Finally!

We hope all of you had a very Merry Christmas and a safe and Happy New Year! I have so much catching up to do so here it goes:
For Christmas the kids are allowed to ask Santa for one thing. When we went to visit Santa, he asked the kids what they wanted for Christmas. Josie told him Littlest Pet Shop Friends, he then asked her if she wanted anything else, since she is only allowed to ask for one thing, she said, no just Littlest Pet Shop Friends. Then Sam was asked what he wanted. He told Santa a Captain Hook Suit (which is very hard for Santa's elves to make so far after Halloween!) When he was asked what else he wanted, he too said nothing else. When he asked Layne what she wanted, I had to turn away to pay for the pictures we had taken with Santa. So as we walked away I asked Layne what she asked Santa for and Josie exploded. Apparently Layne asked for Baby Ariel, but then when he asked if she wanted anything else, she kept going. I guess she told him like four things - that shouldn't surprise any of you that know Layne! So we told her if she asked Santa for more than one thing, then Santa would choose what her brought her. So on Christmas morning, sure enough, Santa only brought one gift for Layne, Baby Ariel, and Josie got her LPS Friends, and Sam got his Captain Hook Suit. I guess they were good children last year! (As soon as Layne got over Baby Ariel, the first thing she said was, where is everything else I asked Santa for?)






It was a great, relaxing Christmas for us. I told Adrian this was the 1st Christmas in my 30 years that I have ever not had anywhere else to be on Christmas day. I didn't really know what to do with myself. Throughout the day the kids opened gifts from their "cyber grandparents", as Adrian called them. Grandpa and Gran, Nana and Poppy, and Mamaw and Papaw all sent gifts for the kids to open. The kids didn't know that anything had been sent, so on Christmas day we called all the grandparents on the web cam to wish them a Merry Christmas, and while the kids were talking to them, Adrian brought in the gifts they had sent, so they were able to watch the kids open presents on Christmas day live! I know it wasn't the same as being there in person, but it was great to see and talk to them and the kids REALLY loved it!

Sam throughout Christmas day was a variety of characters. Every 5-10 minutes he was someone new, and we kept calling him by the wrong name. So we got to spend Christmas day not only with Sam, but also with Captain Hook, Indiana Jones, a cowboy, Tony Hawk, a Star Wars Clone trooper, and Speed Racer just to name a few.



On Christmas Day it got up to 70 here in Lubbock so the kids got to go outside and play in t-shirts - that was a Christmas day 1st! And Josie had gotten a new smore maker, so we made smores on Christmas.

On Friday, the day after Christmas, we loaded up the car (all 5 of us and the 2 dogs) and headed back to Indiana. With stops and everything it took about 18 hours. We (Adrian) drove straight through, and we got to my Dad's in Worthington, Indiana on Saturday afternoon around 2:30. My brother, Dan, and my sister-in-law, Bes joined us. We had a nice dinner and a gift exchange and we all spent the night and had a huge breakfast! The kids love going there because they have horses and weapons. The following picture is a picture of Sam holding a sword that will one day be passed down to him.
On Sunday we headed to the Greenwood area. Our first stop was at Adrian's parents. It was so nice to see everybody and meet our new niece/cousin, Lucianna. She was so happy to meet us, she just could not stop crying tears of joy!

We had a great lunch and a gift exchange with all the kids. We ended the visit with the annual battle. (Every year, the last gift opened, everyone - Kids and Adults get some sort of weapon, and it's on! - And yes it usually ends with many wounds and tears.)


On Sunday evening we headed about 5 minutes away to my mom's house. Dan and Bes joined us again, where we had a lovely dinner and we opened our stockings - my moms favorite part of Christmas! We then headed to Indy to stay with Dan and Bes at their new house, which Adrian helped start remodeling (throughout the week they were able to tear down a couple walls in the basement, tear up carpet in one room, build "smart" closet space in one closet, pick out and hang a new door, and Dan bought some "real" tools so he can continue remodeling by himself with all that he learned.) Thanks so much to them for letting us stay there with our funny, energetic kids and dogs (They said they didn't mind, but I bet the first thing they did was take a long, quiet nap.)

On Monday evening we all went back to my Moms for dinner. My Grandma, Aunts, Uncles, cousins and great cousins were there. We just hung out played the Wii, watch movies, and played a new game Farkle (where I totally smoked everyone!)

Josie and Bethanie

Tuesday was Sam's 7th Birthday.
I can't believe he is 7. He started the day with Breakfast in bed. Later we let him decide where he wanted to eat lunch - McDonald's, then we headed to the Marott, where we had Sam's Pirate Party (Thanks so much to my Aunt Sarah and cousin Britt for letting us have it there - it was perfect!)
We just loved how these invitations turns out. They were even sealed with wax and stamped with an "S".
We had cake and ice cream (this was the first cake that I have ever bought for my kids birthday) We then let the kids swim and search for gold "treasure". Thank you so much to all of you that came and brought gifts - we really appreciate it! ).

Sam got a real BB Gun!
This year Sam could read his own Birthday cards.



After the party we took Sam out for his Birthday dinner. We ended up at Cheeseburger in Paradise (he really wanted Hard Rock Cafe, but it was too busy).
On Wednesday I met my mom at the Cheesecake Factory for lunch (YUMMY!), then we went to the Mall to make a few returns. While I was doing that, my sweet friend Vicki kept the kids for me and the kids were able to play with their BFF's Sam and Katie. They had a GREAT time!





Wednesday evening, my Mom and step dad, Mark, came to Dan and Bes' for a couple hours to celebrate New Years. We had Pizza and Ice cream (I had Cheescake - white chocolate raspberry truffle - to be exact, which, by the way, was the last thing I ate in 2008, and the first thing I ate in 2009). Dan and Bes wanted to make it extra special, so they blew up balloons and got out noise makers - Maracas (which mysteriously made their way to Texas?) Layne had fallen asleep around 11 (Dan, Bes, Adrian, and I were all jealous of her), so we woke her up about 5 til 12. We watched the ball drop, threw balloons around, made some noise, kisses all around, then were in bed by 12:05!


On Thursday we packed up. Actually, Adrian did most of the packing. This is a picture of him trying to organize all the gift we had received and figure out how we were going to get them and all of us back to Texas together.
While he did that we were able to run down to Franklin so Josie could say a quick hello to her BFF, Kyleigh. Josie was SO HAPPY to see her. Kyleigh is such a Great friend to Josie, we all miss her so much!
We headed back on Thursday afternoon and rolled into Lubbock about 10:30 Friday morning. We unloaded the car, made lunch, then all took a little nap. When we woke up we all played with some of our new toys. We ordered pizza (a Friday night tradition at our house), but we made it extra special to Celebrate Sam's birthday again, since he hadn't opened birthday presents from us yet, then had ice cream sundaes!

Sam in his new Star Wars tent.
Go Longhorns!

Saturday and Sunday we spent recouping, and on Monday it was back to school and work. Even for me. On Monday I started keeping a little baby boy, Jacen. He is 3 months old and so sweet. I will keep him 4 days a week, for a few hours a day, during the school year. So now Layne and I can get our baby fix almost every day!
He was only here a few minutes and Layne just had to hold him and a few seconds later she said, "I just love him!" And after I changed his diaper, Layne just had to help get him dressed.

So, that's basically everything that has happened the last couple of weeks, at least that I can remember. Thanks for hanging in there and reading all of it. I'm sure next weeks post will be much shorter and less interesting.