Sunday, January 31, 2010

Happy New Years!

This year for New Year's we took a trip up north. And when I say up north, it was up there. We went to Charlemont, MA, aka in the middle of no-where. However, we managed to have a blast! It was super cold, never left the low 30's and they thought it was hot. Snow was everywhere, more than we've seen, and they said it was nothing.... Well, to these Southerner's it was a whole different world! It was a short flight up there and a 1 1/2 hour drive from Hartford, CT. We stayed at a cute bed and breakfast that had some farm animals. The company was great as well. Vaughn and I went with Travis & Emily and DR & Kelsey.

We stayed for several days and never slept in once. We were on the go and determined to play in the snow for as long as we could! We arrived New Year's Eve and partied at the local bar. It was very entertaining to see the locals get down, so needless to say we had a great time with them! Here's a picture of us before the big night...
The next day we went out to play at our friend's house. He has about 200 acres of land and we played on most of it. We snowmobiled, cross country skied, has snow fights, flung ourselves down hills, and just sat in the snow. We reverted back to five year olds....


The next day we decided to go snow skiing. None of us had been in a while so it was fairly interesting to watch us fall down the hill with our skies. I managed however to pick it up again fairly quickly, Vaughn, not so much. To be such the athlete, I was surprised he didn't do better. I was tickled because I finally was better at a sport than he was! HA

We had a fantastic time being in a new town and playing. I missed baby girl SO much though, it was our first trip away from home for more than a night since she was born. I was ready to get home and hug her neck. Loved being in cold weather with snow, but I think I like visiting it more than living in it... :)

Christmas Afternoon!

I know, I've been MIA for a bit, but we've been super busy. So here are the final pieces of Christmas!

After a nap we headed over to my parents house to open even more presents! Callie was lucky enough to still be in her PJ's and got spoiled all over again. Not only did she get a swing set from G-Kat and Papa, but lots of fun toys. Uncle Alex didn't disappoint either, she's ready for summer with some cute clothes!

After a shower we got ready to host my dad's side of the family for Christmas night. Christmas is my dad's birthday so we always try to make it special by making a cake for him.

We had some great food again this year and after we were stuffed we opened some presents. My Aunt Ellen gave Callie this cute sign, at it now sits right beside her little table in her room. :)

We also had fun hanging out with my cousins girls. Callie loves the big girls!
Last but not least, over the summer when we had the Rowland reunion Andrea, my cousin, did a special gift for Grandma. It was the first time she had all of her great grandchildren in the same place so we got them all to put a hand print on a pot for her. It turned out really good and Grandma LOVED it.


It was so much fun to celebrate Christmas with little Mac this year. Hard to believe that it's already over and were heading into February now. Christmas 2010 will be here before we know it!

Thursday, January 7, 2010

School Christmas Party

The last day Callie's daycare was open, they had a Christmas party for all the kids. Each mom was assigned some snack for the class. I signed up for cookies thinking I could make some good ones for the class, however, they wouldn't allow us to bring any homemade items to do some kids' allergies. Oh Well! The kid's didn't seem to mind the fact that none of the items were homemade and had a blast eating all the goodies. Callie was on a sugar high for a while afterwards, but it was well worth it seeing her face with all the sweets!








Happy Birthday Jesus!

This year we got to start a new tradition and what a great tradition to start! Our friends, the Dupree's, invited us and the Helfer's over to celebrate Jesus' birthday. We had a great time celebrating Christmas with such great friends! Amy cooked a fabulous dinner for us and dessert- the birthday cake. We even opened presents, well, the kiddo's did. :)

Even baby James got in on the action. Can't wait to meet him in March!

