Pirates Basketball

Well, I got a new camera for Christmas so I decided to test it out at Stetson's basketball game.  I absolutely love my camera, but I love watching my boy play sports too.  Now I have the best of both worlds!

I love all the action shots I can get now.

Go # 11!

I can even capture how he sticks his tongue out when he's concentrating.  :)

He's about to shoot!

I also got a picture of him taking a break and watching his teammates.

The Pirates win again!  I think I'm going to really like my camera when it comes to sporting events.

Merry Christmas!

He came!  He came!  Santa Claus came to our house!  We were up at 6am checking out our loot!

And a lot of loot it was!  We must have been really good this year!

Besides a Curious George doll, Cassidy really wanted some pink boots.  Santa delivered both!

Stetson received a gold necklace and a Nintendo DS.

Check out this super cute dress and headband Cassidy received from Aunt Rock and Uncle Dude!

Nonnie made Stetson this Yoda lovie.  She also made an Elsa one for Cassidy and an afghan for J and I.  Her hands must be very tired!

Gramps always knows exactly what to get the kiddos...gifts they will cherish for many years to come.

Mom and Dad got the kids a trampoline!  I think it's safe to say that they were excited about it.

We hope you all had as wonderful a Christmas as we did.  Merry Christmas!

Christmas Eve

After all the waiting, Christmas Eve night is finally here!  

It felt like it would never arrive...just ask these two!

Mama Bear joined us in our festivities.

Last year we launched lanterns with the Faulkners before we all went to bed.  We enjoyed it so much, we decided to make this an annual tradition too!

There they go...

One for each of the kiddos!

Amy and Ryan

Reindeer food time!!

Cassidy spread hers out so all the reindeer could enjoy!

That's a lot of reindeer food!  I have no doubt they will stop at our houses.

Mama Bear read "The Night Before Christmas" to the kids before they went to bed.

They had to check Santa's progress one last time, though!

And put out Santa's cookies and milk!

They also told Pickles goodbye since he was going to fly home with Santa.

Merry Christmas from our house to yours!

Now to bed in hopes that Santa will visit and leave lots of goodies!

Annual Tradition

We love our annual tradition of decorating cookies and making reindeer food with the Faulkners!  It is always so fun to get all the kids together and feel their excitement.  I hope to do this for years to come.

Maybe next year we'll have little Ryan at the table too!

The Dads have fun too!

 You have to test Santa's cookies, right?

Ryan wasn't at the big table but she got cookies and icing too!!

These two love the Faulkners dancing Santa bear!

I think Taylor enjoyed the icing just as much as decorating the cookies.

After cookies, it was time to make reindeer food.

Cassidy is ready for tonight!

Jordan and Stetson kept checking on Santa's progress as well on the Santa tracker.

Love these kiddos!!

And these adults!

Thanks again for having us over for another round of fun!

Christmas Cookies

We love our annual cookie baking!  Now that the kids are getting a little older, they are practically doing it by themselves.  Each year gets more fun to do this with them.

We made Spritz cookies first, which was Stetson's choice.

A couple years ago, there would never be a picture of them by the mixer without me!

After the dough was made, it was time to press the cookies and decorate!

I have the best little decorators too!

The more sprinkles the better, right?

Looking good!

We made lots and lots of cookies!  After the Spritz, we made sugar cookies using the cookie cutters. That is always fun and we are going to decorate them with the Faulkners tomorrow!  We can't wait for all the festivities to begin!

Christmas Tea

Cassidy and I were invited to a Ladies Christmas Tea with our neighbors.  Cassidy has really been looking forward to this and I'm so glad I was able to take off work and join her.  I love our special girl time.

Here we are dressed in our "pretty clothes" for tea...

At the tea, the girls started by playing lots of little games.  In this game, they had to partner with someone and try to throw marshmallows into a cup.

Then they had to pick up the marshmallows with a straw and place them in the cup.  No hands allowed!

They ended the games by playing Charades with a Christmas theme.

Once the games were done, it was time for the food and drink!  The girls drank punch in real punch glasses and ate finger sandwiches.

Then, they decorated cookies and cupcakes for dessert.

Cassidy made some beautiful creations.

We had such a great time!  I just love my little lady.