Christmas Morning



I already wrote about Olivia sneaking under the tree in the middle of the night, getting and opening her Dora Pajamas, putting them on, and going back to bed!! But here's another picture of the girl and her new pajamas :)

 Here's my handsome honey, ready to tear into his loot!

 "My Bee Bee Gun!!!"

 "My computer touch!!!" ('computer touch' = tablet)

 And the Kidz Bop 20 that she requested at the last minute.  She was really excited about it :), I'm glad Santa was able to come through :).

 You think he's excited about this one??

 His daddy is!!!!!!!!

 And then Daddy shot Tyler in the Eye!!!!!!!!!!!

 But he recovered just in time to get into the stockings :)

We had a wonderful Christmas Morning, topped off with breakfast as a whole family at the kitchen table! It was one of the best Christmas mornings yet!!

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve, for the boys, started out with an unsuccessfun hunting trip :( But I know they really enjoy being together, so is it really that unsuccessful? Its like that song "She thinks we're just fishing" that song makes me cry!

 While the boys were gone, Olivia and I had some breakfast, and for dessert, (of course we have dessert after our breakfast) Olivia used her easy bake oven to create a delicious sugar cookie with some chocolate frosting!

 When the boys returned, Olivia and Tyler got out the "paint it yourself" piggy banks that Lindsey and Matt gave them, and got their creative juices flowing :).

 The kids went to have dinner with their Mom and her family for a couple of hours that evening, but were home in plenty of time to make cookies for Santa. We were very fortunate this year that the kids were able to go to every single family function on both sides. What a blessing! I bring this up to explain why Tyler is wearing his Christmas suit to bake cookies, they wore their dress clothes to their family dinner, and I didn't want to waste any time when they got back home, in order to have plenty of time to settle in and get to sleep.
Here's Tyler mixing the colors into our cookie batter. (I asked them if they wanted to use cookie cutters or colors, and they chose colors.)

 And the finished product: Not beautiful, but made with love, and presented on our "Cookies for Santa" plate :)

 And we ALMOST forgot the Reindeer food that Tyler brought home from school.  The instructions said to sprinkle it on your lawn on Christmas eve, so that's what he did (even though he'd already stripped his clothes off and gotten ready for bed). Loving the sweet Camo shoes! Thanks Lindsey and Matt!

 And here he is, all tucked in, and SO very sleepy... can't you tell...?!?!

Tyler actually went to sleep pretty quickly! Olivia was the one up til after 10:30!!! But she, too, finally went to sleep :).

Christmas with the Fam

The Eve before Christmas Eve, we had dinner and Christmas Celebration with my mom and dad. Of course, as usual, Olivia and Tyler got SPOILED!! (I did too)

Here's my boy checking out his pile of presents :)

 Balancing act?

 Checking out his cool new clothes and AWESOME Camo shoes Aunt Lindsey and Mr. Matt picked out for him!

 Cashola!! Thanks Mrs. Janice and Mr. Kent!!

 Then Daddy helped them decorate their Gingerbread house :) Lindsey had the genius plan to use the deviled egg plate to separate each different type of candy.

 There was a gingerbread man and a Christmas tree that were supposed to stand up beside the house, but as you can see, the Christmas tree stood, and the gingerbread man got stripped of his candy clothin and lost his legs.... poor guy.

But, we had an amazing evening with my family. Oh, and did I mention that our Christmas Dinner was Fajitas?!?! HA those were great too :)

I cannot tell a lie, WE chopped down the Christmas Tree.

I can't believe I haven't shared this.  We had such a wonderful time the day we went to get our Christmas tree.  We'd been working on our ornaments for a while and were finally ready for T-Day (tree day). My friend Melissa told me about the place they went to get their Christmas tree, so I looked it up online, gave them a call, and decided that that would be the place for us to get ours too!

When we got there, we discovered that they had a station to write letters to Santa! What a great idea! Tyler gets a little assistance from Daddy...

