8:00 pm, child #2 went to bed: Great

8:40 pm, child #1 went to bed: Even better

9:15 pm, parents are in bed with lights out: Awesome
(or sad, depending on who you are)

11:30 pm, wake up to go to the bathroom and realize you still have the rest of the night to sleep: PRICELESS!!!


That is how we brought in the new year. In our opinion, it was perfect! We haven't felt that rested in a really long time. Now we're ready to face another year together!

We started our week of Christmas at my parents' house. We decided to go Monday night in hopes the kids would sleep the whole way, but Christopher was too excited to sleep... until the last 45 minutes. When we got there we put on pj's and they watched the train go around the tree. Christopher went NUTS!! He actually slid all over the floor to watch it go from one end to the other. It was great!




Here I am watching the kids help Grammie bake Christmas cookies Tuesday morning. They were so into it and the cookies were really yummy too!





Everyone else arrived on Christmas Eve and I had to get a shot of the stockings hanging from the stair railing. We are actually missing two of them!



Christopher showing off his crane that he got from Santa to Uncles Kyle and Trey. He drove that thing all over the house and tried to see how many different things he could carry with it.

Sophie opening gifts in her own way. She'll put anything in her mouth. You have to watch her!

Sophie was excited about her new toy. She got 3 baby dolls as well and loved all of them! It was cute to see her playing with something besides a truck.

The kids' gifts from Grandpa. He's an artitst and I always love to see what he creates for us. We were all so excited to have him with us this Christmas.

The boys playing with their new Thomas the Train pieces that they got. We didn't bring enough track to use, but they didn't seem to mind that everything was packed onto one tiny track.

Sophie and Sophie wearing matching dresses made by Grammie. When we found this doll with our little one's name we knew she had to have it. Thanks Grammie and Pop!

On Saturday we headed to the Hemphills to celebrate Christmas again and the kids had a blast there too! Sophie is enjoying her new Tinkerbell ride. Don't worry, that's just the wind blowing. She hasn't figured out how to make her 4 wheeler go yet.

The babes playing with Camille's toy we gave her. Ame bought matching dresses for the girls to wear. When we went shopping that afternoon we had people ask if they were sisters. They are only 4 days apart.

Christopher on his new tractor with Cameron going for a ride in the back. He has had so much fun riding on this, as you can only imagine.

We took a family photo before Ame and her family had to leave. This was actually really good considering how many people are in it!

Sophie got a new kitchen from Mimi and Papa John for Christmas. It was already at our house, so I put it together when we got home. Christopher has had a blast playing with it too.

She's not quite tall enough for it yet so I grabbed a stepstool for her to stand on. She loves it!

I haven't had a chance to go through all the hundreds of photos from Christmas yet (have 3 different cameras downloaded on here!) and so I thought I'd write about some of the funny things that happened yesterday.

(Note: this may be too much info for some, but it's really not that bad!) After putting Sophie down for a nap in the morning I went back to get ready for the day and had to go to the bathroom. Christopher comes back and I guess he thought I was having trouble b/c I was sitting down. (He goes #1 standing and assumes anyone sitting is doing the other.) He says, "Mommy, it's hard isn't it? Let me help you." and makes a fist and pushes it on my leg making a grunting noise. I try not to laugh. Then I realize I'm all out of toilet paper so I ask him to go get me some. Of course he brings back half a square wadded into a ball. I tell him to just bring me the whole roll, not sure if he knows how to do that. He comes back saying, "I'm sorry, Mommy. I'm sorry, Mommy." over and over. I realize why when he brings me a soaking wet roll of toilet paper. Just so you know, there was enough dry spot I was able to use before tossing it in the trash can.

A little while later we went to run an errand and when we got home he wanted to ride his new tractor. (He got a ride on tractor from Santa Hemphill, we had no idea he was getting it.) He's riding it around the neighborhood and I have to go to the bathroom again (sorry, didn't realize most of this was about me going to the bathroom, but I'd had a lot to drink!). I tell him we need to run home really quick and then he can keep riding. He tells me to go home and he'll wait there for me. Not going to happen so I convince him to go home with me and he tells me, "You go potty like a big boy?" I tell him I go like a big girl. He doesn't understand this so we go back and forth a little before I explain I'm a girl and he's a boy. He just says, "Oooooooohhhhh." in his most Southern accent he can make.

