Holiday Celebration

Since Anna and Wyatt both have birthdays in December, and since they don't spend Christmas Eve with all of us, we always try to plan a night where my family comes over for dinner so that we can have a celebration just for the two of them.  They get both birthday and Christmas presents from everyone so I know they enjoy it.

This year's party was held last Monday night, as soon as we made it back into town from our trip to Indiana.  Since we didn't have time to cook, we ordered homemade tamales which are always delicious and a crowd pleaser!

Everyone say "tamale!"

It's nights like this that I'm glad our bar is super long.  Almost all of the kids can squeeze in up there.

Before everyone scattered, we gathered around to watch Anna and Wyatt open their gifts.  I think they both loved everything they opened!

And then it was finally time for one of my very favorite Christmas activities...decorating the gingerbread house!  I love doing this with the kids (even if they do pour the sprinkles everywhere) but I secretly kinda want to do it without all the extra helpers sometime just so I can do it really cute.  

To me, Ramer is a clone of his daddy (my brother, Ben).  He enjoyed munching on all the candy while his daddy stuck all 10 of his fingers in the icing container (so he didn't double-dip, he said).  I really wish I'd caught him in the act, but I couldn't get my hands on my camera fast enough.

Katie Wynn was not really invited to help decorate since I don't really trust her around that much candy.  Didn't matter anyway because she was obsessed with Bren's sparkly shoes and trying to get them on her feet.

Still decorating...

Finally, after every single bag of candy and tube of sprinkles had been emptied, our house was complete.  If you had to, you could probably guess which side Anna and I worked on and which side was done by Bren and Parker.

We ended the night with Gigi's cupcakes, and I hate that I didn't get a picture of them because they were so cute!  They were decorated as Santa hats and snow flakes and Christmas trees.  You'll just have to take my word for it.

Don't you love pumping your niece and nephews full of sugar and then sending them out the door?  :)  

Sadly, I had to go to work for a few hours the next morning, but by that afternoon, our Christmas Eve celebration was underway!  Pics coming soon.

Christmas in Indiana

This year, we decided to travel to Matt's folks for the holiday since they came to us last year.  We visited them the weekend before Christmas, and it was the first time we'd traveled there (a 6-7 hour road trip) with all three kids in tow.  

If I'm being honest, I was kinda dreading the drive, but it really wasn't bad at all!  It helped that we left early and the kids (and I) slept most of the way.

Despite the rain we had to drive through, we made it in pretty record time.  And only made one stop!  That's a miracle in itself considering we had a toddler and a preggo lady on board.

Katie Wynn was excited to get out of the car, and I think her Lala (Matt's mom) was even more excited to see her!  (There are several pictures in this post that demonstrate why her hair is in a pony tail on top of her head most of the time...her bangs are way too long!)

Katie Wynn is so spoiled that she got to open her first Christmas present that evening.  Her Lala and Poppa know how much she loves to carry bags and so they got her her very own pink purse!  It's safe to say she loved it.

I couldn't resist taking pictures of her eating dinner in this high chair...it dates all the way back to when Lala was a little girl!  Those crossed feet while eating crack me up too.

I. Love. This. Face.

Book time before bed time!

Family time for the rest of us before bed!

There weren't many complaints about going to bed that night because the next day, Matt's sister and her family were headed over so we could all open presents.  That morning we learned that Katie Wynn still doesn't like Santa Claus, even when it's just her big brother disguised as him.

Here are a bunch of snapshots from the day.

It was a really fun day.  I hate that we don't get to hang out with this side of our family more often! 

On Sunday, we got cleaned up and headed to visit Matt's Granddaddy at his new apartment.  Granddaddy is nearly 92 years old and just moved into a retirement community.  This was the first time we had all three kids there at the same time to see him, so of course we had to pile them on the love seat for a picture!

We really enjoyed chatting with Granddaddy and are so glad that he has settled in nicely to his new space.  I think he loved seeing the big kids and got a kick out of watching Katie Wynn.  In typical toddler fashion, she was into everything!  We tried to leave her with him overnight, but he said he'd probably only be able to make it a couple hours. :)

Matt and Wyatt had on twinkie shirts so of course a picture was needed.