I don't know if you can make this out or not, but it says "b b gun, motorcycle, please, Tyler" LOL

 There was a petting zoo outside :)

 Then we went on our tree hunt... we were unsuccessful at first, as many of the trees weren't much taller than the kids, and our ceilings are vaulted....

 But we finally found a winner, and began the process of bringing that bad boy down!

 SUCCESS! Now to drag it to the truck... I promise I helped carry it, I just made them "help daddy" to take a picture.

 And while Daddy was with the employees getting the tree trimmed and ready to take home, the kids discovered the Christmas Cookie Decorating Station!!!! (And I thought the Letter to Santa station was a good idea, this one took the cake - er - the cookie!!)

Official Santa Visit

I took the kids to see Santa at the Mall of Georgia the Tuesday before Christmas.  I don't know why I waited so long, I just figured it would be easier if I did it once they got out of school.  Well.... it seemed like a decent idea. I can get photos printed the same day at walgreens, the wait would probably be shorter if we went as soon as they opened, and we would have the rest of the day to see the new Chipmunks movie and do a little last minute shopping.  What I did NOT plan for, though, after having already purchased everything the kids had been talking about wanting, was Olivia asking Santa for a specific CD. She'd never even mentioned it before, then all of a sudden, its all she could talk about.  Well, she must've been a good girl, because Santa came through for her :).

Here we are waiting in line.

And, here they are with the big guy! We got 3 "official" shots this year.  I love them all, especially in sequence :)

(well, other than Olivia's near wardrobe malfunction... lol)

Merry Christmas Sneaky

On Christmas morning, Tyler got up long before Olivia, but we wouldn't let him get her up until a decent hour. When I finally went in to get her up, I noticed the label from the Dora pajamas Santa brought her on the bedroom floor. Then I noticed that she was sound asleep, WEARING THE PAJAMAS. That little sneak got up sometime in the middle of the night, got her PJ's, opened them, put them on, then went back to sleep. HILARIOUS!!! Junior was a little upset that she'd gotten into the gifts when he told them while tucking them in not to get their presents until we got in there, but I thought it was too funny, and pretty uncharacteristic of her. She's usually a pretty strict rule follower, I think thats why I found it so funny! But nonetheless, that was the start to a Wonderful Christmas day for the Lances.

Happy Birthday Daddy

While Junior was at work today, the kids and I went to pick him out a birthday present, and we baked him a cake.  I'd planned on inviting his parents, my sister and Matt, and his buddy Kevin out for Birthday Dinner, but they rescheduled his family's Christmas party to Tonight because my mother in law was too sick Sunday.  We had a really nice time seeing everyone and of course, opening presents :)

Here's Olivia working on the cake, wearing the apron that she got for Christmas :)

And here's the kids' table at Christmas dinner :)

Family Fun: Sister Edition

My sister invited me to go to her company Christmas party with her.  We had a blast.  I've heard a lot about all of her colleagues, and apparently, they've heard about me too :).  Here are two of my favorite conversations from the evening:

Colleague: Lindsey, your sister is beautiful.
Lindsey: She's related to me, what did you expect?

Lindsey: Patrice, where's your boo?
Patrice: At home with the kids.
Lindsey: Where's the nanny?
Patrice: She's with me. Girls' night baby!

LOL awesome! Now, its not quite as funny as you read it as it was in real life, but if you'll just imagine the expressions and tone of voice that may go with statements like these (especially my sister's "she's related to me, what did you expect?"), I think you'll find the humor.

I've created a monster!!

For a while there, it seemed like every time I took Olivia to the Doctor, she had blood work, or got a shot, or something traumatic, so I would always get her a milkshake as a reward for being so brave.... well, now, she thinks she gets a milkshake after every visit.... Fine by me!

She was feeling under the weather yesterday, so I took her to the Dr. first thing this morning.  he thought it was just a 24 hr bug or something, and she was much better today other than being a little tired. So, after the apt, we went to McDonalds. Olivia's chioce: A hashbrown, and a milkshake! Comin' right up my love :).

