Christmas With the In-Laws

The day after Christmas, Eric's brother Rich and his wife Elizabeth brought Caitlin and Jared up for us to have our Christmas together. I COOKED a baked chicken on my new George Forman Grill, and believe it or not it was good. (yes, I did actually cook) After dinner we unwrapped our presents to each other and Casey and Caitlin went to play dress-up with the gift Casey got. The first picture is of them in their costumes. Then we took some family pictures. All in all it was a good day, we had fun spending time with more family and Cody got to get Jared all hyped up on Chocolate. He was sooo hyper from just a couple of Reese cups, it was funny though. Cody said that he didn't want to be mean and not give the kids some of the candy. So he was trying to be nice. I did get some video footage of Casey, Caitlin, and Jared dancing. It was a different kind of dance. :)

Christmas Morning

Christmas was a very good day for us. We spent it with family and we ate way too much. Now to tell you a little about how the day went for the kids. Casey got up before me (i got home about 6:10am and went to sleep for a little while) she went downstairs and seen her gift, Eric heard her say how she liked it, and told her to go back upstairs and get mommy. Now after me getting up, waking Cody up, and Eric getting him some coffee, we went back downstairs. The pic of Casey is the 2nd time downstairs, and she was still extremely excited. Cody of course was the opposite, for at first he couldn't find his gift, then when I pointed it out to him, he seen that all he got was some rocks. Santa ran out of coal(or as Casey says "coaled". You can't see his facial expression from finding the rocks, but it was priceless. :) He found his real gift in his stocking, but it was fun.
Eric got a redneck weightlifting kit, and he is already starting to use it to get buff. :) Samie came over later after having Christmas morning with her mom, and I took a pic of them together, so I decided to post this pic instead of one of Samie opening a gift.
Just want to say a quick thanks to everyone for the gifts we got, the cards we got, and the special Christmas wishes. Hope that everyone's Christmas was filled with love, laughter, and spiritual fulfillment.

Christmas Eve Cookie Decorating

Christmas Eve Cody and Casey decorated some cookies for Santa. :) I won't tell you which plate belongs to which child. But I will say that Casey used a little bit of everything on all of her cookies.

Christmas Lights

The top picture is of Casey at Roger's B-day party at Ryans. She is actually on my lap and sound asleep. I used a flash and she didn't even move. After we left Ryan's we went to the city park to see the lights there and then to this house you see in the pictures. Some of the lights would change how they were lit to the music that was playing on 88.1 at this house. Later we found out that a 17 year old boy had decorated the house. I like the blue lights on the ground that looks like water.

Happy 50th Roger!!!!

Roger and Stacy, I am sorry that this post is late. But we had fun at the party.
Just a quick story to tell you. Casey asked how old Roger was. We told her he turned 50, to which her comment was..."He is just now a teenager" So don't worry about turning the big 5-0 because now that is your teenage years.:)

So Far Behind......

I am going to try to catch up on some of my picture posts. We will start out with Cody's band performance. Sorry about the lighting. The gym has weird lights that make red look orange. I will probably have several posts today.

Merry CHRISTmas!!!

