Christmas #1

We celebrated Christmas Eve in Frisco, Texas this year with Joel's family including cousins and all from Louisiana! Wednesday night we went over for dinner and lots of Wii competition, then back again on Thursday for church, dinner, and presents!

The girls were a big help to "Santa Pa"

Of course some play time in the snow Christmas Eve!

The highlight of the night was the rock session on guitar Hero! well no, Adelyn didn't play, she just like to hold one of the extra guitars... she also tried to sing and bang on the drum set. Kenna's the groupie that just likes to hang out and watch. Among the drummers of the evening, Joel, Uncle Mackey, me, and Pa! And KK and Aunt Stephi were the lead singers!

Tree decorating!

This year McKenna was chomping at the bit to get decorations up - starting before Thanksgiving! Hard to blame her when the stores start packing things on the shelf in October... But we told her she had to wait until after Thanksgiving, and she was a great sport! What better way to get started than with the tree?

The girls did a great job this year helping out (even though i had to go behind and move SOME of the ornaments to the top of the tree... and since then I think some little elves have been in there redecorating every evening! I swear that tree looks a little different every day!

Our tree is a collection of ornaments from my childhood, Joel's childhood, gifts from loved ones over the years, sentimental ornaments from places we've been, and of course some things made by our girls! I don't think I've bought a pack of ornaments for the tree yet. The newest addition this year - the giraffe mini-snowglobe from the Phoenix Zoo! I'm not sure Adelyn was paying much attention to what ornaments she put on the tree, but Kenna was asking about all of them! Who's was it, where did we get it... and then a few with her baby picture on it she thought were Adelyn's! All in all it's a great looking tree this year... I told her maybe next year we would do the "real" tree thing... we'll see!

even Blakely was in on the action!

the finished tree!

Santa!

The girls were very excited about seeing Santa this year... maybe not because we have been talking about it alot, but Kenna wrote a letter to Santa (1 at school AND 1 at home) and Adelyn is finally "getting" it... she and Papa just drew a picture last night to take to Santa! I was little bummed that the Santa at Bass Pro Shops is only around weekdays in the evenings, but decided we would try Grapevine Mills (and do a little shopping while we were there!). He was great! They even let me take some of my own pictures of the girls giving their lists and hanging out with him... Adelyn was great - "Hey Santa! You Santa? What's that?" and then a few more things I didn't hear... I was busy looking for the camera! Both girls hopped right up, started saying cheese, and then Kenna went sprinting for the lists! As much as I look forward to taking them every year, it is also one of those things I am happy to check off the list! Now I just have to figure out how to handle the fact that my 5 year old keeps asking Santa for a PET snake! :)

Can't believe how well Adelyn did this year!

Can you read Kenna's list? Yes, it asks for a pet snake... Also says "I love Santa and your reindeers!" Forgot to take a picture of it this morning before we handed it over... mental note for next year!

I guess this is a great picture though too... :)

Halloween 2009!

Halloween was fairly low-key at our house this year! The girls had a great Trunk-or-Treat at school on Friday getting WAY more candy than we needed, so Halloween night we just walked around to a few houses in our neighborhood, then had dinner at home with my parents and my sister and her family! Kenna LOVES her Aggie cheerleading outfit (yes I know A&M doesn't officially have cheerleaders, but I figured she could wear this game days too or something!) and although Adelyn was an elephant when we went to Boo at the Zoo and at school, she picked out Kenna's old giraffe costume for Halloween night! I still love that costume... :) I think we only went to 5 houses, which was the perfect amount of time (and candy!) and even Blakely got to walk around with us!

The crew - the girls, Joel, my dad and mom, my sister Meredith, and cousin Peyton!

Mom helped the girls carve the Jack-o-lantern this year! Well, I think she pretty much did most of it - but Kenna picked out the pattern! And the roasted seeds were oh so yummy!

Ready to go!

My little nature nerd...

Found a couple of little snakes in our backyard today, and although she was squeamish at first, once she saw me holding them she wanted to! Then she wouldn't put them down (They are actually in a bucket with some sand and rocks right now - she wants to show them to the grandparents who will be here this evening, then she promises we will let them go!)... We have had several of these in the yard before (and actually bigger!) but when we expanded our patio I think we covered up some of their homes... She found some pieces of snake skin too, which I think are from a bigger one.

Happy Halloween everyone! :)