Christmas - December 2009

Christmas Eve....

We had a very busy day and the kids were getting very excited as the night went on.

As a tradition the kids get to open 1 present from us on Christmas Eve, their Christmas Pajamas.

Once we have gotten into our jammies we head off to church for the 11:30 church service.

It is a great service to get our heads focused on the real reason for Christmas.

Hannah and Sarah are ready and waiting to open their pajamas.

We made reindeer food to sprinkle on the front lawn so the reindeer could find the house.

Hannah did a great job!

Sarah opening her P.J's finally!!!

Poor Jonathan didn't even have a robe to put on while opening his P.J.'s

Hannah opening her jammies... she loved the plaid!!

I knew she would love them.

Abigail opening her jammies.... I was hoping she would like her pajamas... She did!

Whew!

All the kids posing in their pajamas before we headed off to church....

Abigail, Jonathan, Sarah and Hannah

Toby is excited about Christmas also.... can't you tell??

Posing in front of the tree.

The kids set cookies and milk out for Santa.... Santa loves cookies!!

Wow!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Santa came!

The kids waiting on the stairs to go see what Santa brought.

First things first.... Tyler read the Christmas story to the kids.

Abigail opening her stocking.

Toby posing again.....

Sarah with her horse she got for her American girl doll.

Jonathan got a ramp for his tech decks.

Sarah got a pin "thingy", not sure what it is called... but every time we are in Target she finds one and plays with it. Can you tell she was excited?

Hannah got this great hat and scarf set.

She got a sweat shirt that she has worn just about every day since Christmas... I think she likes it, what do you think?

Sarah got a digital camera also.

Abigail got a bunch of clothes.

Jonathan got some clothes too!

Tyler like the sweater and jeans that the kids bought him.

Tyler and the kids made me this great shirt... I am hoping to lose some weight so it fits me a little better.

I love it, didn't they do such a GREAT job?

Toby is ready for this to all be over...

Sarah got a riding outfit for her doll also.

We had a wonderful Christmas. All the kids got some great presents from us and Santa.

I took a lot more pictures, but I will save you from looking at them all.

All in all it was a great Christmas,

Till next time,

Barbara

November 2009

November was a very busy month for us.... we had a lot of football games..... Here is one of Jonathan's games where he was the captain and got to do the coin toss at the beginning.

This is a group picture of his team.... what a good looking bunch of kids!!

We went to a Lion's club charity auction and won a silent auction for 4 tickets to a Clemson/FSU football game. We were very excited to go..... we sold 2 of the tickets since it would be too hard to pick which of our 4 kids to take and made back some of the money that we bid on the tickets. It was a great night....

Here is me posing in front of the stadium.

Here is a view when we first went into the stadium.... it was an awesome place!!

This is the view from our box seats.... we had a great view!

Outside the stadium.... "the paw print".

A picture of us after the game.

The middle of November was kind of crazy for us... we had a lot of things going on and we were working through a lot of stuff. We were looking forward to the end of the month to come to have a time of renewal and relaxation.
At the end of November we headed to the beach to celebrate Thanksgiving and family Christmas the day after.

We stayed at my Aunt's beach house on Oak Island with my sister for the long weekend.

Here are some shots of the cousins on our first night there.
Jonathan and his favorite cousin, Jakeeeee boy!

Sarah

Paige

Hannah and Abigail

Not sure why I didn't take any pictures of us during our Thanksgiving meal... but I didn't so if you want to see some pictures that my Aunt took you can go to my facebook page and look at them.

On the Friday after Thanksgiving we celebrated our family Christmas. Our theme this year was to think of the person you had chosen for the exchange and make them something by hand. It was a difficult task but we all did a great job.

Here are some shots of the kids getting and receiving their gifts.

Jonathan picked Uncle Dean. He made him a caddy for his desk. He put it together and painted it. I think it came out GREAT and Uncle Dean thought so too!

Uncle Dean picked Tyler and made him a Coca Cola lamp with sand from the beach at Oak Island. It was a cool gift!! We have yet to find a place in the house for it, maybe one day I will find the perfect place for it.... for now it looks great out on the workbench in the garage...LOL

I picked my sister Michelle. I decided to make her a necklace. I think it came out looking great!

She loved it! Yay.... it was worth all the stress.

Paige got Abigail and made her a great tye-dye shirt.

Hannah picked Sarah and made her a really cute bible bag that she embroidered.

Jake picked Hannah and made her a cool CD of mixed music.

My Dad picked Jonathan and made him a really cool model airplane .... he still needs to finish it for Jonathan... he is working on it to get it covered in paper and then he will give it back to Jonathan. Here it is in its almost done stage.

Abigail picked my Aunt Sue and knit her a beautiful blue scarf. I don't have a picture of her giving it to her. Sorry!

Here are some shots of the kids in front of the tree and with all the cousins.

Here is the whole gang at my Aunts house.

Here is a shot of us all in front of her fire place.

On the Saturday after Thanksgiving we went to Airlie Gardens in Wilmington to see the Christmas light and displays with my parents and the rest of our family that was down for Thanksgiving.

The indoor train display.

The kids got to see Santa and get a picture.

I know they were excited!

Here are some shots around the gardens.

The kids with my parents.

If I didn't mention it... it was COLD outside...

The whole gang.

This is the bottle house.... it is made completely of glass bottles.... it was very cool..... it looked so much better than this picture shows.

On the Sunday that we were going to leave we spent the day at the beach while the laundry finished drying.... it was a beautiful day and the kids loved playing on the beach.

It was a great time for Tyler and I to spend together and just enjoy the beauty of God's creation.

Sarah and Abigail.

Jonathan and Hannah playing football.

Sarah in her "chair" that she built.

All the kids at the beach.

All in all it was an eventful and tiring month...

Till next time,

Barb