Christmas Morning 2010

This year was a special Christmas... It was R's 1st Christmas AND we were able to have the big boys wake up here Christmas morning. The down side of blended families, you do not always get the normal holidays so you make do with what you have!!

Christmas morning at the house was the first of two Christmas celebrations for the day and the first of 3 total. We did not have Dakota with us this year on Christmas but I will post later on that. That was celebration 3 of 3.

Oh, the boys were so excited to be up early! Now when I say early I mean like 800. All the kids slept in. I guess that was the advantage of having teens and then a toddler that did not fully understand. I am sure we will not have the luxury of sleeping in next year!


K was good for about the first 4 gifts. After that she was done and just wanted to play. Sounds good. She had gifts for the next few days that she was able to open.


Daddy got to help K open a gift or two before she gave up.


Con got some practical things this year... a liner for the trunk of the mustang!!


And Ave ... WAR EAGLE!!! Need I say more??


Avery got his yearly Lego creation. Even at 14 he still loves to do the harder sets. When I say harder I mean like 2000-5000 pieces!! He has a bookshelf in his room with all the things he has made. It is incredible!! He can sit in his room for hours working on the latest one.


I LOVE LOVE LOVE this gift that Conner got!! A little background... he LOVE LOVE LOVES the Boston Red Sox... always has, well this is Ted Williams in his Red Sox uniform and under it is written... "Got will get you to the plate but once you are there, you are on your own"....


This one is just added as proof that I was at the Christmas Celebrations this year. I try to either avoid the camera or I am the one behind the camera. I am really trying to get into the pictures more so my kids know that I was around for all festivities!!


K LOVES to read. Here she is reading one of her many new books to the dog. I guess Midnight was the only one that would listen at this point.


R slept through most of the present opening but I had to take pictures of her when she was awake. Had to prove she did not completely sleep through her 1st Christmas!


Ahh the boys are getting ready to dig into their scavenger hunt prize. Each year Chris comes up with several clues for a scavenger hunt. At the end there is some sort of gift, some years big, some years small but the fun is watching the boys figure out where they have to go for the next clue.


This year even Chris got a surprise at the end!


Ok I think that wraps up Christmas morning at the house.... After this we relaxed a little more, the boys played some games after helping to clean up, and I got to cooking for Celebration #2 that afternoon.

Happy 4th of July!!! !

Today is a little strange, it is the 4th of July but being that it falls on a Sunday our town had most of the festivities yesterday, on the 3rd.

Do you know how strange it is to say "Happy 4th" on the 3rd or even "Happy 3rd of July". It just does not fit.

Chris had to work and the big boys were at their dad's house so it was just Kennedi and I. We headed over to my sister's house for the annual 4th 3rd of July cookoutlow country boil. We sat by the pool, consumed some beverages (well I consumed water of course), and ate... A LOT!

It was a really wonderful and relaxing day. Usually, when it takes place on the 4th we have a few family members that are re-couperating from the World's Largest 10K (the Peachtree Road Race). This took place this morning (on the correct day). We still had family members run in it but just not as many this year. My sister and her husband as well as at least 1 of their 4 kids runs each year. Usually I run it but for obvious reasons sat out and last year for the 1st time I was joined by my husband and both boys. It was great to have them run with me. I am hoping that they will want to do it again.

We have many in our family that are military and very patriotic... some more than others. It is always intersting when we get together.

I do have to claim him as part of the family. This is my nephew! He cracks me up!

When the bandana came off..... (and no he did not stay in that all day)!

this is where it went.....

and she wore it for a very long time!

I will post more pictures when I get them, my camera was on the wrong setting of course so the pictures area little grainy.

I hope everyone has a safe and Happy 4th of July!!

....and I leave you with my favorite patriotic song......

All the final Christmas celebration!

Finally back home and time to do our Christmas!! It was a long day but so worth it in the end. The boys had a blast at my brother's house and then came home to more presents.

We put Kennedi to bed and then it was time to dig in. Here are some pictures from Christmas night.

opening presents

Conner and his North Face jacket

Chris opening his DS... yes almost 40 and wanted a DS!

Avery in his new hat.

The boys waiting for their scavenger hunt clue!

Chris reading one of the many clues

Ahhh the reward for the scavenger hunt!! Laptops!!

Conner and his winning lottery ticket.. A whole $15.

Christmas Afternoon...

When we picked the boys up at 3pm from their dads house we headed up to Atlanta to have Christmas with my family. It is so nice that the farthest we have to drive for a gathering is about 40 minutes. When we got there the house was packed! It is always crazy when you have this many celebrating!

Here is the whole group. It is not easy getting this many to cooperate when taking a picture.

