Christmas 2015

It's here!  It's here!  Christmas Day is finally here!  And Santa definitely came to our house!!

Um....how did he fit all this in his sleigh??

Cassidy was super excited about the new boots Santa left her!

Stetson was just a tad excited about his new XBox One!

Santa also left Cassidy a pogo stick...

An electric scooter and a tumbling mat!  She must have been good this year!

Stetson also received two Chiefs jerseys and air soft guns!

It must be a boot year because Daddy got a new pair of boots too.

I received the coat that I've been eyeing for some time now.  Thanks, Santa!!

Like every Christmas morning, Gramps came over to celebrate with us.

What a disaster!  It's all so fun, though!

The last gift was one that Santa had hidden in the media room.  A ping pong table for all of us!

I foresee many hours of family fun ahead of us!

Just because I think this is funny, I had to share.  Stetson got a helmet to wear when he uses his air soft guns and decided to jump on the trampoline while wearing it.  Makes perfect sense, right?!

We had an incredible Christmas at our house this year.  We wish each of you a very Merry Christmas and many blessings in the new year.

Christmas Eve

Once we are done with our outside activities, we have a few inside before we go to bed on Christmas Eve.  Most importantly, we have to know where Santa is!  The kids always track his progress.

We MUST put out our milk and cookies for Santa as well as a few goodies for Rudolph and his buddies.

Sadly, we have to say goodbye to Pickles (our scout elf) on Christmas Eve too.

Right before we tuck the kids in bed, though, we read 'The Night Before Christmas'.

"Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!"

Traditions with the Faulkners

We truly enjoy the Christmas traditions we created with the Faulkners a few years ago.  I hope the kids will allow us to keep doing this even when they think they're too big for it.

We always start by eating dinner together then decorating cookies for Santa and making reindeer food.  It's hard to believe we can actually get six kids to sit still now!

Cassidy REALLY enjoyed decorating her cookies this year.

Stetson enjoyed eating cookies more than decorating them.

On Christmas Eve, right before we go to bed, we always meet the Faulkners outside for our other two Christmas traditions...lanterns and reindeer food.  Our Christmas lantern was beautiful again this year and I hope our Christmas wish comes true!

The kids spread the reindeer food in the street between our houses to make sure Santa's sleigh stops.

Now we have to go to bed and wait for Santa's arrival!  Thank you, Faulkners, for another special Christmas Eve!

Star Wars

With so much excitement about Christmas, we decided to let Stetson and Cassidy open one gift early this year.  The only rule...we picked which one.

Here they go!

A shirt?  Really?!  Matching shirts??

But wait...they are Star Wars shirts.  That means they are wearing them when we take them to see the new Star Wars movie RIGHT NOW!

They finally calmed down enough to get dressed and let me take a picture.

How cute are they?!

The movie was incredible and we had so much fun doing it together.  Early gifts can be fun!

Practice Makes Perfect

Our little gymnast is getting ready for her first season of competition!  Her gym decided to host a practice meet to help ease all the jitters.  That's a brilliant idea, especially for our first-timer!

Here she is getting ready for warm-up in her practice gear.  This is the leotard she wears for practice at the gym, as they are saving the competition leotards for the real deal.

Warming up!

And stretching...

Lots of stretching!

Her first event was uneven bars and Coach Tanner was right there for her.  She loves him!

And she's off!  She made a few mistakes but for a rookie she did awesome.  Score - 7.2

Next up...balance beam.

Great form, Diddy Bug!

Her dismount was perfect!  Again, a few mistakes but she still did great.  Score - 7.1

Next up is floor.

Doing her thing...

She improved her scores....8.5 on floor!

I couldn't get a picture of her final event, the vault, but she scored a 9.3!!

After the competition was over, each gymnast received a medal.  This is the only time this will happen as "participation awards" are not part of gymnastics.  She was thrilled, though.

Up the podium she goes!  We hope to see her here during the season too!

We are so proud of you, Cassidy!  Practice makes perfect so keep it up!  Stay tuned for more pictures later as her first competition is January 9-10!!

Christmas Magic

Every year we look forward to getting our Christmas decorations put up, especially the tree.  It is always a search to find the perfect tree, but somehow, we always seem to find one that is just right.  This year was no exception.

Another one of our traditions is to drink hot chocolate, eat marshmallows, and discuss how magical Christmas is before going to bed.  We all love this one!

The lights are so mesmerizing!

The presents are fun to look at too (or shake)!

We do lights on the outside of our house as well and love that you can see our tree when you drive by.

We need to add some green lights in the trees.

I love Christmas time!

We hope you enjoy this time of year as much as we do!  It really is magical!

Happy Birthday, Gramps

Thanks for coming over so we could celebrate 82 years with you.  We wish you nothing but the best in the upcoming year.  Here's to many, many more!  Happy Birthday!!!

WFL All-Stars

We are so proud that Stetson made the WFL All-Star team again this year.  There is nothing better than playing football just "for the fun of it".  

#11 and his neon green!

 No pressure...just fun!

This is a scene rarely viewed.  Stetson never gets to take a break during games.  As you can see, all the boys kept their helmets on so they could get right back out there.  In the meantime, why not goof off with the league doctor and a board member??

 Even though it was for fun, they won!!  What a way to end the season!

 Until next year football all-star # 11!!