We ate out in the play area, but after Olivia's hash brown, she was still hungry. The cashier saw me let her use my debit card to pay for breakfast, so I handed it to her and off she went :). There was another girl in the play area that smiled at me as she left, and asked if they'd let her use it.  I told her we'd find out. Olivia came back with a to go bag and handed me my card with no reciept. I asked her if she got a hash brown. She said "yeah, a bunch!" HA I got worried for a minute, and asked her again for the reciept, but she couldn't produce one. The other girl and I were cracking up. It turns out that she only had 2, and when I checked my account online on my phone, it had already posted the $1.07 that it cost for the hashbrowns. She ate both, for a total of 3, and then played for a couple of minutes. I was pretty proud of her for going to get her own breakfast :). As we were leaving, I thanked the cashier for letting her use the card, and she just smiled and said "she's a pro at it." Love my little independent pumpkin :)

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree!!!!!

AND........... Here she is!!!! Our Beautiful Homemade, farm grown, tree!!

And if you're wondering why my curtain looks like its falling down... I'm going to credit that one to our designated tree plugger....

I know I previously posted about our ornament ideas, courtesy of pinterest.com, but we also did the ole faithful paper chain and of course spray painted pine cones :)

This picture is a testament to how long it took us to complete our project.  Our ornaments sort of set up camp on the kitchen table for a few days while they dried, we painted them, and the paint dried :)... Here's Olivia packing her lunch, surrounded by our craftiness...

Another idea from Pinterest: Flatten a toilet paper tube, cut into 5 strips, glue them together with all the corners meeting in the middle, dry, and spray paint, and voila! I had been calling them snowflakes, but the kids spray painted a couple of them red, and they sort of look like poinsettias... so now they're flower/snowflakes :).

I'm totally in love with our final product that has been several weeks in the making ;). It has been a lot of fun!

Free Family Fun

Last Wednesday, I decided to take the kids out driving around to check out all the Christmas lights.  There's a house we pass on our way home that has lights out that are set to music if you tune your car radio to a certain station.  Its right across from Poplar Springs Baptist Church, so we can park there, and catch the show.  I also got a tip from a facebook friend to go check out a subdivision off Martin Rd. There were tons of elaborate lights displays, but the best was another house with their lights set to music.  It was much more organized than the one across from the church, and beautiful!! We waited until right before bedtime to go, and the kids were so sweet and quiet just checking it all out (and trying not to go to sleep). They enjoyed it.  I think it was just as good or better, and much more relaxed than going to Callaway Gardens' Fantasy in Lights.  I know it sure was a lot cheaper and less trouble!! I love that so many people around here have gotten into the Christmas Spirit. We really enjoyed our family time checking it all out!

The Children were nestled all snug in ther beds...

Junior was still at the auction the other night after we came home and the kids got in bed, so we text messaged him some "I love you"'s

I love Gillsville :)

Last Saturday, our family spent the day in Gillsville, and the surrounding areas. It started with a hunting trip early in the morning, followed by breakfast at Mom and Dad's.  After that, a trip to the Christmas tree farm to cut down our first ever real tree!! On the way back to Mom and Dad's to ride four wheelers, Junior dropped Tyler and I off at Jeanne's shop to get Tyler a hair cut.  We had to wait for a little while because we were a last minute addition to her schedule, but we had plenty of kind folks to talk to while we waited, most of which have known me since I was younger than Tyler (gotta love a small town :)). After the nice cut and style, and an unbelievably reasonable price, Tyler and I walked the quarter of a mile back to Mom's house.  It was a beautiful day to be outside, and we stopped and talked to the neighbors (Cousins) who were out in their driveway for a little while on the way. It was great to see them, and a beautiful walk with my sweet baby!

When we got back, we all had lunch together, then the kids took a short nap before heading out to ride their four wheelers. What a WONDERFUL day!!!!