Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve has got to be one of my most favorite family days of the year. We have so many fun traditions and have made so many wonderful memories on this day over the years, I look so forward to its arrival!

Sam gets up really early Christmas Eve morning to make cinnamon rolls for everyone. This year the first batch got a little burned, thanks to our very inconsistent oven, but...we managed to save the second batch, and they were GREAT!

Thanks Dad!

We finished our last minute shopping and delivered our "Friend Gifts."

Then, we decorated our Gingerbread House. Each kid took a side of it, and because Brie & Nate had the small sides of the house, they decorated a roof side also.

The end result...

...Magnificent!

After our house was complete, we made our birthday cake for Baby Jesus. We just started this tradition last year, but the kids love it! They love being able to choose their own type of cake and to make it all on their own. It is a special sight to see them working together so well and how important a job they feel it is.

This year, even Alex was let in on the fun!

All evidence had to be destroyed!

Brianna caught in the act!

When the cake was baked and cooled, we packed up the kids, their special Christmas jammies, and a few goodies to share, and headed out the door to Grandma and Grandpa's house.

Our Nativity Party

One of my most favorite activities of the year is our Family Nativity Party. We invite some of our closest friends over for dinner and have all the kids dress up to act out the Nativity Story. Since our familes have all grown since our last Nativity Party 2 years ago, we began our evening this year with 10 Adults & 27 kids ! It was a tight squeeze in our little home, but that did not decrease the fun we had!

We chose parts out of a hat as a family the week before. It is always exciting to see who comes out as what. This year, Brianna was an angel, Nate the Wise man carrying gold, Natalie the Star, William was King Herrod, and Alex was a sheep. The funniest moment of the night was when I was helping William with his part. In his ear I was whispering the lines he was suppose to say. I told him, "Say: WHERE IS THE CHILD?! WHERE WAS HE BORN?!?" William said, "IN A MANGER!" At least he knows the story. :)

Happy Holidays With 5

One of my really good friends made the comment to me recently that taking pictures with 5 kids is about impossible. I would have to agree! We tried taking pictures of the kids for a calendar for my dad, and every one has at least one person looking away, with eyes closed, hiding behind someone else, just plain silly, or the picture blurs!

It sure makes you appreciate when you get "The Good One!"

Bethlehem In A Hurry

After our whole house came down with the sick bug, we were running out of time to do our Christmas activities. No matter what, though, we did not want to miss Bethlehem Revisited in Waxahachie. Our family loves going! It helps all of us to remember the true meaning of Christmas amidst all the holiday hustle and bustle. We missed the first week, but crammed it in on a crazy Saturday night.

I have to say, it might not have been worth it this year. It was very crowded! People were very pushy and rude. I even had one guy ram into my back. When I turned around to see who had shoved me, he quickly apologized, realizing I was holding my infant son inside my coat, to try and keep him warm, but also to be able to see the sites on his very first Christmas. He said, "I didn't realize you had a baby." Well, does it matter!?! Shoving someone in the back is just plain rude, whether they have a baby or not! One guy (meaning past his 40's) cut in front of Natalie, who was waiting in line at the unleavened bread house for about 15mins at this point, and practically stepped on top of her doing so. We were so mad that we left after that! People were definitely not behaving Christ-like, and it was very hard to feel the Spirit of Christmas in that environment. We will be trying a new nativity next year, and if we do go back to Waxahachie, it will be on a Sunday night, in hopes that less people will be there.

2010 Christmas Parade

We had a wonderful time at the Neiman's/Adolphus Children's Parade!

The balloons were awesome!

Our good friends came along with us.

Alex tried to take it all in!

We were able to see David Archuletta.

Santa closed the parade with a wave and a "Merry Christmas!"

Great Christmas Expectations

Each year, when Thanksgiving ends, our family goes into "hyper-drive" trying to prioritize what we want to do at Christmas time, and each year, our plans never turn out as planned. This year is following the trend. We usually go cut down our tree the weekend following Thanksgiving, but we were very busy, then found out that tree farm is closed this year. We decided to go with Home Depot instead. (Too little time and Too much effort to find another location.) We wanted to focus on family activities this year, but we have already had to adjust that too. We planned to go to the Neiman's Christmas Parade as a family, but Nate woke up really sick, so we had to leave him behind. It was great, but still disappointing to be missing a kid. Hopefully this is not the start of a very "ill" holiday. The holiday season is suppose to be enjoyable, not stressful!

Hooray for Fall!

The leaves are finally falling. The temperature is finally dropping. And it is already Thanksgiving! Where has the year gone!!!???!!!

We have so much to be thankful for this year:

Our beautiful family

Sam's wonderful job to provide

A nice cozy home

& Food a plenty

A free country

A year of Fantastic Health

Family and Friends who love us, and we love them too!

A loving Father in Heaven, who watches over us all!

We have been greatly blessed and I am so greatful for it all!!!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Messed Up Birthday Parties

Our family has been a little mixed up on birthday parties this year. Since Alex was born, our schedule has been crazy. Natalie's party was a month late. William missed his completely. (William's was so late, we told him that his 5th birthday will be huge! He is great with that.) Nate had his before Brianna... So now, Brie gets her turn. Brianna has been begging for a sleep-over with her close friends. She saved enough of her reward points up to take all her friends to a movie, but there is nothing but junk out! So... she decided to go to a Christmas light celebration in Fairview instead. After a pizza dinner, we bundled up all the kids and were treated to all kinds of goodies. We had samples of gellato, purple ice cream, bread pudding, lollipops, apple cider, and more. The kids all got monogrammed Santa necklaces and "sparkling" glasses to view the lights through. We even saw Jason Castro from American Idol sing. Everyone seemed to really enjoy the activities. On the way home, all the girls sang Christmas songs together. They all have such beautiful voices! We had birthday cake when we got home,(If we didn't have enough sweets already!), then the girls played games and watched movies. What a great group of kids! I am so happy Brie has such wonderful friends!

A Day at the New Dallas Childrens Aquarium

We got word that the Dallas Zoo has finally re-opened the aquarium at Fair Park, so since we are zoo members and could get in free, we decided to check it out. It was fantastic! The size of the aquarium is still very small, and they are still waiting for animals to be placed in tanks, but what they did have was very worth the trip. When you come through the entrance, there is a large touch tank full of horseshoe crabs, hermit crabs, calico crabs, and sea snails. It will also be the home to sea stars and anemones soon. The kids really enjoyed being able to handle the sea creatures. William was a little afraid of the horseshoe crabs, but liked touching everything else. Alex and Miller enjoyed watching the waterfalls and the big silver fish in the tank across the room. Brie, Nate, & Natalie were mesmerized with it all. They are very hands-on kids.

After the touch tank, we walked through the area that held fish from Texas lakes and other lakes/rivers around the world. Most liked creatures were the piranha, the huge alligator snapping turtle, and the electric eel, that is not really an eel but a knife fish.

From lakes and rivers we went to Sting Ray Bay. This is a new outdoor area that has been added to the aquarium where you can touch and feed several different rays. As we walked down the ramp to the first tank, the aquarium worker tells all of us that the treats are free today. William, always taking people for their word, tells me, "Mom, I am really hungry. Can I have one of the treats since the guy said they are free?" I had to laugh. When I told him, "Sure, if you want some fish," he got pretty embarrassed. Crazy boy! The kids had a great time petting the rays and dropping their fish treats to them. What a great experience. William was NOT okay with holding the headless fish between his fingers down the side of the tank, so he went to the shallow end and chucked it in the water to see if the rays could find where it went.