Sunday Before Christmas....

It was the Sunday before Christmas and nothing but chaos and hurrying all through the house. 3 little kids doing their best to have fun, while Mom and Dad try and get dressed on the run... 2 parents doing their best with 8:30AM church, 3 rambunctious kids, living about 15+ minutes to the building, and Laura wanting a picture before we go...yeah right!!! I swear..it shouldn't be that difficult...but for some reason it is....they never want to look at the camera at the same time, sit still, or not be silly.....here is the best of our efforts!!!



and here are a few of the "out-takes"

Flying Santa

Clay's squadron had a great Christmas party!!! Yummy food, crafts for the kids, and Drum roll please....Santa flew in on a T-6. The kids sat and listened as Santa radioed in stating how far away he was, etc. and then they watched as he taxied in. Santa then proceeded to get out, gave each kid a candy cane, and then gave each kid individual time inside as he gave each a present. Yes, it took a while, there were lots of kids...and wouldn't you know it...our kids were LAST...but the wait was worth it...the kids loved it...well, Aparri not so much....this was her third Santa encounter this season and I don't think she is getting any better...possibly worse...but that seems to be the pattern with each of our kids...year one is fear, 2 a little better, and usually by 3 they will atleast tolerate the man and usually sit on his lap....so hope for the future!!!

Another year older and wiser

Yes, Clay is another year older and wiser..... We celebrated the day with visits to Santa/Grinch; lunch from Pizza Hut (Birthday boy's choice), and then we ended the day with birthday cake and presents...yum, yum. Happy Birthday Clayboy, we love you.

Visiting Santa and the Grinch

We were able to visit Jolly O' Saint Nicholas and The Grinch....our kids LOVE the Grinch...they watch it, quote it, sing it, point out the song when it is on the radio, play pretend with the grinch...but wouldn't you know it that when they had the chance to actually meet the Grinch...they wouldn't go near him with a 39 1/2 foot pole! They sure wouldn't go up and meet him, but we spent the rest of the party watching him from a distance and if he was ever out of eye sight..all we heard was, "Where is the Grinch? Where is the Grinch? Where is the Grinch?" Until we were able to spot him again! The boys atleast went near Santa, but wouldn't talk to the nice man or his wife... goodness...and yes, Aparri had the classic scream reaction to both Santa and the Grinch...

December Family Pics

It's a beautiful day when the kids cooperate and we can get a good picture! Amazingly enough, it seems like most of our greatest pictures have come from our own camera on the timer....our kids respond to the blinking red light...who knew??

Trans-Siberian Orchestra Surprise

The orchestra experience was a double surprise....First, Clay surprised Laura by buying tickets to see the Trans-Siberian Orchestra!! Our second surprise came at the concert... it was a great concert... just not exactly what we were expecting....we were expecting great soft - Christmas orchestra music...what we got was...not so much that but more of a rock concert. The head banging was quite entertaining!!! But all said and done...it was a great date night out and we did enjoy most of the songs!

Backyard Funnies

We are loving the warm weather in December!!! We love to be outside....thank heavens there is a playset in our backyard!! It helps when we just need to run around and have some fun without having to go anywhere! 70 degrees the week before Christmas...okay!!

Thanksgiving in Dallas

We found out that our good friends, the Baileys, just moved to Dallas earlier this year. We met the Baileys when we were stationed in Florida. We instantly clicked and a friendship formed. Over the years we have had children within a month or two of each other and the same gender...imagine that! So, when both of us were staying in Texas for Thanksgiving, we decided to spend it together! It was fun to see each other and meet each other's kids. It was nice because each kid had a playmate...CJ and Hunter are the same age, Preston and Levi, and Aparri and Autumn. We had a wonderful Thanksgiving meal...thank you Baileys!!! They even remembered pretzel jello!!! After 4 years....wow. Then, on Friday we went to the Heard Natural History Museum which had a bug display...perfect, robotic dinosaurs..double perfect, and trails to run around and have fun...triple perfect. On the way home we stopped at a fabulous park and had a picnic lunch and played. We finished the afternoon off by going to the movies and seeing Tangled. Thanks Erin and Jed for a wonderful weekend.