We had a wonderful Thanksgiving this year. Dad and Jean drove out here from Arkansas and spent a week with us. Jarred, Crystal and the boys drove down from Durham on Thanksgiving Day and Mike and Dana came down from DC to spend Thanksgiving Day and to stay a night with us. We so loved having so much family here for the holidays.
This is actually the day after Thanksgiving. Dana and Mike hung out a little longer on Friday so that C could show off her cooking skills. She had so much fun being in the kitchen with Dana.
My kids (especially C) misses having family around. We are so blessed that my dad is willing and able to drive out and see us once or twice a year.
C loves cooking as I have said in previous posts. She is all about presentation! She is pretty good at it too.
I wish I had taken some pictures the night before when we were playing the game Apples to Apples with Mike and Dana. I haven't laughed that hard in such a long time. Thanks, guys, for the great time.
Christmas came and went so quickly this year. Here M and Daddy stop to pose for a quick picture the Sunday before Christmas. Have I told you lately how much I love my family???
Pretty, pretty princess! She calls her dresses "ballerina". Took me forever to figure out what she wanted to wear when she would say "ballerina". Gotta love her!!
This is M with her Puggle friends at our church walking in to see Santa.
I couldn't believe she sat on his lap. At our neighborhood kids' Christmas party she wouldn't even get close to him. This is the only picture we have because as usual the battery died on my camera after this picture was taken. I was so thankful it lasted long enough to get this picture. She told him she wanted a baby stroller.
M came down the stairs Christmas morning and saw this shopping cart first thing. Took her only a few seconds before she started filling it up with her blankie and toys.
You never get too old to enjoy Christmas morning. C knew most of what she was getting this year, since she picked out stuff for her room. I remember being C's age and mom having me pick out what I wanted. Once the fun of believing in Santa goes away, it is harder to buy presents for teenagers without their knowledge. She did a great job acting surprised! I did have a couple of things under the tree for her that she wasn't expecting.
"Oh look, Mom!! It's the orange pillow that I picked out from Pier 1. How did you know I wanted this?" LOL!!!!
Okay, this picture frame was a surprise. We ended up going back to Target and getting another one that is similar to this one. She has done a great job decorating her room and filling the frames with great pictures.
Our neighbors, the Laytons, stopped by Christmas Eve and gave Marissa this gift. It is a "Tangled" (the movie) table that can be taken apart and stacked into a tower. She loves it. It was so sweet that they bought her this. I think they did this because we had watched their daughter, Caden, the day before. Ashleigh had to have an outpatient procedure done and we kept Caden all day for them. Of course, they didn't have to do anything for us. That is what friends do for each other.
M got a box full of dress-up clothes and you can see the baby doll stroller that she asked Santa for. I think all in all M had a great Christmas. Now where do we put all of this stuff?
M & C playing dress-up. Although C says M gets on her last nerve, she is really a great big sister.
Of course, we couldn't forget McGregor. He loved his stuffed toy animal. We can put plastic bottles inside it so that it makes lots of noise for him and he can't get hurt.
C bought McGregor this fine looking sweater. Isn't he handsome? We have been pleasantly surprised that he will wear it. I actually think he likes it. It keeps our prince nice and warm.
I loved this snow. Everything had a black and white appearance. It reminded me of the scenes from the movies "The Chronicles of Narnia". Beautiful!
Last year, C had no problem standing on the sled and going down this hill. This year.....not so much. But Robby got a great picture of her fall and she wasn't hurt so it was all good. But in her words....FAIL!!!
We took a friend, Pita, with us to sled. Pita is from Columbia, South America and has been here for 2 months staying with her aunt who lives in our subdivision. C and Pita really hit it off and did a lot of things together. This was so much fun, sharing the snow with Pita. She had never seen snow nor had she ever been sledding.
M loved sledding with Mommy!
My little snowbunny!!!!!
Robby took his turn, while Pita waited in the background for her turn to go again. See C's scarf hanging on the tree? We got ready to go and I turned around and saw it STILL hanging there. I got it and hid it. We got in the truck and Robby and I kept talking about her scarf...the scarf this and the scarf that. It took her 5 minutes to catch on and realize that she never got it off the tree.
C took M outside to build a snowman. They put M & M's in him for his face and his buttons. The next day the candy had fallen out but the color of the candies was still in the holes. It was too cute!
Kissing Mr. Snowman. Isn't this just adorable?
January brought my brother, Buddy, and his wife, LaDonna, to NC. They spent most of their time with their boys and their families. I am so thankful though that we got to spend a little time together. My girls love them so much. Buddy and C got to go and do their yearly shopping trip together while M got to spend some great time with LaDonna. It was so funny..... we could not get M to call them Uncle Buddy and Aunt LaDonna. She kept saying "Unca Donna" and "Papa". Buddy's grandsons call him "Pops" so we tried to get her to call him that, but it was a no go.
We grew up eating snow ice cream whenever Arkansas got snow. I can't believe I have never made this for C. So Buddy helped us gather enough snow before the sleet came down and we made a big bowl of it. It was so good.... just like I remembered it as a child. What a fun memory to share with my big girl.
When we have the fireplace turned on, we tend to back up to it to warm our backsides. It was funny to catch M doing the same thing that her big sis was doing. She loves to do whatever we are doing. It is so sweet.
I have been trying to get M to go potty on her chair but it is not working. She just doesn't want to do it. I have tried putting her in training pants a few times but she will hold it as long as she can and then finally go into the pants. She is going to be much harder than C was. Anyway, I bought the thing to sit on the toilet for her to use and chose the Dora the Explorer one. I thought this might encourage her to go since she loves Dora so much. Last night I told her "Let's go see if we can pee on Dora." So she went and sat on the seat and I was trying to get her to go. She finally looked at me and said "Broken". "What's broken, M?" "Pee". HA!!! She can say things sometimes that really crack us up. What will this kid come up with next....
