Happy New Year!

For Christmas, Tyler and JM got tickets to the Chick-fil-A Bowl in Atlanta to watch Auburn play.  They had a great time!

 It was a successful game for Auburn!!!

While they were gone, we invited Mrs. Beth and Anna to come over to ring in the New Year with us!  We put out a few decorations to make it a party!

 The girls played all kinds of games while Mrs. Beth and mom got some good chat time!

10,9,8...1!  Happy New Year (in New York)!

 A sparkling grape juice toast before Mrs. Beth and Anna head back to their house.

 Then we all changed into our pjs just in time to welcome in the New Year in Alabama!

 We watched the MoonPie drop in Mobile.  Yes, the celebrated MoonPie drop!  Only in LA (lower Alabama) will you see this!!!!!

Girls maintenance day!

Sometimes girls just require a little maintenance (aka girl time)!  We had scheduled manicures and pedicures for this morning.  Dad entertained Tyler and Colleen for the morning!  Then Dad and the other kids met us for lunch and a special dessert.  We tried out the new cupcake shop on the eastside of town!

 They were huge, yummy and sweet!

After the cupcakes, the big girls and I went to get our 6 month haircuts! Yes, with 4 girls and a mom haircuts are grouped into that catagory called "every 6 months whether you think you need it or not".  At least until they are older and realize they need a higher maintenance "DO"!!!

Christmas at our House

We drove from Texas to Monroe, Louisiana on Friday.  That was our half way mark for our return trip.  On Saturday (Christmas Eve), we finished our drive back home.  We arrived in Montgomery around 5pm.   Just in time to eat a little dinner and start the Christmas Eve traditions.

Putting out reindeer food...

Christmas pajama pictures...don't look back at last years pictures or you will realize that I forgot to get them new pajamas this year.  Ekkk.  Oh, well!  Last years will work--they are just a little snug!

Baking cookies for Santa. Well, this is actually something we usually do days before.  I really thought the cookies our neighbor had left for us a few days ago would be fine for Santa, but the girls (actually Lauren) started crying because Santa loves our homemade frosted cookies.  Grrrr its 830pm (paste a smile on one tired mom).  "Let's make Santa some frosted cookies!"

Tyler just came in for the steal...

Finally, time to read the Twas the Night before Christmas and the true Christmas story from Luke.

Good night!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Christmas morning.....

And our birthday cake for Jesus.  Wait kids mom needs a picture!!!!!

After breakfast, Daddy had to go to work.  Yes, he is on call today.  Every 4 or 5 years, we have to "pay our dues".  Mom declared it Christmas movie morning because she "hit the wall".  The kids helped themselves to leftover pizza and popcorn for lunch and continued to play and watch movies while Colleen and mom slept!

Lyndsey loved her Baby Alive....and Baby Alive entertained all the girls for days!!!

Christmas at Mimi's

On Wednesday afternoon, we headed down the road to Mimi's house (JM's mom). We had a fun afternoon and evening playing with the cousins.  JM cooked burgers on the grill for us for dinner!

On Thursday, we had our family Christmas dinner at Great Gran and Memom's house.

Memom made the girls aprons for Christmas.

We took the opportunity to pose for a few pictures with Great Gran and Memom.  (Tyler was not at their house because he apparently threw up all night.  We did not want to run the risk of getting them sick!)

JM and his mom and brother and sister.

One last picture with the cousins on Friday before we head back to Alabama.

Christmas in Carbon

On Saturday morning, we started our drive to Texas.  Well, we said we were going to leave early Saturday morning, but then there was a middle school basketball game at 9am that Tyler just could not miss.  We ended up pulling out of Montgomery by 1130 which is way to late to start a 13 hour trip!!!  John Mark did an amazing job STAYING awake.  As we tell the story, we only got to stop a few times--4 to be exact and the total time involved in those stops amounted to 1 hour.  The kids were troopers.  Thank goodness we decided to actually go into Wendy's for dinner because Colleen had a diaper explosion that would have been horrible for everyone if it would have happened in the carseat!!!!

If we did not look redneck enough with the ice chest strapped to the back of the car, we do now!  But it was the perfect changing table!!!

We arrived at my parents house a little after 1am.  My mom was the only one awake, and she told us which beds to go to!  We awoke Sunday morning to head to church with my family feeling a little groggy, but excited to be here ready to celebrate with my family.  Tyler asked to drive himself to church in the Ranger, and my parents and JM agreed.  (Remember I am from a small farming community and the church was about 1 mile away.)  He was so excited.  He had to stay between my brother car and our car at all times! 

Only in rural Texas would this happen and nobody think twice!!!

After church, Tyler drove Corynne home in the Ranger after he did a few figure 8s in the old baseball field in front of the church!  Wow!  That kid is going to be trouble in a few years!  When all arrived safely back to my parents house.  Mom cooked a big meal for everyone, and we enjoyed exchanging gifts.

My brother Michael and his wife Jacqline with their dog, Sprinkles!

Papa made these awesome teeter-totters for the kids.  Corynne and Lauren are playing on the big version.  He made a smaller version for the little girls!

"I am not going to share these M&Ms with you Sprinkles!"

Farming fun.  Going to feed the cows or is this just an excuse.

Grammy put the kids to work scrubbing the floors and cooking.

Then there was plenty of time for Corynne and Tyler to cheat at a game!!

Well all the cleaning and cooking really was for a fun purpose!  Grammy and the girls hosted a "Tuesday Tea".  They had fun getting dressed up!!!

Colleen was scared of the surprise visitor, Santa!   Cousin Stacy protected her!

That Santa dude must not be to bad because I found chocolate in the stocking he left me!!!!