Christmas, Birthday, and a New Year

I hope everyone has had a wonderful Christmas! We have really enjoyed our time with family and friends and have many great memories.

We woke up on Christmas morning and (after a quick picture) opened gifts. The kids were excited about the presents and even more excited when they actually got what they ask for...well kindof. Benjamin had asked for a real race car that he could drive faster that a police car. Should I be scared? ;) Regan got a Sleeping Beauty dress and Hannah Montana the Movie, Benjamin a UT jersey and some train track, Katherine a tea set and a talking elmo, Lauren a stuffed animal and some clothes. It was a very good and relaxing morning for all.

On Christmas day, we traveled to my dad's and spent several days there. One of the things we did was go ice skating. Katherine was not a fan and spent her more enjoyable time on the other side of the glass watching us on the ice.

We also celebrated Jonathan's 29th birthday. Katherine went with me to pick out what kind of cake to make....she thought it should have pink icing...she settled for the sprinkles instead.

Also, Lauren turned 9 months old. She is officially on the go and into everything. Now, we are back to packing. Happy New Year (a bit late)!

Wow! A busy week!

Wow! This has been a fun-filled, packed, busy week! In the past week, we have gone to Disney World with my brother and his family, Regan had her Christmas party at school, celebrated Christmas with Grandmommy, had Regan's 6th birthday party with her friends, got Benjamin's head "unstuck from the dresser drawer" (yes-he thought he could fit in then could not get out), Auntie Em took all the kids to the movies, and celebrated Regan's actual birthday. We have had a wonderful week as you will see. The picture above is my kids and my brother's kids at downtown Disney. I did see one person counting the kids when we were on a bus trying to figure out how many we had. I just let them guess. It was too funny to watch :)

At Downtown Disney, they had a Lego store. They had many things built out of Legos, like this Buzz Lightyear, and it was fascinating to see. I don't believe I have ever seen so many Legos. This was Jonathan's favorite store!

We had a GREAT time at Magic Kingdom. It was in the 80's in December and was wonderful. We actually had to get T-shirts for the kids while we were there. Regan had so much fun riding the big kid roller coasters. Katherine was not tall enough to ride Thunder Mountain (Regan's favorite), but she enjoyed watching the roller coasters go by from this picture spot.

The characters that the kids wanted to see were Tigger and Pooh and the princesses. We managed to find them all and get pictures with them.

We had to get the family picture in front of the castle. The kids (especially Lauren) were little troopers. We went from 7am until 11pm getting in as much of Disney as possible. Mission Accomplished.

At night, the castle was lit with lights and the color of the castle changed every few mintes. it was very pretty and hard to capture on film.

We also, celebrated Christmas with Grandmommy. All the kids enjoyed their gifts. Regan got a cool magnet set, Benjamin really loved his play dough kit, Katherine loved her school bus, and Lauren enjoys her mini band set.

As you can see, the theme for her party was princess.

Her gift from us was to get to go to Build a Bear Woorkshop to make her very own bear. She chose Frosty the Snowman, added the scarf and the song, and chose to buy and angel dress for her kitty (from the same store) at home. She had fun doing this and we had fun watching.

Her birthday party was at gymnastics. The kids were really cute.

Some of the favorites were the foam pit, and the super bouncy yellow trampoline.

Regan enjoyed the bars. It is always one of her favorites. And that has been our week so far. Stay tuned for more fun.....

Bowling Fun

Our week started out with our usually Tuesday routine...gymnastics. We have let Katherine take for a few months (thanks to some birthday money she received) She really enjoys her class.

Benjamin was very proud of himself for earning his quarter after his class. He wasn't corrected by his teacher for anything. This is also the last picture before his hair cut.

He decided that he wanted it all cut off. I really like how you can see all the many facial expressions now.

Regan and bes friend Kayla right before bowling.

Benjamin and best friend Nathan right before bowling. This was the one thing that Benjamin really wanted to do before we moved...go bowling with Nathan.

