Christmas in Kentucky

Christian has become our photographer lately. Not too bad:) We went to my parents house on Christmas night. It was so good to ALL be together this year. We had a few presents and lots of fun. You really begin to see the bigger picture of what is most important when a family member has been gone (like Travis was) and returns home to share in the holidays.

Mim picked her out a pretty necklace on their trip overseas and is helping B put it on

Travis brought us all back some goodies from Afghanistan. Baylor got a bracelet and Christian got his first pocket knife...both made from lapis that is mined there. Mom and I got the most beautiful pottery with carvings etched in the sides. Jeff and dad received these Elders hats. They are wool and very warm b/c believe it or not it gets very cold over there.

We spent the next couple days playing with our presents and hanging out with the fam

Christian did a little stand up routine for us...the boy loves to tell jokes

Kim was so happy to be able to cuddle with her sweetheart this year

a few presents

The annual "kids" picture on the couch

OC Breakfast with Santa

Talking with the big man

Our precious life group--LOVE these people (and the ones not pictured too)

doing sticker pages

Gracie does not like the idea of getting her picture taken

Christian loves the fact that Mrs. Kiki let him hold Liam

One of many attempts at getting a kids picture

Stuart loves him some Mr. Jeff (and we all love the way he says it)

most of the girls

Our Family

These kids sure can LOOK sweet (even if they act the exact opposite sometimes)

Jeff hasn't had many opportunities to hang with Liam yet

Craft time

Kara and me

more crafts

Sweet Harper. I'm going to miss her family so much when they move :(

Special Events

Christian's sweet teacher is about to have a baby girl any day now. The class threw her a baby shower last week and I helped. The class gave baby Sarah a kick and play piano and some rattles. A few kids brought in their own gifts too.

Christian gave her this fleece dress to keep her warm

While I was helping at the baby shower...Baylor was at church helping break ground for the new school building. It has been a long hard fight to get the school moved to the same property as the church. We are having to build a whole new building to meet all the new codes for schools and such. The kids all had hard hats and little lanterns. One of Ms. Pat's big lessons for children AND adults is "you can be preparing the path for the child or the child for the path" So our fund raising efforts were entitled Lighting the Path.
Another mom was nice enough to take her and these cute pictures

Time with Nana and Papa

It has become tradition to meet with Jeff's family the Sunday after Thanksgiving. We like to eat at Cock of the Walk (hence the humongous chair picture) and go to Opryland Hotel to look at the lights. It was especially memorable this year because of the flood. In May the hotel had water throughout the bottom level and we all wondered if there would be Christmas at Opryland.

Above is Uncle Jeremy, the kids, Nana and Papa
Below is our attempt at a family picture. Not only with kids that don't always cooperate, but also with a brother-in-law who doesn't know how to look through a camera the old fashioned way anymore:)

The kids were dancing underneath a gazebo in the Delta

checking out the water fountains that "jump" from spot to spot

Outside at the Nativity

and the BIG poinsettia tree of lights

This pic is to prove we made a WHOLE LOT OF FUDGE after Thanksgiving. We went on up to Mom & Dad's for a couple days and they helped us make 6 batches of fudge to hand out to our friends for Christmas.

The first delivery was to our friends the Denny's who now live in Lexington. Since we were kinda near by we drove over for a visit:) I had seen Jenni on several occasions when she has come back to Nashville, but the kids had not seen each other for almost a year. And I hadn't seen the boys (including Phillip) either. Another bonus was that some other friends would be driving through at the same time. So below is a picture of Jenni and Christian lovin on Miss Merritt. Such a cutie

Of course the boys had a light saber duel

Old friends together again...Baylor, Jake, Christian and Evan
Always good to get back together

Thanksgiving 2010

We had Thanksgiving at my aunts house. Mam-ma and Pap-pa were there of course. It was so good to see and spend time with them. Pap-pa had not been feeling well for a few weeks before so it was a gift to have him feeling better on this day.

lots of yummy food

I put in the above picture only to show Baylor's budding photography skills and below you can see what Christian made a bee line for post food...a book of course

Baylor LOVES her KayKay

Christian reading his "I am thankful" story to Mam-ma

Later on he tells me he wants two things for dessert. I told him this was a special kind of day that he could have both...then in he walks with three big pieces of fudge and a cookie!!! He was NOT allowed to eat all that, I promise.