Christmas Eve

We hosted Christmas Eve at our house again this year but it was a small crowd because of the weather. Every year I get so busy and don't think about taking a group picture. Darn! We had Olive Garden this year, lasagna and salad, thank you Buddy and Roger. Mima didn't make it this year, she stayed home because she was getting sick and didn't think it would be a good idea to get out in the cold.

We also got to exchange gifts with my sister and her kiddos. I can't believe how much they have grown into little adults. Connor is 12, Camryn turned 10 shortly after Christmas and Caden is 5. We need to work a little harder at seeing each other more often. We miss seeing them now that we don't live in Aledo.

After everyone left Brittany and Paul (my cousins) decided to stay and play in the snow. Paul stayed inside with Sutton most of the time while we all ran around the backyard. I still can't believe how much snow we had. It was amazing and so much fun. The kids had a ball until they both got really, really cold and were ready to come inside. The cheeks on Gavin and Audrey were so red from throwing snowballs at each other. They loved it!!!

The Duer kids, Connor, Camryn, Caden

Buddies, Gavin and Caden

Audrey and Gavin

Gavin's snow angel

Audrey's snow angel

Getting a big snowball ready to throw

Look at those rosey cheeks

Brittany and Audrey

The Fam

Sutton wanted to know why in the world is my mom letting me sit in this stuff???

Gavin wanting to drink Santa's chocolate milk

Cookies and milk....Enjoy Santa

Slovak Christmas

BIG NEWS!!!! I got a camera for Christmas. So exciting! We needed one pretty badly and Steven did a fantastic job researching and picking one out. He ended up getting a Nikon D3000, pretty fancy if I do say so myself. My wonderful husband decided that it would probably be a good idea to give it to me before Christmas so I could take pictures. He is one smart man. So, I have been having fun figuring it all out and I finally got around to uploading them on the computer. The pictures in this post are unfortunately out of order and I don't have the time to fix it so here you go.

We do Steven's families' Christmas the weekend before every year. It was at Aunt Jeanne and Tommy's this year. The family keeps growing and growing, so many little cousins everywhere. The kids have a blast and Santa even comes for a visit with presents in his bag.

Sutton was so excited to get his first gift

Audrey and her princess makeup, of course.

Me and my sweet baby girl

Love that face

Gavin and Santa

Miss A with Santa

SuBear and Santa (he is not so sure about this)

Ah, look at Puncle with Sutton (Steven's brother, Uncle Patrick)

Oh my, there isn't much growing room on those stairs

Love this picture of Sutton with his Daddy

Sweet lil man

Grandma and Sutton

The kids made gingerbread houses, as you can see Audrey was eating more than making.

These are all pictures I took before we left. Audrey asked if I would straighten her hair for the Christmas festivities and of course I obliged. She still looks so different to me with her hair straight. Such a big girl.

Brother and Sister Love

G-Man

Audrey Kay

Love it!

Gavin and Sutton Christmas Pajamas

I pulled these pajamas out the other night and had to take a picture of Sutton in them. They were Gavin's, of course, as is most of Sutton's wardrobe. So I had to post a picture of the two of them to show how incredibly different they are. Sutton is for sure, Audrey's brother and Gavin doesn't much look like he belongs with the two of them. Gavin was almost 15 months in this picture and Sutton is just 10 months. Hmmm, is Sutton big or did the pajamas shrink????

This was our Christmas card picture in 2005 as well. What a sweet boy he was.

Santa Claus is Coming to Town!!!

Mama Lizz graciously invited us to come join her at her company Christmas party at Casa Manana to see "Santa Claus is Coming to Town". We of course obliged and had a great time. All three of the kids were very well behaved and watched the entire show, for the most part, without a hitch. Even little Sutton watched intently like he actually knew what was going on. So cute! There were a few times during the play that they mentioned Star Wars and that just made Gavin's night, he thought that was so cool. Afterwards they had buffet style foods for the adults and kids. They also had activities for the kids as well. There were clowns who were taking orders as to what they would make you, there was a decorate your own cookie station and of course Santa was there. Gavin and Audrey were so excited to see him and to tell him what they wanted for Christmas. Gavin asked for a remote control dinosaur and a Star Wars Leapster Game and Audrey of course asked for Princess makeup. Sutton was pretty mellow until he turned around to see who was holding him. We didn't stay for dinner because they were getting pretty ansy so we left to get them to bed. It was a fun time had by all. Thanks Mama Lizz!!!!

This is Audrey's shy face trying to tell Santa what she wanted, look at those hands figeting.

Decorating for Christmas

We decided to put our Christmas decorations up early this year before Thanksgiving. Actually, I talked Steven into doing it early and he finally obliged and got everything down from the attic. The kids were so excited this year. Oh my goodness, I had no idea the reaction they would have, they were thrilled beyond all my expectations. They loved looking at all their ornaments from the past few years. They thought the funniest ones were the ones when I was pregant and they say all of our names and then Baby Girl(from xmas 2005 when I was pregnant with Audrey) or Baby Boy(from last xmas when I was pregnant with Sutton) My pictures turned out terrible but I'm posting them anyway. Audrey kept saying, "I love Christmas Mommy". I can't tell you how many times she said that. She was the cutest thing. She also decided that she needed to change clothes in the middle of decorating to put on a christmas shirt and bow, then Gavin followed suit and put on a red shirt. They were quite entertaining and I was so excited that they were enjoying it so much. Last year they didn't care so much about decorating the tree but this year it was a whole different story. Come to find out, later, they were talking to each other about Santa coming the next day. They didn't understand that Santa wasn't coming until the end of December. They thought if you put your tree up and all your decorations that it must be time for him to come visit. So stinkin cute!!!

This year Gavin has asked for Star Wars stuff....surprise, surprise and also a remote control dinosaur (what?) and little Miss Audrey...all she has asked for is princess makeup and lipgloss. Really? You are 3 years old. Mr. Sutton doesn't need anything, that's for sure, he has so many toys he doesn't know what to do. I'm sure Santa will bring him something, he has been the nicest one out of all 3. Ha!!!!

This is the star that Gavin made when he went to Mother's Day Out in Aledo, this is probably the 3rd year we have had it on our tree.

We let the kids decorate the whole tree, this is the finished product.

Sweet Miss A in her Christmas shirt and bow

Decorating away

Daddy let them decorate our swirly thing in the entryway, they were so excited that they got to stand on the table.

The finished product.

And of course our mantel

Amy and Holden's visit

My cousin Amy from California is in town for a visit with her 7 month old, Holden. She left Isabella at home so she wouldn't miss her Thanksgiving activities at school. Audrey was sure missing her girl cousin time. We met at Chris and Ellen's house, our other cousins for a little playtime and lunch. The big boys played really well together and Audrey spent most of her time outside picking berries. Gavin, Holden and Turner are going to be little trouble makers I'm sure when they get a little older. Holden is 2 months younger than Sutton, I can't believe how much bigger he is and Mr. Turner is still a little baby baby...I so miss those days. Sutton wanted to tackle Holden and knocked him over at one point. I'm sure Holden will be able to get him back one of these days. I'm so glad we got a cute picture of all 3 of them together. Little cousins, so cute!!!!

Holden and Amy

Turner, Sutton and Holden

The boys

Gavin showing Gregory all the cool games on Mommy's phone

Cheese!!!!