Ready for 2009

Thanks to the help of my mom, hubby and kids, our Christmas decorations are down. I love Christmas, but it is nice to have everything back to normal. The only decorations left are our white spiral trees in the front yard (hopefully these will be put up in a day or two) and a poinsettia in the house. Here's a couple of pictures of the girls with the poinsettia. Hope you all have a fun New Year's Eve and a wonderful 2009. We won't be doing much tonight since I am still taking it slow from the surgery, but I am counting on 2009 being the best yet!

These are a few of my favorite things...

I forgot to take a picture of the girls with everything Santa left them by the tree, but I did manage to take a couple of pictures of them playing with their favorite things he left. Anna Kate's favorite item is a her Disney Mix Max. It is a MP3 player and digital movie player all in one. Santa gave her a bunch of Disney music CD clips and Disney full-length movie clips that just plug right in for instant playing. Here's a picture of her with her Mix Max.

Emma's favorite item is her Vtech Vsmile. She calls it her "game boy." Every since Anna Kate got a Game Boy several years ago, Emma has wanted it. Now, thanks to Santa, she has her very on "game boy." I can't believe how quickly she has caught on how to use it. They are definitely smarter than we give them credit for. I guess that's what happens when our kids are growing up in the technology age. Anyway, below is a picture of Emma showing her Uncle Eric how her "game boy" works.

Tim and I both got cameras this year for Christmas. I already have a nice digital SLR, but I wanted a nice digital point-and-shoot to keep in my purse all the time. I love my new camera. Tim likes his too. We decided it would be neat if we all got cameras, so we got the girls cameras too. Anna Kate's is a more "grown up" camera, and Emma's is a Fisher Price digital camera that really takes pictures. They both love them and have been taking pictures galore just like their momma. Too cute.

Christmas with Family

Here are a few pictures from Christmas morning. Of course, this is our family in front of our Christmas tree.
Tim is helping the girls open some of their gifts.

Here are Anna Kate and Emma with my parents and brother. They came to my house for Christmas this year.

After my family left, we went to Tim's parents for Christmas. Here's the girls with them.

Here are the O'Bryant grandchildren: Philip (2), Hunter (2), Natalie (3), Emma (4), Anna Kate (9), and Abby (7).

Christmas Morning

The girls had a ball Christmas morning seeing what Santa had left them. They got all sorts of great things, but I forgot to take a picture. Here's a couple of pictures of them opening the gifts Tim and I got them.

Christmas Eve

As usual, the girls made cookies for Santa on Christmas Eve. They made a tray of reindeer cookies and a tray of tree cookies.
The cookies turned out great, and they had fun making them.

Another tradition we do on Christmas Eve is put out food for the reindeer. The girls each made a zip lock bag of "food" that included grits for the reindeer to eat and glitter to attract them to our house.

It was cold and wet outside, so Tim opened a window and the girls dumped it. We don't have a fireplace, so we have a special key for Santa. The girls put it out on the front porch.

Our Christmas Eves are full of traditions. Here's another one, every since Anna Kate was old enough to write, we have asked her to write the real story of Christmas -- Jesus' birth -- in her own words. She usually draws a picture to go with her story. Then she reads it to us.

Emma didn't want to miss out on any of the action. So, she drew a picture and sang us a song.

Here's one last picture of our sweet girls before they went to bed. They were so excited to see what Santa would bring them the next morning.

I'm Back!

I am still taking it slow,but I finally feel like I am getting back into the land of the living again. It's been an interesting few days for me. I am not used to being the sick one and letting everyone else take care of me. I am used to be in control and having everything just "perfect." I have learned that I can't do everything, that I must depend on others sometimes, and that my Christmas decorations do not have to come down the day after Christmas. Anyway, I am so thankful for my husband (who really stepped up and took over everything, including my blog!), my kids for being so sweet and understanding, and the rest of my family for helping take care of my kids, cooking meals, and providing other assistance. Thanks to all of you who sent comments, made calls, and prayed on my behalf. That means so much to me. I will be back soon with some pictures from Christmas. I hope that you and your families had a great one!

Mr. Mom

I got Jill home at lunch today and she is resting and doing as well as can be expected. Ya'll check this out.... I fixed her lunch and cleaned that up and put the dishes in dishwasher, ha! Then Me me and Daddy Bill brought Boo and Lou back about 5, so all our family is under one roof again.

After the outlaws left I got supper ready and served it. We all ate and I cleaned that mess up too, which was rather large. Heck, I even sprayed the counters and table with cleaner and wiped them off. Now I'm washing and drying clothes (2 loads) and FOLDED them! Aw dude, this is the worst one here--Lou says I gotta poo, so that means I'm number 1, chief, head person in charge of BUTTWIPING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It's a good thing she is so sweet and cute. You know if you take 3 deep breaths and hold it on the third one you can hold you breath longer, if you run out of air run out of room get fresh air and return to finish!

