Christmas Morning..............

Santa didn't arrive until about midnight.......Kenyon was up all night with a stuffy nose............and Kaden (who went to bed nice and early) woke us all up at 6am!! After about ten "just a minutes" he finally got us up to head down stairs. This was Kenyon's first Christmas, so he really didn't know what was going on. He didn't want anything to do with the wrapping paper....so he patiently let Kaden unwrap for him. Kaden continues to be amazed with Santa's magic..... I hope it lasts forever!!

Kaden's First Christmas Program........

This is just the first of many cute little musical memories. Despite the endless preparation for the night and the overwhelming crowd, the 9 minutes of Kindergartners singing Christmas songs was definitely worth it!

Kenyon's Blessing.................

Today we had Kenyon blessed at church. He was a little squirmy, but he made it through. Kenyon was not the only star of the day...... the cousins presented a manger scene staring Grandma Donna on the dulcimer (I can't get this video to upload to the blog)!

Two Snow Days.......

Two short weeks away from Christmas Vacation we were surprised with a two day vacation from school because of the snow! We were lucky to have daddy home on the first day to drive us to Dunkin Donuts and to take Kaden across the street to the gym...... but the second day he had to go to work. The temperature the second day was also a lot lower, but I promised Kaden that we would try to go out for a sled ride around the neighborhood. So...... we spent about 45 minutes getting bundled up (about 25 of those minutes was me sweating to death in my clothes as I tried to put everything in Kenyon's closet on him). Next, I got the boys on the sled and opened the garage door. This is when the screaming began. Kaden was trying to convince me that it wasn't cold... while Kenyon was obviously telling me (in his own way) that he was freezing his diaper off! So I double bundled Kenyon and bribed Kaden with hot chocolate if he would be ok with only going around the circle once. It wasn't quite the sledding fun that I was imagining... but maybe next time!

Uh-Oh... No Tree.....

Kaden has been on me since Thanksgiving break to get the Christmas decorations out. So with a little extra time on our hands last weekend, I finally decided to dig the stuff out. When I finally knew that it was all out of the upstairs closet, I realized that we had no tree??!! I went back to the closet and then to the garage.... and that is when it hit me..... the memory of Darrick and I deciding last year to finally retire our 3 foot tree that had been ours for the last 10 years :( I wasn't really sad about the tree being gone (it was a pretty sad tree), but more so because I knew it was just something more to add to the shopping list. Kaden was also a little upset that we couldn't decorate the tree that night. When we did finally get to the store Kaden helped me pick out a tree "as big as daddy"! We set the tree up, but waited for daddy to get home from work to decorate.

December Fun....................

Our Holiday fun started last Saturday with the Lawrence Parade. Darrick and I started the morning by driving up and down Massachusetts Street for 35 minutes looking for a parking spot...... Darrick was being very patient, but I bet he was wishing that this was one Saturday he had to work :)

Great Grandma Sallie's 70th Birthday.....

The day after Thanksgiving we headed to Mississippi for Great Grandma Sallie's (Darrick's maternal grandma) 70th Surprise Birthday party. We had a lot of fun with family that we don't get to see often. Yes, Kenyon is in a lot of the pictures... but that is only because the photographer needed free hands to take the pics! :)

Halloween Fun.......................

There is always a lot going on during Halloween season! This was Kenyon's first Halloween. He was a ducky (same as Kaden 5 years ago) and Kaden was Snake Eyes from GI JOE. This 1st picture was from Boo at the Zoo.

Kaden's kindergarten class party.

On Halloween Eve Kaden and daddy carved one of the three pumpkins. Kaden decorated the other two. Kaden named them Michael Jackson, Elvis and Daddy (after his three favorite singers). Kenyon wanted in on the action..... but was not quite qualified for the job yet!!

On Halloween we trick-or-treated with the cousins and then headed back to Lawrence to make it to Grandma Nazaree's house.

Kaden Turns 6..................

Yes, Kaden is now a big 6 year old ( well, actually not until Wednesday...... but we did already have his party)! He had fun with classmates and cousins at LGA for the third year in a row!!!!

UT Martin Homecoming................

This weekend we went to Martin, TN for Jarvis' Homecoming game. Despite the cold weather, we had a lot of fun, and were able to spend time with a lot of family. This was also the first time in 5 years that Darrick, Aaron and Jarvis were all together.

Three cute Skyhawk fans!!

Luau fun before the game...... waiting for the team.................Number 54 in the back..

Family Pictures.......