The kids and I headed to Texarkana on Wednesday, the 22nd, after Hannah's Christmas party at school. Hannah and I got our hair cut the next morning by my cousin, Amy. I had REALLY been looking forward to this! I needed a haircut so bad! On Friday, my mom's side of the family all came out to my parents' house for Christmas. It had been a while since I had been with all of them, so it was so good to all be together!
Layton checked everyone out.
We had soups and finger foods this year.
These are some of my cousins. I wish we would have taken pictures of each family. We have done that in the past.
The highlight of Christmas this year was watching a video of Mama Cille (my mom's mom) on her 80th birthday about 9 or 10 years ago. What made this so special was that Mama Cille died 2 1/2 years ago. We all miss her so much!!
This was the March before Kris and I got married in June 2001. She was surprised to see everyone when she came in the door.
It was funny seeing Kris and I. WOW!! We were so young!!!!
This is the whole family watching the video together. None of us had seen it before. I am so thankful that my family still gets together on the holidays--even though Mama Cille is no longer with us. She was so the central part of this family.
My sweet momma reading some of her thoughts to her mother on her birthday. I just loved watching this video and I am so glad we have it!!!
The rest of the time, the little kids played together. Here are all the girls. They are my cousins' children, so they would be Mama Cille's great-grandchildren (She will soon add two more to her already 12.) This is Anna-Blair, Hannah, Elli, and Adi.
The little boys played in my mom and dad's room with some of our old toys. They made a big mess, but they had so much fun! Oh, they also enjoyed jumping on the bed!
Eric and Lincoln
We like to play games in this family. We played Cranium. There is always much laughter!!
My mom and I!
More of the kids. Hayes, Lincoln (love his face), Eric, Hannah, and Adi.
We had a great time with family. Christmas morning we woke up and opened presents with just my family. Here is our precious baby boy.
Mimi and Pappaw got the kids new bikes!! Now, if we can just teach them to ride them!
Since Santa left our presents at home under our tree (because we sent him an email and told him we wouldn't be there Christmas morning), it was exciting for the kids to get to wake up and open presents first thing! They loved it!
Even Layton kind of got into opening his presents. He got lots of fun toys from Mimi and Pappaw.
I love Lincoln's face when he saw Hannah's walking dog from Uncle Wes.
Paper!! Fun stuff!
Pappaw opening one of his gifts.
Layton started sitting up really well while we were there!
Zhu Zhu pets!
Mimi helping Layton.
Books to read!! Yay!! She named her dog Biscuit, after her new book. :-)
We got my parents stuff so we can Skype with them! (Grandma and Granddad, ask Kris what this is! :-)
Leapster Explorer from Uncle Jeff. They both really like this!
The boys got Layton clothes from the Gap. They were adorable!
Layt is his new jeans and coat!
By the way, Hannah LOVES her uncles!!!! She gets giddy around them. It is the cutest thing. They love her too and are sooooo good to her! I just love them for that!
We had a great Christmas morning! At lunch that day, we celebrated my birthday which was the day before (yes, Christmas Eve). Mom made me a delicious chocolate pie and gave me money, Kris got me flowers and some cookbooks, and the boys got me the sweetest cards. It was a great birthday!!
The kids and I stayed at my parents' till Tuesday afternoon. We played with our new toys.
Hannah showed Mimi all the words that she knows.
Pappaw loved on the kiddos. He loves to make Layton laugh!
Mimi read them books. Lincoln loves to be read to and I think he is the sweetest thing when he is so intently listening to the story.
The kids helped Mimi make some cookies.
We also went to see a couple of movies while we were there. We had to take advantage of the free babysitting! Mom and I took the kids to see Tangled before we left. It was wonderful!!! We all loved it and Layton was an angel and slept the whole time!
We had a wonderful almost week at Mimi and Pappaw's!!! Thanks for all our Christmas goodies! We love you!!
