You Light Up My Life

My niece Jessi is visiting from Missouri for the next few days.  I can't tell you how excited this makes my kiddos.  We wanted to show our J-bird a good time tonight, so we went to look at Christmas lights and out for Mexican food.  The first place that we drove by was here in our little town.  There is  pipe company that always has a wonderful display.

Our next stop was a Bible College in a neighboring town of Tulsa.  It has a beautiful walk through display.  All 5 kiddos were so excited!


Ready for Christmas Lights!

And here's our little family of 6.

Our Little Family of 6 - the best picture of us so far this season. =)

Over the last couple of years, the Bible college has replaced most of it's display with LED lights.  They are so pretty!  There is Christmas music playing.  The cool air is filled with the smell of popcorn and cotton candy.  It's a popular site for helicopter tours so you can see them flying overhead often.  It's just such a fun place to be.  You cannot walk through without a big smile on your face.

We loved the pretty trees.

Jessi & Payton

Addi loved the purple tree best.

We loved the reflections from the water.

Standing in front of the American Flag.

Everyone loves the bridge the best!  It lights up to the music.

Silly Girls

This is Karsyn's unhappy look.  She didn't want her picture made.

I had to remind Karsyn not to touch the lights more than once.

Payton loved it when the lights danced to Ring Christmas Bells.

The Gingerbread House

The Nativity



Evan got photo bombed by Jessi



Pretty girls

My silly kids

After we looked at the lights, we took break to eat yummy Mexican food for dinner.  Jason always shakes his head at me when I try to be frugal for meals out, but tonight he was shocked when the ticket for all 7 of us was only $26. =)



After dinner, we searched high and low for  house that's got lot of buzz on Facebook.  It has a light display to the song What Does the Fox Say?  The kids really wanted to see it, but we couldn't find it. Boo!  We decided to call it a night and took Evan, Payton, and Jessi to Nana's house for a sleep over.

Hope you all had a great day after Christmas too!

Christmas Day {2013)

Christmas morning, I woke up at around 5:30 a.m. and was ready to open presents.  Jason and I thought about waking the kids up, but we decided that we'd let them sleep a little later.  After 6, the kids were all awake.  Addi was so excited that Santa ate his cookies.  She brought the plate to our room and had a huge smile on her face as she told us what happened.  I tried to get one more picture of the kiddos in front of the tree.  It went about as well as it did on Christmas Eve.

Christmas Morning - Karsyn had insisted on wearing her Santa sweatshirt to bed. =)

Then, it was time to get busy opening presents.  We started with stockings.  Addi thought Payton had hers and wouldn't open her own.

Karsyn LOVED her Goofy doll!

Once Addi saw all of the goodies that everyone else got, she decided to see what was inside of hers.

Addi

Payton and Addi handed out the presents that they got for everyone next.  I love getting homemade Christmas decorations.

Addi made this at preschool.

The next gift we gave the kids were books about the Nativity.  We never want the kids to forget the true meaning of the Christmas season.

Then, we had a lot of fun opening the rest of our gifts.  My favorite presents to buy were these cute outfits for Karsyn and Addi.  My friend Sherry recommended the Lolly Wolly Doodle website for super cute clothes.  I follow the company on Facebook where they often advertise specials.  I got these cute outfits on a Black Friday special.  I can't wait to look for the girls' Easter dresses!

Santa brought Evan, Payton, and Addi tablets for their big gifts this year.  They were all super excited!

Karsyn's big gift from Santa was a kitchen set.  She was soooooo excited!!!

Karsyn's Kitchen

The kids really loved all of their presents!  Daddy got busy building Addi's playhouse right after breakfast.  His little ladies loved helping him!  Evan was much too busy playing a new DSi game.  This little playhouse took a lot longer to put together than expected.


Daddy and his helpers

We got ready and it was time to go to Jason's Uncle David's house.  I tried one last time to get a picture of my children in front of our Christmas tree. Here are the best 3.  You decide which one you like the most.

Picture 1

Picture 2

Picture 3



We got to Uncle David's house and played a few games that Grandma came up with.  The kids really enjoyed it.

Papa & Karsyn

Payton & Evan

Addi

We enjoyed a very yummy meal and then opened some more gifts.  We really had a great Christmas and the fun is not over yet. We still have some more Christmas celebrating with our family planned for this weekend. 

I hope that you all had a Merry Christmas!

Twas the Night Before Christmas {2013}

Our little family had big plans on Christmas Eve to go to our church's Christmas Eve Candle Light Service.  Unfortunately, Daddy got off work a little late and we weren't able to make it.  I still got a few pictures of the kiddos all dressed up.  I just couldn't let matching sister dresses go to waste. =)

Evan

Payton

Addi



Karsyn

And yes, I took a selfie.  Sometimes, that's the only way to have a picture of myself.


Me

Then, I tried very hard to take a picture of all 4 of my children together.  I got a great one, but it was blurry!

Evan, Karsyn, Addisyn, & Payton

Things just went downhill from there.


Not in the picture taking mood.

Raise your hand if you want Mommy to stop taking your picture.

A & K look like they were conspiring.  P was done.  Evan was laughing at his crazy sisters.

And it all ended with a fight scene.  Sheesh!!!!

After taking our oh so lovely Christmas pictures, we went over to Nana and Papa's house for Christmas Eve Dinner.  Like a crazy woman, I asked Nana to take a picture of our little family.  After trying so hard just to get a shot of the kids, I have no idea what I was thinking.  So yeah, about those pictures, they won't be making it to the blog.  =)

I've heard that roast beef is a traditional Christmas meal in New England.  I thought that sounded so good, so I made one for our dinner.  Nana and I just made a few of our favorite side dishes to go along with it. It was a very yummy meal!

Everyone really enjoyed their meal!

Our crew



Addi thinks it's so funny when she does her crazy eyes.

Nana & Payton

Karsyn

After we ate, we sang a little Christmas karaoke.  Papa and Addi ended every number with jazz hands.


Addi & Papa

Then it was present time!!! The kids all got metal detectors.  Nana and Papa thought it would be fun for us to go treasure hunting when we go to to the beach this summer.  The kids are super excited about looking for things.

Pay

Evan - btw, my parents don't usually have a book shelf with a toaster oven in their living room.  They are giving it away.

Addi

Karsyn

We left Nana and Papa's house and went on a drive to look at Christmas lights.  We drove by our favorite walk through place, but decided that we wanted to wait to take Jessi with us.  Nana and Papa are going to go pick her up tomorrow. When we got home, we set cookies out for Santa and then sprinkled reindeer food out in our front yard.


We made cookies for Santa earlier in the day.

Reindeer food time!

The kiddos all got snuggled into bed and waited for jolly old St. Nick to arrive!