Family Christmas Party

An annual event that we all look forward to is the Cline Family Christmas Party.  This year Jeremy, Selena, and Claire hosted and they put their own special spin on the festivities.  Watts enjoyed the food...

Lily Grace enjoyed the ambiance and cuddles from Pam...

Cille enjoyed hanging out with some of her favorite cousins...

What a crop of pretty girls we have in this family...

We also managed to sneak in a few handsome fellas...

I believe we had 12 kids in attendance (poor Corinne got left home with a sitter), so the party was full of activity...

Amos really wanted to join the party...

These three are always ready for their closeup...

The girls' team wins in this family! Three girls are missing from this picture and we have 5 boys total.  Girls or boys, though, that's a passel of kids!

Jeremy shared the Christmas story, with a little help from Claire...

The kids really loved their surprises under the tree.  Thanks, Strong family!

The Grinch Who Stole Christmas game was scrapped this year in favor of a surprise game.  Jeremy and Selena had everyone guess the number of ornaments on their tree and the winner received a gift card.  The only catch: each family got one guess, which could be made in the order that your family arrived at the party.  This put us at a MAJOR disadvantage since we are ALWAYS late, but hey, we beat the Kemps, so at least we weren't the last ones to put in our guess...

Kelli won, but Damon would like to point out that he was only one ornament off.  Unfortunately, he was one over, and Kelli was one under.  Way to go, Kelli!

Hey, Shannon, could we borrow Madison for a weekend?  She would make an excellent babysitter...

Pretty like her mama...

Cille and Watts didn't get the memo that the game was over and were trying to sabotage the tree...

Our family has changed a lot since our first Cline Family Christmas party so many years ago in LaPlace.  One thing that has not changed is our love for one another.  We can't wait to party with our family again next year, and look forward to celebrating together throughout 2015.  (To take a walk down memory lane and remember past family Christmas parties, click on 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, and 2009)

Wedding Bells

Saturday night Damon and I dreamed the impossible dream: we both showered ON THE SAME DAY! It was such a special occasion that we had to take a picture...

The reason we were all dressed up was to attend a wedding for some friends of ours.  We had a great time sneaking away together for a couple of hours and celebrating Kyle and Rochelle's marriage.  Congratulations to them and thanks for giving us an excuse for a night out.

Very Special Visitors

The Saturday after Thanksgiving we had a visit from Pop, Nana, and Spencer.  The big kids were super excited.  It was their first time to meet Corinne, so she was the recipient of lots of kisses and cuddles...

Nana and her oldest and youngest girls.  I am so lucky to have 3 moms-my birth mom, my mother-in-law, and my adopted mom!

Come back soon!

In the year of 1492...

...Columbus sailed the ocean blue!  But this November, replicas of two of his ships docked in Houma and we took our whole crew out for a pretty cool history lesson.  Here are our three biggest intrepid explorers ready to board...

I think Watts is making that face because someone asked him to swab the deck...

The Pinta and the Nina were the two ships on tour.  Apparently they don't have a Santa Maria because a replica of it would be too large to fit through some canals on the journey and Columbus also despised the Santa Maria...who knew?

Cabin boy...

Whoa!  This is so cool!

His turn at the rudder...

I'm not sure what was in the hold, but it must have been fascinating...

...because pretty soon everybody was checking it out...

After exploring the ships the kids had apparently had their fill of educational fun and were ready to hit the playground nearby...

Our little monkeys had a great time climbing around until their brother was the victim of a pretty substantial blow to the head.  Here is our little guy, possibly concussed...

The kids enjoyed their living history lesson.  Thanks, Dad!

Picking Our Tree

In the past I have meticulously chosen holiday themed outfits for my children in preparation for our annual visit to Yawn Station Christmas Tree Farm and the ritualistic picking of our family tree.  This year we had a nine day old baby, and I figured out that opening day at the tree farm was the next morning on my drive back from picking up take-out.  The result was a last minute trip to the tree farm with three little ragamuffins and one slightly underdressed newborn who had to miss out on the fun in favor of staying warm in the truck with mama.  At least I will have a chance to redeem myself in a few weeks when we return to pick up our tree.

The kids did not care that their outfits were uncoordinated and their hair was a mess.  They literally sprinted out of the truck to the playground and proceeded to have a fabulous time...

 Mr. Gersch adds something new to his playground every year, and our kids were super excited about this new addition...

 Daddy and the kids decided to go with a pre-cut tree since it's still a bit of a rebuilding year for the trees on the farm and they wanted a really BIG one...

 Watts's face is priceless...I think he was mad that his playtime was interrupted to choose a tree...

 Train ride time!  Our kids love Yawn Station, and Mr. Gersch and his family always go the extra mile to make you feel right at home.  As a matter of fact, I think you have reached a whole other level with your Christmas tree salesman when he comes to your truck to meet your newborn and kisses her on the forehead.  As long as there is a twig for sale on this farm our tree will always come from Yawn Station...

 The girls loved the special guest in their train car...

 I don't know how Watts was not freaking out.  He is usually terrified of dogs, even little ones...

We are looking forward to visiting the farm again soon to pick up our big tree and pick out a smaller one for the kids!