New Year's Eve 2011 into 2012

New Years this year we stayed close to home. We celebrated the night before with all our our Charlotte friends for our annual friends Christmas/New Years Dinner. It was great to have a night out before New Years and not fight all the crowds.
We spent New Years with the neighbors having dinner. The kids played and it was nice to just be low key and relax.
Once we got back home we did our annual "crackers" for our hats and treats. It's great to just lay low sometimes and start the year off with the family at home.
This was probably the best New Years we have had in a long time!

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day!!

Christmas was a great time. We spent lots of time with our family and did lots of festive things. From baking, to parties to church , it all was so wonderful


We started off the holiday by going to Lunch with Santa at Longview. It was so much fun and the kids really enjoyed getting to see Santa and giving him their list.










Ann Elizabeth and I did our annual trip to see The Nutcracker. I am not sure who love it more, but we both agree that it is a tradition that we would like to continue of it just being us girls!





                                                    Christmas Eve!


                                               Christmas Morning!








We are so blessed to have Walter's family with us the day off and my family the evening of. It is great to be able to celebrate such an wonderful time of the year with family. Nothing beats it!

Polar Express!

This year my parents gave us all tickets to ride the Polar Express Train for Christmas. It was a blast. The little ones had matching PJ's and we all drank hot coco and ate cookies during the train ride. The next morning we went back to the small town and visited the train museum and had lunch. It was so much fun!
We made a weekend of it and toured the Biltmore House while we were close. It was all decorated for Christmas and it was so beautiful!

Christmas Baking

Today we decided to spend the whole day at home baking cookies for Christmas. But at this moment, I have baked 3 different kinds and the kids are down stairs in the basement playing Wii. The first cookies I made were a bust, the 2nd-Walter's favorite, were not as puffy as they should be, but they still taste good...and the 3rd...are yet to be determined. Still need to do Buckeyes and a pie. I thought this was supposed to be fun...HA! My precious children, oh how I love them!











...

Ann Elizabeth turns 8!

Our sweet girl turned 8yrs old this year. I know I say it all the time, but I really can't believe it. She is getting so big.

She has grown up to me such a sweet young girl. She loves the Lord and really puts him first. She is the most compassionate child that I know and wants to make sure that no one has feelings hurt and that everyone is happy.
She is becoming more and more independant and is finding her own style. She really doens't care what anyone else is wearing or has, she does things her own way. I love that about her.
She loves dancing and basketball. She is really great at reading and school she loves. This girl has brought so much joy into our lives in the last 8 years and I can't wait to see what the Lord does with her in the future.

Basketball has started!!!

Thanksgiving together!

Thanksgiving this year we spent with my parents. We alternate parents every year so this year it was my Mom & Dad's turn. We went down around lunch time and spent the day eating and hanging out. It was great to see the kids playing together with my nephew. They are all growing up way to fast and we sure don't spend enough time together so this was a real treat.
The kids helped GiGi decorate her tree and then spent the night so Walter and I could go to all the great Black Friday sales. We love it.

VIP Day!

This year VIP day was extra special because we had both Walter and Ann Elizabeth participating in the program. It was so exciting for us as parents to see them both perform sweet songs they had learned with all the hand motions. Walter and all the kindergarteners were on the front and he was so serious about singing. He would only look at his music teacher. So precious. Ann Elizabeth was able to sit in the choir loft with all the other 2-5 graders. She was so into singing and knew all the hand motions. It was such an enjoyable experience for them and such a treat for all of us to watch. I love being able to be a part of my kids at school and watching everything that they do. Such a blessing to be at Carmel Christian School.