I hate December 26th!

My house is a wreck!


There is left-over food EVERYWHERE!


The tree is bare underneath!


There are no more Christmas songs on the radio.


Oh, and did I mention that my house is a WRECK!!! It's like Santa drove his sleigh straight through the front door and out the back door and knocked everything over in the process.


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I love that my house is a wreck. I love that all the presents are open. I love that there is food to munch on for the next week.......because.........I LOVE CHRISTMAS!!! I love waking up on Christmas and wondering what is going to come out of all the wrapped boxes under the tree. I love to see people's faces light up when you get them a great gift. I love eating a huge breakfast and then an even bigger lunch just a couple of hours later. I love that my entire family stays long into the night to play dumb Scene It games together. I love that my dad always comes up with a "game" for the kids and that there are always "prizes" for the winners. I love that my mom gets us presents from Mama and Papa, stuff that Mama would get us, even though we haven't had Mama or Papa at our Christmas for about 10 years now. I love that mydaughter discovered Christmas and how much fun it was for her this year! I loved to hear her say "wow" over and over this year. I loved it that she didn't want to open another present until she had sufficiently "played with" the previous present she had opened. I love that it doesn't matter that my house is a complete wreck because that means we had a GREAT CHRISTMAS!!!!


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Now, if you've actually read all of that, you deserve to see some pictures to go along with it!

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Cassidee and I went to visit Jeremy up at the fire station on Christmas Eve. He had to work that day, so we got to go eat lunch with him, the other firemen, and their families. Cassidee took an early Christmas present to Jeremy.

He's reading the paper that came with it.....

...and looking at it together. Cassidee went to Build-A-Bear and got Jeremy a dalmation puppy dog and dressed it in fireman gear. I recorded her voice and so you can push it to hear Cassidee talk. She said, "Daddy....I love you." That way he can hear her voice even when he's at work!

We always have a big Christmas Eve hoop-la and have everyone over to the house. Mom makes tons of food and we just graze on tamales, queso, pigs-in-a-blanket, and desserts all day. We were sad Jeremy had to work, but we had lots of company to keep us occupied until he got home! Cassidee even got to open a few Christmas presents from her friends!

Aunt Kay-Kay and Camron got her a cool Princess castle tent. Here she is opening it. For some reason I don't have a picture of it yet, but I'll get one soon. She LOVES going in and out of it!

And, thank you to Barbie for the cute Cabbage Patch baby. Cassidee loves to feed her baby and push her around in the new stroller she got from Santa!

Feeding the baby.

Burping the baby!

She decided to sit and the big table and talk to the grown-ups for a minute!

And then it was Christmas morning......

We had to keep Cass upstairs until Jeremy got home from work. When she got down stairs to see what Santa brought her, she was very excited! She got a new kitchen set, and boy, that thing has cooler stuff in it than my kitchen!!! She didn't want to stop and eat breakfast, so, since she was just eating biscuits, she would just come get some and take it back to her kitchen to eat! She cooked all morning!!!

Christmas afternoon/evening we opened presents with my family.

Another present from Kay-Kay. What is it????

A vacuum cleaner....that really sucks stuff up. Check out the shoes she's cleaning in!!!

You gotta sparkle while you clean! Jeremy had a good Christmas. I think some of his presents included lots of gift cards, a new watch, a new jacket, and this cool stone from Kayla and Camron. It is for your flower bed and it says, "A fireman lives here with the flame of his life." Ha Ha Ha!
Granmommy got some cool rain boots to wear to school or down to the tank with Cassidee.
And, Cassidee got some too! Don't they both look so cute! (Good thing mom was wearing more than Cass was!)

Cassidee also got a "camera" for Christmas. She loved walking around saying "Daddy....cheese", "Mommy....cheese", "Choo-Choo......cheese." Yup, she even asked the seat belt in her high chair to smile for the camera!!! :)

Here's daddy and Cass playing with her Little People Farm. She likes sticking all the animals in the silo. I think we'll wait a few years to get her a pet....no telling where she'd stick it! :)
Ugh! I'm off to clean up my kitchen---or atleast take out some of the trash!

And, just in case you were wondering, yes, my birthday is less than 24 hours away. Remember, don't wrap any of my presents in Christmas paper.....

I know, I'm a brat!

9 days till Christmas!

Have you been as busy as we have? It feels like we are never at home, and this week is looking to be as busy as last week! Oh well, I love this time of year!

To catch up on a few events at our house:

Cass and I spent the night at my parents house one night last week when Jeremy was out of town. They have a "Clip-Clop" at their house which Cassidee loves to ride. Luckily she hasn't gotten bucked off!!!

Opening an early Christmas present from BFF Reagan....

Oh cool! (That's really what she said....)

I love Winnie the Pooh!

Jeremy, Cass, and I went to Paris last weekend for one night. It was too short of a visit, but we're glad Jeremy got to come this time. He was needing a day with some boys outside of the city. He and Cassidee had SO MUCH FUN on the dock at Jay and Gay's house. They fed the fish, layed on their tummies and watched the fish, made mommy really nervous by how close they were to the edge.....

