I Interrupt...

...this unbearable string of horrible, dark, inside pictures...FOR SOME COLOR!!

I took the girls' pictures today separately, and I have to say...I might never take their pictures together again!!  Let me show you why...

Here's Wesleigh in her own photo shoot: And here's Gracie:

Adorable, right? Well...here's what happens when you put the two together:

Seriously?? I took a series of them together and they are all just as bad as this one! It's like they totally forget how to take a picture!!

I also thought I'd show you that I finally did get a good indoor shot during the holidays:



That's just great. One good indoor shot. And it's my dog. I love my dog...but Geez!!

The good news...I have another shot tomorrow night :)

Christmas Day

How about this crew?  They're looking a little rough!



These 2, on the other hand, were ready to go!!  That squeal you heard about 7:30 Christmas morning?  Yep...that was Gracie!!


I love this shirt. If you've been reading for a while, you know that Cade's nickname has been "the beast" since he played tball. I thought this was perfect!!

These were my favorite gifts for the boys. I had these posters made for each one of them from Snapfish. I was stunned at how beautiful they were! They took a matter of minutes to make online. I ordered them already framed and they are perfect! The boys seemed to like them too.

Of course, Cade's was his football season. I just have to give a quick shout-out to our Saints superstar Drew Brees who just broke the record of passing yardage in a season!! I told Cade I wanted him to be sure to watch him do it because in a few years, he would be breaking Brees' record :) I wanted him to be able to say that he watched when Drew broke it!! lol...
Hey...a Mama can dream, can't she???

I love Braden's with that big picture of him catching...kind of makes me ready for baseball :)



And Bryce's with some of his Sea Cadet highlights of the year.

Of course, the stars of the show were these two little princesses. They were so funny! We had a princess explosion over here.  I have the glitter to prove it!!


Bryce got this back scratcher from my parents' stocking. He went around driving everyone crazy with that thing! Here he is playing with Wesleigh. I love the look on his face.

I intentionally didn't crop the "aftermath" from this picture (and this is after we cleaned up). My floor was (and is again) coated with glitter from all the princess garb. It looked like a fairy blew up in my keeping room!!

The girls got these training chop sticks in their stockings. Wesleigh used them to eat her breakfast.   She might not look like it...but this girl can eat!!

The highlight was the trampoline! Cade was the one who asked for it, but it is a favorite of everyone. Even though it was drizzly all day, it didn't keep them inside.

Just being silly with my "little" boy!!

Richard's dad and brother made an appearance.

Then Richard's mom and dad (yep...2 dads :) came. I must have been tired of taking pics at this point because there aren't many :(

And we're not done yet!  My family is coming on Friday to do Christmas.  It's the holiday that lasts forever :)

Christmas Eve

This holiday has been so bazarre. With Gracie and I being out of town, things just haven't been quite right. It got here before I was ready for it. On the other hand, it is lasting forever!! We started with our Christmas service on Friday night, then Christmas Eve, then Christmas. Now we wait until Friday to do Christmas with my family. My brother and his family will be here from Colorado so we can't wait to see them. Usually, I would have Christmas packed away by now, but we have alot of Christmas left!

A quick pic of all my kiddos before church.

Can you believe, this is the first picture of the 7 of us since the airport!!

We went to my parents for our traditional seafood gumbo dinner. Turns out...Gracie LOVES gumbo!! Both my girls seem to love South Louisiana cooking. I think they were both born to be cajuns!! :)

My parents

I took about 10 pictures of this group. In every single one, Gracie was making some crazy face. I just picked the one that everyone else looked the best :)

The kids got to open their stockings from my parents.

It's cute how much they love stockings. (Even the big ones!)

This was our elf, Ethan's, final spot before he headed back to the North Pole for good. We only had a week with Ethan this year. Next year, he will get to see much more :)

I love this Christmas card wreath.
 

We read a few stories, put out cookies for Santa and headed to bed.



Wesleigh kept saying, "I just so es-sited"!  Gracie had no idea what was about to happen, but she's always happy to be part of something "essiting"  :)

Merry Christmas!!

Wishing you all a Very Merry Christmas!!

Merry Christmas Eve

We've been busy having fun around here.  The girls had their party at school and I finally got some presents wrapped under the tree.  Not all of them...but it's a start.  Our elf, Ethan, has been making the rounds around the house.  He hasn't been naughty this year, but I have big plans for next year! 









A mom passed these Rudolph noses out to play a game.  Wesleigh immediately stuck it on her nose.  So funny!


I baked cookies with the girls yesterday.  We cheated and did slice and bake and used a Christmas baking sheet instead of using the cookie cutters.  I just didn't have it in me.  They had an absolute blast!  We started mixing the cookies and after just the flour was in the bowl, they were having such a good time playing around with that flour that I just started snapping pictures.  They got it everywhere and thought they were big stuff.  My mom showed up at just the right time to get in on the action.  After they played for a while, I just dumped what was left of that flour and we started over.  I will definitely use that trick again!!



Can you see how hard Wesleigh is laughing. They were having a blast!



This might be my favorite picture of the day.  Wesleigh is just cracking up over how messy the flour is.  So funny!!


We will go to my parents' tonight and have our traditional seafood gumbo!  Yum!! 

Hope you're all having a great Christmas Eve.