Celebrating Christmas at Nanny and POPPY'S house...

On Wednesday December 26 we went to Poppy (Yes, guys...I wrote Poppy and not papaw) and Nanny's house to celebrate Christmas. We had lots of fun. The Smith family even came up from Georgia. (This was the first time they had ever met or seen Ezra in person). All our cousins were there. It is not very often that everyone is all together at once. We loved visiting with everyone. Afterwards we brought Kaitlin and Cassie home with us and they spent the night at our house. We had so much fun with them. We miss everyone all ready!

All 14 Grand kids in front of Poppy and Nanny's little log cabin

Daddy and his three sisters (Jackie, Becky, and Sandra)

Cassie, Kaitlin, and Whitney ( and new puppy Micah)

Leann holding lil' Ezra

Mamaw Rhodus, Little Jack, Austin, and Mamaw Stocker

Poppy, Jackie, daddy, Becky, Sandra, & Nanny

Happy Birthday Jesus!

We had and awesome Christmas! Santa was so good to us! We woke up at about 8:30am and ran down to see if Santa had come. We ran back up stairs to tell mommy and daddy! He had come! Our stockings were full, our build-a-bears were all dressed up (Santa dresses them in different outfits every year), and there were tons of presents under the tree. Santa ate all his cookies and drank all the milk too. He even wrote a letter back to us. We had a great day...but mommy and daddy reminded us that today was the day Jesus was born. We loved hearing the real Christmas story and we sang Happy Birthday to Jesus. Daddy got mommy a new digital camera! Now she can really start blogging and posting videos. She is so excited to use it! Mommy got daddy lots of neat gifts too. Later on Christmas day we went and visited Aunt (Gail) Bootsie. Aunt Ginger and Joel were also at her house. We had tons of fun playing with Joel. It was so good to see them. Then we rushed home so we could ride our new Hummer before it got to dark...it was all charged up for us. We played the rest of the night with all our new toys and mommy and daddy even let us stay up later than usual. Baby Ezra had an awesome first Christmas. We are so blessed to have a new brother to help us celebrate. We had a really good Christmas!

Christmas Eve!

On Monday we made the long drive home from Indiana. We arrived home at about 6:15 pm or so...just enough time to get ready for Santa and hurry and get to bed. We sprinkled our magic dust on the lawn for Santa's reindeer to eat, then we went inside and put on our Christmas PJ's. We couldn't wait to get our Christmas jammies on. After that we got to put up baby Jesus on the advent calendar. We have been waiting forever to do that. We wrote a letter to Santa, put out chocolate milk and cookies, then off to bed we went. We were so excited and had tons of fun getting ready for Santa.

Makenna's preschool Christmas play

On Sunday December 23 we got to see Makenna preform in her Christmas play at her preschool. She was an angel in the play. She was so beautiful! She did a really good job. Thanks for inviting us Makenna! We were so excited we could be there.

Celebrating Christmas at Papa and Grammy's house

On Saturday Dec. 22 we traveled to Papa and Grammy's house in Indiana for Christmas. It was a long drive...but the DVD player kept us occupied. We had a great time. The Steuck family, Grandma Kay, the Warner's, the Mackintosh's, and the May family also were there. We got lots of neat gifts. We also got to play with our cousins...Shayla, Alysha, Makenna, and Javan. We had a great time and it was so good to see everybody! We stayed there until Monday afternoon and then headed back home. We were so anxious to get home because we knew Santa was coming

that very night.

All 7 Grand kids together at Papa and Grammy's house

Grandma Kay, Great Aunt Brenda, Great Uncle Greg, and Ezra

Ezra's first Christmas at Papa and Grammy's

Adrielle opening her gifts

Elijah opening gifts

Elijah's First Christmas Play...

Yesterday Elijah had his Christmas party at school. His class put on a play for all the parents. It was so sweet. Elijah chose the part as a wise man. He even had a short one word line which was "MYRRH". The little play brought tears to my eyes. He did such a good job and he looked so grown-up. He wasn't even shy...which surprised me! He also made us some neat Christmas presents that we finally got to open. He has been teasing us for weeks that he had secret presents for us but he was not going to tell us what they were. He did a great job at keeping it a secret! He made us a painted candle holder with his finger prints made to look like snowmen, a tile with a Christmas snowman scene on it, and a cool welcome mat with his hand and feet prints on it made to look like two reindeer. Thanks so much Elijah for the Christmas presents! We know you worked really hard on them and mommy and daddy love them. We love you more than you'll ever know!

Christmas Party at The Kemper's House...