JUST A QUICK POST TO TELL EVERYONE, MERRY CHRISTMAS! I WILL HOPEFULLY GET TO POST ON CHRISTMAS. I HAVE SEVERAL PICS TO POST FROM THE WEEKEND. WE WENT TO A 50TH BIRTHDAY PARTY ON FRIDAY EVENING, AFTER WE WENT TO THE CITY PARK TO SEE THE FESTIVAL OF LIGHTS, THEN WE WENT TO A HOUSE THAT THE LIGHTS DANCE TO MUSIC. I TOOK SEVERAL PICS THAT NIGHT. THEN ON SATURDAY I WRAPPED PRESENTS. AND CASEY HELPED ME WRAP THEM. SHE WAS VERY HELPFUL. I GOT THROUGH THE PRESENTS MUCH FASTER WITH HER HELP. SHE EVEN WRAPPED ONE OF HERS WITHOUT KNOWING IT.
ON SUNDAY, WE WENT TO CHURCH, THEN WE DELIVERED GIFTS TO MY AUNT NORMA(NUNU) AND TO MY MOM. THEN I SNUCK A GIFT TO MY MOM'S HOUSE, AND HID IT. :) I WILL LET YOU KNOW HOW THAT GOES. THEN ONCE I FINALLY GOT HOME, I LET THE KIDS DECORATE COOKIES. THE COOKIES CAME IN A KIT AND ALL THEY HAD TO DO WAS PUT ICING AND CANDY ON THEM. WAIT TILL YOU SEE THE PICTURES. CASEY MADE SURE THAT HER COOKIES HAD A LITTLE BIT OF EVERYTHING ON THEM. BUT THEY HAD FUN AND THAT IS ALL THAT COUNTS. THEN I TOOK ME A LITTLE NAP, SO THAT I COULD GET READY TO WORK. I WILL BE WORKING FROM 10 PM UNTIL DIANE GETS THERE AROUND 5AM OR 5:30AM.
SO HOPEFULLY I WILL GET THE CHANCE TO POST SOME PICS AFTER WE UNWRAP PRESENTS IN THE MORNING.
JUST WISHING EVERYONE A MERRY CHRISTMAS, AND LET US NOT FORGET THAT THE REASON FOR THE SEASON IS JESUS CHRIST. WISHING JESUS A HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!
MAY YOU ENJOY YOUR DAY WITH FAMILY AND FRIENDS.
LOVE,
MELVA

The Christmas Play

Sunday evening was the Christmas Play at our church. I love watching the kids put on the show. It is always entertaining and a joy to watch. And Cody is always the star of the show. :) This year Casey was in it for the first time. She was a tree that was suppose to just sit there and not say anything or move. Like that child can just sit there. She was jingling her little snowman bell. Moving her little tree limb. Trying to stand up. But other than that she did good. After the story about the 3 trees on the mountain becoming things that they didn't dream of but being something significant in the life of Jesus. Very good story. Anyway, after the story, the little kids got up and sang Jingle Bells and We Wish You A Merry Christmas. You could here Casey jingling her bells and singing. It was cute.
Then it was time for the bigger kids. They were great. Cody was a reindeer in the first scene. Then he was Rudolph. And as you may be able to tell by the pics Cody loves to act and make people laugh. You should have seen him dance. :)

Happy Late Birthday Curtis!!

This past Friday was my nephew Curtis' birthday. We went to his birthday party on Saturday. He turned the big 11. As you can see the kids were wired on the cake. And my lovely sister-in-law taught the girls the "W" sign for "whatever" and of course they have to say it with the attitude. And we all know that Casey has the most "attitude" out of all three of them. :)
Any way, Happy birthday LATE Curtis.

Curtis and Lacy

Now some pictures of my niece Lacy and my nephew Curtis.

Mckenzie Lee

Mckenzie will be a month old this Thursday. She has gained a little weight, but not much. Growing right before your eyes.

Christmas Picture Weekend

This Saturday I did some pictures of a couple of girls I work with little babies.
These pictures are of Brayden Michael. He is right at 6 months old. Isn't he just a doll baby? :) I took a few with his mom, Nancy, but I decided to just post these.
I am going to post Mckenzie's pics on a different post.

Christmas Dinner At the Church

This past Friday, our church had the Christmas Dinner and of course Santa made his appearance. Casey was so excited. Cause she was going to get to tell Santa what she wanted him to bring her for Christmas morning. A White Nintendo DS with Nintendogs so she can make her own dog. Norma didn't get to go to the dinner Friday because after starting her new pill regimen she didn't feel too good.
The next pictures are of the kids decorating the Christmas Tree.
Hope everyone doesn't get stressed out this holiday season and I also hope that the true meaning of "Christ"mas stays with us. For if it wasn't for the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ, we wouldn't have Christmas.

Christmas Parade

Here are some pics from the parade tonight. It got rather chilly outside. I almost missed Cody, he was in a different spot this time. He said it was because there weren't that many people there. And his school band was one of the first to go. So he was finished way before the other two even got started. Because Samie was a few trucks in front of Casey and Casey was several cars in front of Santa, and we know that Santa is the end of the parade. So I had to drive from one end of town after the kids passed me up to the other end to pick Casey and Eric up. I had to take the back roads because the main ones were blocked for the parade. But after I circled around one back road, I got to where I was going.
Well, I must go, so that I can get two kids in bed before school tomorrow. :)