Christmas!

We had a very fun, very busy, WHITE Christmas. This was the year that all my siblings and their families were here for Christmas. As an added bonus, we also had Roger's mother here, Virginia (or better known as Nana!).

Christmas Eve it started snowing. Fun for the kids, bad for Nana trying to fly in from Salt Lake. Roger left for the airport and braved the icy roads because by 10 p.m., it was finally clear enough for Nana's flight to come into DFW. She landed around midnight and made it to our house finally around 1:30 Christmas morning.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, I got the kids ready for bed. Alex and I got the cookies baked for Santa and placed on the kitchen table. Then he took off to bed and I waited for Santa to arrive.

Christmas Day was a busy day! We started off at home, opening our gifts, stockings and presents from Santa.


Addison really enjoyed opening her gifts! It was fun to see her tearing into all that wrapping paper!

Next we headed over to Grandma and Papa McNiel's house for Christmas with them. It was fun, and Alex got everything he'd been wanting...including his football helmet and football jersey.

From there, we headed to my Grandmother's house where we exchanged another round of gifts, ate our traditional Christmas lunch, and had our traditional white elephant gift exchange. For some reason, my pictures stopped about here. I don't know if it was just the sheer business of the day, or if I was just plain exhausted. Either way, we had a fun Christmas.

It's always special to share Christmas with my niece and nephew, Paige and Chandler, who we don't see very often. It was special to have Nana here with us this year too! The white elephant gift exchange was a riot. And we made memories that we'll laugh about and cherish for years to come. Now that it's over, it's on to celebrating a new year. But am I crazy because I already miss Christmas and I'm looking forward to Christmas 2010? What can I say, I love this time of year!

Snow Balls

Yes, you read that right. Snow balls. In Texas. It's hard to believe, but some things you just have to believe around this time of year. Alex hasn't been around snow that much in his life, so he lived it up while he could. Luckily, he had his cousin Chandler here to help teach him about snow and making snow balls.

Alex and his cousin Chandler. Chandler helped Alex make this snow ball. It think it's his first snow ball!

Alex running in with an itty, bitty snow ball in his hand. He put it in our freezer to save...for when, I'm not sure. Look how happy he is to be running in the snow!

Before all the snow fell, we gathered the snow that had collected off the fence. Little did we know that it would continue snowing for hours and we'd have plenty to gather for snow balls! It only snows once in a blue moon around these parts, so you have to enjoy it while you can! And we did!

A White Christmas...In Texas Ya'll!

This is a picture of my house on Christmas Eve, probably around 3 in the afternoon. Yes, that white stuff on my lawn is snow! Yes, snow! In Texas! On Christmas! I still find it hard to believe that we had a white Christmas. It started snowing after lunch on Christmas Eve, and it snowed the rest of the day and into the evening. I heard that it's been 80 years since it's snowed on Christmas in Texas. I think God blessed us with a white Christmas for my niece and nephew visiting from Delaware. I think He didn't want them missing out on a white Christmas. The only down side to getting snow on Christmas Eve was that Roger's mother was flying in from Salt Lake. So after several delays, she finally made it to Texas.. on Christmas morning if you want to get technical about it. But she made it. And we enjoyed the beautiful, peaceful, white snow.

Looking out our front door on Christmas morning.

Our back yard Christmas morning.

Cousins Again

I've blogged before about how much my sister and I enjoy dressing our daughters alike. And how we have to enjoy it while we can...before one or both of them puts a stop to it. So we were at it again with their Christmas dresses. And Grandma is even getting into the spirit of like dressing...she bought these cute Christmas dresses for Addison and Caitlin. Too bad we couldn't get a single picture of either one of them smiling. But we laughed and had fun trying! They were pretty funny through the whole thing.

We even tried for a group shot. And this is what we got! So much for trying to capture the moment. All the kids were adorable in their church clothes, so at least we captured that much. Not to worry...we took some professional pictures again this year of the whole McNiel clan and I can't wait to post those. They turned out adorable!

Combo Birthday Party

Really, in my family, we'll take any excuse to get together and celebrate. And eat. This month, my sister and her family moved back from St. Kitts. And since we didn't have the opportunity to celebrate her and Caitlin's birthdays back in October, we decided to do it a couple weeks ago. It was really fun!

My sweet niece, Caitlin, one year old.

Tamara and Caitlin blowing out their candles.

Caitlin opening up a gift.

Tamara with her gift from me: a paddle brush. I have this paddle brush that I've had for years and years. Tamara has always loved it, so I bought her one finally. It made me laugh that she immediately started brushing her hair. It reminded me of Ariel in the Little Mermaid with her fork that she thought was a brush. How she beamed as she brushed her hair with that fork! I think Tamara beamed as well! Most of all, I love that a simple gift such as a hair brush will make her laugh out loud with delight! So fun! Happy first birthday Caitlin and Happy #$!*#$ Birthday Tamara!

Kicking Off The Holiday Break

Sometimes I forget how much fun we've had this month until I start going back through all my pictures on my camera. Our holiday break officially kicked off, or skated off, with a Stars game with the family. We really had a fun time with Grandma, Grandpa, Cadence, Tamara and Caitlin at the game. Alex loves going to stars game, and I think the addition of his cousin, Cadence, made it even better!