On Wednesday Dec. 12 we went to the Kemper's house for a very fun Christmas party. We had a blast! We made chocolate covered pretzels with sprinkles, made/decorated gingerbread houses, opened gifts and ate a very yummy dinner. It was so much fun. We want to make this a tradition for every year. Thanks so much Tracy (and Scott) for the yummy dinner and for being so brave to let us use your house to make all this neat stuff. We hope you aren't still cleaning up sprinkles off the floor. (Sorry we were so messy...next year it'll be our turn to be brave and you can come to our house to make all the neat stuff).

What a crazy, busy month!

We are all still alive! It has been awhile since the last post. We can't believe Christmas is almost here! We have had a great time enjoying all the Christmas lights, and decorations. We love this time of year...but boy is it busy! Mommy says she is finally finished with all the Christmas shopping. We are so glad. She dragged us around to all different stores for weeks now. She says we have been awesome through it all. We hope that it slows down a lot so we can enjoy the rest of the season without all the stress and so mommy can have time to post more updates on us. We hope you all have a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year too!

Today is Grammy's Birthday!

Today is our Grammy's Birthday. Happy Birthday Grammy! We love you! We won't say how old you are Grammy...you probably don't want that posted on the Internet... Over the weekend daddy stayed with Elijah and Adrielle while mommy and Ezra went to Indiana to surprise her for her birthday. Grammy came home from work on Sunday morning and found lil' Ezra just sitting on her bed. Mommy and Papa were hiding. She was so surprised...and confused. Grammy was like..."Where is everybody else?". It was so funny. She didn't know whether to scream, cry, or what. Mommy, Ezra, Papa, Aunt Terri, Cousin Alysha, and Great Grandma Kay all went to Red Lobster together to celebrate her birthday. We also celebrated Grandma Kay's birthday (Dec. 12). We had a great time. Elijah and Adrielle really wanted to come but they also had a great time with daddy. Thank you so much Will for watching the kids over the weekend and allowing mommy to take a much needed little weekend trip. Ezra was such a good little traveler too. It was so nice to get away for a bit.

Great Mamaw Rhodus's Birthday

On Friday we celebrated Mamaw's birthday. Mamaw is daddy's grandma. We had yummy chocolate pie (thanks for bringing it aunt Jackie) and we spent some time with her. We had lots of fun! Happy Birthday Mamaw! We love you!

Mamaw, Elijah, and Adrielle

Aunt Jackie, Cousins Whitney and Gabe, & Mamaw

Ezra's First Thanksgiving

On Thursday we went to Nanny and Poppy's house for Thanksgiving. We had lots of food to eat and the kids had tons of fun playing with their cousins. It was Ezra's first Thanksgiving. He got to be held a lot and he met a new best bud...Emma. Emma took good care of him most of the day. She rocked him and sang him to sleep. She is going to be an awesome babysitter...I sure wish she lived closer to us! Thanks Emma for taking care of little Ezra! He misses you!

Elijah's Thanksgiving Feast at Preschool

On Tuesday we went to Elijah's preschool for a Thanksgiving feast or party. His class sang a few songs for us and we had a lot of food to eat. Elijah looked so sweet in his little turkey hat and T-shirt he made at school. We got to meet some of his classmates and their families. We had a good time!

We went to the movie theater...

On Friday night mommy and daddy took us to the movie theater for the first time! We saw "The Bee Movie". We were so excited. We went to a 7:25 pm movie (so a late one for us). We had to eat dinner and take a bath before we left. Mommy let us take a bath in her Jacuzzi tub. It was so fun. We had tons of bubbles in there! We made bubble beards and bubble hats. We loved the movie. Adrie got a little restless, but Elijah was so intrigued! His eyes never left the screen. We had a great time.

Back to the Doctor...

Today we had to go to the pediatrician for a follow up visit to make sure Adrie's bladder infection was gone and we were supposed to get the second round of the flu shot for Ezra. Adrie is fine! There were no signs of the infection found. (Yeah!) Ezra on the other hand, was not so healthy, and was not able to get his flu shot. He was running a slight fever and I had noticed he had been pulling at his ears and he coughed all night long. Sure enough...double ear infections and croup! This is the first time he has ever had an ear infection and croup. He also has thrush again (and gave it to me) ...yikes! Poor lil' guy. He is such a trooper though! You'd never really know he was sick. He is always such a happy lil' guy. In the pictures below you will see him doing his new favorite thing. He loves watching Elijah's train go on the train track daddy and Elijah built while the rest of us were at the doctors office. We sure hope you feel better soon Ezra!