Here are the grand kids and the great grand kids. Aren't they cute?!?! The oldest in the picture is about 29 (I think) and the youngest is Kennedi at 16 months. These are the ones that I wrote This post about. What a group!

Here are the two that started it all.

The little kids were about to play outside since the weather was good. They had so much fun playing together. There is only about 12 months difference between the oldest of the three babies and the youngest.

We had a great meal with a TON of food! After that we exchanged some gifts and the kids did a white elephant gift exchange. Unfortunately my camera battery died and I did not get any pictures of that. It was pretty funny to watch. I hope this becomes a yearly thing on Christmas! I already have ideas for next year's gifts.

Kennedi opening one of her gifts.

It was a wonderful day! And at the end we still had to get home to do one more Christmas. At this point it was after 7 and the boys had not opened any of their gifts at home. We said our good-byes and then headed home for Christmas celebration #3 of the day.

Christmas Morning

Christmas was a LONG day this year. Chris got off of work about 1am on Christmas Eve and Kennedi was the only child home. This was the year for the boys to wake up at their father's house.

Chris brought me breakfast in bed about 8am. It was wonderful to sleep in that late! And then we headed down with Kennedi to open a few presents.

Santa came!!

And left lots of great stuff!

The stockings were heavy this year so they would not go back up on the holders.

Kennedi saw her inch worm right away and ran to it!

She loved to play on it.

Kennedi made it though about 9 presents and then wanted to play with the toys. She actually has more to open still but they are put up for today.

All 3 of us took a nice long nap and when we woke up it was time to get ready to get the boys and head out to Christmas celebration #2.

My Christmas Present!!

Ahhhh I got an early Christmas present from Chris and the kids!!! I have wanted a new camera for a long time and did not think it would be any time soon when I got this camera. A few days before our trip to Florida, Chris talked to the boys and let them decide if they should give me my Christmas present early or wait until Christmas.

They made a great choice (on both the gift and the idea of giving it to me early).

I got a new camera!!! YAY!!

I have to admit it is not the one I wanted but I LOVE this camera. This is actually so much better than the one I wanted. I am so thankful that Chris is a researcher and will do his homework before getting me something. He told me he had been looking and researching for about 4 months on this.

.....he did promise that I would get one before Conner graduated from high school. He did it with 3 years to spare. I should be able to take some great pictures by the time Conner graduates! I actually can not wait to take advantage of the free classes that come with the camera. I think I have found a new hobby.

Thanksgiving, The Iron Bowl and such....

I have been so bad about blogging lately. I realize this and still have not sat down to do anything about it.

This week went by so fast. The boys were off of school and we had a lot going on. So much that I actually had my camera with me most of the week and forgot to take any pictures. I think part of that is when I realized I did not have any pictures of the things going on my camera did not work correctly. I need a new one and its on my Christmas list but I am not crossing my fingers on it. However, Chris did promise me that by the time Conner graduated from high school I will have the camera I want. So.... only 3 years to wait (at the most).

Lets see, Thanksgiving.... hmm... holidays are not what they used to be I guess. I still love them but Chris worked on Thanksgiving so it was just Kennedi and I hanging out at the house all day. I have to admit that it felt like just another day to us. We picked the boys up at 3 and then headed up to the north side of Atlanta to my brother's house. They had a good portion of my family for dinner. We hit it at dessert (what better time!). We got there, ate some dessert and then I ate some of the leftover turkey. It was sooo good. Of course we had to head home right about the time the turkey was kicking in so I was a little tired on the ride home.

Poor Chris sent me a message from work that day telling me that the cafeteria at the hospital was not even open so he was stuck with a peanut butter sandwich and then golden grahams for dessert. What a way to spend a holiday! I think its horrible that people are stuck working on a holiday and they do not even get to eat. Thankfully he is off on Christmas so at least then we will have a good meal on the actual holiday as a family!

Chris did get his Thanksgiving dinner, just a day late. Last Christmas, Santa brought Chris a turkey fryer and Friday we decided to take it out and use it... FOR THE FIRST TIME! I had never had fried turkey before and when I looked at it after it was cooked I was not sure about it. When I bit into a piece he cut, it was great!! We will be frying our turkey for our Christmas dinner this year! Again, part of my family came over to have some food and enjoy a football game.

Kennedi and her cousin Bryan cheering on Auburn! (and that is all of the pictures from the week)

After we got the turkey done and we ate it was game time!! The game we wait all year for... THE IRON BOWL (Auburn vs Alabama). Ok maybe not all year since Chris is a Georgia fan and I am an Auburn fan, that maybe the game we wait all year for.... but I digress. I have to admit going into the game I figured that we were going to get stomped. I mean really, a high school team could have beaten Auburn this year and now we had to play the #2 team in the nation... like we have a chance. Oh it was good!!! I wont go into all the details (mainly because my memory for detail is not good) but we were extremely close to the upset! But... we did not get it and that is OK. We played a closer game than anyone thought and now... there is always next year!!!

