa for so we could help the line move along, but Santa was in no hurry and asked them lots of questions and kept us there for quite a while. He was a sweet old guy! Then he gave the kids each a small toy. It was funny how Megan knew which toy was hers and didn't really care for the others touching it! She might be a little pistol this Christmas.

Everyone had a great time and now we are all ready for Christmas!

Bowling Fun

The kids got invited to a bowling birthday party and it turned out to be tons of fun! It was their first time in a "real" bowling alley...they are experts on the wii however so they had a pretty good grasp on what to do. Troy was excited that the bowling alley had TVs on since it was during the SEC championship game!

The kids tried to throw the ball a few times, but had much better success with the metal thing that let them just roll it down and gain some momentum.


The computer kept score automatically so we could just sit back and let the kids go at it. About half way through they turned on the black lights and the kids really loved how everything "glowed".
Although she looks cute and innocent in this picture Meg was a handful at the party. She wasn't happy in the stroller and any chance she could get she would bolt for the bowling lanes. She almost made it a few times too! Little Stinker.

We had a great time and decided we should go bowling more often!

Gingerbread Fun

On Saturday we made Gingerbread houses. The kids picked a kit this year that had five small houses instead of one big one. It worked out well because they each had their own to decorate which eliminated all fighting from the festivities!

Maddie did most of her own decorating and kept reminding us that she is an "artist"! She loved being in control of the icing bag. Sam did most of his too. He also sampled all candy decorations before they were applied to the houses. I'm still sweeping little candy sprinkles off the floor :-)Megan napped. Her little outhouse looking structure is in the middle. I told the kids next year she might actually have an opinion and they won't get away with giving her the "one" no one else wants! But this year she slept in peace while Mommy decorated her outhouse.

Too Many Cooks!

Megan has taken a recent interest in playing with the kids. Last week she found this chef hat and wanted to wear it, and she wore it most of the day! Maddie and Sam thought it was funny so they set up a restaurant and would take turns playing with her in between their school session. Such funny kids!
It is interesting to me that Megan already knows how to play pretend. She washed pretend dishes for almost an hour and would pretend to sample all Sam's dishes.

Decking the Halls

The day we got home from South Carolina we decided to go ahead and put up the Christmas tree. We got to Lowes right at dark and then it started to rain...just our luck :-) Anyway Sam picked the "perfect" tree and Troy threw it into the explorer. We wanted to wait until the rain stopped to bring it in the house, but the kids were pretty set on decorating so Troy brought it in a got it put in the stand and ready to go. (what a mess!) The kids were very helpful decorating this year. They help put the lights on and most of the ornaments. On the night we decorate our tree the kids all get their first present- a hallmark ornament. Maddie got a Minnie Mouse this year. (please excuse the awkward smile ;-))
Sam got a John Deere tractor.

And Megan got the Guess how much I love you ornament. Megan also got into everything! I forgot what a baby could do to Christmas ornaments...so she went to bed while we finished.

We did get the tree up and then finished with everything else the next day.

We had a great time. I'm thankful for how much excitement this time of year brings to the kids!

(The 2nd part of the camera story is that Megan dropped my camera while we were busy decorating the tree. The piece that holds the battery broke off, but it is still working! This camera has definately taken a licking and kept on ticking!)

Thanksgiving

I will start this post by saying that we are having camera issues....On Thanksgiving day I took this sweet picture of Kyndal licking some cream cheese icing, and then the battery died on my camera. Ugh! We couldn't get another battery until the next day. So I will just have to tell you that Jen out did herself on the Thanksgiving meal! She even prepared a little food type craft for the kids which was so cute! (acorns our of Hershey's kisses and nutter butter minis!) So anyway, we got to travel up to South Carolina for Thanksgiving this year and spend it with my brother John and his sweet family! We had a wonderful time just enjoying the beauty of the mountains and each others company. The weather was perfect and the kids played outside from dawn till dusk. They all have great imaginations and didn't get into any fights! This age is great for them to play with one another. Maddie was definitely outnumbered, but she had them roped into playing princess at one point! Another day we were all sitting at the table talking and Sam ran in with a bike helmet on and said "Uncle John, we need duck tape!" Who knows what they were doing at that point!
They put about 1000 miles on their bikes. Even Megan got in on some of the action!

On Friday we went to the Greenville Zoo. It was very nice and the kids really enjoyed seeing all the animals.

Here is a couple of monkeys!

Gabe brought the silly factor to most of the group shots! The funny thing about this picture is that Troy and Jen are hiding behind this bear in case there is a mishap!

On Saturday we drove up to North Carolina early and enjoyed a big breakfast at the Cracker Barrel. Then we went to Sky Top Orchard and the kids had the best time playing on the play ground equipment. It was a little chilly that day, but only the adults seemed to notice.

Then we all walked down to their little petting zoo and navigated the bamboo forest.

They had the best sugar cinnamon doughnuts there. We got a few dozen and some fresh apple cider for a treat. Megan really enjoyed hers!

What could be sweeter than this little bundle Baby Riley? She was so good while we were there and is growing so fast.

What a nice and relaxing way to spend the Thanksgiving Holiday.