Saturday, December 29, 2007

Jolly Ole St. Nick

Well as we've been telling the kids for a month now, the big man in the red suit came to visit. But more importantly, when Kate was asked what Christmas was about, she would answer it's Jesus' birthday and giving presents to others. Hopefully she will always feel this way and celebrate with the same heart of a child.
This year was different for us. We actually did not have to rush and run to be with everyone this year. Living back home definitely had it's advantage this year. We began on Sunday with the Allen Christmas. We traditionally went to see the lights in Tylertown (if your live close and have not seen this, it's something to see). Afterwards, we had our family Christmas with Kendall. She was not with us for Christmas Day this year so we had our fun with her then. Shelly and Jay stayed through Christmas. Shelly's parents traveled down from Arkansas. After Christmas Eve services at my mom's church, we had my in-laws and Jay's in-laws over for supper at my mom's. It was nice visiting with everyone. Much to Shelly's dismay and through several braxton hicks contractions, baby James did not make his appearance for this Christmas! Poor Kendall and Ms. Sue (Shelly's mom) really wanted that baby to come while they were in town!
I was surprised on how easy Kate went to bed. She must have been very tired. I am sure in the years to follow, this will not be the case. Chris and I differ on whether Kate got him up or he got her up. I am sure he woke her up :) She was so excited. Leah is still unsure of the whole ordeal, but was glad to see the gifts and had no problem ripping into them!
We then had our traditional breakfast of oysters and the fixings at my mom's. We rounded out the day at Chris' grandmother Opal's.
Another new gathering was having Chris' dads Christmas the day after. It was actually very nice having it all spread out. The kids weren't overwhelmed with too many gift at once. Notice I said at once, they definitely were overloaded with gifts! :) Merry Christmas and a happy 2008 to everyone!


Getting Santa's cookies and milk ready.

Putting out reindeer food.

Christmas Memories 2007


We had such a busy December, as I am sure many others did too. With Christmas parties, school programs and family gathering we stayed pretty busy. We picked our tree this year from an actual tree farm. Chris had to cut it down himself. HA! When we arrived they handed him a hand saw, no lie. I could bend it over my knee. We found the "perfect" tree and noticed other men lying on the ground sweating in our 70+ degree weather (hence the children's attire). Chris is smarted than that and found a local friend riding a tractor around the farm. He borrowed his chainsaw. I felt like an ant near a sugar pile, people started flocking to us to borrow the chainsaw. Too funny!
Leah's school had a program. She sang two songs. A silly one and Happy Birthday Jesus. Leah is still not a fan of the camera so I don't have many good shots of her. Maybe next year!
We ended up the month with parties, the annual Blalock Christmas, and Mr. Whiskers annual party for the employees. With much anticipation for the big day the jolly ole man comes to visit.


On another note, so glad to see Brandi and Alyssa joining the blog world! More blogs to stalk!

Sunday, December 9, 2007

Princesses on Ice

Meme treated me and the girls for a birthday/pre-Christmas gift for the weekend. We went down to the Gulf Coast for the Disney Princesses on Ice show. It was great (despite catching the stomach bug, UGH!) We had great seats right on the ice and the day was topped off by the prince trying to fit Kate with the glass slipper. Oh well, so what it only fits Cinderella, Kate was a close fit :)


Sunday, December 2, 2007

Kendall's big weekend


This weekend my brother and sister-in-law surprised their daughter with tickets to see the Jonas Brothers. The Jonas Brothers are the big thing these days with the young ones. Kate even knows who they are. They open for Hanna Montanna. Friday night they played alone at the House of Blues in NO. Jay and Shelly searched hard for tickets and came up with some. They were telling us about the tickets last week and we reminded them that a woman from our area who we know was their tour manager. Turns out Kendall got to get BACK STAGE PASSES to meet the guys. I think we were more excited than she was! She even got to be on the front row for the concert. She can tell you exactly how many times she touched their hands and for how long! Too fun! The pic is a little dark but from the left is tour manager, two of the group, Kendall, another Jonas Brother, and my brother, Jay. I am sure if Kendall were here, she could tell me what the boys names are, but I am just not with it!