Merry Christmas!

We had a wonderful Christmas this year. What a blessing to be able to share the holidays with family and friends! We are so thankful for a happy and healthy family, and feel that we have many, many blessings to celebrate. These are some pictures of Christmas morning. Quinn got just about everything on her list: a lion cub, a baby alive (or "real live baby" as she calls it), a fur real parrot, pajamas, Hello Kitty goodies, a beautiful musical sugar plum fairy doll, a swim with me puppy, a vet set (to take care of all of her animals, of course!), clothes, shoes, etc. Brad and I were pleasantly surprised that she was truly thankful for all of her gifts, and said, "THANK you Mama and Daddy!" or "Thank you Santa!" after opening each one. We spend a lot of time and energy trying to teach her to be thankful for all of her gifts and blessings, so we were proud that it seems to be working. This is a hard lesson to teach a three year-old, but we will keep it up because we believe gratitude is one of the MOST important character traits. Tyndale got some pacifiers, loveys, and toys. He even stayed awake for our delicious Christmas dinner and gift-giving at Gimmie and Big Daddy's house. Their house looked beautiful and he enjoyed the sights and sounds as much as we did!

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Christmas Eve

Here are some pictures of our Christmas Eve festivities. We had a wonderful meal at the Simms' house, and lots of fun Christmas activites. The kids made cookies for Santa, and reindeer food to sprinkle on the lawn.

Tyndale enjoyed watching football with the boys!

Eve of the Eve

I normally just post about kid activities, but we had the Eve of the Eve party at our house this year, and the pictures were so funny I HAD to post them! We had a tacky Christmas sweater contest this year...and as you can see, we found some really bad ones! I think Michael was the unofficial winner (it is hard to beat a women's vest over an ornament turtleneck!) but the competition was stiff: Holly's Christmas dress with the Martha Washington collar... Dorothy was in stirrup pants!! Fun, fun! Brad cooked some delicious gumbo, and we all had a rare night out sans children!

Simms visit

We had a great time getting ready for Christmas with the Simms! We went on a Christmas light tour, ate at Dairy Queen, and played on the playground. What more can we ask for? We always have fun visiting with our cousins!

Ballet Recital

Here are the pictures from Quinn's first ballet recital....or should I say Quinn and BunBun's recital? She was just a bit frozen from the whole stage experience, but we were so proud of her!! As you can see in the pictures, she mainly just stood in the same place. All of the girls just freestyled it, and they were darling to watch! So funny! Brad's cousin, Sarah Boerner, gave her this precious outfit.

Quinn's Christmas Program

Our little sheep did a fabulous job in the Christmas program at school! She practiced singing the songs over and over (and over and over...) until they were perfect! And by perfect, did you know that " Door we now our gay a-pebble" are the correct words? :) Her entire class were sheep, and the angel in the picture is her friend Ellie from the K4 class.

Quinn's Christmas Party

Quinn had a great time at her Christmas party this week! Here are a few pictures of them opening presents and eating. Quinn got a makeup set with lip glosses and nail polish, and she was so excited. She had even asked Santa for one! We sang Happy Birthday to Jesus, and then all the kids in her class continued to eat ONLY the icing off of the cake! Needless to say, they all had a major sugar rush, which made rehearsal for the ballet recital that afternoon very interesting. Half of her ballet class is in her school class, so they were WILD!

New Cousin!! James Redding Belk

Welcome to our new cousin, James Redding! He was born in Jackson yesterday, and he is healthy and beautiful! Here are some pictures of the excited big sister, Violet, and the cousins, Quinn and Tyndale. One of my very best friends in the world, Dr. Mary Adams Woodring delivered James Redding, and she and Betsy and Nic together made a great team! Welcome to the world, James...we can't wait to grow up with you!

snow!

We awoke to a surprise this morning....two inches of snow on the ground! Quinn slept in, and I finally woke her up at 8:30 because I couldn't stand it anymore! She was so excited, and we quickly got dressed in warm clothes and went outside to play. We played until her little fingers felt like icicles, then we came in and she got in a warm bath. It continued to snow all morning, and we had about 5 inches by the time it stopped snowing.

The Nutcracker

Kristy, Hadley, Quinn and I went to see the Nutcracker this weekend. The girls loved it! The costumes were darling, and Quinn didn't take her eyes off the stage for the entire first act! They were both so excited to see all the characters and the dancing. Quinn's favorite character was Clara...we even got to meet her! During the intermission, we had cookies, and the first picture was after the sugar rush hit.

making ornaments

Quinn painted some ornaments this weekend for our collection. She chose a reindeer to paint herself, and Mrs. Anna painted her hand to put on a large ball ornament. They were darling!

first real SMILE!

Here it is.....

Tyndale's first real smile! Of course he was smiling at something goofy Brad was doing...the first of many smiles at goofy daddy (before the eye-rolling and "daaaaaad" starts).

Welcome Clydesdales!

The Budweiser Clydesdales are in town for the Christmas parade tonight, and we went to see them yesterday. They have QUITE the set-up, awnings with their names, a souped-up 18 wheeler (actually 3) that they travel in, and food for days! A sign near the stables said they eat around 40 pounds of hay and 30 gallons of water PER DAY! And that is pretty much what they did the whole time we were there...eat. We have visited them many times at their home at Grant's Farm in St. Louis, we were so excited that they were coming to visit Brookhaven!

Milk and Cookies with Santa

Tonight was our third annual Milk and Cookies with Santa. We had such a great time! Quinn got to talk with Santa and tell him her Christmas list: a lion cub, a parrot "that squawks," and a baby doll. She also wrote a list and put it in a big mailbox, just in case he forgot. Then we made some reindeer food and won a stuffed animal seal in the toy walk. She had tons of fun playing in the "snow" with Sara Rodgers and Olivia. And of course there was the milk and cookies!

Giving Thanks

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner at Gimmie and Big Daddy's house! The food was delicious, and Quinn and Violet were very entertaining, putting on a puppet show and dancing. We feel so blessed in many ways, and we try to remember to be thankful EVERY day, but this holiday is still a very special time for us to give thanks.