Christmas Day (a little early)

We celebrated Christmas with my parents and brother's family a week early because that was when they were in town. We gathered at my parents house for dinner and presents.

The kids are patiently waiting.

Family photos - serious and silly

With 4 girl cousins, age 1, 2, 3, and 4 - there is a lot of dress up.

Our family. I decided not to fight the battle and make the kids take off their dress up even if it did not have Norman Rockwall photos. This is who my kids are!
Will got a Manchester United shirt that we bought in England this fall.





Pillow pets were a favorite gift that night.



My girls love to dress up and love their baby dolls so matching outfits was a perfect gift.

Santa's Village

Another fun activity that we did this year was go to Santa's Village. It was our first time to go but I know we will make it a tradition. There are about 20 different houses, each sponsored by a different business and with a different theme. They each have some activity or treat for the kids. The only negative of the evening was that it was COLD!

Nana and Pops with their girls.

Getting cookies from Mrs. Claus

Riding the reindeer saddles in the barn.

The Trains

Will, Jaime and the girls came for a visit the week before Christmas. One of the activities that is always fun is to go see the Trains at the mall. This year they redid a lot of the exhibit to include different scenes. It is a fun family outing.

Pops and Caroline

Will and Ally

Sam and the girls looking at the trains

Will and his family looking at the trains

Uncle Will and Caroline

Ally

Caroline being goofy

Daddy and Katherine

We ran into some of our good friends, Kyle and Lacy

Katherine was being very silly

Pops and Ally

Winding down Christmas

This year it seemed that we celebrated Christmas for a week. Our final celebration was with Nana and Pops.

It is impossible to get a good photo of the 4 of us. I love how Caroline has removed her footwear and is attempting an escape while Katherine has reverted to sucking her thumb.
Caroline helps Pops open his gift.
What a cutie pie!
Katherine and Caroline each received their own Nativity set for their room from Nana and Pops.
I received the Pioneer Woman Cooks Cookbook. Every recipe so far has been fabulous though not diet at all. She is famous for her liberal use of real butter. Katherine is listening to my "heart beep" with her new doctors kit.
Katherine also now has her very own camera. She loves to use ours so hopefully this will keep her happy for a few years.
And Caroline received her first car. The Cozy Coup will live at Nana's house since they have a nice large, flat patio.

Zoo Day

The second day that Will's family was here we went to the zoo for dollar day. We thought it would literally be a zoo but it really was not crowded at all. All 10 of us were able to be there so it was fun.
Caroline loved watching the penguins because they were swimming so close.

When we got to the crocodile, Katherine walked right up to stick her head in its mouth. I thought it was funny since last week at another museum she refused to stick her head in the dinosaurs mouth. For some reason a crocodile is not as scary I guess.

What a great photo of all 4 girls.
Miss Blue Eyes

Before leaving we rode the carousel. Caroline did not like it once it started moving and so I ended up holding her.
That night we had dinner at my parents house. The kids played outside and had fun climbing on a tree that Will and I used to climb on.

Here is a rare photo where Sophia is smiling. She smiles a lot, just not for the camera.
We attempted to get a good family photo. With the exception of Caroline's finger up her nose and Ally's hands covering her face it is pretty close to perfect.