Christmas Eve

We left Texas (on our drive up to Kansas) a little early to avoid the snowstorm that came through the mid-west on Thursday.

Gabrielle using her dry-erase-marker in one of her Princess books. She kept telling us that we could see her "drawing" when she was done, but "not yet". Here's her final picture...I don't think that she left any part of that page without some red marker on it.

We went to Eastminster Presbyterian (our Wichita church) for the 4:30 Children's Christmas Eve Service (even though it was snowing quite a bit). We got a seat on the end of the middle isle, so we had a great view of the animals and the nativity scene created up front.

Mary and Joseph coming in on the donkey.

The shepherds and the angels who visited baby Jesus.

One of the sheep--there was also a goat...neat!!!

The wise men bringing their gifts for baby Jesus.

Gabrielle holding a candle while we sang, "Silent Night".

Gabrielle and I with the Christmas poinsettias.

Family picture...one of my new favorites!!!

More Christmas at home

Seriously, I think that you would only see this in southeast Texas...and can you believe this is in neighbor's yard? LOL

Gabrielle and I have been doing our Advent calendar every day this month. She's really enjoyed opening a "door" to find what we are going to add to our nativity every day in December.

I let her put most of the magnetic pieces on by herself (that's why we have animals in the sky even though I tried to explain to her that they would probably rather sit in the grass).

Opening her new Curious George game.

Daddy helping her figure out all the pieces.

One more gift from daddy and mommy.

A toy that will be great to play outside. It's a blow-up baseball guy who has a net to "catch" the balls you throw at it.

My sister's family

Elizabeth Anne...newest addition to my sister's family.

Dan and Katherine with their new "bundle" on December 11th. After a long day of inducing, she came within about 20 minutes and the doctor wasn't even there!!!

Proud Grandma (my mom).

Proud Grandpa (my dad).

All three kids together...Matthew, Elizabeth, and Samantha.

Precious baby "Izy" sleeping.

Mat and Sam having fun with a box from Christmas.

Matthew being a precious big brother already.

One more sleeping baby picture.

Proud grandparents (my mom and dad) with their grandkids...all three are smiling AND looking at the camera!!!

"Christmas" has become a daily activity...

Opening another gift on Tuesday...a Christmas DVD that we "saved" to watch in the van on our trip to Kansas.

Cheese!

SO excited to open another gift (on Monday)...nothing like spreading them out so she can enjoy a few things at a time.

Two books that play music..."Oh Little Town of Bethlehem" and "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star".

Three more books.

Checking them all out.

She enjoys books, and it's fun to hear her say, "Read this, mommy!"

Christmas keeps on comin'

Daddy finally got his 32G Ipod Touch for Christmas...thanks to a fantastic deal at Target on black Friday and some additional coupons that I had. Yea!!!

Gabrielle got some books with a read-along DVD.

Cinderella

Jack and the Beanstalk

Hansel and Gretel

A "transportation" puzzle that has the sound of each piece when she puts it together. Her favorite piece on it is the train.

And, I got the Cricut machine...thanks to Walmart for their black Friday special red-version. I have already used it once, and know that it's really going to come in handy when I scrapbook. Did I mention that I LOVE saving money...especially on the things that we all wanted for Christmas!!!

Santa came--early!!!

Santa came to our house early this past weekend (since he "knew" we wouldn't be at home Christmas Eve). Here's some of our family Christmas on Sunday before we headed to church.

Excited to find "som-ping" in her stocking.

A Christmas bracelet.

Some stickers...one of her favorite things right now.

Princess socks.

A new "Ariel" toothbrush.

And, finally, her stocking also had a Strawberry Shortcake Christmas DVD in it...I was happy that I was able to convince her to wait and watch it on our trip to Kansas.

And, her one "big gift" from Santa.

Drumsticks to go with her new....drum pads!!!

Seriously, why do we need a screwdriver to get Gabrielle's toys out of a cardboard box? Are there people going into stores who would try to steal something like this...and where would they put it...under their shirts?

Daddy helping her figure out all the buttons.

Enjoying her new drums!!!

Beautiful and FREE

One of the flower centerpieces that I got to bring home from Nick's work dinner that we went to last week.

Bonus picture:

Merry Christmas! Just wanted to share the picture that we used for our Christmas card this year...notice my little baby bump for little-guy-Walker who will join us in 2010!!!

One little peak early...

I like to do a few gifts at a time, so Sunday night I let Gabrielle pick one of her Christmas gifts to open. She wasn't real thrilled about me making her take a picture before hand, and this is the best one I got. *sigh*

Ripping open the paper.

It's a Dora alphabet book that has a screen at the top that shows how to draw each letter you select from the yellow button-pad-area. Then at the bottom there's a spot where you can try drawing them yourself and erasing them over and over. Gabrielle's already spent quite a bit of time with this book (yea!), not necessarily drawing the letters yet, but she likes watching/listening to the letters being drawn in the top screen!