New Years Eve

Okay, so here are a few pics from New Years Eve at our friends house. There was a huge crowd and the kids had a blast! We stayed up way too late that night, but I guess that's what you do that one night a year, right? We played Guitar Hero on their new Wii they got for Christmas....which was soooo much fun! I laughed so hard watching Marty, who is rhythmically challenged, bouncing while playing the guitar! He just bobbed up and down the whole time! Don't have a pic of that, but wish I did!
There's a pic of the whole gang right before midnight. Also, there's some pics of Maddie and her girlfriends. And Isaac playing with some strings from a pom pom. He sat and played with those for quite awhile.
After this post, I can finally post some stuff from this year! :)

Christmas....better late than never :)

Okay, so I'm just now getting to posting our Christmas pics, but had a couple of cute ones, so I thought I'd go ahead and do it. We had a great Christmas, with the kids full of excitement. It was neat to experience it through their eyes. This was the first year that Madeline was really into it.
Last year, we started a tradition with the kids of having a birthday party for Jesus with friends a couple of days before Christmas. We go to my friend, Kimberly's house and she tells the story of Jesus' birth while acting it out with help from the Fisher Price nativity set. The kids get really into it and sit quietly waiting to sing happy birthday and eat birthday cake. Here's some photos from that day:



The night before Christmas, we went in the front yard and sprinkled "reindeer food" on the front lawn. It was a mixture of oatmeal and purple glitter. Madeline was so excited to do that....she couldn't wait for the reindeer to come. She was happy about reindeer coming, but didn't want Santa anywhere near the house. She kept telling me he didn't need to come and that she didn't want him to come in her house while we were sleeping. I have to admit, that does sound a little ooogy, if you think about it. I assured her, it was okay and that she wouldn't even hear him or see him. This made me seriously rethink our Santa beliefs in this house, but I gave it a go, for this year at least.


On Christmas morning, Madeline came and woke us up and we went and got Isaac up and went into the living room to open presents. I decided we needed to start another tradition of the kids only receiving 3 gifts each from Santa, just as the wise men brought Jesus 3 gifts. I heard this through a friend at church, and thought it was a wonderful way to tie Santa back to Jesus. Of course, they were both fine with this and didn't even realize they only had 3 gifts. Maddie had asked Santa for cowgirl boots, a jump rope, and kid scissors. Isaac got a Fisher Price Noah's ark set, a leap frog drum, and a leap from radio. Madeline didn't like her cowgirl boots, but we managed to get a picture of her in them before we took them back. She's such a silly goose. Isaac was happy with his new toys and got busy playing with them right away.



My parents came over and Marty's mom too, so they could give the kids their gifts. My mom and Madeline have been cooking together a lot lately, so they got Madeline an apron and chef's hat with her name on it. Also, they gave her a huge cupcake making set and Paula Deen's kids cookbook. Starting her young! Here she is in her apron and hat. Too cute!

Sweet and Sassy

Right before Christmas, my mom and I took Maddie to get her hair cut and ears pierced, per her request....well, the ear piercing at least! She's been asking me about wearing earrings lately, so I asked her if she wanted her ears pierced so she could, and she said she did, so off we went. I didn't bother to tell her it would hurt, otherwise, she'd never do it. That's the reason I went until I was 18 to get my own done. I didn't want her to be the same way...chicken!
We took her to Sweet and Sassy, one of the coolest places for a little girl to go! They have a runway that you can dress up and walk down, there's a little shop at the front with cute girlie things, and they do what a typical salon/spa provides. So, while we waited for the haircut, they painted her nails for free. So nice! I truly think this was her favorite part! Silly girl. She LOVES to have her nails done. Then, she got her hair cut, in a cute little wedge style. Then, off to the chair of doom...I mean chair for ear piercing. :) She sat very still while the young lady marked her ears with a dot. Maddie thought that was all it was to get her ears done. She smiled with pride, as you'll see in the pics below! I told her she was not done yet. She sat very still for the first one, then, wait....AAAHHHH!!!!! She screamed and jumped out of that chair and ran! I grabbed her quickly, sat her in my lap and held her still for the second one. No way was she getting out of there with just one ear pierced!!!!! She cried for a few seconds and then was fine. Now, she gladly shows everyone her new earrings! I was so proud of her. She's my big girl!

Christmas Eve with the Halls

Okay, so I know I'm a little behind in blogging, but have been busy with getting back to school, putting Christmas decorations away and getting on track for the new year. Also, I have so much to blog about that has happened in the last couple of weeks that I have let myself get overwhelmed with thinking about blogging it all. I know, silly! Anyhow, I thought I'd go ahead and put up Christmas eve. We were invited to our friend's family festivities. It was so much fun and we were so grateful they let us join in. Maddie did really well at standing by and not jumping in to open up her friend's presents, as hard as it was for her not to have anything to open for herself. She was cute about getting excited for her best friend, Kayla though. Everytime Kayla would open something and hold it up, Maddie would sigh and clap and get so proud of Kayla. It was really sweet and made me feel good as her mommy seeing how mature she was taking it all. Then, Kayla and her brother, Brayden got one big present from their grandparents. And as they were opening it, Maddie got so excited and yelled, "It's a wagon!" Cracked me up!!! She was so happy for them to get a wagon. She looked at me and said, "we have a wagon too."
Maddie also LOVED Kayla's uncle Greg. He was really good at playing with the girls and keeping them entertained. Maddie kept calling him "uncle Fred" though, for some weird reason! The whole family thought that was pretty funny and have since adopted his new name...uncle fred...when referring to him.
Our friends and their family have a tradition of opening Christmas crackers too. They were kind enough to share with us. Each of them has a silly tissue paper crown, so you'll see us wearing them in the pictures below. Enjoy!

