Christmas Eve with my Dad's side of the family

For Christmas Eve lunch we all met at my Dad's house in Moundville for lots of yummy food and lots of fun presents!

My aunt DeLane, her son Walt, My step-sister's step daughter- Ana-leise, Shelly- my other step-sister and that is my grandfather in the background.
Lydia with her great grandparents

My cousin John giving my nephew Cayden a piggy back ride

Martha- my step-mom holding Lydia

Our little family

Me and Lydi-bug

My grandmother bought her a Cabbage Patch doll- very fitting since she bought those same dolls for me when I was growing up! All of the 1980's toys seem to be back!

Bow-head

Anderson with his new scooter

Check out Anderson's choke-hold on Cayden!

Pop and Mimi with all their grands

Don't know what we were so tickled about...

Anderson with his weirdly interactive Panda Bear. He loves it- it kinda creeps me out though!

After an afternoon with family we loaded up to attend the early candle light service and then headed home to throw out our reindeer food and prepare for Ho, Ho, Ho!

Christmas Morning!

Santa did not disappoint for Christmas 2009 at the Smith House! For Anderson- this has been a very "Batman" year, and his presents from Santa and pretty much everyone else reflected that. His most coveted gift that he asked for over and over again was the Batman Cave or as he sometimes called it the Batman Cave. Even when he sat on Santa's lap this year he asked very specifically for that one item. When I prompted him to ask Santa for something for Lydia (since she was crying too hard to actually sit in Santa's lap) he told Santa that sister also wanted a "girl" batman castle. I guess he was going to make doubly sure that a batman castle did indeed arrive at our house that night! He also got a great Alabama big boy bike that he loves to ride!

As for Lydia- The only thing she is really into is Barney. Leave it to my daughter to become attached to a 20 year old television show/character. Barney was EVERYWHERE back in the day, but it is hard to find Barney stuff now. He obsession started with a stay at my Aunt and Uncles house while we traveled to Atlanta for the UA vs Virginia Tech season opener. Barney was the cartoon of the time period when their boys were preschool-aged, so Uncle Chris looked up some old episodes on You Tube and Lydia was mesmerized! To this day- it is the only show I can count on her watching all the way through. She just loves the music and dancing! She also got a nice little kitchen set to play with. It has been a huge hit!

Love the bed head!

Here are a few pics from our morning...enjoy!

Love her gasping! This is a great pic of her reaction!

I heart tippy toes!!

How in the world is my baby big enough to ride a real bike! It has training wheels, but I am still in shock every time I see him riding it. Where does the time go?

One of Jeff's presents!

A few of mine!

Playing on Anderson's new video game system

Settling in for a long winter's nap!

Christmas Night with Gigi

We spent Christmas night in Birmingham with my Mom (Gigi) and that side of the family. We all had a great time having a wonderful dinner and then opening presents! Although- I think I have decided that next year I am going to ask that everyone take whatever toys they bought for my children and assemble them completely and the put them in a gift bag! Lol! I feel like I spent the entire night putting together toys...don't even get me started on what it takes to even get them out of the packages these days! Ha!

This is my all time favorite picture of the season. I love how hugged up they are and how happy those little faces are!

Mom with Lydia

Jeff and I after opening the ornament that Anderson made for us at school. It's his sweet little hand print!

Pop with his grands- Lydia and Bastian

Jeff with his favorite gift of the night! Just kidding- my mom wrapped it up for him as a joke. He has a serious addiction to Diet Dew!

Lydia's favorite gift was her baby stroller. She is all into baby dolls right now!

Anderson has a "Santa's Shoppe" at school every year. We send him with a list of people to buy for (usually immediate family) and some money. He gets to "shop" for what he wants for each person. It is a great way to gently remind him that it is important to give- not just get, get, get! He gave me the sweetest heart shaped necklace. I love it and will keep it forever!

Christmas Dinner

Lots of presents under Gigi's tree!

Lydia is sooo into accessories right now. She will make anything she can fit on her hand a bracelet! She loves hats, scarves, coats and most importantly shoes! By the night's end she had taken a real liking to Aunt Marcie's scarf and Aunt Susan's bracelets!

My step-brother Todd with his little one- Bastian

The closest we came to a family portrait!

My sweet boy!

Merry Christmas from our home to yours...

...and no I am not dead, and I am not going to quit blogging, even though I am certain it appears that way since my last post involves Halloween! My photography business really picked up this fall, and I just couldn't quite keep all the balls in the air! However after 40 sessions in the last six to eight weeks...yes, you read that correctly...FORTY- I am finally all caught up and life is getting back to normal. That many session plus two children who are not in full time daycare was almost the death of me, but I survived and was thankful for the business! I will be postdating events from the last two months and I'm not sure how that works with google reader- so you might want to actually click to see the blog every once in a while to see if it is not showing updates since the dates aren't in order. It's good to e back- I hope there are more than two of you out there still reading this! Feel free to comment-maybe it will motivate me to get on this long list of things I need to blog about! HA!

So now without further delay please enjoy our Christmas decorations...

I even managed to get a shot of "Jingles" our elf on the shelf. He visits us every night from the North Pole. Anderson loves searching for him every morning. Sometimes he is naughty and makes messes, but sometimes he brings Krispy Kreme for breakfast! Yum!

I love getting Christmas cards from all of our wonderful friends and families! You can see them in the doorways here. We've received about 60 so far. I could just browse and look at them all the time, but as you know, pictures are kinda my thing after all! This year since I did several of the cards myself it was quite a treat to see how parents put my images together on their family card. Some of them are too creative!! I may have to make that another post!

Jeff's grandmother made this nativity scene of hand pured porcelain, fired it herself and then hand painted it when she was well in to her seventies. She passed away about 10 years ago, so this is a special family heirloom for us.

I love this tea towel that Anderson made on his very first Christmas...look at those tiny fingers and toes!

I have finally framed Lydia's one year portrait in our dining room to match Anderson's. It only took me nearly six months! Oh well better late than never!

I also framed some shots from the session in other spots around the house...