Christmas Day and beyond...

Finally finishing up through December. :) Hope everyone had a great Christmas! It is almost 10pm. The baby is sleeping. I should be sleeping. I am tired. I don't want to sleep. Sleeping is boring when you could be doing something else. Like blogging. Or cleaning. Notice I picked blogging. Still pondering a bit about all that I/we would like to accomplish in the new year. But first...

Christmas was great! Meadow loved getting a pink sparkly dress that she had her eye on and a big girl bicycle from Santa. Pink of course. She still loves dinosaurs as much as ever and playing dress up. Her Granny gave her $20 and she spent it on a pink scooter that was on sale after Christmas at Walmart. This worked out perfectly because Santa bought Parker a green one and they had a great time scootering together. :)








Parker asked Santa for legos and a lego batman game and all of his dreams came true. :) (ahem, thank you grandparents)
I thought it was so sweet that Meadow was so excited for him when he got what he wanted. :)







Liam with his presents. :)





It snowed late on Christmas Day. This is what we woke up to the next morning. The kids had fun making a snowman. An alien snowman with 4 eyes in fact. This year we have had the most snow since my family moved here in '1988.









We headed west to visit Greg's parents in Hickory. The kids had fun swinging and scootering and of course 4 wheeling with Grandma and Grandpa Winters on New Years Day.








Then to Grandma Lou's for some loves. :) It was such a treat too because all 11 grandkids were there this time. Derek and his Family were here and they are moving to Virginia so it will be awesome to have them closer. His older boys were so great with the younger kids and they followed Chandler around like he was the pied piper. :)






How many kids can we fit on this thing? Dog-pile Chandler!





Liam is growing like a weed. It is a little sad that i have already packed away his 0-3 month clothes! What a big guy. He is a little fussy in the evenings sometimes, but will always calm down if you fly him around like superman and play the superman theme song. We love our Super-Baby! :D

A Golden Corral Christmas Eve

We were going for simplicity this year and we found it. Show up, eat, hang out a little, leave. Golden Corral was open until 6 Christmas Eve so the Brady Clan had an early dinner in our very own reserved section/room. The cousins were so excited and it was nice to have the reserved room to contain them. Our family friends the Malones, Greg's Parents, and Neal's Mom were able to join us too and we were really glad about that! :) And who can resist the "Chocolate Fixation Station" and the "Awesome Pot Roast"? Actually I resisted the awesome pot roast because there were so many other more awesome things to eat. Karissa said it was pretty good though.



Meadow sang "Opera" for everyone and told Grandma Lou how Chameleons say Merry Christmas (stuck her tongue in and out a few times) She is a hoot!












After we got home we read and acted out Luke Chapter 2. The kids were pretty adorable and we had a real live baby Liam to play baby Jesus this year. :)










Tracking Santa's progress and current location






Photos in christmas jammies and off to bed right away so Santa can bring presents!

December Fun

So that this won't be the longest post in history...I am dividing December into 2 posts. The month of December leading up to Christmas Eve and then Christmas Eve and after. There we have it. It's been a great month!

The nativity/creche at church is always highly anticipated. We love looking at the hundreds of nativity sets, paintings etc. celebrating the birth of the Savior. There is beautiful music and singing in the Chapel that opens to the gym and that adds to the wonderful spirit as well.





We always love the children's room where the kids get to dress up and color etc.

Here we have the Angel and her friend Wyatt






The gift bearing Shepherd





The unhappy babe in the manger





Meadow still an angel with her hair halo.





Sugar Cookie decorating time with neighborhood friends. :)








Getting a little bit carried away with the sprinkles. :)





Just a little bit.






Watching the first light snow falling.





Going out to play in it! Meadow and Parker both liked trying to catch the snowflakes on their tounges. Parker liked trying to karate the snow flakes. I hate I missed pictures of that. Really, one would need video to do that justice though.






Going to meet "Santa" or actually one of Santa's helpers that dress up like Santa and then relay the information to Santa because Santa just cannot be everywhere at once. This is our explanation for the "Why Santa looks different" every year and in the different malls, church programs etc. lol.








Parker was all about the legos this year. Meadow wanted an Ariel Costume and a Troodon. Did you know that Toy Troodons (Realistic ones - not like the conductor from the dinosaur train) do not exist and that there are forums of people on the internet trying to find them. Baffling. I mean, come on, Troodons are supposedly the smartest dinosaurs that existed based on brain size. Don't they deserve a toy!? She did get the Troodon conductor from the dinosaur train and seemed to be ok with that...