Wednesday, December 29, 2010

Tierney Christmas 2010

After naps of Christmas day, we went over to my mom's for presents and dinner. Evelyn loves going to Grandma's at Christmas. Mom decorates a lot and usually spoils the kids rotten! Plus Ev gets to hang out with her cousins which is so fun for her!

We were the first ones there, so mom got out a new set of Cinderella wooden paper dolls for Evelyn to play with. She was delighted!

We love Grandpa Doug!!

When my nephew Curtis was born, my mom got a little mesh toy box for her house and got toys to put in there for him to play with. 10 year later, pretty much the SAME toys are in there , and ALL of her Grandkids have thoroughly enjoyed that toy basket! This year Matthew has found it very exciting as well!



My sister taking a picture of me taking a picture of her!

Cousin tickle time!

Evelyn and Cole.. cousins and best of buddies!

An attempt to get a good shot of mom with the kids. Hahahahaha!

"Mommy! I got a pillow pet!!"

She loves this new Belle baby doll!

My nephew Curtis.. love him!

My sister Michelle and niece Abby opening up gifts

Evelyn and Aunt Michelle deep in conversation while coloring!

Aunt LoLo reading to Matthew

My sister and her kids came over from Idaho on the 26th and stayed with us for a few days. It was so fun to have them here!

Abby entertaining my kids.. they both think she is so cool and fun!

Evelyn being silly with her aunt!

Matthew thinks she is pretty neat, too!

Three of my favorite Duck fans right before they left to go back home...*sigh*...

Hoping your Christmas was as full of love and laughs as ours was, and that 2011 is full of many blessings!

Saturday, December 25, 2010

Christmas Morning

Living pretty close to all of our family, the probability of us being all over town during the holidays is likely. Because of this, Doug and I really want to make sure we can have Christmas morning reserved for just our family. We have done this every Christmas since Evelyn was born and it has been really nice.

Since we don't do Santa at our house, all of our gifts are wrapped. (Click here to read about some of the reason why we don't do Santa). You can imagine how excited our 4 year old was to open presents.. she was trying hard to be so patient while I got cinnamon rolls in the oven and we got Matthew changed and fed a little bit.

"Now? Can we open presents now? ;)

Esther is Evelyn's favorite book of the Bible. I have had this movie for a long time and have had a hard time waiting until Christmas to give it to her. She loves it!

So we got Matthew this race track thing.. it was hard trying find something we thought he would enjoy. (He really just prefers to play with his sister's stuff!! Heehee!) He opened it and Doug put it together for him and showed him how the cars raced. Apparently he had other plans for his new toy...


All he wanted to do was SIT in it!! Seriously.. he sat in it more than he played with it. Funny boy! He still likes to sit in it, but he will run the cars now and seems to like it.

Who doesn't like Thomas? :)

I really feel it is important that my kids learn to do two things and do them well: swim and ride a bike. It's something I learned early and am so glad I am proficient at both. Our big gift to Evelyn was a princess bike. She had talked about a bike for a while and really liked this bike when she saw it at Target. Sometimes, tho, she likes the "idea" of something more than the something itself (and don't we all?). She likes the bike very much, but I think if we had gotten her the big set of princess barbie's instead, she would have been just as, if not more, excited. Once the weather gets nicer and she starts riding, I am pretty sure she will love it, tho!

The kids helping Daddy put the bike together

Matthew helped more than his sister!

Ready to roll....

For some reason I didn't get any more pictures, but our morning was full of smiles and laughter, as well as lots of wrapping paper and boxes!

Merry Christmas! Happy Birthday Jesus!

Friday, December 24, 2010

Christmas with Jody/Christmas Eve

We did our annual "Christmas with Jody" breakfast on the 23rd. I am so thankful for her and the love she shows me and my kids. They love her so much!

I didn't get a picture of the table all done.. ugh.. but I did get a shot of the puffed pancake I made. It was served with cinnamon rolls, fruit salad, and sparkling cider. Yum!

Matthew and JoJo

Excited to open their gifts from Jody!

I don't think she played with ANYTHING else the entire day. She loves the Tinker Bell wooden "paper" dolls!

Matthew in his new sweat outfit from Jody. SO cute!

