Christmas 2015

We had a great Christmas! It sure did fly by though!

This was our Christmas card this year. It was one of my favorites!

We started out on Christmas Eve with lunch at the country club. It's what we have always done and was always one of Mama Jean's favorite things to do at Christmas. We missed having her with us this year. She continues to not do well so it definitely put a damper on Christmas a little. We were happy to continue the tradition though! 

 All the grandkids (minus Blaine!)...

Rooney's tutu was hilarious!

My Christmas blessings!

 Harrison and "Unk Trey!"

 Dad was pretty proud of his red shoes! He has a major shoe fetish (we have to rag him about it!)!

 I could eat this little girl up!!!

 Hudson had to be at church at 1:30 to practice his song that he was singing at church at 2, so we headed straight there after lunch. We had a few minutes to kill in the car so we had a little Christmas selfie fun!

Church was great and the kids were adorable singing. Harrison didn't burn anyone or anything while he held his candle for Silent Night, so that was a win! He felt pretty special to get to do that! And he finally did communion right and dipped his bread in the cup! We got back to our seats and he said (in his monster voice of course) that he "drank the blood!!!" He is just too cute. We then headed home for about an hour before heading back out. The boys got in the Christmas spirit with Home Alone, and we took a couple of last pictures in front of our tree.

 We then headed over to Joel's Aunt and Uncle's house for a little while. The boys had so much fun playing with cousin Nolan! They were all so sad when we had to leave.

 We had to get to Big Mama and Big Daddy's house for the Whitt family Christmas though! Mom was feeling mighty festive!

 The boys were WILD and excited!

 The girls were too! :)

Someone was extra excited about getting some money from Mama Jean!

 Rooney got the hang of opening presents fast!

 Dad got Harrison this glove and 9 new baseballs, and it might have been his favorite gift he received this Christmas! He has hardly put it down and we have been in the yard every day playing.

 We had a great night at my parents. We got home super late though. Santa was in Canada so the boys had to HURRY to bed! Ha! They were so excited to put the cookies and milk out and get to bed.

 Santa came!!!!

 The boys got up and saw what Santa brought at 5:15 am. They played for a bit and then I talked them into going back to sleep until the sun came up. They actually did it! The below pictures are from take 2 of seeing what Santa brought!

 All Hudson wanted was legos this year. He has already put them all together!

 It was pouring down rain, so riding this go cart took place inside for a bit. This was right before Harrison ran into a wall and made a huge dent and that ended the indoor riding pretty quickly! :)

 All Harrison asked for was an Alvin stuffed animal! It doesn't take much to make him happy! Alvin has not left his side!

 The boys had some new winter gear in their stockings. Too bad it was actually 75 degrees outside.

 LOVE this toothless grin!

 We gave Joel a backpack blower for Christmas and Hudson just had to try it out. Won't be long before he's using it in the yard!

 Then we unwrapped the rest of the presents. What a fun morning!

 The Reed's came over for breakfast at 9. I made Pioneer Woman's cinnamon rolls (the BEST), sausage/egg breakfast casserole, pecan bacon, and fruit. It was YUM!

 The rain finally stopped so we headed out to try our new toy!

 It was fast and it about gave me a heart attack when this 4 year old got on it! Yikes! He almost flipped it, all with a smile on his face of course. He will tell you he had it all the way! Ha! My fearless child for sure. Thankfully, he has since gotten the hang of it and I'm not so scared anymore!

 We went back to my parent's for a big lunch at noon, then headed to the Reed's that night for dinner and Christmas with them. The weather was awful and there was actually a tornado not very far from us. We had to do Christmas with the weatherman on! Oh well, I guess there are worse things!

 The boys received more big trucks and they were SO happy!

After another huge meal, we were DONE! We were all so tired at the end of the night. What another great Christmas we had!

More December Fun

I cannot believe we are just a few days away from Christmas! Maybe it's the 80 degree weather and tornado threat tomorrow that is throwing me off?!?! It doesn't really feel like December in Alabama, that's for sure. We are out of school and off of work though and are ready for the fun to begin! Carrie got into town on Saturday, so we've had a lot of time to spend with them too, even though I have no pictures to show for it. 

This is probably the closest picture I have that shows our tree in the den this year. I'm loving all of the Christmas cards on it and I really felt like we've gotten to enjoy each and every one this year! 

Below is our tree in our living room...

A couple of weekends ago,  I raked leaves for a long time and the boys had so much fun playing in the pile! Again, this is a strange picture for December!

 I helped host a baby shower for sweet Anna a couple of weeks ago, who is due in February with the first little girl on Joel's side. We are so excited to meet Lilla Grace!

 Harrison went to a pirate birthday party! He had so much fun!

 We've had class parties and programs galore in the past week. First up was Hudson's pajama and pancake party. They had pancakes, made reindeer food, and did a craft. It was a cute little party!

 This has been the sweetest first grade class! Hudson did not know any of the boys going into it, but he has made so many new friends this year.

 The next day was Harrison's "Christmas in Our Jammies" program. It might have been the cutest program I have ever seen! The picture below was Harrison's class on the big screen while they were performing. Harrison is obviously the biggest child in the class by far! Ha!

 And of course he was on the back row with the 4 year olds! Ha! He did so well. He is definitely our more shy child, but he was not shy on program day! He sang every word and did all the motions and we were so proud of him!

 This is one of his best buddies, Owen!

 Bouncy house in December...well yes!!!

 Last Saturday night, we went out to dinner at El Barrio with Joel's family and then on to see White Christmas at the Alabama Theater! I have to say I was a little worried about how the kids would do with a more "adult" movie, but they did great!

They were crazies in El Barrio...the food was awesome as usual though! Love that place!

 Someone offered to take our picture as we were walking in and we had to take them up on it! It's rare that we get a family picture! Especially one of us on a night out! Those are really rare these days!

 We sat right near the organ and the boys loved that part. It really was a great night and we plan on making it a tradition! They started out with everyone singing Christmas carols and that was just so fun. It really got us all in the Christmas spirit!

 The next morning, I was brushing Hudson's teeth and literally brushed his top tooth out. That's how loose it was. He would not let us touch it. We are so glad it is gone though and he looks adorable with that little gap!

 Hudson also had a basketball game on Saturday and he did so well! He scored a goal and got the defensive star of the game! The players he was guarding never even touched the ball! Woo hoo! Now we are on a basketball break for a few weeks.

Yesterday was our first day of the holiday break and this is what the boys got to do...

It was after they cleaned out both of their closets (I did mine too!) and went through all of their toys. We are giving away about 5 bags full of clothes and toys. It feels good to clean out before the new stuff comes in! :)  I finally got a deep clean in of the house which was much needed. Now we can have fun the rest of the break! And look into hiring a new maid...

So the weather the past few weeks has been glorious, however this week it is literally supposed to rain every day. Why does that always happen!?!? My mom and sister decided that today would be a good day to go to the Galleria and do the carousel and eat lunch. It was actually not nearly as crowded as I had thought it would be with it being 2 days before Christmas, but it was still filled with impatient crazies all trying to get somewhere fast!

 I have never seen these little ride on things at the mall! Now this was hilarious in a busy mall...

 They were pretty good drivers, but they still managed to take out a few people in the process! So funny! They just giggled the entire time! We did too!

 Best $6 ever spent!

 Tonight we baked our cookies for Santa!

We've got lots of cooking and baking to do tomorrow, but we are planning to sprinkle in some fun tomorrow too! We are ready for Christmas!!!