Twas the Night Before Christmas

We spent about eight days in Dallas before heading to Kingwood. There are soooo many photos & stories to share of our time there but for now we will skip ahead to to Christmas Eve.  

Christmas Eve day & night were wonderful! We got to meet up with a few of my very best girlfriends from high school that morning at the nearby elementary school a few of us attended. We were sad that Lisa had to work & missed out on the freezing cold playground party but we did enjoy a quick visit.  I made the mistake of making our family leave a little early to get there without checking my phone to see that everyone else was going to be a tad late....oops! It was super cold at the shady Gazebo across from the sunny school playground. The boys lasted about 15 minutes & were cold & screaming so Rob took them home. Kristen arrived first & we made the executive decision to relocate across the street where it looked more like the Sunshine State  ; ) 

Here are 4 out of the 5....

Natalie, me, Kristen & Laura

Natalie is a Certified Nurse Midwife in the Austin area, Kristen teaches elementary school in Round Rock & Laura is the head Volleyball Coach at a highschool in Frisco along with teaching various classes.  I feel like I have missed out on a lot of life with these friends while living in Florida since it has not been so easy to sneak away for weddings, baby showers, girls weekends etc but it was great to see them at the cold cold park. I had not met any of their children so that was quite the treat. We have definitely multiplied since we were all together last!

Patrick & Laura, Gabe & Natalie with Christian (5), Madi(3) & Emma(1),
Kristen & Daniel with Liv(2) (Sweet Layne(9m) was missing) & our bunch on the end.

Lisa, the missing friend is coming to visit our family this afternoon. We can't wait to see her! She is engaged to Euan & they are making plans for the big day which will be March 1, 2014. All of us girls are in the wedding & are looking forward to celebrating with Lisa!

The rest of the day time was fairly low key with some naps for the little ones & hot tea by the fire place with the big people. Uncle Scott & Uncle Kyle were packed up to spend many nights at my parents house so we had a great time relaxing with them. Everyone was up & moving by 3pm so we got cleaned up & dressed up for the Christmas Eve service at my parents church. They all looked pretty spiffy!

Eloise has been bringing much laughter to this family with her silly faces when we ask her to smile. Really hilarious girl we have on our hands.

The boys were looking good with their first hair gel application.  Owen rooster poof in the back went right back up within 20 minutes. It may be hard to tame.

We attempted a family of six picture with absolutely no success. There are 20 in a row with weird faces, hair flying, whining etc. We decided to load up & head to the church instead of forcing more unhappy irritating moments.

We attended the service at the church that we got married in. I loved having our family all together. One fun part is that we got to sit with another family just like ours. My mom met a friend named Leslie through the MOPS program she helps with at her church. Their family has 4 year old & 2 year old girls & identical twin girls that were born just weeks before our boys. My mom has been able to help her a bit by lending an extra hand to manage the new found busyness in her home. Their girls were all beautiful & did awesome during the service. We on the other hand had a noisy little bunch to tend to.

I had Owen up & down in the back while Anson sat in Robby's lap. My mom was in charge of Eloise who at one point was laying across the aisle with my mom attempting to capture her when I peeked in from the back.  I was thankful for Mr. Bob Adams who knew me a young child at that church. He was seated on a small pew in the back while his wife blessed us with her lovely talent on the organ. He happily entertained whatever combination of children I had in my lap. He pulled kleenex out of the box for Eloise & let her stuff them back in. He picked up the same toy about 8 times in a row while Owen played the "uh oh I dropped it game" & he invited Charlotte to sit next to him. The best part was when we lit the candles while we sang the final song. Mr. Adams kept Anson entertained by moving his candle all over the place just barely out of reach. I was grinning ear to ear while watching the rest of my family all in a row singing, Charlotte had her own candle lit & was moving it very carefully which still made me nervous. I was waiting for someone's hair to catch on fire! I laughed when I saw that the candles lit within reach of crazy Eloise were quickly blown out. One other thing that made me laugh was when we were taking communion. The cracker was in my hand as we waited for the pastor to lead us through the act of taking it. Eloise was obsessed with finding out what was in my hand! I was balancing one baby on my lap while trying to stop her from grabbing it & eating it. She kept whispering loudly "I wah see it! What you have mommy? Show me, show me! I wah eat it!" Once it was in my mouth she continued to say "What you eating mommy? Open your mouth! Show me!" Haha! We made it through just over an hour & I didn't get to listen but enjoyed singing with everyone.  I could not have felt more thankful with our little crew in tow. That is precisely how I wanted to spend our time on Christmas Eve.

We arrived home hungry & devoured some gigantic backed potatoes with all the toppings. We got the fire going, read our favorite Christmas book from last year & our new one for this year (Song of the Stars: A Christmas Story &  Humphrey's First Christmas)  once we were in our jammies.  The kids went to bed easily since it was a little later in the evening than they are used to & we settled into a relaxing evening watching Home Alone 2 & hit the sack on the early side as well.