Merry Christmas

We had a wonderful Christmas this year and we are so blessed to share it with our two beautiful girls. Bryden was so excited when she woke up, she walked into our room and said "I see a rainbow downstairs, I think Santa came!". The rainbow turned out to be a big blow globe Santa that stands 5 feet tall! Awesome! Santa left that for us to add to our growing collection of outside Christmas decorations! We opened all our gifts,and Bryden was VERY excited to see that Santa heard her wishes for a Nintendo DS (or Atendo DS as Bryden calls it...why Santa brought a gift that she can't even pronounce correctly is beyond me :o). Anyway, she LOVES it and has been mastering the princess game, and we are working on two more! Emmy was very happy to tear wrapping paper apart and play in the sled that Santa brought us...for our next big snowstorm so we are prepared!). Both girls had a great time and Jim and I really enjoyed watching them open gifts and play with them! Then, we ate breakfast and headed down to Nanne and Grampa's for Round Two of gift giving and receiving! I think Emmy hit the jackpot with her gift from Aunt Chandra and Uncle Murat...they got her a drawer full of toys! She immediately started pulling all the toys out of the bin and had a blast with it. Bryden got more awesome gifts, including totally cute swim suits, a Hannah Montana guitar and headset, among lots and lots of other things. Jim got a FABULOUS picture of me and Emmy (if I do say so myself) from Mom and Dad (he got one of me and Bryden when she was 6 mos old), and I got an awesome cricut machine (for scrapbooking) and a double jogging stroller! We got a bunch of gifts that were all perfect and then we took naps and got to lay low for a while! Then Round Three, the extended family came over for dinner and more gifts! Man oh man! We made out like bandits! Merry Christmas and enjoy the pics!

Make a Smilebox photobook

Tacky Christmas Sweaters

So, for the second night of our Holiday party, we decided to have a Tacky Christmas sweater contest this year. A little background, Jim asked me a few years ago to build him a tacky Christmas wardrobe, I couldn't find any good sweaters, so I made him a sweatshirt and the next year I made him a hat. This year, I found some SWEET cordoury pants that are green, with red and white candy canes on them. Hell Yeah! So, following my own lead, I decided I would make the sweaters for us girls for the party. Here are some fun pics of them. Emmy is supposed to be Frosty from the front (I had black shoes to put on her, but they wouldnt fit on her feet over all her warm clothes...check out her Frosty hat though!). And on the sleeves of the back of Bryden's sweatshirt are her contribution of "fireworks". Since we were the only ones who dressed up for the party, maybe y'all should vote for us! Enjoy!

Wintertime Fun

We got an AWESOME snowstorm Friday night. It snowed the entire time of our Holiday party, then we got to play all day the next day! Perfect timing for a perfect snow! Enjoy!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Gather Round the Campfire

We had our fourth annual "Gather Round the Campfire" outside Christmas party this weekend. Since we live three houses down from "The Christmas House" we get lots of traffic, so we have people over, light the firepit, have fun crafts for the kids and fun drinks for the adults we hang out all night. Well, this year we were blessed with and AWESOME snowstorm where we got about a foot Friday night. It kept a lot of people away, but we still had a blast with those that braved the weather. What a gorgeous night! Enjoy the pics!

Santa on the Firetruck

Santa came through our neighborhood on a fire truck, and here are some cute pics of the kids waiting!





Emmy is teething and will stick anything in her mouth. She loves to play in Bryden's toy kitchen, and she always comes up with a mushroom in her mouth like a pacifier!

Can this be comfortable???

So, we are trying to get Emmy in the habit of putting herself to sleep. She does fairly well at night, (by that I mean she gets tired rocking and eating, we put her in her crib, she cries for 5 or 10minutes, we go hold her, put her back down and she cries for a few more minutes before falling asleep). Naptime is a little tougher. Today, I figured I'd give it a go, I am just getting stuff done around the house, so I fed her and she just about fell asleep. I moved her to the crib and of course, like always, the little stinker woke up. Well, she hollered and played a bit, then started crying. I knew she was really tired, so I let her cry it out. Well, she finally gave up (only about 10 minutes, which was way better than I had expected)! When I went to check on her, this is how I found her. I guess she was just too tired and crashed...but ouch, this does not look comfortable! Enjoy!

The Grand Illumination

Last weekend we went down to Colonial Williamsburg for the Grand Illumination. Now, I don't know about y'all, but we are still trying to figure out what was so grandly illuminated! I mean, they had an AWESOME fireworks display (actually there were three going on at the same time in different locations around CW), but we thought that there would be Christmas lights lighted or something. The only thing they did was light the candle lights in the windows of all the colonial houses! Hmmmm, oh well, we had a great time with our friends the Moore's (Rachael and her parents). We hang out so much together now, we nicknamed ourself the "Mooretubise's"! Ha! Anyway, all three girls LOVED the fireworks. Bryden and Racheal kept saying "WOW, that is so beautiful!" and Emmy just kept looking at them with this huge grin on her face. She wasn't scared of the noise at all, even when they woke her up from her little power nap! Kids are awesome to help you remember the simple joys in life! Thanks girls for always reminding us! Enjoy!





Silly Mr. Ashley!


Our goofy pic!















WOW! Look at those fireworks! Such excitement and pure joy!
Emmy LOVED all the fireworks. She kept looking at the fireworks, then looking at me with this huge smile, it was like she was saying "Can you believe this, do you see what I am seeing!" Too cute!




In awe of the fireworks show!








Tired after a cold and awesome night. The girls hitched a ride back to the car in the stroller together! DON'T smile girls...don't do it :o)