10 Years Ago...

10 years together... 2 years of dating before that... 6 states... 2 precious children... 2 sweet dogs... 3 fish... 1 snail... 12 years of happiness.

Santa was here!!!

Noah and Rachel were so surprised when they saw what Santa had brought them this morning! They loved opening their presents and had a fun day filled with playing with all their new toys. It was wonderful to watch the joy on their faces as they opened their gifts. Rachel was really into opening up her presents but was more into the paper and ribbons than what was actually wrapped up inside. Ripping the paper is soooo much fun! She does love all her baby dolls she recieved today and loves to 'love the baby' and 'feed the baby'. Noah loved the train Santa brought and also his railroad crossing bank. He loves his 'blue bridge' (thomas sodor bay bridge) that he had been asking for for months.

We loved having Noah and Rachel's Papa & Grammy here to help celebrate the holiday with us. It's always nice when you can share the holidays with people you love. We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and enjoyed being together with your family. We truely missed those of you that weren't with us this year, but you were here in our hearts.

Cookies for Santa... and Noah & Rachel

Mmmmmmm, I think the photos say it all.... ;)

Merry Christmas!

Wishing you all a magical Christmas surrounded by your family and friends and all our love in the new year! Merry Christmas from our family to yours!

Doug, Heather, Noah & Rachel

I love Christmas time...

Making Cookies

Tonight Noah and I made sugar cookies... these are the cookies we leave out for Santa on Christmas Eve. Ofcourse, Noah always gets first pick and this year I'm guessing Rachel will be in on the action as well. She didn't help make the cookies this year, but she sure enjoyed the taste testing afterward. Noah did an awesome job helping roll out the dough and cut out the shapes and then decorating them when they were cool. He was so proud to be able to help cook and also to help with the decorating. He loves to sample the icing, sprinkles and also had his share of cookie dough as well... no wonder he wasn't as eager to eat up the cookies tonight! By the time we were all finished he was covered in flour, cookie dough, icing and lots of sprinkles.

Party Time!

Noah had his Christmas party today at school. He had a good time eating special treats, playing games and being with his friends. I love that second picture where you can see him saying the blessing before they ate their treats. They played Pin the Star on the Christmas Tree, Beanbag Toss, and Pass the Stocking. The kids were so cute to watch because they all got soooo excited. Rachel had fun too and especially loved the little rocking chair. I didn't know if I was going to be able to get her to leave after she discovered how much fun it was to rock in!

I could watch them play all day...

We were at the park this morning for a little over three hours. You would have thought the boys might get bored, but these kids could play all day and we could play with them or just watch them have fun together. Ramona and I got the kids together for a playdate before Braxton's family heads to Chattanooga for the holidays. These kids adore each other and have so much fun when they are together. Rachel had a ball too - she loves to swing and climb up the slides. We took along a picnic lunch and ended the trip with throwing rocks into the lake.

Shootin' Hoops

Noah has become a whole lot more interested in sports these days. We love that he wants us to play basketball with him. He is getting really good at standing back from the goal and making shots, rather than dunking it all the time. He says to himself "Look at the net ...and shoot!"... wonder where he got that from... ;). I think Doug would like nothing more than for his little boy to grow up and play basketball... I have my fingers crossed for him to play football... what ever he chooses to play, I just hope he loves it.

I had to add a couple of pictures of our girl. She is such a ham. She is all over the place and into everything and cackles with joy the whole time. She is beginning to be able to point at her nose, eyes, mouth, ears and belly. She is beginning to try to say the words baby and bye-bye. She also has started saying 'Uh-Oh' when she tosses things on the floor... She knows she's a cutie!
Big Happy Birthday wishes going out to Colin today -- He's the big 3! Hope you had a great day little man!

A tree of his own...

Noah was so excited to have this little Christmas tree in his room. We put colored lights on it just for him and then hung paper ornaments on it that we made. He couldn't wait to put our homemade star on top and see how the lights looked all lit up at night. I love how excited about Christmas he is.

First Pony

She was fairly patient while I was trying to gather what tiny bit of hair she had for this nearly nonexistent pony tail... Someday she'll have enough... ;) She really liked seeing it in the mirror though and just grinned and grinned at herself. Check out that belly she's been putting on since she started drinking whole milk!

This Man...

never thought he would want a daughter... never knew how much fun little girls could be... didn't know I was watching while he was playing 'dolly' with his baby girl the other day... loves her so very, very much.

She likes it too...

maybe a little too much. ;) Rachel loves to pull the lowest ornaments off the tree and has tried many times to eat the candy canes she can reach. She also loves to pull the bows off of the packages and hand them to us... which is why most of our presents are tied with ribbons this year. She has begun running around. She isn't crawling so much anymore as it is no longer the 'fast' mode of transportation. It's pretty funny right now as she is still so tiny. She does new things everyday. I love to watch her with her baby doll. She loves to 'love' her and feed her a bottle. I have even caught her trying to put her binky in it's mouth. Cute stuff.

Reindeer Games

Noah and Braxton had fun making reindeer cookies last night. They did all the work themselves - placing them on the baking sheet, watching them bake and then eating them up. They also made jingle bells to wear around their necks and played like crazy. Ramona and I enjoyed watching them play together and we kept Miss Rachel busy too. It was a fun night.