Now, I may kill trees for a living and raise ribeye steaks in the pasture, so this should prove that I can handle the home jobs too. I had to step up cause I got a cousin thats a stay at home dad that has 15 or 16 young-ans he takes care of, so I couldn't let him make me look bad.

Tim

Going home in a bit

It's 9:30 am and we should be leaving here in an hour, I hope. It's been a long day and night for Jill. She is coming on around but slowly. Jill said several times "thankyou Lord I don't have a baby to deal with this time"! Geeze, I think I would run away if that was the case too. She said this was not as bad as a c-section, which is good cause those things can be rough to heal from.

Had alot of calls checking on her from our friends. Thanks

Tim

Update on Jill's surgery

Well, well, well, I now have the password to this blogging thingy! Jill went back about 8 this morning and was back in the room at 11am. Dr. Wood said that everything went very well. She has been saying all kinds of funny stuff since she got back to the room. She even told me that she LOVED me while ago. She wanted me to thank everyone for the thoughts and prayers.

BTW I like ribeye steak, apple pie, ice cream, and just any kind of food in general just make sure its good. I don't want to loose any weight while Jill is out of service!

Merry Christmas

I can't believe Christmas is almost here. Today's my last day of work before the holidays, and today is Anna Kate's last day of school for this semester. She was so excited about going to school today because they are having a party and doing a lot of art projects. Emma had her daycare party yesterday and had so much fun. Here's a picture of them before we walked out of the house this morning. They are wearing Santa necklaces my mother-in-law gave us years ago. They were excited to wear them today. I probably won't be blogging for a few days. I will have a hysterectomy Monday morning. Please be in prayer that the surgery goes well and that my recovery is quick. Merry Christmas!

Our Anniversary

I can't believe it's been 14 years today since we said "I do." Last night I looked through our wedding albums remembering that special day. There have been so many special days since then and they have been more special because I shared them with you. I love you, Tim!

Here is one of our wedding portraits.
These picture were made by my SIL Amanda the same day we took our Christmas card pictures. Here are a few of my favorites.

Our Sweet Little Dancer

Emma has been taking dance (ballet, tap, and jazz) since August, and she loves it. Last night was parent observation night. Emma did great! Anna Kate and I had so much fun watching them do a shortened version of their routines. They will continue to work on their routines and do a big recital in the spring with costumes. By the way, we have her three costumes, and they are so cute. She is just adorable in them. I can't wait for the recital. Below are a few pictures of our sweet little dancer.

She did so good on all her moves.

Their backs were to us most of the time because they were looking in the mirror.

She got a little teased from all the clapping. It was so sweet.

She was shaking her hips. Sassy - definitely fits her personality.

So proud of our baby girl!

Christmas Past and Present

We have received so many wonderful Christmas cards this year from family and friends. We love getting cards, especially photo cards. It's neat to see how the children have changed from the previous year. I keep all the photo cards we receive and scrapbook them on a couple of pages in our family album year year. Thinking about how other children have changed over the years got me thinking about how my own kids have changed. I just couldn't help pulling all the old photos and scanning them in for my blog. Below are pictures for each year beginning with Anna Kate's first Christmas. My, how they have changed. They just grow up too fast!

1999-Anna Kate (7 months)
2000 - Anna Kate (19 months)

2001 - Anna Kate (2)

2002 - Anna Kate (3)

2003 - Anna Kate (4)

2004 - Anna Kate (5) and Emma (9 months)

2005 - Anna Kate (6) and Emma (21 months)

2006 - Anna Kate (7) and Emma (2)

2007 - Anna Kate (8) and Emma (3)

2008 - Anna Kate (9) and Emma (4)

Christmas Poinsettias

I love to see our church decorated with Poinsettias each Christmas. It is such a beautiful sight to me. It reminds me of our wedding almost 14 years ago. I always wanted a Christmas wedding, and I got my wish. The church was so beautifully decorated that day with tons of poinsettias. It was so pretty. Here are a couple of pictures I took of the girls last night before church started.

Pretzel Hugs

I got the recipe for Pretzel Hugs off Lisa Bearson's (Creating Keepsakes) blog and decided to try it with the girls. Anna Kate and Emma had a great time making them, and they tasted great too. It was a fun project. All you need is a bag of pretzels, a bag of Hershey's Hugs, and a bag of M&Ms. Spread pretzels on a cookie sheet. Put a Hug on each pretzel. Bake in a 200 degree oven for about 8 minutes to melt the Hugs. Pull them out and immediately place M&M's on top. Let them set for about 3 hours.

More Christmas Pictures

Here are more pictures from our Christmas card photo shoot that my SIL Amanda helped us out with. These are the ones that didn't make our card. I will post more of me and Tim next week for our anniversary.