Christmas 2016

Yes, It's over a month past Christmas, and I still haven't gone through all of our Christmas pictures!  Between all the December birthdays and our anniversary, it just slipped my mind.  I started planning for Jacks' party next week and remembered I needed to post them!  Not going to take the time to sort and edit them, just putting them all in so they're here for family viewing!  Of course, my favorite is our prank (near the end) where we put cleaning supplies in the Sams' box that they were sure was an XBox.  Which, they did actually receive in the end.  What a fun Christmas!

Family Photos 2016

Every fall I face the task of picking out coordinating clothes for our annual pictures--and it seems to get harder every year!  Granted, we didn't add any family members this past year, but it's still super difficult to coordinate clothes for 7 people- I don't know how larger families do it!

I went to Old Navy, and thankfully found clothes that would all coordinate together, though it did take me almost two hours to find everything!  It might be tempting to skip a year of pictures, because I might not think the kids have grown *that* much in one year, but after comparing last years' pics to this year, they really have!!  It's really important to us to remember these precious years, so I don't ever want to skip having them taken yearly!

Our dear friend, Amanda McQuade, took our photos this year, and I was blown away by what she was able to capture!

I'm going to post my favorites here below, but for family members who want to see *ALL* of the photos, here's the link to my shutterfly album where I uploaded them all.  :)    pix.sfly.com/fYOKi6GV

Christmas 2015

We had a very blessed Christmas yesterday.  Commentary is self-explanatory for most of the pictures, so I'm just unloading all the pictures in this post.  My camera completely died half way through the day, and won't turn back on, so I only have pictures from the morning at our house, and none from his parents with family.  Jon thinks it's the motherboard...again...same thing happened to my previous phone back in August (same exact model...hmmm).

Either way, glad all my pictures are synced on Google photos and I can access them on the computer.  I love Christmas memories and looking back to see how much the kids grow each year.

 Sleepy head

 This year, the kids drew names and bought for that person to stuff their stocking.  Brilee drew Sean's name.

 I missed her giving it to him, so I had them recreate the moment ;)

 Lilly drew Jack's name

 Jack drew Brilee's name,,.but was too preoccupied with the contents of his stocking, so Sean gave it to her.  

 Didn't get a shot of Sean giving Lilly hers, but I thought it was neat that the boys drew both the girls name and vice versa.  Since Luke was so little, mommy and daddy stuffed his.

 The conundrum of whether to delete the blurry pics, but he was so excited that I decided to keep the moment for memory's sake.

 Brilee was squealing with glee.  When Jack had opened his scooter, she was sad and said, "But I  was the one who really asked for one!"  So she was happy to have hers as well.  Pink, of course.

 The year for scooters.  Red for Lilly- her favorite color

 And blue for Sean.  Now we can all go to Waxhaw's new skate park to ride them together!

 Luke really had to be coaxed to open his present.  He just wanted to roam around playing with everyone else's gifts.

 The ripping of paper finally got him interested.

 Mmmm- Cinnamon roll french toast casserole.  Easy and delicious--or so the kids say.  I didn't eat any since gluten and sugar makes me feel terrible with my thyroid issues.

 Finally new PJ's for Sean--he has grown so much this past year all of his are way too small.  He's grown into size 10-12 clothes even though he's only turning 9 this coming week.

 Getting into mischief, as always...later in the day I caught him on top of the side table.  Then the box was finally moved ;)

 New sippy cups- yay!  And these are so cool!  They have no spout, but he drinks from any side 360 degrees and the valve allows him the drink to flow through.  It's supposed to be spill proof, but he's already proven that if he throws it hard enough from his high chair, it will splatter out a bit.

 Best moment of the morning- they hugged each other as they realized they had received Mario Cart.  They've only been asking for it a couple of years, lol

I'm still super bummed I didn't get any pictures from Nana and Papaw's house.  I thought I was able to get some in between when my phone kept powering on and off, but Jon says it must not have been powered on long enough to do the back up to storage :(  Will have to pawn some shots from others who were there!

Next up--Sean's birthday on December 29th and our FIFTEENTH wedding anniversary on January 6th!

Ahh-- I almost forgot to include pictures from Christmas Eve...there was a service at church that evening, but I stayed home with the little boys who were still coughing and full of runny noses.  Jon had to be there early for practice to fill in the sound booth again, so they left around 2:45.  So, I actually got a chance to wrap some last minute gifts while they were away ;)

 It was a beautiful overcast, 72 degree day, so we had enjoyed a bike ride earlier in the morning and playing outside.  They were waiting on daddy to be ready so they just rocked on the porch a bit.

I also had spent the day making sausage balls and ham, while Jon made a cheesecake that turned out perfect!  Lightly browned on the top and no crack at all thanks to a water bath and it was sooo creamy!  The only dessert I had at all yesterday, and I still woke up with the stiff hands feeling I get from sugar and the gluten hangover feeling.  Ugh.  But, so worth it for one slice of heavenly cheesecake!