Christmas Celebration

We do have a few Christmas traditions. One is that we open one present on Christmas Eve. Caroline chose a present from my Aunt Pat and Uncle Dwight... she was very excited to have her very own perfume!!! She pulled her hair out to the sides and head up so we could spray her neck. It was too cute.A new tradition for this year was making a birthday cake. As we talked to Caroline about Christmas and that it is a celebration of Jesus' birthday she asked about a birthday cake for Jesus... so we made one. Caroline helped all the way, that is why it is hard to tell what the cake actually says.
Christmas morning: pictured is Caroline's new big wheel, hula hoop, and doll house. The doll house was given to us in a box with a million pieces from my Aunt Pat and Uncle Dwight. It was going to be a project they were going to do and never did. It then became a project for Greg... according to him... it was hard work. It is still not completely done. We still have shingles and stuff to do but as you can tell with the next picture... Caroline does not care that it is not totally done.

Yes she uses her barbies to play with in her doll house.

Yes, this is Christmas day.. I know some people have snow and like that.... I prefer the warmer weather where we can go outside and actually play with the toys we get and not be cold:)

The day after Christmas we celebrated with Greg's family. Caroline got a microphone with a stand that really amplifies... sometimes too much. It was a perfect gift for my little girl who will pick up anything straight and turn it into a microphone. I video taped a lot of her singing... this is just one episode. Also, she did receive the dress she is wearing that day and immediately said "can I try it on?" She loves her dresses.

Leaves!!! So much fun!

This weekend we raked leaves and picked up pecans. We ended up only picking up pecans from two of our six trees... it is a lot of work. Caroline had a lot of fun. I don't think we have ever raked leaves before with her. Usually we just mow them up but in order to pick up some of the pecans we thought we would try raking... Caroline loved playing and jumping in the leaves.. as you can see!

This was taken this morning before church. Caroline said " daddy I'm cold.. cover me". Sometimes when I am too lazy to put on Caroline's jacket because we are just running into a store real quick I will wrap her up in my jacket. That is what she wanted. So here is the precious picture of her daddy doing the same thing.

Gingerbread house and Slumber Party!

Hannah came over last weekend and spent the night with us. We put together a gingerbread house that we were supposed to do last year but never did. Needless to say it was a little old and we had a hard time with the icing. So we balled it all up and spread it out with our hands but the good news is.... the girls had a blast and they thought the gingerbread house was "beautiful". That is what counts!The girls each had a side they were to decorate however they wanted. This is Hannah's side of the gingerbread house.
Caroline's side.

Front was decorated by both... and Greg made the snow man that Caroline squished.

Sunday morning: Both girls wearing pink, headbands, and curly hair... that is the explanation for the socks in their hair in the first picture. I rolled their hair in socks the night before so Sunday morning they could both have curls:)

Meeting the Cow

On Wednesday morning before bsf we went to Chick-Fil-A to meet the cow. The first pic shows Caroline very excited to see the cow....

this next picture Caroline is not so sure she likes how "big" the cow is.... Her friend Addi did not like the cow at all and would not talk to him or touch him... but then they kept asking where the "big" cow is...

And here is the big Chick-fil-A cow!!!

We also received free Chicken biscuits and hot chocolate!!!

The Christmas Post

Greg and I just finished being involved in our church's Christmas production. It was a dinner theater type of production for three nights then the fourth night was just the production. The Christmas Post was the name of the musical and it took place in 1947... hence the funky hairstyle and bright red lipstick I am wearing. Greg and I were both store staffers. We had a had a great time but are glad that it is over and we can get some sleep and see Caroline more often.

My parents! It was a family affair.
This is Hannah and Caroline during opening night eating their dinner. Greg's family, my brother and niece as well as the Durand's all came opening night.
People eating for the dinner part, next will be the theater part:)
Here we are trying to sell stuff at the store. You can see me on the left talking to the main character in the green dress.
This is what the girls did during intermission. The girl in the middle is a friend of Caroline's named Brianna... she and her parents were sitting at the table right by Caroline.
Ok, here we are doing the dancing part... it was a jitterbug type of song. Greg did a few lifts but we did not get any pictures of that...just so you know he only dropped me once and that was in practice the first day. This was the part we were the most uncomfortable with. We are not big dancers, especially Greg and during this song we were the "featured" dancers who did lifts. Greg picked me up and swung me from side to side then underneath him... it was a lot of fun.