Cadence and Alex...Alex picked up the foamy number one at the gift shop...thanks to Grandma.

Tamara and sweet Caitlin.

My parents and Addison. She's there cuddled in my mom's lap. So much fun!

Santa Picture

We took the kids last week to get their annual picture with Santa. It went about as I expected. The picture speaks for itself. We couldn't help but laugh! And this was the best one. The shots got progressively worse. Oh well. Better luck next year! Merry Christmas!

Naughty or Nice?

Wow, I can't believe it's December 14th already! Not surprisingly, the month is flying by! Only about a week and a half until Christmas. Which leads me to wonder, is my little 18-month old naughty or nice?

Based on this picture, the answer would be: NAUGHTY! While I wasn't looking, Addison got a hold of my cinnamon colored lip liner and attempted to apply it. Her other favorite activities right now include coloring on the walls, pushing chairs up to the counter to snack on our gingerbread house, tossing cups of water that she can reach on the kitchen table, or the ever popular sport of eating ornaments off my Christmas tree. The reality is though she is just your typical 18-month old. She's keeping me on my toes (and reminding my daily that she can NOT be left unattended...not even for a bathroom break!) But really, how can you not love a face like that? Well, I can't! And I know Santa will be forgiving and keep her on his nice list.

Feast

Why am I not sleeping...I really don't know! I just downloaded a ton of pictures off my digital camera, and guess I felt the need to blog. I really wish I was more timely in my blogging, so I could better capture my memories. I think that will be a resolution for 2010! In the meantime, Alex had his annual Feast at his preschool last week. In thinking about his feast, I realized that this is his third Feast at St. John. Wow! Third, and last. Sad! What makes this feast special is that as 4-year olds or Pre-K, they have their feast at the back of the old sanctuary, instead of in the classroom. So all the classes ate together at big long tables. It was very nice to not be squished in the classroom...all the parents and all the children squeezed around a table designed for little kids: not so comfy! I love feast because they make all the cute Thanksgiving crafts...hats, clothes, placemats, macaroni necklaces, treats. Love it all! And it's the one day during the year that we get to eat with Alex at school. So fun. Also, we sat with his teacher, Ms. Sarah, so that was a treat as well.

When we arrived at the school, Alex was all dressed up and waiting patiently for us.

Alex and Roger as we waited for our turn to get some food.

Addison and I as we waited to eat.

Alex and his teacher, Ms. Sarah. He really loves his teacher this year. They seem to get along really well, and Ms. Sarah tells me how sweet Alex is at school. So thankful that he is sweet at school!

Thanks for Thanksgiving

Wow, I can't believe Thanksgiving is over! We had a really nice, small Thanksgiving celebration this year. I spent the morning cooking, and then we met my parents at my Grandmother's house. We ate a late lunch, enjoyed the Cowboys game and ate some more. I love that at Thanksgiving, and for the whole month of November, Alex and I have been talking about what we are thankful for...each other, our home, Grandma, Papa, Nana, school, the park, and of course, Daddy. And here's a few reasons why:

Naps with Daddy

Playing bubbles with Daddy

Having Daddy at special days at school, like Alex's Feast

And even getting to celebrate a holiday with Daddy every once in a while!

Now that Thanksgiving is officially over, bring on Christmas! December is already shaping up to be a crazy, fun month. We have my sister moving back from St. Kitts, my brother and his kids coming in for Christmas, and Nana visiting for Christmas too! Can't wait!

Ode To Adam

Roger is a huge fan of the television show, Man v Food. In case you're not familiar with it, the show is on the travel channel and the host is Adam Richman. Adam travels around to different cities to eat crazy, wild food...a lot of the time it involves crazy, spicy foods! Anyways, it's pretty entertaining and Roger enjoys watching it. Adam did a show featuring San Antonio and Austin. So, thanks to Adam, we hit some pretty fun restaurants on our little family trip down to San Antonio.

Our first stop was the Salt Lick in Austin. It was a bar-b-cue restaurant and it was FABULOUS! Oh, so good! We really enjoyed it. Thanks Adam!

On our way out of Austin, we hit Round Rock Donuts. And honestly, I haven't met a donut that I didn't like. They were yummy! The best part of that was watching Addison put away some donut holes! Wow!

Our next dining adventure, thanks again to Adam, was Big Lou's Pizza. Big Lou's is famous for HUGE pizzas. Check out these pizzas!

Our wasn't that big! But it was delicious! We went to another place on the way out of San Antonio, but we had already eaten breakfast, so we didn't go in. All in all, we had a really fun time being together as a family. We haven't ever done any vacations like this before. Hopefully next year we can do something again and for longer than just a few days. And seriously, we are going to Sea World one of these days. Sea World or Bust! Maybe in the spring.

Pumpkin Patch

Before Roger left for Alabama for three weeks for the military, we decided to take a little trip as a family down to San Antonio with the intent to visit Sea World. Well, that didn't quite work out. So we made a plan B, thanks to Jill, to visit Medina, Texas, home of the Lovecreek Orchard and Pumpkin Patch. Can I just say how beautiful this little drive was and how much fun this pumpkin patch was! We just had such a great time! Below are a bunch of pictures. Again, sometimes it's not the destination in life, but the journey. So while we didn't get to visit Sea World (yet!), we enjoyed a few days together as a family with nothing to do, but have fun together. It was great!