Christmas Day 2010

Christmas morning the kids slept until almost 9:00...I love my kids! Madison was the first one up and I made her wait to come into the living room until I woke up the other 2...I like everyone to see the Santa set-up at the same time. The kids loved Santas' gifts!

Santa left a charging station with 2 more Wii remotes and 4 new games! Love how Santa "hid" the games on the tree...it took the kids a few minutes to find them :)


Santa was nice enough to set our remotes out to charge..even the 2 we already had


The tree with all the gifts!


Taylor's docking station for her Ipod


Caleb's art kit and sketch books


Madison's pillow pet and Leapster game


Mario Cart for the Wii....with 3 wheels so all 3 kids can play at the same time!


Caleb was so excited about his stuffed Wall-E


Taylor was excited about her Jessie doll too!


Madison got Squinkees (and I have stepped on them too many times already)!


We enjoyed breakfast with both sets of Grandparents. Then the kids spent the afternoon playing Mario Cart on the Wii. Dinner at our house that evening consisted of steaks, shrimp, baked potatoes and salad followed with pecan pie and cheesecake for dessert. Matt had to stand in the snow and grill our steaks! And to top it off right after he lit the grill and put the steaks on the grill went out! Luckily the 24 hr Walgreens 2 minutes from our house sells propane refills so Matt ran down and got one so we could finish our steaks...there is nothing like steak cooked on the grill!

There is only one word...dedication!

Christmas Eve with the Beavers

We celebrated Christmas with Hope and Chris Christmas Eve morning. Matt had to work that afternoon and they wanted to get to Nashville before the bad weather that was predicted hit. We opened presents and then had brunch before going back and opening our stockings. We have a tradition where everyone buys a gift of no more than $10 for each person and then each person has 8 small gifts to open. It is so much fun! The kids were very happy with their gifts and so were the adults I believe. For the record, there are pictures of Hope and Chris but I am not allowed to post them b/c Hope got hot and took her sweater off and was just wearing a tank top :) They were there though.

Mario Cart for his DS


A remote controlled helicopter


Taylor got lots of new clothes




Madison got Jessie boots


Stars War for his DS


Madison's #1 requested gift was the American Girl doll Kit...she got it!


All Taylor wanted was her own laptop...she got it!


Stormy got a new sweater...she looks so cute!

December Craziness!

I can't believe Christmas is in just a few days! I haven't finished my shopping yet and I have to get on that b/c we are having Christmas with my family on Friday morning.

Tonight we have our Candlelight Service and Nativity Play. All 3 kids have parts...Taylor is Gabrielle, Caleb is Joseph and Madison is an angel in the choir. Matt had joked that we should let Caleb watch Vince Vaughn's performance of Joseph in Four Christmas'...I don't! Last week during practice Caleb was leaning on the manger and I was just picturing the manger flipping over and baby Jesus flying through the air :) Praying that doesn't happen tonight.

The girls both have strep right now but aren't contagious anymore. We are praying that Caleb doesn't get it (or me).

Caleb had PJ day and they watched The Polar Express on Monday at school. Since I am room mom I got together popcorn and hot chocolate as a snack for them to have while watching the movie. Matt helped me and we had a fun morning with Caleb at school.


Matt and I (along with Amy and Aaron) spent last weekend in the mountains. We enjoyed doing absolutely nothing. We just sat around watching movies most of the time. We did venture over to the clubhouse and sat in the hot tub for awhile and then enjoyed playing some pool. We won 1st game and Amy and Aaron won the 2nd game. After checking out Sunday morning we enjoyed lunch at Olive Garden and then went to Dollywood. We enjoyed seeing a couple of shows and just walking around without kids. It was pretty cold though so we only stayed a few hours.


Amy telling Aaron to look at the camera...we were joking that we normally are saying "everyone smile" or "look at the camera" for most pictures :)


Matt and I looking puffy in our layers!


Now school is out for a few weeks and I am looking forward to sleeping in a little and just hanging out with the kids and Matt. We are still waiting on a date for Matt to leave for Basic. We had hoped to know before Christmas but the offices on Base are closed until Jan 5th so we will have to wait :( I am planning to go with Matt to Memphis for his drill next month and am looking forward to seeing the new base. I remember the Base out in Millington but they have moved out to the airport.

The Most Important Decision Taylor Will Ever Make

On Sunday December 12, 2010, I watched as Matt baptized our first child! It was such an emotional decision but I held it together very well. There were so many sweet memories I don't ever want to forget. I cried as I watched Matt ask Taylor from opposites sides of the baptistry "if she was ready" and she proudly said "yes"! The tears fell more freely as I watched Taylor met her daddy in the middle of the baptistry. It was a moment that will rank right up there with the first time I saw Matt holding her after she was born. Watching him immerse her in the water and then bring her up a new child was one of the happiest moments I have ever had. We were so happy to have Mr Mike there to read some scriptures. He has always been there for Taylor to ask any questions. He gave her a Bible study to complete about 9 months ago when she asked again if she could be baptized. After completing it we knew Taylor was ready and doing this for the right reason. And we were thrilled to be able to have most of our family and our H2H family as well as a few other friends Taylor invited with us to share in the moment. I am so thankful that we had Aaron to take pictures. I am looking forward to making them into a scrapbook for Taylor. I am so proud of her for the decision she has made and look forward to watching her grow in her faith. It was so sweet, afterwards Taylor just kept saying "this is the best day ever" :) And she was right!















Getting congratulatory hugs

Christmas Photo Shoot #3

Today we attempted to get a photo for our 2010 Christmas card for the 3rd time. My plan was if it didn't work this time then we weren't going to put out a Christmas card this year since we are only 2 weeks away from Christmas. Well, we were completely successful!!! I was so excited b/c I love doing our family Christmas card and was going to be really sad if we didn't do one. Matt was also able to snap a couple of shots of the kids individually as well as a cute shot of me and Caleb. Caleb snapped a picture of me and Matt. The picture of us isn't too bad except Caleb is shooting "up" at us so Matt and I both have double chins :) LOL

I am not going to post our Christmas card picture since most of you that read this will also be getting the card...don't want to spoil the surprise :)

Taylor


Caleb


Madison


Me and Caleb


Me and Matt (next time we take a picture together we plan to be 40 lbs lighter)

Christmas Brunch 2010

Sunday our church had their annual Christmas Brunch with a special guest....Santa. The kids also sang some songs they had learned especially for the brunch (and also for our candlelight service next Wednesday). The kids singing were so cute! The kids also loved seeing "Santa" aka Aaron! They know our dear friend Aaron plays Santa at our church every year and they love knowing that no other kids know it is him...something about knowing something nobody else knows is very fulfilling to a child!

The kids singing!






Talking with Santa






My sweet babies!


The Aytes and Tomlinson kids!

Santa Pictures 2010

Today was such a busy day and I am going to do 2 posts to cover it all. I am going to do the shorter post first b/c I am super tired and want to go crawl in my warm bed and drift off to sleep. We had our annual Christmas Brunch and visit with Santa at church (that post is to come later) and then we had the kids pictures made with Santa again at a local nursery which we have been doing for years. It was very important to go this year as it is the last year for this Santa to do this. He has moved to another place in Tennessee and is not going to be able to do it anymore. I love seeing the kids with him as he really looks the part! His sleigh is so cool and the live reindeer really are the icing on the cake!

The kids with Santa!


Madison telling Santa what she wants


Taylor telling Santa her wish list


Caleb's turn...love the excitement on his face!


The Aytes and Tomlinson kids


Cool reindeer


Getting to pet the reindeer