Life in December... the longest post of my life

The month of December was INSANE!!! :-D We did so much, went so many places and had so much fun. This is going to be a post with pics from the entire month, so hold on to your seat!!

Most of the pre Christmas day activities were part of our advent calendar.

I got my Christmas present early! I'm in love!!!

The Saturday after Thanksgiving we decorated the neighborhood signs and our house

For our after Christmas decorating ritual of going out to eat, we chose Village Inn, since kids eat free on Saturdays!

Brennan and Alexia had their well check up

I made our first advent calendar! It was so neat and I will definitely do one of some sort every year

The girls went to a children's Christmas caroling/ gift exchange night

and we went to Office Depot with Brennan and shopped around :-) funny boy

We went to the PCC Christmas light show

The kids made and painted salt dough ornaments

I made my first ever cheescake and crescent rolls for a get together at our house with Jason, Becky, Jeremy, Rachel, Zach and Haley earlier in the month. Both turned out SUPER!

The Milton Christmas parade was fun!

Tried to get some family Christmas pics around the tree with the "remote viewfinder" option on my camera.. this is what we got :-)

I mailed off 160 Christmas cards!

Alexia learned to ride her bike without training wheels! It only took 2 days of practice, I was immpressed!

We took cookies and chocolate covered pretzels to the Lifeguard Ambulance station

The firehouse

The police station

and our pediatricians office :-) Dr. G was with a patient.. bummer

Jimmy and the kids drew on the road with chalk while I cleaned the house one morning when he was on second shift.

We took Zack, Haley and Kristion to Pensacola for them to run some errands

Brennan got a fresh cute little hair cut :-)

We had a Christmas party at Rachel and Jeremy's house with them, Jason, Becky, Zack and Haley

The kids all watched a movie :-)

WE went to a "live Bethlehem" at a church in East Milton with Jason, Becky and their kids. It was super cool!

Alyssa, Lexi and Kylie

This guy was by far the best actor in my opinion!

Kenna informed the Mary.. "I know you're not the real Mary." Oh my, my child, lol

Went to see the Downtown Milton Riverwalk Christmas lights

had a lesson about what "fallen not forgotten" means :-)

Kenna had her 4th birthday the 22nd

Nana and Papa came over in the afternoon to give her her present

Then we had a family little party after church that night

we got her a dog :-) She had asked for it months before

They all really enjoyed the cupcakes, lol

Then, the 23rd, our Christmas began!

Granny Nanny and Papa Steve Christmas

The 24th, Mandy brought over the kid's gifts

Christmas Eve, we went to the Jackson's for dinner and their gift exchange

Jimmy and our nephew Johnny arm wrestling

Lawrence, Johnny and Stephanie

Stephanie and the girls

Brennan with Johnny and Lawrence

The Jacksons and Covills 

Papa ended up with all of Lexi's babies, lol

When we got home from their house, we had our Christmas!

The doll house was the girls big gift, they LOVE it!!

Christmas morning, we left the house around 6:30 to go to my sisters house. I was SUPER excited!!!!!

 The kids were AMAZING on the drive!! :-D

Brennan was the only one that slept the 5 hours

two of my fav gifts this year, besides my camera of course :-)

My sister made a huge dinner for us.. YUM!!!!!!

Christmas night, we drove to Huntsville for the "Galaxy of lights". WOW!! It was a 2 mile

drive full of lights.. too cool :-)

Thursday morning, we all met at McDonalds for breakfast, except Paco because he had to work :-(

We drove to Columbus that afternoon, (3 hours away) and visited Jimmy's uncle, aunt, cousin and their kids

We drove to Dothan that night and saw gas for free!! ;-)

Friday morning we went to "Moms Kitchen," a southern down home cookin' restaurant... the food was insanely good!!!

Friday afternoon we had a big family get together at Bro. Jackson's sister's house. 

 Bro. Jackson's brothers and sister

 We drove back late Friday night and Saturday, I put all the Christmas gifts away and this is what we ended up with in trash :-0 5 Christmas gift exchanges = a LOT of trash!

JANUARY 2014 is here!

For new years day, we had Becky, Jason, Rachel and Jeremy over for a cook out. We were going to go to Bear Lake and have it, but there was a 60% chance of rain and we didn't want to be stranded.

I cleaned the house and while I swept and mopped the kitchen, the "kids" rode the school bus

Jason and Jimmy went to the store to buy a new game and Becky and I  played outside with the kids

  The kids all walked Katie around the neighborhood a few times, they loved it!

 Brennan  was pedaling his tricycle around all by himself!

the new game, SOOOOO much FUN!!!!!

 I took this a few days ago to show just how different our girls are from one another. It cracks me up!

We babysat Keith last night so Steve and Emily could enjoy a date night :-) We all had fun

This is my favorite :-)

I finally was able to go get Kenna her "big girl" car seat last night! I like it because the back can come off and you can just use the bottom when she is older. She is so short, I decided one with a back was better. She LOVES it and super happy to be able to use a seat belt now like sissy

That is it for this post! I know it was super long, but I wanted to get caught up. 

I hope all of you had a great 2013 and hope you have an even better 2014! :-D