The stowaway

Kylie joined Grandma & Papa on their trip to southern Kentucky to see Uncle Mark & Connor at the absolute last minute as they were leaving our house from celebrating Christmas. It didn't take more than a second for Kylie to tell Papa "YES"! she wanted to go when he brought up she could come along on the trip! Despite a 1 1/2 hour delay due to an accident on I65, on top of the 5 hour drive down, Kylie's excitement was still going strong as I talked to her on the phone when she was about 15 minutes from arriving at Uncle Mark's place.

Mommy, Daddy, Peyton & Sparkles really miss you sweetie, but we know you were missing Connor so so much and are sure to be having a fantastic time with him! Enjoy the next few days and I hope Connor liked his Christmas presents from us that you were such a great helper in picking out with Mommy!

We can't wait to see you on Friday- have lots of fun at the New Year's Eve party tomorrow night and we'll be thinking of you as we ring in 2010!

She's Crafty!

Wanted to share some of the Christmas craft projects, drawings and schoolwork Kylie did this year. These are always my favorite decorations in the house!

As you can see, I think we have someone much more crafty than Mommy in the building :)!

Thank You

Thank you to all of you that sent us such beautiful Christmas cards, pictures & letters! I truly enjoy sending and receiving each and every one and have no plans of stopping any time soon- no matter how many email accounts I have (I'm up to 4 at this point!).

There's nothing like a good ol' Christmas card in the good ol' mailbox!

--And thanks to Kelly for the great idea of making a tree out of the cards! I topped it with the perfect "star"- the snowflake that was the craft we did at Kylie's class party!

Wrapping up the year with another First!

Peyton & Theodore

Kylie & Alvin

Peyton saw her very first movie at AMC Cantera 30 on Sunday. She came with Mommy, Grandma & Kylie to see Alvin & The Chipmunks: The Squeakquel and did fantastic! She sat like a big girl in the seat right next to Mommy with her Kids Pack of popcorn, POP!, and fruit snacks. She laughed, clapped, danced and even said "Alvin"!

The Joy & Wonder of Christmas Day 2009

We had a great day celebrating the Joy & Wonder of Christmas Day- there were definitely joyous moments and those moments that just made you wonder ;)!

More Santa, more food, more drink, more family and more fun- that's what Christmas is all about!

Special thanks to Kylie- Mommy's helper in the kitchen and assistant photographer taking all of the people shots while Mommy was preparing the Christmas feast!

Merry Christmas to you and yours!

Definitely a White Christmas!

Events of the Eve 2009

Christmas Eve was very eventful for us this year! Typically it's just us at home getting ready for Santa's arrival in the morning. But this year was extra special as Grandma and Papa arrived on Wednesday to spend Christmas with us and Cousin Paige's brother Patrick was also in town visiting from Georgia.

We went to mass at 4:45 in the afternoon (with a Bakers Square pit stop first after our attempt at attending the VERY FULL 3pm mass was unsuccessful!) followed by a fun night of food, drink, presents and playing games- the girls with their new toys and the adults with Guitar Hero & Scene it! But eventually it was time to get those sugar plums dancing in the girls' heads so Santa could make his visit to us. One last thing of course- putting out the cookies, chocolate milk and letter for Santa strategically in front of the tree where he was to put the loot :)!

After a bit more merriment for the adults it was time to wrap up the Events of the Eve to recharge a bit to enjoy the Joy & Wonder of Christmas Day! So as the poem says it best it was...Happy Christmas to all and to all a Good Night!