Christmas 2013

We spent the week before Christmas in Paris with my fam.  Kory was done working at Mueller so it was nice to have plenty of time to enjoy the holiday.  

Jaylie and Gay Gay peeling carrots 

A special Bubble Guppies Christmas show! As if you haven't caught on, I happen to love pictures of kids watching TV.  Not sure why, but I think its just so cute.  

peek-a-boo!

Its always fun to see my kids play with my old toys.  (she IS wearing a diaper in this picture)

My cousin Julie gave me this necklace!!! Isn't it so awesome??!!?

Speaking of my kids playing with my old toys, this one is the best of the best. It was one of my first dolls and favorite of mine my whole life.  Somehow she got the name "Pink Bidda" not sure what that means, but thats her name.  And I LOVE LOVE LOVE watching my little girl play with her. 

Juney girl festive in her Rudolph headband. 

This is my 6 year old bouncing in the bouncy chair.  On his knees.  

Paw Paw let the boys decorate one of the little trees.  

More Pink Bidda and Jaylie June. 

Gay Gay and jjp all ready for church.  

Please take note of Q's arm around Mallory.  

He's playing cool guy....really...doesn't he look 17 in this picture?! 

Mom made all the girls little pillowcase dresses.  They looked so cute and Christmasy in them.  

sweet kisses

Rudolph headband again

Q wearing Uncle Clint's old baseball hat.  And shooting me with a sling shot. 

My dad had a bunch of fireworks leftover from the 4th of July, so he put on a good show for us right before bed.  This was the night before christmas eve so everyone spent the night at Mom and Dads so we could have our Christmas the next morning.  

Gay Gay keeping Jaylie June warm for the firework show. 

This is a picture of the door but look closely and you can see Q standing by the door. He didn't want to come outside for the fireworks.  

Ellie and Jaylie having a little breakfast date. 

Here's the whole gang just before we opened presents.  I look at this picture and explode. I love these kids so much.  

This was by far our easiest and most successful picture taking to date.  Maybe we are nearing the end of the torture phase of cousin pictures.....Maybe. 

Aunt Mo and her crew got the boys a Lone Ranger book, gun, and mask.  Can't go wrong with weapons with my crew! 

All three boys shooting! 

After the kids opened their presents the grown ups got their turn.  Its always fun....especially because inevitably Mom buys all three boys a matching shirt.  

I'm not sure when this picture was taken but its a doozy of Mom and that with their "quiver full" 

We left Christmas Eve afternoon to go back to Longview so Santa could come to our house.  Here is The Lone Ranger shooting me on our way home. 

Our fireplace after Santa came.  Complete with the note Quinn dictated for Santa to make sure he knew he wanted a horn not a train.  Haha.  

Christmas Morning waiting in our room before they can go see if he came!!

Christmas Morning sleepy faces are the best. 

Down the hallway.....the anticipation is building!!!

CHA CHING! Santa came through with the horn!!!  

Miss Juney girl got a shopping cart and a little doll that looks eerily similar to our big brown eyed baby girl. 

She also got a sippy cup for her baby and knew just what to do with it! 

For some strange reason, Santa brought the boys microphones....

Here they are all busy with their new toys.

We went to Nanny Lou's house that afternoon/evening with our big Spencer family.  It was a great day, but the only picture I got was of the boys blowing their horns in the car on the way home! YIKES! 

We had a wonderful Christmas this year!!! It was so fun doing all the Christmas stuff with the kids as they get older they are getting into the spirit of Christmas more and more and it sure does make it fun! 

December....everything but Christmas

jjp giving her cheetah a ride in the wagon on a sunny December afternoon. 

One of my new favorite pictures.  Quinn waiting on the bus to bring Kanyon home. 

Celia, klp's PT brought a new amtryke over to get him fitted before we moved.  This new one will be delivered to us here in Montana.  

I came across this little set up one day and it made me giggle.  Wendy going for a ride on the skateboard. 

This series of pictures makes me so happy.  Jaylie June was getting a big kick out of this skunk puppet that was on the table. She was starting and laughing and having the best time with it.  The she started REALLY looking at it as if they were gonna strike up a conversation.....

she would just look at it and grin so big.  She was very entertained by this skunk. 

Quinn enjoyed his birthday cake for several days after the party. 

You know how sometimes my house is such a mess that I can't even believe it so I have to take a picture???? This was one of those times. 

This is the first year any of my kids have had stockings.  I started cross stitching ones for Kanyon and Jayde before they were born then realized I would NEVER finish those 2 much less any more for any other kids I might have.  So i picked out fabric and made/had these made for them. I picked the fabric out a couple of years ago. I saw that white fabric and bought it just in case I ever had a girl. Glad I did.  

