Happy Birthday to Me

Today is my 34th birthday and it is has been so relaxing. It is going on 3:00 and we are still in our PJs. We are not going anywhere so we may not even get dressed today. This morning it was so sweet to hear all my children sing Happy Birthday to me. Birthdays are so much more fun now that the children understand. They have been so excited about my birthday and couldn't wait for it to come. Emma Tucker said a few weeks ago she was going to get me a Tinkerbell cake. She and her daddy did make me a cookie cake last night. Since it is my birthday we all had cake for breakfast. Here is a picture of the cake they made me.

Christmas in Sylvania

patiently waiting

Christmas Day we drove down to Sylvania and had lunch with Aunt Deanne, Uncle Jim and my parents. My mom had cooked tons of yummy food and we had a great lunch. Marcie, Max, and Mason didn't get down until later that evening and it was all we could do to hold my children off from opening presents. As soon as they got there we let the children unwrap their gifts. All they wanted to do was tear off the paper.. what was inside didn't really matter. Then we ate dinner again and later that evening the adults got to open their presents. On Saturday morning, Uncle Roddy brought Mimi and Poppop over for a Christmas visit.

Christmas Morning

The children woke up around 5:45 to see what Santa had brought them. We put them in our bed and hoped they would go back to sleep, but we didn't have any luck. We went ahead and got up at 6:15 to let them play. I cooked a casserole the night before se we didn't have to worry about breakfast when we woke up. Santa brought Emma Tucker a bike, guitar and laptop. The boys got scooters and helmets, toy guns and hats. Since it was raining and there wasn't much to do, we went ahead and left for my parents around 9:30 that morning.

Feeding the Reindeer

Tonight, before we put the children to bed we read The Night Before Christmas. Afterwards, we left Santa a cupcake went outside to leave food for his reindeer. This was the first time we have ever fed his reindeer and they found it to be a lot of fun. All three children slept together tonight and went down really easy. I don't really know what to do with myself.

Christmas Eve

My parents always gave us gifts from them on Christmas Eve and that is a tradition Brandon and I have continued at our house. This afternoon we opened gifts from each other and the children were so excited to get to open the gifts. Will kept saying, "I want another one." He was definetely the fastest opener. Emma Tucker was very gracious and would hug and thank you after opening each gift. They each got a collectible.. Walker got a Santa, Emma Tucker got a new nutcracker and Will got a new water globe. They all got a new book and Christmas ornament. Emma Tucker gave the boys a new t-shirt and the boys gave her a new sweat suit. Mommy and Daddy gave the boys some sweat suits too. As you can tell.. we really like sweat suits around our house.

At church last week, Emma Tucker got to go shopping for us. She bought Brandon a flashlight and me a picture frame.

Brandon got up at 6:00 a.m. this morning to start cooking our Christmas Eve dinner. He smoked a Boston Butt and it smells so yummy. We are having corn pudding and butter beans to go along with it. I can't wait to dig into it.

Happy Birthday Jesus

This afternoon we read the Christmas story from the Bible and had a birthday party for Jesus after the children woke up from their nap. If you know my children well this will be humurous to you too. We were all supposed to be sitting on the blanket listening to Brandon read the story. Emma Tucker is listening, Will is spinning in circles on the floor and Walker is running around the room. Brandon procedes to read that the shepherds watched their flock by night. Emma Tucker chimed in to tell him, "No daddy.. they watched their sheep by night....not flocks." It cracked me up and made me proud that she knows the story so well. Afterwards, we had cupcakes we made earlier to celebrate His birth. We sang Happy Birthday 3 times so they each could blow out the candle. Happy Birthday Jesus! I thank you for giving me the three best presents and needing to sing Happy Birthday 3 times!

Zoo Lights Safari

Monday night we took the children to the Birmingham Zoo to see the Christmas lights. A great time was had by all. Unfortunatly, my camera died, Jacy's ran out of space and Randy forgot his so we don't have many pictures. Afterwards, we went to Newts for dinner and had the best potato soup ever!

Tuesday, Brandon took me to Tuscaloosa for an early birthday lunch. We went to Cypress Inn and had a very yummy lunch!

Christmas with Grandmother and Pops

Saturday night we had Christmas with Grandmother and Pops. The children racked up and had a great time. They all LOVED the fishing poles the Dustin and Jacy got them. They "fished" all night long.