Last but not least was Xmas with my family. I went over in the morning and spent all day there. Waited for Charlie to get off work and come open his presents, and then we scooted home. It was a great day!

Savannah mimicking my parents dog:)

Charlie opening his Kinect that we got him!

Checking out the dog up close and personal!

Everyone gets a VS bag with a little something special!

Playing with his new train:)

She was good at this part.

As I mentioned before, my parents have an exchange student living with them. She was skyping with her family on xmas and Savannah was so intrigued. lol

LOVE her:)

Starting them young with a laptop!

She is so good to my kids. Love you mom!

Since Charlie worked both days of the holiday, we decided to keep Savannah up a little past her bedtime and do our family Christmas on Christmas Eve. Charlie's work was kind enough to let him off a little early so it wouldn't be as bad for the kids. I started a tradition last year of making breakfast casserole on Christmas morning, but instead I made it that night and we had breakfast for dinner!

Our tree this year!

Savannah helped decorate the kids tree upstairs:)

Love this tree. Lots of special ornaments on it!

Helping mommy bake cookies for Santa!

Holding his present:)

She loves this castle we got her:)

Lastly, below is our photo with Santa. Mommy will probably be in the picture for the next couple of years unless Baby C has some unatural "no problem" attitude towards Santa. Of course this year he could care less. Next year will be a different story. Savannah next year will probably just be easing up to him. Alas this is why mommy has a few more Santa pictures in her future:)

Charlie had to work Christmas Eve and Christmas Day this year. Bummer:( Next year will be better scheduling we hope! So he did have some other days off before hand, and we decided to do Christmas with his family on that Thursday before Christmas. That way he could really enjoy his time with his family. We spent most of the day there and had a great time. His parents made a yummy meal of turkey and all the trimmings. Kinda like Thanksgiving all over, but so good!

Helping Mims with the puzzle!

Love this little girl!

She was good at opening her presents this year!

Uncle Bryan



Pops and Baby C:)



Savi got a big dollhouse from Mims and Pops!

She loved it!

He is just happy wherever he is:)

He can balance on his arms!

The weekend before Christmas we traveled to Tyler for Charlie's extended family gift exchange and getogether. It's always hard to travel with the kids but it was fun.

Loved her outfit!

Julie(Charlie's cousin) and Baby C

Last weekend we threw a baby shower for my friend Cathy. I co hosted with another friend and our theme was sailor. It matched his nursery. This is her second little boy. It turned out great and we had lots of fun celebrating him! He will be here in 2 weeks or less:)

I got her this cute lion towel set:)

Cathy and I (and Baby Joey)


Holley(Co Hostess), Cathy, and Me

Holley's decor!

Little parfaits I made with ship flags that say S.S Joseph

FOOD!

He just screams happy. He loves to smile:)

Last year my mom wanted to do her Christmas photo with all of us in matching pj's. But it was to late to get them all ordered and it didn't work out. Well this year it did and we took them last week. Mind you it was 80 degrees outside...ha!

Now I know all two year olds are hard to get to sit still and take pictures. But I truly believe Savi is a little worse. The child WILL.NOT.SIT.STILL for a photo. No concept of sit right here so mommy can get your photo. She knows what a camera is and pretends with one all the time. She says "cheese" and "smile" plenty. But when it comes to her...it ain't happening. She only does pretty good when you hold her. That is always daddy's job!

Needless to say, getting a picture with her was a little rough. We got a few and I think my mom is going with this one. We took some of just our family, but I haven't seen them yet. Maybe those will turn out:) Iv'e got other pics in mind for our Christmas card if we need a back up.

PS. The girl on the far left is my parents exchange student from Germany. She has been with them for the last 4 months and will be through the year. She has been a delight and very fun to show America too!

Being thankful on Thursday is exactly what I did. I was thankful to have family to spend it with and to have my husband and kids with me. All the rest is details.....

Even though the above looks like a Christmas pic, it isn't...lol

Nanie with Baby C. Thanksgiving is tiring to all ages:)




Charlie's family:)

Our Thanksgiving table

Curls, a dress, and a bow....love my little girl:)

Love him:)

Savi is to busy eating her yummy turkey for pics:)

Friday we went out to eat for my moms birthday. It was fun to all get together. When we got home we put up our Christmas stuff. Just couldn't help ourselves. Charlie had gotten it all out that day and then we put most of it up Friday night. We are waiting to put up our second tree till we have a free night with Savannah, so that she can help. One day when I host Thanksgiving, I will actually leave it all up till the day after:)

All weekend it was windy. Just plain annoying. Saturday, the kids and I just stayed in for most of the day and later went over to Nanie's house so she could watch the kids while I went to work. Sunday was the day of rest except a quick trip to Walmart. There was a tree lighting in the area that I work, but once again so windy that I was just sort of deterred from going.

Just before I left for work this morning, this little guy was holding his toy:) Happy Monday!

Ps. Today we are taking family christmas pictures and it's 80 degrees today. Gotta love Texas!