Christmas in Callahan

The day after Christmas we went up to Uncle Ronnie and Aunt Pat's house so they could shower Hunter and Peyton with gifts. They had a special gift for Hunter that could only be used at their house.

They started with a game of Candyland while we got lunch ready.

Hunter got a box FULL of dress up clothes

He especially loves the cowboy attire

Peyton was there, too.

We took Hunter outside for his final gift. We opened the garage door to find a John Deere Gator truck!

It took him about 5 seconds to figure out how to drive it.

He hauled lots of sticks around the property

That should wrap up Christmas. See the posts below if you haven't already.

If you want to see ALL the pictures I took in December go here.

Christmas Day

We woke up at home on Christmas morning and Hunter opened his presents from us and Santa.

Peyton was there, too.

One of his favorite gifts is the Hungry Hungry Hippos game

Then we went over to my sister-in-laws house for breakfast and more gifts. After all the gifts were opened they told Heath and I to close our eyes. We had no idea what was going on because we weren't supposed to be receiving any gifts. They rolled 2 brand new bikes into the living room and we were so confused. It finally hit me that my mom had something to do with this. She had my brother-in-law and mother-in-law go pick out bikes for us so we didn't have to haul them back home from Jacksonville. Huge surprise! We're so excited to use them.

I must tire of being the camera lady because I have no pictures from the second half of the day at my parents' house. Shame on me. It was a looooong day.

Christmas Eve (starting where I left off)

We spend Christmas Eve at Heath's dad's house. There are a total of 8 grandkids now so it just gets more and more crazy every year.

All the cousins playing Candyland with Heath's mom

3 generations

Peyton's Christmas Eve attire

Ella

The chaos of 8 kids opening gifts all at the same time

I have lots of blogging to do to catch up so stay tuned!

Merry Christmas!

This will be my last post for a couple weeks. We'll be out of town until after New Year's. Hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year!

This year's Christmas card

Here's my mantel since we don't have a fireplace

My big tree

3 months

My baby girl is soon to be 4 months... the day after Christmas. She's holding her head up really well and rolling from tummy to back. She gives pretty smiles and really wants to laugh, but just can't find that belly laugh yet. It's kind of a cough sound when she tries. She has found her hands and chews on them all the time. I catch her with her thumb in her mouth quite often, too. She's starting to drool so it's time to get out the bibs. Overall, she's a pretty good baby. She sleeps well at night, but we have yet to figure out a daytime nap routine. It'll come.

I have this picture of Hunter at 3 months and I've been meaning to get a similar one of Peyton at the same age. I've been dragging my feet all month and today I finally did it... less than a week before she turns 4 months. Phew, at least I got it in there.

(This is a picture of a picture. I couldn't find my digital copy.)

Hunter's Christmas Program

Hunter's Christmas Program was on Thursday. It was adorable! His class sang Jingle Bells and Happy Birthday, Baby Jesus....in case you can't understand them. They did so well in front of all those people. The 4 years olds each recited a line either by themselves or in pairs. It's hard to believe Hunter will be able to do that in 2 years.

Here's the video (thanks to Hunter's classmate's mom for sharing with me!)

All dressed up and ready for his stage debut!

Singing Jingle Bells

Singing Happy Birthday, Baby Jesus

After the program

Trying to catch up

Not much time for blogging lately so let me share a bunch of pictures to catch me up.

Hunter doing what boys do

We can use the Bumbo seat now!

My new favorite picture

She's grabbing things

We made Christmas treats last weekend

My sweet girl

Christmas jammies

Some that didn't make the cut

Here are some pictures that didn't make the cut for our Christmas card this year. I used 5 pictures on our card this year so you'll have to wait to see those :o)

A long time friend

While home for Thanksgiving we were able to see my friend for over 20 years, Gerri and her kids. She lives in NC now so it's been 2 years since I've seen her. Hunter and her youngest son, Gage are just six months apart in age. The first time the boys met they didn't interact too much, but by the second visit they were having a ball. The pictures will show that for sure.

Here we are with our kids. We're missing Gerri's oldest though.

Gage's daddy is serving our country in Iraq on his FOURTH tour. We took this picture just for him.

Brotherly Love

Hunter truly loves his sister. He likes talking to her, touching her, and knowing where she is at all times. He loves to tell people, "It's my baby Peyton" or "It's my baby sister". He tells me she's cute and gets a kick out of her when she talks and smiles. So far he's been a great big brother and I expect nothing less in the years to come.

Outtake

So sweet

A couple days shy of 3 months here