Callie loved opening her gifts!
And I loved holding Watson :)I had asked Emory what she wanted for Christmas and she stated "Toys, Robots, and Hippo's." I couldn't help myself and had to by the sweet girl her very own Hungry Hungry Hippo's! It was a hit! Emory was nice enough to let Justin and Callie play with her new toy. Even if she was only interested in it for that night, it was worth it to see her face light up!
Emory was also nice enough to let Callie play with her new cash register. Callie did get toys and she loves them, but I think she thought since Emory was playing with these toys, she was supposed to as well...

Emory enjoying her mommy's yummy cake! Looking forward to next year's Happy Birthday Jesus party when James will be there to share in the fun!

Christmas Pre-Festivities

Backing it up a little bit, we also celebrated Christmas with Mom's side of the family the weekend before Christmas. Her sister and their crowd were going on a cruise for Christmas so we did our celebration a little earlier than usual. To be honest, I loved doing it earlier! It made the couple of days right before Christmas a little less hectic, hopefully we'll continue doing it that way. :) It was great to see my cousins and little William who is just a couple of month's older than Callie. William wasn't feeling the best that night, but he was such a good kid even being sick! We had to of course get a Grandmother Grandkid picture, couldn't get the kid's to look, but still cute!

William gave Callie kisses and it was so adorable! This was before we knew he wasn't feeling well, or trust me I wouldn't have let this happen....

Of course the little ones got spoiled with tons or presents!


Kate (William's momma, my cousin) and Callie
Callie and William wanted to play us a couple of tunes on the piano. They had the best time banging on it!
Callie has also gotten into playing with "babies." She got this one particular doll for her birthday and the stroller is Emory's and she has loved it! She usually tips the stroller over and the baby goes flying out. The poor baby then gets placed back in the stroller, but usually upside down. Oh well!
Kate this year wanted to bring a Happy Birthday Jesus cake and I of course wasn't about to turn that down! Here we are trying to get them to blow out the candle's. Callie blows if you say something is hot, but it wasn't hard enough to blow the little candles out, so I had to step in and help her out. :)
:)

Mom trying to teach Callie to blow a kiss, she usually just holds her hand to her mouth and goes "mmmmm" hahaha

We had a wonderful time with everyone! It always goes by so quickly and I can't wait for another reason for us to get together!

Tuesday, January 5, 2010

Christmas Morning

Christmas Morning was so amazing this year! Callie was able to somewhat understand that the pile of goodies from Santa was for her. Daddy brought Callie down to see what Santa brought her and he did not disappoint! She got a couple of toys, sunglasses and clothes, but the one thing this momma was excited about was her new bathroom decor! Callie's favorite though were the puzzle and sunglasses!


We then took a look outside and noticed that we had a new swing set! As you can also see, we got a new fence for Christmas. This was from my wonderful parents. They also put together the swing set, with the help of my brother, while we were at the Granger's Christmas Eve. I was so excited to have this for her, I had one growing up and remember having the best time. I can only hope that she'll have the same with her playset and fenced in back yard.
When then got to open presents from each other and Callie was more interested in the wrapping paper and ribbon than the presents. As you can see, she got a new protable DVD player! The Granger's showed up for brunch and more presents! Callie got a new tea table and book case from the Granger's, and she LOVED them! She kept going around the table sitting in each chair. It was so cute to see her at a table her own size. DR got in on the action, maybe they'll have tea together!?
We had a great time and then we headed off to my parents house to continue the celebrations!



Christmas Eve

Each Christmas Eve we go to Church and then head to the Granger's house to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ! We always have a wonderful time and this year was no exception. We don't have a sit down dinner, instead we cook a bunch of different things and just eat around the dinning room table straight from platter.


Then after the food is all gone, we head to the den and take pictures of everyone
and open some presents!
Vaughn, DR, Callie and Me
The Boys!
All the "Kids"
The Granger's and Callie Mac

DR and Callie girl
Callie had a blast as usual and got into everything she could! I think she had more fun getting into all the things she shouldn't rather than playing with the toys she got.
Christmas Eve at the Granger's is alway a fun way to start Christmas off right!