Christmas Eve Pictures

I've got quite a few Christmas pictures so I thought I'd make a few post with different slide shows of the different Christmas celebrations we participated in.  Anyway, here's some pics from Michael's parents' house on Christmas Eve.  Along with us and Michael's parents, Becky, Patrick and the boys were there and Patty's sister, Darla and husband George along with their kids, Janie and her husband Dale and Terry and her husband Steve.  Hannah (Janie's daughter, remember from Gulf Shores?) and Sarah (Terry's daughter) were there as well as providing entertainment.  Our kids are so crazy about Sarah and Hannah, they just love spending time with them.  Hannah taught Meredith, Alli and Will an animal game where you have to remember each other's animal signs which they had good time with.  The girls' big gifts from Grammy and Papa included a dollhouse for Alli and a Barbie Cruise Ship for Meredith.  They were thrilled to say the least.

29 and Holding

For those of you that are on Facebook, I'm sure you saw that I had my 29th birthday, yet again, on Wednesday. (yes, I know, lucky me for having such a convenient birthday for everyone). Anyway, we had a good time. Michael ordered a cookie cake on Tuesday and the 4 of us pigged out on pizza and cookie that night. It was yummy. Michael got me a "hot stone" massage gift certificate that I'm very excited about using. I've never had a massage like that but I have a feeling that I will like it. If any of you have had one, let me know what to expect. The girls got me an itunes gift card which is something you can never have too much of so I was grateful. Tonight Michael's parents, Patrick, Becky and the boys along with our family went to the Catfish Hole in Alma (yummy) and had birthday banana pudding with candles and everything for dessert that Patty made and it was delicious! When we were in Broken Arrow, my sister-in-law Carrie made me a yummy birthday poppyseed cake which was so sweet.  I am so blessed to have such a wonderful family. 

Oh yes, for those of you that haven't already heard that great news, my friends Nathan and Emily went to South Korea and brought home their baby boy Owen. The girls and I went to the airport along with a bunch of others and greeted them and it was so great. Take a look at her blog for more details. It will definitely make you smile.

Alli's Preschool Christmas Program

On Wednesday Alli's preschool (& cousin Will's kindergarten) had their Christmas program before they let out for Christmas break.  As usual it was cute as can be and if you make it to the "We Wish you a Merry Christmas" song Alli is pointing straight at her Grammy to wish her a personal merry Christmas.  This is kind of long so it's mainly for the Grandparents to watch, however, you're more then welcome to as well.  I will put Will's main parts on Youtube and send to Patrick to put on his blog at a later point if he chooses too.

We came, we saw, we conquered.

Well, we made it back from Disney World today and I'm tuckered out. Let's just say the flight there was a whole lot shorted than the flight home (thanks to icy weather) but, hey, at least we didn't have to spend the night at DFW so it could have been worse. Anyway, it was a nice trip. On Friday and Sunday we spent the days at the Magic Kingdom on Saturday we went to Disney Hollywood (formerly MGM), and on Monday we went to Animal Kingdom. I think the girls loved meeting all of the characters the best and their favorite ride was Splash Mountain (a fancy log ride). Alli enjoyed all of the rides and shows but Meredith wasn't too crazy about the Star Wars flight simulator ride and the It's Tough to be a Bug show at Animal Kingdom (both too scary for her taste). They enjoyed the High School Musical 3 show/parade at Disney Hollywood as well. Oh yeah, they all really liked the character breakfast at Disney Hollywood with all of the Playhouse Disney (Disney Channel) characters like Little Einsteins and JoJo and Goliath.  Here are some pics from our trip. Oh yeah, one memorable moment at DFW was when we were all waiting to board the plane, she asked the question in earshot of all around us, "Did somebody toot?" (It wasn't me either). Anyway, we gave a lot of strangers a good laugh for the day. What can we say?

Children's Choir Performance

On Sunday, our children's choir and adult choir put on a great Christmas performance at our church.  Meredith sang in the children's choir and here is a little clip of one of their performances.  Enjoy!

Breakfast with Santa

Last Saturday the girls, myself and Patty all went to "Breakfast with Santa" put on by the Junior League here in town.  The girls had a great time visiting with Santa along with listening to a husband and wife music team sing Christmas songs for kids.  Believe it or not, the girls even made it to the newspaper.  It was pretty funny because I teased Abby, a fellow blogger, the other day saying that we only make newspapers or magazines if we're in the background and here's the proof!  You have to look closely where I've circled them in the top right hand side.  I've also included a picture of the girls which I scanned.  Bedford's Camera & Video took the picture at the event, to give credit where credit is due.

All I want for Christmas is. . . . .

As I'm sure most of you know, my sweet Meredith had a rather unpleasant day at school on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving.  She was up late Monday night first of all coughing so I gave her some powerful cough medicine so she could sleep since nothing else seemed to work.  I then let her sleep in later and I took her to school around 8:45 a.m. or so.  I then proceeded to take Alli on to preschool and go home and cook a corn casserole for Michael's work's Thanksgiving lunch that day.  So, I take the casserole to the lunch and just fill my plate with yummy food when my cell phone rings.  I look down and see it's her elementary school calling.  Now, you moms know when you see that phone call it's usually not a good thing so I was already prepared for a sick child (I figured she had a coughing spell).  Boy, was I wrong.  It was her principal and she told me that Meredith got her top tooth knocked out at recess and I needed to come pick her up.  I asked her how Meredith was handling it and she said that she was being brave.  So, I gave my yummy plate of food away to Patty and off I went to the school.  Of course, as soon as I walked in the nurses room all braveness went out the window and she cried.  Oh, it was so sad.  She had blood all on her jacket and shirt and two fat lips and a swollen nose that also looked like it had been bleeding.  Apparently she was handing a pair of gloves to her friend that was on the swing and she didn't time the hand off right or didn't account for the girl that was swinging right next to her friend.  You guessed it, she got whacked in the face and knocked on her caboose.  Of course, when I heard swings I thought just your normal playground swings.  But, oh no.  These swings in the back of the playground are something I have never seen before.  I'm sure they're great fun to ride on but not to much to get hit with.  They are made out of metal with some sort of a seat and a platform thing for your feet, I believe, and she got hit with the metal platform thing.  OUCH!  We are so fortunate because she had yet to receive her permanent teeth up top so this was just a baby tooth that got knocked out.  Her other tooth is loose as a result but thank goodness it's still hanging on.  So, since that tooth really wasn't loose prior to this, it may be a while before she has another tooth again.  We tried to look for her tooth on the playground to no avail.  They have a bunch of trees so all of the leaves were on the ground and it was like looking for a needle in a haystack.  So, Meredith wrote a sweet little note to the toothfairy and she got her cash.  It was quite a day.  Here's a picture Michael took with his cell phone but it really doesn't do it justice since she won't show her mouth nor the huge cut on the inside of her lip.