Christmas Fun!

This is what we did for Christmas this year...

We built ourselves a giant gingerbread house... and then ate it. Yummy!  :P

 On Christmas Eve, we went to an awesome Festival of Lights display here in the Charleston area. We even got to get out of our cars to do a few fun Christmassy things... like roast marshmellows.

 Walk through a tunnel of lights.

 Ride a carousel.

 Get a closeup look at the really cool light displays.

Then it was Christmas and Santa had come and gone before we knew it!

This was how Santa left it.

Opening the first presents.

Brooklyn had already gone through Josh's stocking and most of her stocking, and was playing with her scooter and Josh's riding toy before we finally heard her and got out of bed.

One of Brooklyn's favorite presents - her very own camera (or as Brooklyn calls it, "cwamwa").

Brooklyn's loot.

 Joshua's loot - he looks pretty happy with all his presents.

My little Christmas presents! :) 

Hope you all had as very merry a Christmas as we did.

Matt's Birthday

I know this post is a little late, but we celebrated Matt's birthday a week before Christmas. Now that we have entered our "Thirty-somethings", our birthdays don't matter to us anymore, and we might go as far as wishing to not even notice them, but we still have a birthday bash (cake, presents, etc...) since we have children who appreciate them for us. :) Thanks, Brooklyn, for being excited about our birthdays for us. :)

Daddy's presents: he got chocolates, a back massaging chair mat, a calendar of pictures from Hubble's telescope, and a Rangers tie ;P.

Singing Happy Birthday and helping Daddy blow out the candles. You can barely hear Brooklyn singing over me, but she sang the whole Birthday song for him.

No More Paci!

Since last spring, we have slowly been weening Brooklyn of her pacis. She used to sleep with 5 pacis in her bed... ya know, so she was sure to find one at night if/when she woke up. Over time, she gave all but one to the "paci fairy" in return for a present/toy for each paci. We then started limiting her use of this last paci to just naps and nighttime. She constantly fought us for it during the day, though. I even cut a hole in it, but it did not phase her one bit. Finally, one day (last Saturday, December 11, 2010) her after her nap, Matt was attempting to take her paci from her to put away until nighttime. As usual, she ran away from him hoping to have a few more minutes with it. Frustrated, Matt blurted out, "if you throw your paci away in the trash right now, I will let you open one Christmas present." Brooklyn sat there staring at her paci for a few minutes obviously debating this and then walked over to the trash can and THREW HER LAST PACI IN THE TRASH! So, to keep up with his end of the bargain, Matt brought her a Christmas present to open. I could tell that, as Brooklyn waited for Daddy to wrap and come back with her present, she was feeling a little unsure about her decision, but as soon as he showed up with her little present, and she unwrapped it, she was sure she had made the right decision.

Every night, now, we have a "no more paci" tea party before bed. She wakes up with a super wet diaper every morning, but it is soooo worth not having that paci anymore. We, including her dentist, are so very proud of our little Brooklyn!

Thanksgiving in Alabama

We got to visit Matt's parents in Huntsville, AL for Thanksgiving this year. Matt's brother, Jason, and his family were also there for the holidays. Needless to say, we had a blast all together playing Wii long into the night, pushing kids in the wheelbarrow and eating the best food we've had in a long time. 

Josh sportin' his Texas Rangers pride.

Anywhere there is a piano, Brooklyn must play it.

This was one of Brooklyn's favorite things to do at Grandma's house - play tea party.

Another favorite thing to do was follow Jackson around and play whatever he was playing - in this case it was airplanes.

I liked this picture I caught of Abygail in motion.

Yet another favorite thing to do at Grandma's house - wrestle with Daddy and Uncle Jason with all the cousins.

Josh sportin' his Dallas Cowboys fanhood.

Now who taught him to do that???? Grandpa????

Fixin' Thanksgiving meal.

We were glad to see Angela and Geary.

Brooklyn following Jackson around some more.

Josh got to take his baths in Grandma's sink. :)

Playing with cousin Amber.

Whatever Jackson was doing, she wanted to do, too - especially if it included popsicles.

They all wanted popsicles.

Abygail, Jackson and Brooklyn singing, Once there was a snowman.

Thanks Mom and Dad for letting us come visit you for Thanksgiving and for being such amazing hosts to us all. Mom - your food ROCKS! So much that I need to lose an additional 5 more pounds, which I gained while there - so worth it, though. :)

Since we have been back, all three of my babies (Matt being baby #3) have had sinus & chest congestion with fevers. And, Brooklyn ended up with her very first ear infection (31 months was a good run). I must admit that I may have been the coulprit with the germs to begin with, as I was pretty sick the week before we left. Oh well. Now we are all just trying to get healthy again and stay healthy for all the Christmas activities coming up.