This was Kanyon's last ride with his horse Kandy.  We were sad to say goodbye.  Kandy was a great horse for Kanyon.  

Jaylie, Meg, and Lucy at small group. 

Our great friends Gary and Sharon came over one night to bring the boys Christmas treats.  She gave each kid a Christmas book from her collection.  They loved them and they LOVED having Gary and Sharon over to play! 

Gary has had a hard year with a cancer diagnosis, surgery, chemo, and long recovery but he's back and doing great.  It did my heart so good to have him wrestling and playing with the kids just like he always used to do.  We love Gary and Sharon so so so so much and they have played (and will continue to even from a distance) an irreplaceable role in our family's life. 

Since we were moving to Montana in the middle of winter I thought I'd better have a warm coat so when Kanyon had Dr. appointments in Dallas we made a family trip out of it. All I have to say is baby winter/outdoor wear at REI is THE CUTEST THING EVER! Too bad this patagonia jacket was only $100!!!!  But we sure had fun playing dress up in all those clothes.  Carhartt's gonna have to do for this girl. 

klp had an early morning appointment so Kory stayed with Q and jjp at the hotel while we went to the Dr.  This was a neurology appointment and things are going well.  We think we may have finally found a medicine that is working for Kanyon's seizures.  They aren't completely gone, but they are way less often than they used to be! 

In the mean time Jaylie was at the hotel discovering her belly button.  

She really sat there for like 15 minutes fascinated with it! 

We got back to the hotel in time for breakfast and Bubble Guppies on the TV!  

We left the hotel and headed to see Santa in Allen.  It was so much fun and the kids did great.  Q was nervous so he graciously let klp sit on Santa's lap and he just stood there.  He was so nervous that he kinda choked when Santa asked him what he wanted him to bring him.  Q just stood there with a blank stare and then finally mustered up the words, "A train." (I think he saw a train that was on the wall decoration) That was the first mention of a train because he'd been consistently telling us he wanted a "horn" from Santa (a trumpet).  I didn't  think anything of it because I knew he didn't really want that.  Fast forward a couple of weeks and we were in Paris for Christmas.  We were driving around looking at Christmas lights and I looked over at Q and his chin was trembling. I asked him what was wrong and choking back tears he said, "I asked Santa for a train and I don't want a train. I want a horn."  I tried not to laugh and assured him that we could write Santa a letter and leave it out Christmas Eve to make sure that he knows to bring a horn.  That did the trick and he was happy again. 

Gay Gay met us at Santa and the kids reaped the benefits of having their Grandma come along because she took them on an overpriced train ride through the shopping center.  

If you can resist this girl in jeggings and moccasins something's wrong with you! 

This is me saying goodbye to my Rodeo.  I got this car when I left to go to college.  Its been "for sale" in our driveway for 2 years.  I kept giving Kory a hard time about not getting it sold, he'd put it on Craig's list then it would expire and blah blah blah it never got sold.  Then one day a yard worker was backing out of our neighbors driveway and ran into the car.  What seemed like a terrible thing (especially because we were getting ready to move and trying to get that thing sold) turned into something GREAT.  Turns out this dented door was all this car needed to get totaled.  The insurance company gave us over a thousand dollars more than we were asking for it on Craigslist.  And Kory's procrastination pays off again.  Literally.  I was sad to say goodbye, but it lived a good life and was with me through some of the best years of my life.  So long red rodeo! 

O Christmas Tree

The weekend after Thanksgiving we drove home from Paris straight to the Christmas tree farm.  We were excited to cut down our tree and start the Christmas Fun!  Last year the day after we cut a tree down was the day I had my heart attack.  We were VERY thankful to not be dealing with any medical drama this year!!!  

Jaylie is a mean mugger as you can see.  

We searched and searched and analyzed the shape, hight, color, width, "bad sides", and overall look of each tree until we finally settled on this one.  Daddy had lots of help cutting it down. 

This is a blurry picture of Jaylie June's ducktail curl. 

The worker told the boys they could help him drive.  They were very excited! 

The next day I took the boys to Target to let them pick out an ornament.  

It came as no surprise that they went for the characters...

Quinn and Captain America

Kanyon and Jake. 

They had fun admiring their guys hanging from the tree.  

Jaylie is quite fond of birds and gets very excited when she sees one so we knew we wanted to pick out a bird for her.  There was only one bird ornament.  She was very pleased.  

klp had been talking not stop about putting the star on top of the tree so with a little help from KLP, the start was placed to finish out our tree!

Christmas PJ's by the tree. Man oh man oh man I love these. (even though I was missing my tree skirt) 

Stone Face Jaylie was not cracking a smile, so Dad had to up his game to get her laughing.....

It was a fun start to the Christmas season and a special way to spend our last month in our house.