Old Friends

While home, we got the chance to catch up with some of our friends from high school, who now also have children! Kelley (McKean) Peck and Kelly (Obringer) Fredlake both have daughters (Libbie and Emily, respectively) that were born just a month later than Juliette, so it was fun to watch the little girls walk around together.

Janice Taylor with one of her sons (Grayson) who is now 5 months old. Her oldest boy, Shane, is about the same age as Abbey.

Here are Landon and Libbie Peck playing on the piano with Ben and Abbey.

Ben and Landon had a blast playing together, especially in these costumes Ben got for Christmas!

It was so fun to see you girls and catch up - hope to see you again soon!

Christmas Part 3

Later that afternoon, Uncle Al came over and watched Toy Story 3 (another Christmas gift) with Uncle Chris and Ben (notice Buzz in Ben's lap)...

Then it was finally time for Christmas dinner...yummy!!

Love this picture...it captures her little attitude!

Uncle Chris and Ben playing with his new batman trio blocks...very cool!

Abbey and Nana play together...they look like they are up to trouble...
Mimi reads to Ben...
Abbey plays with Grand-Patch...
The girls play with Uncle Chris before bed time...
Then Madgie reads them a story by the fire...
Uncle Chris and Aunt Ginny with the kiddos...
Then it was Uncle Chris' turn to read stories by the fire...
Ben and his Godfather get goofy...
It was a long, but wonderful day! Merry Christmas!!

Christmas morning Part 2

Once we got some breakfast, everyone was in a better mood and ready to get back to opening presents. Before getting to presents though, Juliette gives Aunt Ginny hugs...
And she is thinking about giving her a kiss too...
Abbey got a doll house for Christmas and luckily, Nana and Grand-Patch were on hand to help set it up for her!
Juliette asked for a baby doll for Christmas and here she is opening that gift from Santa...
This is my favorite picture taken from the new camera so far...
My grandmother gave me a locket that was hers (and used to be her mother's) that I have always loved and played with as a little girl. I couldn't be more excited to receive such a meaningful gift. That makes two very special necklaces I have received lately as last Christmas, my other grandmother gave me a beautiful golden cross necklace that she has had since she was 15 years old. I feel so very honored to receive both of these and I cherish them dearly. Here is Grandma helping me to put the locket on.

Thank you so much Grandma - I love it!

Abbey got a set of play hair stuff. Here is Aunt Ginny trying to show Abbey what to do with the curling iron...

Ben got a book from Madgie called "The Tickle Monster" that came with tickle hands. Here he is using them on Madgie!

Ben asked for one main thing this Christmas...he wanted a real Buzz Lightyear like the one in the movie that says stuff, pops its wings out, shoots lasers, and comes in the space ship box. Here is Ben's excited face when he opens this gift from Santa...
He didn't put Buzz down for at least 3 straight days...
Abbey playing with her pretend make-up...
Juliette seems happy with her gifts...
Here she is showing off her new slippers...
I would say everyone was pleased with their gifts...good job Santa :)

Christmas morning Part 1

Christmas morning...wow we have a lot of pictures! So, I shall divide this up into a few posts. First thing we did Christmas morning was to sneak out and see if Santa came. When we verified that he did in fact come and eat his cookies, we then woke everyone else in the house up! Before getting to the main presents though, we opened up our stockings. Here is Abbey helping Mimi see everything that she got in her stocking...

Then it was time to get to the wrapped presents. In our house, we have a tradition that Patch puts on the Santa cap and then passes out the presents to everyone. Abbey thought he might need a little helper this year though...

Madgie helps Abbey open up some of her presents....

Uncle Chris helps Juliette open one of her presents...

Madgie got a lot of great presents this year too (including an iPad from Patch and an awesome shirt made by her grandchildren), but her favorite gift may have been this awesome leopard print snuggie that Uncle Chris and Aunt Ginny gave her!
And what did Santa leave us this year? A brand new DSLR camera!
We had so many presents to open that we decided to take a quick break for breakfast and to get the turkey stuffed and into the oven. Then we got dressed and went back for Part 2 of Christmas morning...

Pre-Christmas Fun

OK, I guess it's finally time to update the blog for all of our Christmas fun...this could take a while! First off, before we left for FL, we went over to the Kurby's house for a little pre-celebration of Christmas. We had a lot of fun and it was a great way to kick off the holidays! Here are all the kids ready to unwrap their gifts.

Then, we took a 6am flight and jetted to Jacksonville for the holidays. The kids were excellent on the plane and slept most of the flight, but we were still all a little weary and tired when we arrived. Luckily, Madgie and Patch had all their toys out and ready for the kids to play with and get out some of their energy. Juliette particularly loved this toy and got huge smiles on her face when she played with it...

Ben enjoyed playing pool...or rather, rolling the balls into each other and trying to get them into the pockets. We figured he wasn't quite ready for using the sticks just yet (or really, Abbey wasn't ready and if we let Ben do it, we wouldn't be able to stop her, so it was just easier to stay no sticks).

Then Uncle Chris arrived, which meant a whole new level of fun!

The next day, Aunt Ginny, Mimi, Nana and Grand-Patch arrived! The kids really enjoyed seeing their great-grandparents. This was the first time Juliette had met any of them, and unfortunately, she was a bit skeptical and took a very long time to warm up to them. But Ben and Abbey had a lot of fun playing with them and by the end, Juliette would play peekaboo with them (although she wouldn't let anybody hold her). Here is Mimi reading to Ben...

Before we knew it, it was time to go to Christmas Eve Mass. Here is the whole family dressed to impress...
And here are four generations: Mimi, Madgie (holding Abbey), me, and Juliette. The last picture we took like this was when Abbey was a baby and I was pregnant with Juliette, so we were happy to be able to update the picture!
Finally, it was time to set out cookies for Santa and carrots for the reindeer....
Then it was time for Madgie read the kids "Twas the Night Before Christmas," which Ben was most interested in hearing, and off to bed while visions of sugarplums danced in their heads!