Evelyn was so excited for Jody to open her gifts from us.. so excited that she told her what one of them was right when she walked in the door!! HaHa!

My favorite gift this year by far! My mom had one of these ceramic "Lite Brite" trees when I was growing up. I LOVED it. It went away years ago but I always remember it. Jody has a similar one and this year I told her mom about the one we had growing up. Jody and Francie (Jody's mom) found a lady who makes them and got this for me. SO excited!

On Christmas Eve we were able to go to church. Due to family obligations or illness or other things, we haven't been to our church on Christmas Eve since Evelyn was 2 weeks old.. so we were excited to go!


We ended our Christmas Eve with Chinese Food and having a Christmas "movie night" with Evelyn after Matthew went to bed, complete with hot cocoa! A fun way to end the day!

More to come....

Monday, December 20, 2010

Morris Family Christmas 2010

I might have mentioned this in other Christmas posts, but Doug's family most always celebrates Christmas in Dallas the Saturday prior. Doug's mom would rather have everyone together without being rushed than have people in and out on Christmas day. I appreciate her sacrifice a lot!

As I look thru these pictures, I realize A)they aren't that great, B) there are way more pics of Matthew than Evelyn, and C) sadly, I really don't remember much about that day. I came down with a really nasty cold earlier in the week and felt horrible pretty much the entire time we were in Dallas. No fun.. we all have been sick off and on for almost 2 months.. but that's another post!

Anyhoo.... here are the pics I do have from our "Happy Birthday Jesus" day with Doug's family.


Doug's mom has pretty much all of the toys Doug and his siblings played with as kids. My kids LOVE them. Matthew was really into them this year!

Sitting in a chair his grandma sat in when she was his age!

My nephew Greg and Sis-in-Law Debbie in a serious thumb war!

Daddy helping Matthew with his stocking

He got his OWN remote control. I think it was his favorite gift!

This year for something different, the kids acted out the Christmas story (read by Grandad) with the playmobil Nativity. I honestly don't remember this at all... I heard the kids enjoyed it!

Most of the gang...

Looking like I need a nap!

Must. Figure. Out. This. Toy!

Evelyn was SO excited when she was given a "HUGE" present to open. When she opened it she realized it was something she already had. She was really a big girl about it... I could tell she was so sad and disappointed.. and was happy to set it aside for it to be returned for something else. A hard thing that probably happens some this time of year!!

The big boys playing with Bey Blades.. whatever they are... ;)

He ate A LOT. Shocking, I know. This is the same high chair his daddy sat in!

My boy loves shoes. Almost as much as food!

And that's all the picture I have from that day. I know the kids had fun.. they were asleep within 10 minutes of leaving Grandma and Grandad's (at 5:45pm!), slept the whole way home and after getting them settled at home they slept until 8 the next morning!

One last picture, tho... since I didn't take many of my Evelyn at the Christmas gig. The next day we delivered treats/cards to our "Peach Lane Family" who we are so blessed to call neighbors. It was cold, and Evelyn took a pretty good tumble on the sidewalk. We came in and after assessing that she would make it (heehee) I made her some hot cocoa.

This is contentment. Love it. Love her more!

More Christmas blogging to come...

Monday, December 13, 2010

Evelyn Turns 4... A photo blog

Breakfast Birthday cinnamon rolls. Its how we roll....

Opening her gifts from us.. Tag Reader books and a puzzle.


Ready for the Tinker Bell party... someone was quite excited!!

The butcher paper was for the craft. A fun Tinker Bell table cloth went on afterwards...

Let the crafting begin. Doug organized a fairy wand making craft. The girls LOVED it and made some pretty cute wands!









Then I read a Tinkerbell story and moved to present opening time...


Best. Sneeze. Photo. Ever. Thanks Christine!!

Cupcake Time!



Most of the girls hung out and played after eating. They seemed to all migrate to Evelyn's room, where Doug read stories. He was SUCH an amazing help and co-host. I love him so....

If there was one thing I would do different about the day is have someone else take pictures. It was hard to be taking pics and hosting at the same time. I missed a lot of shots.. good ones, too. Oh, well...

So overall it was a super fun day for my now FOUR year old. She was thoroughly loved on and spoiled by her friends and family over many days. Doug and I had fun celebrating her too!!

Happy Birthday, sweet pea!