That afternoon was our last in Indiana before we left early the next morning.  Since we missed church, Anna read the Christmas story from Luke to us.  Katie Wynn played with her new toys and the boys got in a quick basketball game.

We had a really good time in Indiana; it was the perfect kickoff to a week of celebrations.  Thanks for everything, Lala and Poppa!

Christmas Cards 2013

Get ready for some serious Christmas recap posts!  First, let's start with this year's cards.

The one we sent out was not at all what I had envisioned for this year.  I had lots of cute ideas, but we never had a good time to pull them off.  Teenagers have really busy schedules!  We realized one Saturday night while Anna and Wyatt were at our house in November that we wouldn't have all three kids together again until Christmas time, so we had no choice but to try for a Christmas card pic the next day.  And what did we wake up to?  Rain.  Of course.  

The rain had stopped momentarily right as we were getting out of church, and I knew I had limited time before hunger stole the smiles from their faces.  So we had a quick ten minute photo shoot and called it done.

This was the winner.

Three kids smiling at the same time made this the clear choice.  Plus, I like that both Anna and Wyatt are touching Katie bug.  They love her, even if sometimes they act too cool for her.

There were some pretty good outtakes too.  And by "good" I really mean terrible.  I thought it would be cute to take one of the three of them walking down this cute little pathway, but Katie Wynn wanted to be the leader of the pack.

Yes, I did some photoshopping on Anna's sweater in the chosen picture.  I thought it looked a little busy.  Is that awful?

I thought these where Wyatt was showing KW a big leaf would be cute too, but Anna was making some silly gestures.  I also didn't love the chain link fence in the background.

This was the runner-up for our card.  Equally as good of the three of them, but I let Matt choose and he preferred the one of the girls holding hands.

I'll have to plan way more in advance for next year's since, in addition to two teenagers and a toddler, we'll also be working with a little baby.  Should be fun!  :)

The past four years, we've done a full family picture for my mom and dad's card.  This year, there was just not a time when everyone in the family could get together, so that didn't work out.  My mom was stressed to the max over getting a perfect picture!  We decided a picture with just her and Dad with the grandkids would work, but unfortunately Anna and Wyatt would have to be out of the picture since they wouldn't be around.  This was a very spontaneous photo shoot we did on Thanksgiving, while all the extended family was inside the house eating lunch.

The biggest problem?  How do you get five little kids to look at the camera and smile at the same time?  I can't tell you how many pics I have like this...perfect smiles on some, and at least one or two looking off and/or being silly.

So, I tried out a little trick.  I told them I was going to count to three and then I wanted them to all scream at the top of my lungs.  They did exactly as told!

And then, as the screams faded, the giggles started.

And I just kept snapping away, because eventually, we got this card-worthy gem.

Genuine smiles from five kids and two proud grandparents.  You can't beat that!

Hope some of you enjoyed seeing these arrive in your mailboxes!  December is definitely my favorite time of year because of all the snail mail!

More Christmas recaps to come...

Lately

I'm so behind!  Here's an attempt to play catch-up on what we've been up to so far in December.  Prepare for random picture overload!

• We met Mr. Ronaldo of Ronaldo Jewelry.  I have three of his bracelets that I wear often, and Katie Wynn received a tiny one for her birthday.  The last time Mr. Ronaldo visited our town, I heard that he gave away bracelets to all the little girls that visited the gift shop.  I was planning on visiting anyway since I had a Christmas gift to buy, but I made sure to bring my cutie pie along with me in hopes of a new bracelet to add to her collection.  Sadly, she did not get a freebie.  I learned later that other little girls did.  I'm trying not to be bitter.  

• I can't take her shopping with me if I don't plan on letting her carry my bag.  It doesn't matter how big or heavy it is, she thinks she has to have it.  And she still loves admiring herself in the mirror.

• We've run into Santa Claus a couple of times and so far, Katie Wynn does not seem too impressed with him and his red suit and ho ho hos.

• We tried to switch the side her hair parts on and we both agreed that it made her look really weird.  It makes more sense in the back for it to go this opposite way thanks to her "swirl" but it just looks backwards (to us) in the front!

• One Sunday we had a birthday lunch after church.  Bren and Katie Wynn had on coordinating Christmas outfits so I had to snap a couple pics.  Bren loves to get to feed Katie Wynn!