It was a very entertaing time. Just try to imagine 3 adults and 8 kids (the oldest being 5yrs) all bowling. At one time, we had a ball in the gutter to the right of us and a ball in between the lanes to the left of us. I have no idea how it happend since the kids had bumper lanes. Another time, Jonathan was flat on his belly trying to catch a kids starting to bowl on the wrong lane. He was successful, just not before his foot crossed the line and he slipped. It was a good thing that the ball was not moving very fast!

This was Lauren's chance to be the big kid. She loved holding baby Bryan. I'm not sure he felt the same enthusiasm.

And finally, this is Daniel and Katherine. They pretty much took charge of the balls. It's amazing that anyone else got a turn. No really. They did great and had a lot of fun!!

Next week will be visiting with my brother. So, look for some more great pictures soon!

Nashville to Knoxville

This week we traveled to Nashville for Regan's State Meet in gymnastics. As you can see above, she did great! She placed 2nd beam, 2nd floor, 2nd vault, 4th bars, and 3rd in all around. It was a late night because it was on central time and her little body is used to eastern time. She was sound asleep within 10 minutes of leaving the meet.

This was a picture from one of her awards. It was so funny to me because she was the tallest one in the group even standing on the 3rd block. The other girls kinda went up there casually, but Regan was all business. She is so competitive at everything she does. She picked a great sport for that! :)

Then on Sunday she had her very first solo in church. She did so good!!! Her friend Kayla brought her some flowers for singing in church. They are too cute together.

Lauren got to hang around for the solo as well. You can actually hear her in the video I took. Check it out below! That's all for this week

Thanksgiving Week

This has been a fantastic Thanksgiving week with friends and family. The week started with our family going out to eat at Wasabi's Japanese Steakhouse (also known as the "fire place" by my kids) We really enjoyed getting to meet up with some of my friends that I work with...see Marsha and Shannon below.

So this is the gang that I work with. We had a little party and thought a group shot would be nice. I have one more week to work there, then I will get to stay home with the kids again.

We went to Grandmommy's in South Carolina for Thanksgiving and had a relaxing and memorable time. We ate tons of ham, turkey, and all the goodies that go with them. We also had many adventures that you will see in a moment.

The kids like to play in the "bunk house" Regan had her cowboy hat on and was singing along to this little cheerleading doll that was so country. At the end of the song it said, "we are here to cheer fur you, yee haw, woo hoo" It was quite comical. Little Katherine even got in on the singing.

Lauren enjoyed trying her first Thanksgiving foods, which for her consisted of corn and toast... maybe next year :)

Benjamin said we ALWAYS got to the beach when we are at Grandmommy's house. Well, I thought it was a little cold for the beach, but they all seemed to be very satisfied making sand castles in the driveway.

I was a little sad when I realized that I was officially "old." I came to this realization when I stood there explaining to my daughter that when mommy was a little girl all phones had a cord and they were attached to the wall, therefore you had to stand in one place while you talked on the phone. She thought it was funny and I'm not sure she really believed me.

Lauren had to try out the Elmo chair. She seemd to fit in it quite nicely.

The kids enjoyed playing tea in the mornings. Benjamin like to use lots of "sugar" in his.

Ok. This just made me laugh. I'm not sure why she thought the microphone had to be in her ear to hear the music. She was concentrating so hard.

We went one night to see the lights at James Island Park. While we were there the kids roasted marshmellows on a stick. Mmmmm. Also, Benjamin asked to climbe the rock wall. He was just barely big enough. He LOVED it! I think he's hooked.

The kids also rode the carousel there. They each picked out there animal to ride, which suited each of them perfectly.

We also went to the SC Aquarium. It was a beautiful day and the kids enjoyed the fish.

I like the little frog sculpures outside and insisted on pictures by them.

This penguin liked swimming at the glass.

Jonathan carried Lauren through. I was a little surprised at how much she enjoyed the fish. It was fun to watch her.

I thought this was a pretty picture. Benjmain wanted to ride the boat.

OOOooo fish.

I didn't put this in the right spot, but thought it was pretty cool. What a great "sand castle"

So, I hope you were able to catch a glimpse of our busy week. We really have so much to be grateful for.