So, now it is Sunday, a day of getting ready to head back to school in the morning. Conner has spent a good portion of the day reading a book he was supposed to read over break (and started last night). And Avery and I went on the hunt for guitar strings to replace the one his teacher broke the last week of school. Wow I already miss break!! I guess it is time to sit and relax and get ready for another typical week with kids!!

A very full day!!

Let me start out by saying that I am EXHAUSTED!!! I was going to sit and write this last night but after we got home I was way too tired to do anything. I think we all were.

The alarm went off yesterday at 5:45 am and Chris and I got up and showered and dressed in our running clothes. Then I went down and got the boys up so they could do the same (minus the showers). Kennedi spent the night at Grandma and Papa's for the first time. She did great! On the drive to the Peachtree Road Race the boys were moody! I guess they were regretting singing up for this since they had to get up so early. But they went through with it.

We got on Marta (the first time that Chris has ever ridden it) and it was packed of course. Thankfully it was before the race and not after! And soon arrived at the Lenox Station where we would walk to our time group.

We all started out together and soon got separated. The boys did great. We were holding them back and so we told them to go on and meet up at the meeting place we talked about earlier (for weeks actually). Conner ran the whole 6.2 miles. I am so proud of him for that but also thinking how in the heck when he did not once go out and run to prepare for the race. He was actually the one we picked first to walk. Avery did great also. We told him with about a mile left to go ahead and he took off. I figured Conner was already done and Avery would find him and have someone to wait with. When we got to the meeting spot both kids were sitting there just waiting.

We got home and loaded up the car (I mean loaded). We had stuff for my sisters house and then a wedding to go to later so we brought everything with us. We spent a few hours at my sisters with family. The boys were having a blast and they were in the pool the whole time. Chris appeared to have a great time too. I looked over and there a little more beer in his cup each time so I guess he had a couple of refills. Chris rarely has beer so its fun to watch him partake in the festivities.

I forgot to bring my camera into the house so I got NO pictures of the fun that afternoon. It hit me later and I felt horrible since it was Kennedi's 1st July 4th celebration. Maybe my sister came though and took a few (I am crossing my fingers).

Chris and I left the boys with my sister and headed to the wedding with Kennedi (who had not had her afternoon nap). The wedding was very nice. We put Kennedi in the nursery so I was able to actually see what was going on! Kennedi does not yet realize that church is supposed to be a quiet place. She tries to talk to everyone she sees. Chris and I stayed at the reception for a little while but had to leave early due to a baby that had no afternoon nap, having to pick up the boys in the next town over and starting to get really really sore from running 6.2 miles just a few hours before. Oh let me just add that the groom also ran that same race but seemed to be perfectly fine all throughout the evening. I guess the fact that he is a good number of years younger than us has something to do with it. Oh to be young again!

We headed to my sisters to get the boys and packed up. It was a little early still so we stopped by my other sisters house to see the boys other cousin whom they had not seen in awhile. We got there before Ryan went to bed (thankfully) and the boys had a blast playing with him. They think he is such a cool kid. I really have to agree. He is just about 2 and getting to be really really fun to watch and talk to.

We left a little after nine and headed home. On the way we saw some fireworks being set off so we pulled into a parking lot and watched them. They were the fireworks that Peachtree City does every year. I was a little worried about how Kennedi would react since she was so tired and had never seen them before and she was wonderful. She watched them and was not scared for a second.

Kennedi's first fireworks...

The boys did not want to get out of the car to watch the fireworks. We really did not need to, the view was perfect!

Avery loves to take pictures so he had the camera for most of the time. I dont get into many pictures so here is one of the few.

We watched for a few minutes and the boys got bored. I have to say they were pretty decent this year but they were not the best that I have seen. We headed out and hit the road in front of where they set them off just in time for the finale. That was pretty good!! We watched since all the cars in front of us were stopped (not due to traffic but due to the finale). When it was over we headed home. Traffic free!!

Ahhh the boys are still asleep and Kennedi slept until 9:45. Poor Chris had to get up and be at work at 8am but I have talked to him and he is doing just fine. A little stiff from running but I guess that is to be expected since he is almost 40 and this was his 1st 10K race in many many many many years.

I do have some pictures of the kids at the fireworks and will post them later. I have not put them on the computer yet.

I hope everyone had a great 4th of July and remembered all the men and women that have made it possible for us to celebrate (and to continue to celebrate) this fun holiday!!