Check-up

Caroline went to the doctor yesterday for her four year old well-check. She received four shots and told me she does not like shots. Before the shots were coming I was talking to her about them and she did not remember them from last year and told her that she might like shots. I was evidently wrong.. she did not like any of the four shots she received, but she does not need any more until she is 14 so that is good!! Caroline measured 3'7" and is 38 pounds. Her doctor predicts she will be tall and skinny, between 5'10" - 6'. I don't know where she gets her tall and skinny genes:) Overall she had a great time at the doctor. They checked her vision which was good and tried to do a hearing test but she would not tell the nurse when she heard the beeps so that did not work well. I know she hears fine... she just chooses not to listen sometimes. Caroline got a book, lots of stickers, and a sucker after her visit. The sucker was her favorite thing. I forgot to ask what percentage she was in on the growth chart but as the doctor was going to fill out her form he had to get a "big" girl form because she had outgrown the one he had. I just thought I would update y'all on how our little girl is growing.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving. We had a great time at Greg's parents house. Greg's uncles, aunts and cousins come every year (this year we were short two cousins). We celebrate Christmas at Thanksgiving so I have a few pictures from the opening of presents. I forgot my camera but Greg's uncle is a great photographer and had his camera... i took a few pics from his camera but he is going to send me a disc of all the pics!!!! There are some really good ones of Caroline.Greg's parents, sister, and me!

Birthday Girl

I can not believe it but my baby is now four years old. Where has the time gone? We celebrated her birthday on Saturday. We had the party at her gymnastics place. The kids and adults had a great time. We had around 11 kids come play with us. It was a lot of fun but the present opening was a bit chaotic. I will need to be more stern next year with a few more rules:)

The first ones to arrive are sitting quietly listening to the rules. Hannah, Caroline, and Bryn.

Greg just threw Nicholas into the foam pit... as you can see from the expressions it was fun for all! The gym had two employees there to keep things from getting too crazy. They enjoyed hanging out in the foam pit with the kids as well as one mom is in there too.

Greg swinging like Tarzan over the girls. Hannah is hiding while Rebekah watches all that is going on:)


Caroline is jumping into the foam pit... this was the highlight for all the kids I think.

Four separate trampolines for everyone to jump on.

We practiced blowing out the candles and Caroline did a great job. She was able to blow them all out this year.
Had to play with and put on all our new stuff, when we got home from the party. Yes it is 64 degrees inside but she wanted to wear her new leotard and rain boots.
Birthday morning. We took this picture this morning before going to church. Today is her actual birthday and we have a tradition where we are supposed to wake the birthday person up by singing and bringing presents to them in bed... well Caroline got out of bed before we did so we told her to go back to bed and as we walked to her room we could hear her giggling... she was so excited when we got to her room to open more presents. I even let her have birthday cake for breakfast... but then she had to eat oatmeal... had to have some nutrition before church.

Big Helper

Caroline found a new place to play/nap. I did not think it was big enough for her but she found a way to fit inside our bench. We usually keep blankets in there.

Caroline's friend Jackson came over while his mommy went grocery shopping with Addi. Caroline had a great time playing with Jackson. As you can see below she fixed his hair... which he tolerated for a while. Caroline loves to play with hair and fix everyone's hair.

They also laid on the couch while Caroline watched a movie. Jackson watched Caroline. He originally was sitting up but Caroline thought he would be more comfortable laying down... so she every so gently pushed him back. You will also notice his belly is showing... Caroline later worked hard to try and pull his shirt down to cover his belly while he was laying down. So cute!

Canoe Trip

We went on a 20 mile canoe trip Friday and Saturday on the Brazos river. We went with our friends the Bannerman 's and Durand's. We brought all our equipment in our canoes and had a great time camping out... it has been a long time since we have tent camped. This is the starting point with the Durand's in the picture. We had a shuttle take us 20 miles up the river, drop us off then we canoed back to where our car was.

Scenery pictures, this is supposed to be some of the most scenic areas of the Brazos River. It had beautiful bluffs with a lot of wildlife around. We saw deer crossing the river, lots of Herons, turkey, hawks, and even small herds of cows.

We had a few pictures taken of us.. but we had the only working camera so there are not many pictures of us. I did do some paddling... but I picked up the paddle just for the picture so it looks like I paddled a lot. Later on you will see my favorite way to go down the river:)

"rapids", ok so not everything in Texas is big!

We set up camp on a little island. It was perfect for campfires because it had drift wood all over it and they guys had no problems getting a good fire started for our smores that night.

Canoe Trip continued

Tricia and I... notice the difference in our shirts... yes I am cold natured but Tricia was a bit cold also.

Big BM or breaking a stick?

The Bannerman's the next morning.. it was a cold night but thanks to Greg's warm fire we were able to warm up quickly. Also thanks to the Bannerman's bringing hot chocolate!!! I almost asked them at 6am if it was ready yet.. the sun was not up but I was cold. This was my favorite way to travel down the river... Greg has both of our paddles!!!

Group photo: Jennings, Durand's, and Bannerman's