Christmas Morning Excitement

Santa enjoyed his goodies!

Anderson's Big Toy: The train table

Stocking stuffers

Daddy and his little girl on her first Christmas

Anderson calls it a magazine (confuses the word megaphone). He loves it! It makes tons of animal sounds...right up his ally along with the dress up safari suit!

Mommy and Anderson

Pure glee... this was right before he started running around it in circles and screeching! I guess he liked it...

Jump, jump, jump!

The crane is his favorite part. It is big and tall like the one building Daddy's new office building.

Swoosh!

Showing Baby Sister his train. He couldn't wait to tell her all about it. It was so cute!

Lydia's big toy: The jumparoo

Mommy reading Lydia a girlie book

Climbing on Daddy

This thing is fun...even if my feet can't touch the ground just yet!!

My sweet babies!

Lydia's first Christmas! She turned 5 months old on Christmas Day!

"Twas the night before Christmas...

...and not a creature was stirring, EXCEPT Lydia and she was waaaaayyyyyy louder than a mouse!

Last night will forever hold the record for hopes dashed! We hoped to get the kids settled into bed on time, possibly open a bottle of wine and do a little bonding on the frustrations of putting together a train table complete with about 100 parts for assembly. However, what happened was about the farthest thing from that fantasy scenario that could have happened.

Thus far, Lydia has been the golden child, and angel...you know the good one (of course when you have a two year old there are days when a convicted felon could seem good in comparison). Last night after battling an excited Anderson to get in the bed and stay there, we attempted to put Lydia down. Let's just say she wasn't interested in a long winter's nap. The child screamed from 7 until 2:30 am without much break except to occasionally smile at us for some unknown reason. We expected to be up kind of late with the train table, but we had no idea what was in store for us. We rocked, we sang, we cried, we nursed, we bottle fed, we drove around the area in the car seat twice, we gave mylicon, Tylenol, watched Baby Einstein, you name it we tried it. So one of us would be trying to read ridiculously complicated directions for the track arrangement and the other would hold a screaming baby that refused to sleep. I'm being transparent and honest here when I say it was the most miserable night of my life.

She has had a runny nose, and she has been grabbing at her gums and drooling and we did get her completely off her schedule by going to my Dad's yesterday, but we aren't sure if it is any one of these things or a wicked combination of all of them. However, rest assured Lydia has a new nickname today...The Grinch (you know, as in the one that stole Christmas.)

Now that you know what happened I will attempt to portray our night as warm and fuzzy...even though it wasn't. Anderson did have a grand time sprinkling the reindeer food he made at school and the one bag of it that our neighbors gave us. He kept scattering it and then looking up as if to say..."Ok it's out here so come on reindeer!!". He also left a snack for Santa on the fireplace. Of course, with our night Santa probably needed his milk spiked with hard liquor just to cope. Ho Ho Ho!

Christmas Eve Festivities

We have been meeting with my Dad's side on Christmas Eve for longer than I have been alive, and this year was a fun one with lots of kids running around! My Dad and Martha hosted at their house in Moundville, and we all had a great time eating too much and watching the kids enjoy their presents. Lydia slept through all of that. Bless her heart...it's her very first Christmas and she just snoozed through the best part!

My Grandmother with Lydia

All the boys: Cayden, Walt, John and Anderson

My Dad and Martha got these horses for Cayden and Anderson. Lydia's is a sweet little grey elephant with pink ears. Since she slept through the gift opening, so I'll post a pic of her with it later.

Riding the gigantic stuffed horse AND drawing on the magna doodle...now that is talent!

Pop and Lydia

A mixed marriage...

Hot Wheels...can you see the awe on his face?

Kids Table

My Aunt DeLane, Chris and Jeff

We had a ball at the Ball's

This is yet another post that is late...what does that say about our Christmas schedule!? Anyway, we headed over to Peggy and Chris Ball's annual Ornament Swap party two weekends ago. It was a bit cold, but we still had fun. Their house is right on the Black Warrior River and she always holds the party on the same night as Christmas on the River. So we get to see all of the lit up boats pass us by while we visit with friends and have some yummy snacks and cocktails. Peggy is very creative and it was all beautifully put together...lime green and red linens on the tables that were two heights...some for adults and some for kids. There was a huge tent complete with heaters, thank goodness! She even had a Santa and a photographer to take pics of the kids with Santa. I received mine in the mail last week, and I think it turned out great of both kids and that is no easy task!!

Can you tell I enjoy having a little girl to accessorize??

Preschool Christmas Party

Anderson's Christmas party was yesterday. I signed up to bring plain sugar cookies that they could decorate with icing and sprinkles at the party. It is so weird to realize that I'm a mom at moments like this...I mean to be in charge of bringing the sugar cookies to the class party??? I still feel like I should be walking to class on campus at UA and trying to figure out what crazy fun thing I want to do on the weekend! It's like the saying goes..."who are these kids, and why are they calling me mom?". Jeff has the strange "aha" moments too like when he looks in the backseat and there are two car seats!

Anyway...we had a great time at the party. Anderson loves his school and we do too! His teachers are wonderfully patient and creative with these little people. I never worry one second about him when he is there...so now I will hush up and give you what everyone wants to see anyway- the pictures!