Little Miss Thing---probably walking back to the dock to see the fish again!

Love this picture of them.....

I need some of these chairs at my house....

So cute!

Cassidee painted some wooden ornaments last week. She didn't follow mommy's directions very well about one color at a time, but her ornaments still look beautiful!

She just kept looking at me and saying, "Boo......geeeen........ed......." (Blue, green, red.....)

Her friend and "almost cousin" Cal came over for dinner and a Christmas present exchange last week. They are close in age and have a lot of fun playing together.

Cassidee couldn't wait to open her present from him. We kept telling her to take the bow off.....

.....but she thought we meant the bow on her head. We had to clarify quickly!

Cal loved his remote-controlled tractor.

Cassidee loved her new baby doll and bottles.

And Cassidee's favorite toy was Cal's race cars and race track. She cried when they took it home. FYI--if you're getting Cass a Christmas present, look in the boy section at the store for something that she'd like! :)

"Momma......pretty?"

Scary words coming from my daughter!!! Yup, this is the SECOND time she has managed to get into my mascara (and be totally quiet) and paint herself with it. Atleast she knows it is make-up that goes on your face!! What a fun sight at 8:00 in the morning!

I know she was wondering why she was taking a bath at 8:00 am.....that's usually a treat saved for bedtime. And yes, it is hard to get black mascara out of blonde hair!
Later that day we had fun when Amie and Christy brought all the kiddos over for a "Mommy-Needs-Adult-Interaction Playdate!"

Cass and Amie are shakin' the maracas!
Cass and Katie playing together.
All the kids in one general area for a picture......Cass is still with Katie, and you can only see the tops of Sarra and Hope's heads......oh well!
Amie and Christy.....let's do it again soon!

Learn from my mistake.....

When the weather man says that Thanksgiving is going to be a cold day---just stay INSIDE and enjoy your family and good food. We signed up to do the Turkey Trot in Keller with Amie and Bradley Way. Whose idea was it to do the Turkey Trot? Mine? Amie's? I don't know, but I guess we're both to blame!

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Here we are after the race. Look how many clothes we all have on. I think Amie even wore two pairs of pants! Trust me people, stay home!!!

The Way Family

Now on to a great story for you---we all got pretty excited when we saw snow flakes coming down outside on Thanksgiving Day. In fact, my two cousins who are 8 and 10 were so thrilled they ran outside bare-footed! You have to hear what the 8 year old said, "I thought miracles only happened on Christmas. This is a Thanksgiving miracle!" I thought that was funny!

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Here is Cass checking out the snow through the window.

Our family

Catching snowflakes in our mouth!
Ouch! That frozen rain doesn't feel good on a little face!!!

Daddy, that was fun! Let's go back outside!

Happy Thanksgiving!

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Oh, and another mistake of mine that you should all learn from......DO NOT GO SHOPPING ON BLACK FRIDAY FOR TV! We were in line at Circuit City for a TV for over 3 hours! NUTS! Atleast we left with what we wanted!

Super Fun!

The one thing that stinks about living in Keller is that my dear, dear friends don't live there also. I have two wonderful friends---Rachel and Jodi. I don't get to see them nearly enough---but when we do get together, it is SUPER FUN!

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We do an annual Christmas shopping weekend together every year---or try to. Last year we didn't do it. We all had little, little babies, and it really wouldn't have worked well. Who are we kidding? It didn't work great this year, but we had a good, long weekend of being together atleast!

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What little girl wouldn't want to eat breakfast in high chairs right next to her best friends?!

The girls have some matching outfits. You guessed it---three little one-year-olds don't sit still for pictures.....especially pictures on stairs. Oh well, we know they looked cute!
Playing with the leggos at Portrait Innovations.

We got their pictures made in their matching Christmas shirts!
Cassidee just relaxing in her chair and playing with her Fridge Farm.
Cassidee and I got to go up to my old Elementary School where I taught and see some of my kiddos. Here, she and our favorite friend, Sarah, are playing with Cassidee's Polly Pockets during lunch. We sure do miss Sarah and our Lake Dallas friends!

Late Halloween Pictures

Halloween was only a week ago, right? I'm not toooooo late, am I? Oh well. Sometimes you gotta take what you can get--when you can get it! :)

Cassidee and I didn't feel great the week of Halloween or that day even, but we went up to a Funival at church to have a little fun that night.

She went trunk-or-treating, but by the time she got to Janet and Joe's car she just wanted to stop and eat some candy.

My little Dorothy

--she thought popcorn was not as fun as Smarties and M&M's so she actually threw that bag on the floor after I snapped this picture.

Jeremy had to work on Halloween day, so we went up to the fire station to see him and so he could see Cassidee in her costume---she was actually supposed to be a ballerina, but she refused to wear the tutu. I guess she could have just run around in a leotard and been a gymnast.....

You can tell that she is ready to call it a night in this picture. Little Dorothy turned into a little witch---it was bedtime!

Hope everyone had a fun Halloween--a week ago!