• Who doesn't get excited about getting to stick their hand into a box of cheerios?  Also, I love this outfit.  The other leg of her pants (hidden by the box of cereal) is polka dotted like her shirt.  This outfit plus her straight-up pony tail makes her look like she's straight out of Whoville.  :)

• Anyone who's ever been around a toddler knows they like to help with ev-er-y-thing...even screwing on new door hinges!

• Two totally unrelated photos below.  On the left, our girls test out our new mudroom bench.  We still have one small thing left to do in there and then I owe you all a LONG post about how it came together and looks now.  Spoiler alert: we love it!  On the right, Matt and I recently got to enjoy a night out at a wedding.  I helped direct the wedding but then we were free to eat and dance all night long at the reception.  Turns out "all night long" isn't very long for me anymore.  :(

• These days, our girl plays so hard during the day that she'll sometimes crash before dinner.  On the left is her passed out right on the floor in our room.  She just couldn't make it to dinner time!  Sunday mornings, our bathroom turns into a beauty shop, as seen below on the right.  With the cold weather lately, we've had to dry her hair a couple times before leaving so she wouldn't freeze.  Daddy makes a great beautician!

The next pics on my phone start Christmas celebrations, and I think I'll save those for a post of their own.  Do you have your gifts wrapped?  I've been wrapping mine in shifts as I needed them.  We've cleared out half of them but I've got to get busy finishing them up tomorrow before Christmas Eve on Tuesday!  Hope you aren't a procrastinator like me. :)

Trans Siberian Orchestra

This year, for the big kids' birthdays (that both fall in December), we decided to give the gift of "experiences" instead of more stuff that they don't really need.  Wyatt's birthday has already passed and he opened tickets to a Titans game.  Matt will take him for a boys' weekend at the end of the month, and I think they're both looking forward to it.  Although Anna's birthday is still 4 days away (Christmas day!), she got to go ahead and open her gift since it was tickets to see the Trans Siberian Orchestra on December 6th.

We made reservations at a nice restaurant - Itta Bena - for before the show and though we spent most of the afternoon stressing over whether we'd actually make it there or not thanks to a day's worth of ice that had arrived and covered the roads, we had a delicious dinner just the three of us before the show.

Itta Bena is located above BB Kings on Beale Street and we couldn't leave without a selfie in front of the big BB Kings sign.

Since it's somewhat of a big birthday for Anna - 13! teenager! - we splurged on really good seats.  As in, four rows back from the stage.  We took this picture before the concert started to try to show just how close we were.  That's the stage right behind us!

Once the lights dimmed, it was almost three straight hours of rockin' Christmas songs.  Have any of you ever seen the Trans Siberian Orchestra?  There is a lot of head banging and swaying and hair tossing involved.  We joked a lot about what happens if any of the singers show up for work one day and have had their hair cut off.  Do they get fired?  There was only one person (a male) that didn't have long flowy locks and he only got to sing two-ish songs.  We guessed that he probably used to be the lead singer but was demoted after the scissors got to his hair.

In addition to all the long hair, there is also lots of cool effects.  It is much more than just a concert.  The first two-thirds of it was a story (The Lost Christmas Eve), complete with lasers and lights and fire shooting out everywhere.  We were so close that every time the fire shot out, it warmed our faces.

Oh, we even got snowed on!  For one full song (and these are not short songs), we sat under a steady snowfall of fake (soapy?) flakes.  You can see them accumulating in Anna's hair below.

Here are a bunch of snapshots I took throughout the show.  You can tell just by glancing at them that the lights and effects were constantly changing...it was all so colorful!

I won't lie, I got a little bit nervous every time they climbed onto these things and panned out over the audience.  Not for them...but for me!  They passed straight over our heads multiple times.

The show was really, really good, but if I'm being completely honest, it may have been a tad long for us.  Three hours is a long time to listen to electric guitars and violins, especially when they don't start until after 8pm.  This mama can't stay up that late!  Needless to say, we weren't sad to see these final bows.

I do recommend going to see the show if you ever get the chance.  It was definitely worth the trip.  But the best part for us was definitely getting some quality time with just our oldest not-so-little-anymore girl.  Happy birthday, Anna!