Christmas Morning, Part 1

After the kids went to bed it was time to assemble a doll house and haul in lots of presents from outside.  We limit each kid to three presents, but when you have four kids plus a cousin, the pile of presents really adds up quickly...

Cille's "gold" gift was a doll house...

Stella's was a piano...

Time to release the hounds...er, I mean, kids...

The Christmas Angel was hanging out on the balcony of the doll house...

Stella gave us an impromptu concert of "Amazing Grace"...

Watts gave me a kiss for Christmas...I love him...

He was ready to open his big present from Mawmaw and Pawpaw...

It was his very own horse!

Ride 'em, Cowboy!

Cille and Stella were thrilled that their "gold" gifts from Mawmaw and Pawpaw were American Girls.  Stella got Kit and Cille got Samantha...

Cille was shocked because we had been saying she would have to wait until she was 5 to get an American Girl...

Corinne was just soaking it all in...also known as napping...

More Christmas morning fun to come!

Merry Christmas!

Photo credit to Erin Guedry Photography.

Christmas Eve

Having a newborn in the house modified our normal Christmas Eve schedule just a bit.  Since Corinne was not ready to venture out into the big world, Damon and Jamie took the big kids to the Christmas Eve service at church and afterwards we all gathered at home for gumbo and birthday cake for Jesus...

This year we all put a candle in the cake...

The first time we put the candles in the cake we did it all at once.  Apparently, Stella wanted us to do it one at a time in a particular order, so we had to take them out and do it again the right way...

Corinne was being a good girl nearby...

Singing "Happy Birthday" to our Savior...

It was pretty late by the time we got all the kids in the bed...and that's when the real fun began...

Extended Family Christmas

Due to work schedules, our extended family gathered to celebrate Christmas on December 23rd at Lacie and Ryan's house.  Lily Grace looked like a Christmas present herself under that giant bow...

Uncle Chad and Reid...

Aunt 'Laina and Tucker...

Mawmaw and Watts...

Watts avoiding looking at the camera while I desperately try to entice him to look...

Daddy and a couple of his favorite gals...

Time for presents!

But first a couple of photos...

How well-trained are these kids in front of a camera?  It's actually a little embarrassing...

He looks pretty sneaky in this one...

This was the first year that Watts was really enthusiastic about opening his gifts...BY HIMSELF...and he savored every moment...

Reid seemed to like his Ironman costume...

The other two fellas took notice...

Still working on those presents...

Tucker made a very convincing Captain America...nice pecs...

Watts LOVED his Spiderman gear from Uncle Chad and Aunt 'Laina.  He felt that a nap in his new sleeping bag was in order immediately...

Stella took the time to carefully read each card...

Still at it...

Turns out the only problem with those costumes was that the boys insisted on fighting each other, even though Ironman and Captain America are supposed to be allies...

Mawmaw Shirley liked her special gift...

This picture is truly miraculous.  7 kids ages 6 and under all looking at the camera at once!  WOW!

And Cille gave us all a Frozen serenade...

It was wonderful to spend time celebrating Christmas with our extended family.  Hopefully 2015 will hold lots more togetherness for all of us!