Christmas #2...with the McKinney's.

OK, I am slowly but surely chipping away at this list of blogs I need to catch up on. (I apologize if you are bored to tears at this point...I really just need to get this done for memories' sake and the grandparents:) )
This year, we were lucky enough to have 3 Christmases! The day after Christmas my brother, Zach, his wife, Heather and their adorable little boy, Kaden drove from Kansas to see us!! (They live in San Antonio, but were in Kansas visiting Heather's family.) We were soooo excited to see them!!!
Here is Marissa giving her sweet baby cousin some love:) She was such a wonderful big cousin to Kaden...they had lots of fun together!
Allie was off in Allie-land.
Look at my sweet girl posing...she looks so big here.

Whatcha got there Allie? :)

So, Papa and NeeNee were supposed to come the day after Christmas but because of some yucky weather, they weren't able to come until the next day....the girls were sooooo excited! They were waiting at the door for them:)

Allie and NeeNee!! I love this picture so much!

Marissa found her Papa!

Then it was time to open some presents!!

So much fun!

Excited about all her new toys!

The girls got new umbrellas!

NeeNee and Sweet Kaden.

The aftermath of the present opening! Zurich (Zach and Heather's dog) needed to relax after all the chaos!

Not sure when this was or what she's doing, but it makes me laugh. Silly Allie.....

Me and my bro...love him so much!

Allie and her crazy hair :) and she's eating....

Still eating.... haha.

Marissa had some yummy honey biscuits....NeeNee always takes care of her girls:)

Papa is in heaven here, playing with all 3 of his babies:)

A few days later...the weather was nice, so we all ventured outside for some football, soccer, hanging out, etc. I love moments like this.

Marissa decided to take baby for a stroll...

Sweet picture of Mommy and Baby:)

Allie showing off her soccer skills, we were all very impressed!

Papa and NeeNee getting some lovin' from Kaden.

Marissa needed to take a break to touch up her lip gloss. Look at that face...she is serious about her lip gloss:)

Ok, enough with the makeup....back to soccer!! Her soccer skills were quite impressive also:) I guess Russell and I need to learn a little something about soccer since it seems as though they enjoy playing it:)

Awwww....sooo sweet:)

Papa being silly....as usual:)

Time for Mommy to show them how it's done....

Russell was amazed at my spiral throwing ability:) haha, yea right.

Just a little note to say we cherished this time together so much because Zach and Heather will be moving far, far away in a few months...so we were so thankful we could all be together for Christmas. We had a wonderful time! Love to you all:)

Christmas....just the 4 of us.

Christmas day 2010 was just a little bit different from all the rest, this year it was just us. We have always been with either my family or Russell's family so I wasn't sure how the day would go. Everything was up to us now...we were officially the grown ups. (Ok, so that's a little dramatic, but that's how I felt...especially when Russell told me he wanted all the fixin's for our Christmas day lunch...yikes.) But you know, we survived and had a wonderful day! We even had a WHITE Christmas!! It was so beautiful! The girls had a wonderful time opening their gifts and after breakfast, the 4 of us, along with several other families from our church, took some food and gifts to a group of senior citizens in Jacksonville. They were mostly shut-ins who didn't have family nearby...so it was such a pleasure for us to serve them on Christmas day and hopefully bring some joy to them! It was a wonderful way to take the focus off of ourselves and all the "stuff" and focus on helping others.

Let me back up a little and tell you about Christmas eve. A friend gave us these super cute baggies filled with oats and glitter and on the outside there was a little poem that read,
" Make a wish and close your eyes tight,
Sprinkle this on your lawn Christmas Eve night,
As Santa and his reindeer roam,
This sparkly dust will lead them to your home,
The reindeer will love their oatmeal snack,
While they are waiting for Santa to come back."

The girls (especially Marissa) were so excited to go outside to put out their glitter and reindeer food!

What's in here??

Big sister showing little sister the proper way to sprinkle.

She's got it!

Ready for the reindeer!

Once we made sure the reindeer were fed, it was time to make sure Santa had some snacks! Check out Miss Marissa and her pose with the cookies:) She's a pro.

Allie would much rather eat the cookies than take a picture with them. Marissa was still posing.

Santa came and even left a little note!! He looooooved the cookies and milk!

The girls woke up around 7 and were very excited to see their stocking and presents:)
A Dora toothbrush!!!

What else do I have in here?!

Allie found the M&M's in her stocking and she was done. Presents smesents...just give this girl some food:)

A new big sister baby doll, complete with a little sister doll!

Daddy helping out a little.

A new baby!!!

Tinkerbell jammies:)

Allie loves playing with Russell's wedding ring, so we got her a few of her own:)

Now our little Marissa is a puzzle fanatic! (she gets it from her mommy.) This was a tinkerbell puzzle...she immediately ripped it open and got to work!

This was our house after the snow!! It was so beautiful and such a treat to have a white Christmas!!

Finished!!

Well, as you can see, we had a wonderful Christmas....just the 4 of us. But don't worry...we weren't alone for long...stay tuned for Christmas with the Mckinney's and the Nichols'.

Breakfast with Santa

For the 3rd year in a row, we went to the club to meet Santa for breakfast:) I got the girls all dressed up in their JCrew dresses (thank you Cindy!!) with matching hairbows and shoes and they looked soooo cute!
They were super excited to see Santa!
I just love this picture soooo much.
Me with my girls!

Daddy's girls.

If you got our Christmas card...this picture should look familiar! Marissa cracks me up in this picture...with her little head turned to the side. So sassy.

Enjoying her milk with breakfast!

And Allie...doing something mischievous and looking cute while doing it.

Well, this is the only Santa you will see pictures of because Miss Allie wanted nothing to do with the man with the big white beard. She sat in his lap, but cried the entire time. So...this Santa will do for now!

So fun!

Ok, now these pictures turned out so cute! I love the red door in the background and they were being so cooperative and fun!

This one makes me smile so much...it's so classic Marissa and Allie. Allie is doing something silly but looking sly and Marissa is laughing at her. Classic.

Big sister relaxin'.

Picture Perfect.

Sweet sisters with the non-scary Santa! :)

**keep reading...new post below.