Christmas Eve

We had a great time opening family gifts tonight -- family gifts tonight, Santa tomorrow! We started by making a cute little gingerbread house.

What a sweet little house

Opening gifts isn't too interesting in still pictures, but here are a few quickies of the fun.

Let the fun begin!

One happy boy

Very serious work

And Nicole cracked me up with this set of gifts -- since the kids are so interested in exercising with me, she got each of us a headband, gave the kids some little free weights, and gave me a Get Fit Kids workout DVD that we can do together. So funny, we had to take a picture!

Readt to get fit!

Zoolight Safari

The Birmingham tradition of Zoolight Safari continued for us this year! The kids were beside themselves with excitement -- seriously out of their mind! We had a great time getting ready to celebrate Christmas Day! ...Christmas pictures coming soon!

Getting ready for the fun!

Three little snow people

...and a couple of elves

Santa had a pretty fabulous chair!

Getting a little face flair

Layna, too!

What a pretty cheek

My Christmas sweeties

...brought to you by Chick-fil-A

Are you ready for Christmas??

Ready for the BIG day?? Here's my sermon from Sunday, one last look at getting ready to celebrate Christmas. Click here to read the lessons, then click here to listen to the sermon (or click here to read it). Merry Christmas!!

Christmas 2.0

For fun, and because I love technology... Merry (early) Christmas!

Friends Again ...and Santa!

Brayden was so excited to have Layna home -- and Layna was equally as excited to see Brayden. They woke up bright-eyed on Monday and when they saw the snow coming down outside, they immediately wanted to play. As you can see, to say it was "snowing" is an overstatement, but they still had plenty of fun!

Shelter from the storm

After the fun in the snow, it was time to visit Santa! I'll admit that I'm still a little shocked that Layna wanted to see him -- she has been terrified of people "dressed up" in any kind of costume since she was aware of such things. But today was different. She wanted to see him and actually hopped up ahead of Brayden! They had a great visit.

Making sure the old man knows what they want!

Best Santa picture ever!

Boys Weekend

While Nicole and Layna were in Florida (more on that later), Brayden and I had a boys weekend! Unfortunately, some of my plans were foiled because just as we were settling into our weekend, Brayden got sick. He's been sick the whole time, so I've had to tone-down the fun. BUT, we still had some. Here are some of our adventures without the ladies:

Getting a holiday face ...can you guess who?

It's Rudolph!

...and it was cold -- the frozen waterfall! (and pond!)

Later that night we went to get guy food (aka pizza!) and this is how Brayden wanted to accentuate his face...

One crazy kid

After church this morning, we were surprised with some snow flurries! We're still Southerners at heart, so it doesn't take much snow to get us excited!



I will say that Brayden has really missed his BFF. Every time I talk with Nicole on the phone, Brayden asks to talk to her, too, but after a quick hello, he asks to talk with Layna. It makes his day. :) We're excited for the ladies to come home tonight!

Road Trip!

We took a road trip to Florida this Thanksgiving. We left early (early!) in the morning on Wednesday. Luckily, I have two old iPhones and I spent Tuesday readying them for the car trip, adding fun videos and music. After strapping the kids into their seats and powering up their toys, we were off!

Ready to go!

The trip was uneventful until we were down into the heart of Florida, so the kids (and Zoey) caught up on their sleep. This picture cracked me up!

Quite the nap

Zoey was comfy, too!