We got home from Mimi and Pappaw's Tuesday evening. Kris was already home from work and waiting on us to get there. I ran in to take a couple pictures before the kids got out of the car. As I walked in the house I smelled fresh paint...more about that on the next post! Here was their loot.
LOVE Lincoln's excitement!!!
Hannah cracked me up. This was her face as she would open some of her presents as well. I would call it her shy-I-know-you-are-taking-my-picture-mom face.
The first thing they both ran to were their pillow pets!!! Hannah really wanted this unicorn pillow pet! It was at the top of her list! Lincoln got a dog and Layton got a bee.
Several months ago a friend of mine knew a lady that was getting ready to have a garage sale. She had 2 older boys and had tons of boy stuff that she was going to sell. She had tons of Legos and all kinds of games. Unbelievably, she had kept every Lego box and they were complete sets. She had all ages too. I was fortunate enough to get to go to her sale before she even had it and got some awesome stuff! This scooter was one of the things I got Lincoln for $10. It is so much easier to ride than a regular scooter. I think he will really enjoy it when the weather is nicer and we can go outside more.
Kris got Lincoln a tool box last year and got him a tool for each year since he was born. The idea is to add to it with a new tool each year. So, Layton got his tool box this year with a pliers set to go in it.
Linc with his pliers set to add to his tool collection!
Hannah's favorite things are colors and markers. She got a whole set with paints, chalk, and more.
A tutu and leotard!
They got several Wii games as well as Wii uDraw. Hannah loves this!
Sweet boy was having fun!
He was very interested in his toys. 
Lincoln opened some of Layton's books for him.
Hannah got a pretty new pink watch.
They got several puzzles this year.
More books to read!
This pirate game was one of the games I got at the garage sale. Lincoln couldn't wait to play it.
So happy!
I got this Little Boys Bible which is for little boys and their mommies at the garage sale too!
Hannah got an Early Reader's Bible and a purse to carry it in to church. The other night she read the story of Adam and Eve to herself on the way to church. I thought this was sooooo cool!!! I want her to love to read her bible!
Another game from the garage sale.
She had to go put her ballerina stuff on that night!
My turn. Kris got me a new crockpot. I actually never got one when we got married because he already had one. So, I needed this! I have used it quite a few times since and love it!
He said he had to get me the "operating manual" too.
My big surprise was a KitchenAid mixer!! I have always wanted one of these but never really thought I'd get one. So far, I have used it to make mashed potatoes and Macaroni Grill Rosemary bread! It works great!!!
I tried to come up with something fun this year for Kris, so I decided to get him a gift that started with every letter in the word C-h-r-i-s-t-m-a-s. I had a lot of fun with this! I think he was a little surprised.
I won't tell what I got for every letter, but the C was for coffee maker. I got him a Keurig at the garage sale which I had to tell him about when I bought it. I had actually just gone to Target and gotten a new one for $135. The lady sold theirs to me for $45. Nothing was wrong with it. I had to tell Kris about it to see if he wanted me to go ahead and get this particular one versus having a new one. I took the $135 one back to Target. So, I went ahead and got him the Carousel to go with his coffee maker. I'm telling you, I got some good deals at that garage sale!!!
R was for Ralph Lauren cologne. He likes! 
One of the S's was for sweater--from JoS. A. Bank.
The A was for Arrowhead, which is the stadium where the Kansas City Chiefs play. I couldn't buy tickets for next season quite yet, so he got an IOU for tickets to a game next year. He has been wanting to go to one. Anyway, I enjoyed coming up with things to get him this year!
The last thing we do is stockings. I, honestly, love to buy for their stockings. I love finding neat little things to put in them. Some of Lincoln's stocking stuffers this year were tape, a flash light key chain, gum, a pretend camera, a whoopie cushion, etc. The whoopie cushion was a hit!
Hannah got stick-on earrings, glow-in-the-dark bracelets, a stapler, a pretend phone, etc.
Santa was so good to us again this year! We all had a blast! Thank you Santa!!