ICE

This year during this holiday season has been especially fun. Since Madeline is a little older and more aware of all the celebrations, my parents wanted to try something new this year. This outing was one on the agenda. Maybe next year we'll get to some of the others on the list. It's so fun trying new things!

We went to the ICE Exhibit at the Gaylord Texan this past weekend. What an experience! The Gaylord Texan is a hotel/conference center in Grapevine that is apparently made by the same people that made the Opryland Hotel in Tennessee. It's HUGE..and beautiful. There's a whole covered atrium area in the middle that is decorated to the hilt for Christmas. While we were making our way to the ICE Exhibit, we saw the man above walking through the crowd. It was funny to see the people stop and watch as he walked by.

The ICE Exhibit is in the Convention Center there and is a whole display made entirely of ice! They actually give you parkas to walk through it. It takes about 20 minutes to get through on a normal day, but seeing as we went the last Sunday before Christmas......to say the least, it was a tad crowded!!! We were told it was 4 degrees Farenheit in there!!! Maddie looked so cute in her little parka. She waddled around like a little penguin. So cute!

These are just some pics we got while going through the exhibit.




This was the largest angel I've ever seen!

And, to all our surprise, they had this as the last scene before you leave:

AMAZING!!!!
Merry CHRISTmas to all and to all a good night!!!

Details....

Okay, so this is what it looked like when we were walking through the Atlantis grounds on the way to the beach! Seriously, it was BEAUTIFUL!!! I have never been to a more beautiful and lush place. All Maddie talked about days leading up to our trip was going to the beach and building a sandcastle! She's never built one before and I honestly don't know where that idea came from, but she sure wouldn't leave it alone. So, early Friday morning, Marty and I got up with her to take her to the beach to build said sandcastle, while Isaac stayed sleeping in the room with Aunt Lauren. It was so nice to get to spend some one on one time with the little lady. Marty ran off to find us some towels, so these are the pics I got of Maddie playing in the sand/water. The water felt like ice water, so we only ran in briefly, but playing in the sand was fun. And we saw some parasailers (brave souls) and cruise ships way off in the distance. So pretty!





We got there on Thursday and that night, there was a welcome party for everyone who came for the wedding. Needless to say, we had a long day that day (getting up at 4:30am w/kids, flying, etc..), so the kiddos were out of sorts that night and were running around like banshees. They seemed to gravitate towards this very large glass dining table...nice! Got some pics of them playing under it and in the rest of the villa:





Friday, we went to the rehearsal and dinner on the sand at a restaurant called "The Poop Deck!" Nice, huh? But the food was great! They even brought chicken fingers and fries for Maddie. It was so neat and that's where we took our Christmas card picture. The theme was all white, so we looked like we were part of a cult or something, but it made for nice pics! Here's a few from that night:





The next day was wedding day! What a beautiful wedding it was! One snag though, the flower girl! Madeline missed her nap that day because we tried to squeeze in time at the beach in lieu of a nap....big mistake! Her hair was getting done at 2, and wedding was at 4! Yikes! She was close to falling asleep getting her hair done, as you'll see in the pics. Then, time came for getting pre-wedding pics done and she was melting down...seriously! We got a couple of cute ones of her, but hope the photographers got better ones.




Well, Marty and I went on to our seats at the ceremony and when it came time for Maddie to walk up, this is what it looked like:

The silly goose took one look at the crowd and got a scared face and started crying "Daddy" while still throwing flower petals out of her basket! Lovely! Then, Michael, the sweet groom, knelt down and called her to him, to which she ran into his arms. Gees louise! I am so sooooo sorry Megan and Michael! Guess that's what is bound to happen when a 3 year old skips their nap!!!
We had a great time at the reception. Madeline danced all night long and even got to eat chicken nuggets again, while the rest of us dined on a 5 course meal. It was the most delicious food....crab cakes, mango/passion fruit sorbet, swordfish steaks, chicken and wedding cake. Yum-O! I should've taken pics of it all, but was too hungry to think about picture taking. But take my word, it was lovely! I did take some pics of the evening though:






This is how Maddie fell asleep that night...watching Shrek on the computer w/her headphones on....

Can't forget about Isaac...he stayed with Aunt Lauren at the hotel while we went to the wedding. He was so well rested and playing so happy the next day, that we got a sweet pic of him playing in the luggage holder:

The next few are on the flight home. Madeline and Isaac took some long naps then she "read" a book to him. Sweet, proud mama moment! Also, Lauren and me being goofy!



What an amazing adventure to paradise we had! We've already talked about going back when the kids get older! Truly a recommended vacation spot for anyone....kids or not! Would do it again in a heartbeat! Thanks Megan and Michael for giving us a chance to get out of town and for allowing our little "angel" to be a part of your special day....we are so grateful!