14 Years Married

Doug and I celebrated our 14th anniversary today. It is amazing to think I have been married to this man for 14 years. Love you so much, Doug. We celebrated with a wonderful dinner at Outback and a movie. Thanks to Don & Darla for watching the kids so we could sneak off for a little while. :)

So Much SNOW!

It continued to snow all day Christmas day and all day the day after. While Doug was at work, the kids and I headed over to Mom's house to play with all the cousins in the snow. So much fun! Love capturing the group shots of all of us together - so rare. :) I had meant to try to get a group shot at Christmas, but was feeling so badly I wasn't able to.

Christmas At Mom's House

This is what we saw when we woke up from our nap on Christmas morning before we headed over to Mom's house --

After our nap at our house we headed over to celebrate with Mom, Uncle Brian, Amie's family and Chris's family. Right outside our door we found a great surprise -- it had really been snowing while we had napped. It was a beautiful white Christmas! The first one Maryville has seen since 1991. The kids were thrilled and so was I! Unfortunately I wasn't feeling well at Mom's house. I seemed to have caught Doug's stomach bug and wasn't able to capture many pictures. It was great seeing everyone and being together on such a special day. The kids all opened their presents and enjoyed their new things. Mom made a wonderful meal and it was just great to all be together.

Merry Christmas Morning!!

Words cannot describe the joy on our little one's faces on Christmas morning... You have to love the excitement of your children when Santa has come and gone and left the treasures that they so look forward to all year long. I awoke at 5:15 am, thinking I had heard the kids (later to learn that Noah had indeed woken up at 5:15). After listening to see if they would come upstairs, we decided to go sit on the couch and wait for them to come up so we could see the looks on their faces when they saw what Santa had left for them. When they didn't come down after we had let Phoebe out, we got Kate out of bed and had her go down to get them. She called their names all the way down each step. They flew past her up the stairs and rushed to the tree, although she wasn't too far behind. Rachel was surprised with a beautiful new doll house big enough for her Barbie dolls. Noah was happy to find Harry Potter Hogwarts Castle and Hagrid's Hut lego sets. From Santa, Kate found a new Bitty Baby starter collection under the tree. They were all so happy with their Santa gifts, they needed some reminding that they had several more presents under the tree to unwrap. Kate was pleased with all the 'can-knee' (candy) that was in her stocking and was more than happy to just stick with it, unwrapping and shoving into her mouth. Although, she did figure out how to multitask, unwrapping with candy shoved into her face. :) Noah had quite the lego Christmas with lots of Harry Potter legos, a Star Wars lego clock, book and a few other things he had hoped for. Rachel enjoyed opening a Leapster Explorer & games, a box of soccer gear, some play-do and doll house furniture. Kate got some sing-a-ma-jigs, a sit and spin and a new blankie. There were lots of big smiles and more than a few squeals and giggles. Phoebe got her Christmas bone - 2 this year and big box of cookies. She had both bones gone before nightfall. Doug and I enjoyed watching them all. We would smile at each other over each exclamation of joy. After all the presents had been unwrapped, we all got dressed and headed over to Waffle House for breakfast. Upon returning home, Doug, Rachel, Kate and I napped from 8-10:30 while Noah enjoyed his new things. Not too long after that we headed over to Mom's to celebrate at her house....

Christmas Eve Night

When we got home from Grammy & Papa's house the kids were so excited to sprinkle the reindeer food and set out cookies for Santa... Doug checked to see where Santa was on the Norad Santa website ( He was just finishing up in Brazil). The kids noticed how fast he was moving and decided they had better get a move on also! After sprinkling the reindeer food and leaving out the cookies, we all gathered up on the couch for our traditional reading of The First Christmas Story (this year it was the one that was recorded by Mamaw - such a sweet and special gift) and The Night Before Christmas. The kids love that one because it's a pop up book that was mine when I was a child. They love to open all the windows and turn all the wheels. :) Love that I can share a little of my own childhood with them. Then off they went to brush their teeth, kiss Daddy and climb giggling into bed. I tucked them into Noah's bed. Together. Still giggling. So very happy. I love Christmas.

Hornback Family Christmas 2010

We celebrated Christmas with the Hornback side of our family on Christmas Eve. It was great to see everyone and the kids were soooo very excited. We started the evening with dinner and the kids ran around playing. They had some fun looking for the pickle ornament Grammy had picked up. Papa hid it a few times and it was cute watching the kids look for it (often while it was hanging just over the tops of their heads). After our dinner was cleaned up it was time for the kids to open up presents. They didn't take much convincing to start in on their packages. :) It was a wonderful evening filled with excitement, laughter and love. Most of all, it was good to be with family again this year, here in our home town. It's so good to be able to see everyone and share in the spirit of Christmas with the ones we love.