Christmas in Sinton!

We spent Christmas at my Granny and Papa's house and of course took WAY too many pictures, so I turned them into a bunch of collages to include as many as possible. I'm sure they are not in the right order, and I don't know if the pictures from each collage even go together, but here they are...

Family photos first...all the "kids" with their significant others...

We tried this picture at least 5 times and the guys kept not participating. By the time they agreed, I guess Madelyn had had enough :( Still funny though...not sure what my family's obsession with the moose is...

My parents, Madelyn, me, Clint, Kristi and Kyle...

Before opening presents, Madelyn passed out the ones she made for everyone...her "glue projects"

here come the presents!

Madelyn trying out a few of her new toys...

Granny and Papa with me, Clint, and M

Madelyn with her great-grandparents! so special...

My dad and Granny in the kitchen! Granny does all the (delicious) cooking, but when my dad gets there, he helps out...

Madelyn's super-cute place setting! and the very fun Santa boot centerpiece!

Madelyn in front of Aunt Sharon's gorgeous tree, and playing games with Brandy on the IPad. Aunt Sharon at the appetizer table, and a festive elk...

We played lots of games...

Clint received 2 games at our brown bag (white elephant) gift exchange. Yay! I love games! I got a Starbucks gift card and coffee mug. I also love Starbucks :) The bottom right is a little Wii action!

more family...

Madelyn having a tea party with Uncle Kyle, eating way too much chocolate pie with Popio, giving Popio a new hairdo, and trying on Papa's hat...

Hanging out with Papa while wrapped up like a present...

another tea party...with Aunt Sharon and Daddy

Madelyn had a blast grocery shopping in the pantry, Clint and Travis played a little Chess, and the bottom pic looks like some guy talk...

We were so fortunate to have such a wonderful Christmas with family! It was great to see everybody! Thanks to Granny and Aunt Sharon for all your hard work to make the holiday so special!

Merry Christmas!!

We opened presents a few days early at our house since we would be traveling to Sinton. We drank hot chocolate (chocolate milk for M) and opened presents in our PJs first thing that morning!

displaying her first present...

she's excited to GIVE too...
She got this robe and thought it was very cool to match Daddy...
showing off her robe!
Thanks Alex for the new doll...
Stocking Stuffers!!
Sinton pictures...coming soon!

too cute!

The other day, Madelyn specifically asked to wear her reindeer t-shirt, this sweater, and her scarf. She looked so cute, so I couldn't resist taking lots of pics...here are my favorite poses!

She wants to dress herself more often these days, and she doesn't always come up with an outfit that matches as well as this one does. I'm sure there will be future blog postings on that. In fact, I should have taken a picture of what she wore to the park today! next time...

Since Madelyn moved up to the "big kid" class at school, she was in the Christmas program!! I had the video camera but also took one picture. I made it big so you could try to find her...she is sitting on the floor shaking bells on the bottom right...

Hopefully I will get the video uploaded sometime (I keep saying that about different things...we'll see if it ever happens) so you can see Madelyn sing, do some hand motions, and most importantly PICK HER NOSE on stage!!!

Pop came to visit for a few days! He and Madelyn took her baby doll for a walk :)

Happy Birthday Jesus!

In an attempt to start teaching our little ones the real reason for Christmas, my friends and I threw a birthday party for Jesus!

Betsy made the very yummy cake...

Madelyn was not shy and took the job of trying to blow out the candles. Some others helped...pretty sure they were all just spitting on the cake! This did not keep any of the moms from having a piece :)

Chowin' down...

Jordan, Carter, and Charlotte...aren't they cute in their reindeer outfits? Thanks Jordan for having the party at your house!

Me and Madelyn...
At the end, we passed out candy canes and read this to the kids. I wanted to share in case any of you have not seen this before (I had never seen it before...thanks Katie for bringing)

Look at the Candy Cane, what do you see?

Stripes that are RED, like the blood shed for me!

White is for my Savior, who is sinless and pure!

"J" is for Jesus, my Lord, that's for sure!

Turn it around and a staff you will see

Jesus my shepherd was born for ME!

Super Madelyn!

and introducing Super Daddy!

"flying" around the house together...

thank you thank you thank you to Layla (and her mommy) for the most awesome cape-shirt ever!!

Clint's cousin, Brian, recently moved to Dallas and we all went out for pizza together. Brian came back to our house after and Madelyn requested he read her bedtime book...such an honor! We hope to see more of Brian now that we don't live too far from each other.
Flying practice!
Madelyn and Jensen playing in the snow! yes, snow. This was the leftover snow/ice from a Santa Land a few days before
a child with obviously no supervision walking barefoot in the cold water in the cold weather :)

Pampered Princess!

Our next door neighbor's 3 year old niece was in town, and they invited us to a Pampered Princess event. When I told Clint about it, he said "you're going where? why?" I have to admit I'm not really into the whole princess thing, but Madelyn likes to play with Alaina, so we went.

Madelyn and Alaina in their princess dresses...
There were basically different stations set up to pamper each little princess :) First was make-up...

Then, nails. Madelyn picked which color she wanted...hot pink with a coat of glitter on top!
showing off her nails!
meeting a "real" prince and princess :)
playing Christmas bingo...
I was glad to see there was a craft involved...making your very own tiara of course!
Next, off to the hair station for an up-do!
The end result...very glittery pig tails!
When you won playing bingo, you got to pick a prize and then walk across the stage...here is M strutting her stuff. By the way, she didn't wear the dress too long and opted for just the tutu we had on underneath...
There were pink cupcakes and Cinderella read a story to everyone. The kids could go up on stage to listen, but M said no because she would not leave her cupcake :)
finally, more sugar...an icing dipped pretzel stick
then home to take a BATH...