Christmas 2010

My parents and brother came in on Wednesday, Dec. 22nd for Christmas. On Thursday we went to the Hard Rock Cafe for lunch which was a lot of fun. Taylor loved the music and danced the whole time. Nathan, Zach and I went to see Tron Thursday night while my parents babysit the girls - love that free babysitting! Friday (Christmas Eve), mom and I did a little bit of shopping for fun. The stores weren't as packed as I thought they would be. We all went to the Christmas Eve service at church and when we got home, Nathan's parents had arrived. Taylor put out cookies and carrots for Santa and his reindeer, we read The Night Before Christmas and the Christmas Story, and then she headed to bed. After the girls went to bed, we played our Christmas game.

Instead of buying the adults presents this year, we decided to just buy for the girls and that we would up the price on the game presents. For the last few years, we have played this game on Christmas eve. Everyone brings 3 presents that are $10 or under ($20 this year). You roll the dice to get a 7 or 11 and if you hit it, you pick a present. Once all the presents are picked, we have 10 minutes to roll doubles to steal peoples presents. It's a blast!

Christmas morning was so fun with Taylor and Zoey. Taylor opened all her presents and then wanted to play with everything. We took a break and had brunch before Taylor opened Zoey's presents for her. She only made it half way through Zoey's presents before she just had to go play with her new toys, so I finished opening for Zoey. It was a wonderful Christmas morning. We spent the rest of the day watching movies, playing with Taylor's toys and chowing down.

Sunday morning we had breakfast at the Gaylord Texan with some family from out of town. After breakfast all of the grandparents and my brother had to head home. Nathan, the girls and I all took naps after everyone left. It was fabulous!



Zach and me at the Hard Rock Cafe



Grandma, Taylor and Nathan at the Hard Rock Cafe



Taylor dancing at the Hard Rock Cafe



Zoey and Taylor after the Christmas Eve church service

Family photo

Grandma and Grandpa with the girls

Uncle Zach with the girls and me

Nana and Poppy with the girls

Christmas morning

Christmas morning

Uncle Zach and Taylor before breakfast at the Gaylord

Zach and me at the Gaylord

The family at the Gaylord

My 'cute' girls!

Uncle Zach is in town!

Uncle Zach is here! Zach meet Zoey for the first time yesterday. Zach lives in Moldova, so we on'y get to see him once or twice a year. He is a little nervous about holding Zoey, but he's getting better.

Zoey's Baby Dedication

On December 12th, Zoey was dedicated to the Lord in church. Both sets of grandparents came in for this special event. It was also the same Sunday that Taylor was singing in church with the preschool choir. Taylor sang on stage with the choir and then went back up on stage with us for Zoey's dedication. Taylor was very entertaining with her hand motions, twirling and playing with her dress as she sang up on stage. Thankfully she did not lift her dress above her head (she got close at one point)!

Zoey did great in church waiting for her dedication. The grandma's didn't get any good photos of the dedication, so I don't have any pics to post of it.

Letter to and from Santa

Taylor wrote a letter to Santa letting him know that she has been a good girl this year and that she is a good big sister. She asks Santa for: The Ladybug game, a reindeer blanket, a barbie house, a rockstar barbie and a princess barbie and dinosaurs that talk to each other (Buddy and Tiny from Dinosaur Train). We went to Grapevine to mail her letter to Santa with Grandpa and Grandma. While we were in Grapevine, we saw Santa on stilts and some of his friends.

When we got home from Brownwood on Monday, a letter from Santa was waiting in the mail for Taylor. She was so excited that Santa wrote her back! The letter was so sweet and she just can't wait for Santa to come on Friday night.

Happy Birthday Jesus party

Taylor's preschool hosted a birthday party for Jesus last night. Taylor sang two songs with her class infront of all the parents which was adorable. They sang Away in the Manger and God's Baby Sleep. I had never heard God's Baby Sleep before, but it was precious!

God's Baby Sleep
The Angels sing...............la, la, la
The Shepards laugh........ha, ha, ha
The Donkeys bray...........hee haw, hee haw
The Crows all caw............caw, caw, caw
Moo goes the cow.............moo
Baa baa says the sheep....baa
Mary Smiles and Joseph leaps
Baa baa says the sheep....baa
How on earth could God's baby sleep?
How on earth could God's baby sleep?

The kids were split into sections and each section had a line with a character on a stick. When they sang their part, they would hold up their character and sing really loud. It was sooooo cute!

After the kids sang, we all sang happy birthday to Jesus and birthday cake. Then the kids decorated cookies to take home and made a birthday card for Jesus. It was a wonderful birthday party and it was nice celebrating Jesus' birth. I do have to tell you that Taylor asked before we went to the party if Baby Jesus was going to be there? I told her, "no, he is in Heaven with God, but he is always with you in your heart".



Before the birthday party



Taylor is so proud of Zoey



What a cutie!



All the kids singing

Our little snow princess

Taylor was a crow

Taylor enjoying her cookie

Taylor's culinary masterpiece

Coppell lighted Christmas parade

Last Saturday night we went to the Coppell lighted Christmas parade. It's a lot of fun with all of the floats, cars and kids lit up with lights. They hand out glow sticks and glow bracelets instead of candy which is a nice change. Taylor loved it and Zoey tolerated it. It was pretty chilly, but not too bad. When we got home after the parade we had hot chocolate and cappuccino.