Christmas Eve Candlelight Service

Christmas Eve is absolutely my favorite day of the year.  Always has been.  I LOVE going to the candlelight service at church (and, always loved doing that at FBC GP) and I love opening presents and having a lovely dinner.  

So, here comes the boatload of pictures.

Beautiful babes at church:

Getting our candles ready:

It was a beautiful service, good music and a wonderful message.  And, you can't beat seeing all those amazing candles!

Then it was back to home to open presents…. but, I have to include these pictures first…. (I know I'm biased, but I think these two are pretty precious)

Then it was time to open presents… they were both so adorable and loved every single thing they opened.

Walker was so excited about his turtle hoodie!

So fun! And, more to come!!

One Starry Night

Our church has always had a very cool event right before Christmas called One Starry Night.  We have never been able to go because we've always had family in town.  This year it worked out for us!!!  Ryder was still in town…. he didn't love it, but Walker and Everly did.  First stop… a pony ride for Everly:

Then we had to sign the roll in Bethlehem and pay our taxes.  Then I made them take a picture!

There were lots of fun crafts for the little ones.  And, we saw roman soldiers as we made our way to the nativity. Then we had cool interaction with Mary and Joseph and saw baby Jesus and the angel.  I'm glad we finally got to attend such a special event that Crossroads puts so much time and effort into!

When we got home, I let all three kids open one present.  Ryder and Walker were happy with their TCU Big 12 Champions tshirts.  Then Everly opened her gift.  This was her reaction:

She was NOT happy with her brand new Uggs.  Needless to say, they will be returned. Sweet Ryder tried to help:

She did finally get in a good mood…. a little backyard football helps.

Christmas with Ryder

We really, really enjoy having Ryder at our house.  Walker and Everly are in heaven and it's just all around good fun.  This last visit was especially fun because we got to celebrate Christmas!!!!!

He came to town and Bunny and RayRay and Pepaw and Maggie all came over for some good ole fashioned family fun.

I'm sure you can guess what the kids were most excited about…. presents.  

Walker and Everly are at the PERFECT age. They love everything they open.  Although, I must admit, 11-year old Ryder even loved it all!!!!

This was a pretty cool gift we were able to get Ryder:

Rachel (college roomie and sorority sister) is married to Curtis…. he happens to be a defensive coach for the panthers.  Turns out, Ryder is a huge Luke Kuechly fan.  So, Rach and Curtis hooked us up.  Ryder really likes it!!!!

And, here are a few family photos:

It was a great day and a fantastic weekend!

Making a Swish

South Grand Prairie High School did something really amazing to celebrate Carson's life.  They held a charity basketball game and all the donations and proceeds were donated to Make a Wish in Carson's memory.  Almost five thousand dollars!!!!!

I'm very happy that the kids and I were able to make it to the game.  Pretty special.

Walker and Everly were so excited to see Ryder!

The student council presented us the grand total!

The cousins.

After the game, we got to bring Ryder home with us to celebrate Christmas  It was a great day!!!

Overbooked?

We were invited to a lot of parties this holiday season.  I find it super fun.  Clark says we were overbooked.  Ha!  But, all it all, all the events were great and a fun time was had by all.

Here are some (okay, a lot) of pictures!

It started with shopping at Nordstrom:

The next night, Clark and I were off to downtown for his work party.  It was a masquerade ball!

Next up, a party for the whole family at our neighbor's house:

The next weekend, I had a dinner party for my girls' group.  I love setting my beautiful table!

Such great friends!!!

Not done yet.  Everly was very excited about the girls only, mommy/daughter party:

It was a grinch theme.  She loved watching the movie:

And, finally, we went to our neighborhood party.  Santa was there and the kids enjoyed watching a movie outside. 

We met lots of fun neighbors and looked at christmas lights on the way home (Walker drove)!

It was a jam packed and fabulously fun two weekends!!!!  Looking very forward to more holiday time with the family.

A Wise Man and an Angel

The PDS Christmas program is always really cute.  It's great to see both kids perform at the same time!!! Nanna and Bubba came in town to see it!

Everly was first.

And, she sang her heart out!!!!  Loved watching her.   Then she got to stay to watch her brother.

He also sang his heart out.  So precious to hear their little voices sing!

We were able to grab a couple of cute pics before they went back to school:

We are proud of our little wise man and angel!