After his nap he is having a hard time waking up and is sitting in his little red chair holding lambie, froggie and Pluto with his pacifier in his mouth. He is just staring off into space, not blinking or anything. Suddenly he jumps up and everything flies out, including the pacifier, and says, "I have a GREAT idea!!!!" He runs back to his room telling me to follow him. He says, "Me put some pants and shirt and shoes on and go ride my tractor!" I die laughing. We go outside and ride his tractor.

Just so you know, he did play with all the other toys that he got for Christmas, he basically runs from one thing to the other, but the tractor just happened to be a part of the funniest things I remember. He talks to his trains and cars when playing with them now and it's adorable b/c you can tell he thinks they are real. It's cute! I'll try to get photos on here soon, but I have a massive pile of laundry to tackle, a toy kitchen that still has not been put together, a tree to take down and oh yeah, we are going out of town again this weekend. So, the blog may have to wait a little longer.

We are at my parents for the week and looking forward to having my brother and his family, my sister and her husband and my Grandpa all together for Christmas this year. We haven't had the cousins together since the summer and so it will be great to watch them play together again. We will go and have Christmas with Brandon's family this weekend and I'm looking forward to that as well b/c we haven't seen them since the summer either! I hope you all have a wonderfully blessed Christmas, whomever you are spending it with!!

I don't know who knows, but Brandon had surgery this morning. He has had a hernia for years, but didn't realize that is what was causing the occassional pain he'd been having until just now. The pain was never strong enough or lasted long enough for him to bother getting it checked. Turns out he didn't have one hernia, he had two! The doctor said he did great. Brandon was a little nervous about having his co-workers operating him (not b/c he didn't trust them) and becoming the patient instead of the doctor, but he was able to let go of it and relax. I was proud of him for doing so well and actually following the doctor's orders by letting me take care of him.

Yesterday I started explaining to Christopher that Daddy was going to go to the hospital to get a boo boo fixed instead of being the one to take care of other people's boo boos. At dinner tonight he was so cute and told me that Daddy would feel better if he watched his digger movie. And later told Brandon that he could use his Lightning McQueen ice pack to make his boo boo feel better. Before he went to bed he crawled up with Brandon to watch a soccer game that was on and Christopher said, "I love soccer," which of course melted Brandon's heart. (Such a sweet boy!!)

Thankfully my mother-in-law was able to come down and help me with the kids and I don't know what I would have done without her! And Tiffany too. She was awesome and picked Christopher up from Mother's Day Out for me b/c the surgery took longer than expected. The upside to all of this is that he has all of next week off! Unfortunately he won't exactly be in great shape to enjoy it like he'd want to, but it'll be nice to have Christmas with family now.

Ok, you will probably think I'm crazy, but when I have a night when the kids are in bed early and I'm all alone I love to "blog hop." Months ago I came across one of a girl I recognize from Auburn and loved her blog! (I am friends with people who know her, but I never actually met her.) I was so amazed by all that a mom with 2 girls and a newborn could accomplish. Sewing, remodeling a house that nobody would buy b/c it was so bad, canning food, you name it, she does it. Made me feel lazy for not doing a fraction of what she does! Well, I forgot how I found it and what her name was and so since then I've been in a search to find it again. And tonight, I found it!!! I'm adding it to my favorite blogs so you can see it yourself. I actually came across her twin sister's blog first and kept looking until I found the one I was searching for. Her sister sounds amazing too, so I added hers as well! (If you girls ever read this, I hope you don't mind!) I didn't want to lose these again. If you're wondering it's the Stickler family and Urban Grace Interiors. I love seeing what they do and hopefully I can learn from them b/c they are both very talented. Hope you enjoy them as much as I do! Oh, and I've added other favorites as well.

I thought I'd put some recent photos on here so you can see what we've been up to, besides being sick.

Anytime Christopher sees an empty box or bin he HAS to take a ride in it and always wants Sophie to join him. She's not as excited about it as he is, but they still have fun together.

The annual smashing of the pumpkins. This is a tradition that was started when we were dating and seems to be even more fun now that Christopher gets involved.

Ta da!!! Here's the Christmas card photo. Like I said, it took three different days and giving up on nice clothes and hairbows to finally get a decent one. I knew it was hopeless to think they'd sit perfectly still smiling and posed. So this is what we ended up with, the kids in their natural form, laughing and being silly.

Sophie catalog shopping for Christmas presents. She sat here for about 20 minutes just turning the pages one by one and then starting over again when she would get to the end. It was so funny! Usually she just rips them apart, but I guess she likes Pottery Barn Kids and wanted to take a closer look. She was very serious so I had to get a photo. I should have gotten the video camera so you could see her going. I couldn't believe it!