A Big Sister!

When we went to Sanger, we were about 9 or so weeks pregnant and thought we would go ahead and tell the Erwin's since we were in person. However, I am not always creative with this. So, for this time, we put a piece of masking tape on Everly that said Big Sister and waited for people to notice! ha! Pop asked if we were getting a puppy! GG didn't notice for awhile! It was a fun way to tell people. So, our 4th baby had a due date of August 4th!

Christmas In Sanger

We headed to Sanger on the 28th of December for a long weekend to celebrate Christmas with the family!We spent most of our time playing games, visiting, opening gifts and hanging at Grandma and Pop's to play. Melbo and Pa had been sick and not moving well, so this was the first year, ever, that we did not go to their house to do Christmas. So, we had it at Grandma and Pop's and then a few of us went over to their house after to visit and let them open their gifts. Vic and Charley also installed their new TV! It was a fast, but great Christmas!

So, every time we are at Grandma and Pop's house, Grace rides this big plastic pony. She's almost too big for it, but she loves it. Well, my mom pulled out Charley's old stuffed pony and Everly played and played and played on it. By the end of the trip, she wanted on the plastic one too but this one entertained her so much!

Grace even got a solo trip to the feed store with Pop one morning.

 Everly took a long nap while eveyrone opened gifts, so she got to have a solo show! She loved these Minnie Mouse shoes! Mickey and friends were her Christmas highlights this year!

 Melbo, age 87 and Pa, age 91! They've seen a lot of Christmases together!

We left on New Year's Eve to head home in our pajamas. It was COOOLD that day! It was a great Christmas in Sanger!

Christmas Day

Our Christmas Day was special as always! The weather was NOT hot, but just a nice day which is always a plus. The big kids woke up and came to us immediately. Santa had covered their gifts with blankets, which was smart because I think they were too excited to wait for us to see what they had gotten! The kids got some really fun things and we could still remind and reflect on what the day was really about, Jesus's birth.

 Grace asked for a Vampirina (cartoon show) playhouse from Santa this year. She LOVES dollhouses and pretending!

 As I said before, on Christmas Eve, Atticus made us a special gift and wrapped it up and we were so excited to open it. He made us our very own SEC Book full of teams and mascots. It was on notebook paper and stapled and the sweetest thing I've ever seen.

While Grace opens a gift and moves on to the next one over and over until all of her gifts are open, Atticus is our organizer. He separated and stacked them and then went through opening each and every one! Also, you see that Santa brought them each a GIANT Beanie Boo. I've mentioned their love (mostly Atticus's but Grace loves them too) of Beanie Boo's before. But, these were huge!

 Everly understood a little more about presents and opening them. But, as always, at this age, she would open something, play with it and be content and take almost all day to open her gifts.

 Atticus got one of his many requested team caps for Christmas!

 And he asked Santa for Pokemon cards as well and got a bunch!
And Vic always makes us a delicious meal for Christmas!

 

Here is a compiled video of the day! https://youtu.be/FvVHtEGJAeM

A Special Present for the Kids!

At the end of Christmas Day, we had a very special present for the kids...here it was!
https://youtu.be/a67zR0QnOnI

Christmas Eve 2017

Our Christmas Eve was slightly different this year because we were at our new church, First Baptist Church in Bryan. They had a 10:00 service that we all attended (Flu was rampant this season everywhere, and I was too nervous to put the little girls in the nursery, so we tried and succeeded in all of us staying in the service!). It was so fun to be in such a large church with such wonderful music on Christmas Eve! I felt completely full! Then we went to lunch at Cheddar's. Lunch was a last minute decision, but it was so nice to go out to eat as a family all dressed up and then home to relax in the afternoon! Full of lunch on a cool day, most of us took naps or played. When Vic and I got up, we took the kids outside and they played basketball and rode scooters and tricyles. Vic and Grace put up our inflatable things we bought the day before! Atticus and Grace really wanted to buy Vic some giant yard Christmas inflatables for his present this year. Well, I ran out of time until the day before and guess what...those things are gone! We got some small ones and Grace loved them the very most! So, Vic and Grace set those up. Then, we went inside and Vic made kid-friendly ravioli for dinner. We saw a surprise present that Atticus had made that day for Vic and I and wrapped in the most precious manner! He used birthday wrapping paper and masking tape and packing tape and I was so anxious to see what he did for us. It was so fun because that might be the first time that he really understood that HE can give gifts or make gifts for Vic and me. 

We enjoyed our evening just being together. Atticus checked the computer 100x to track where Santa was in the world. We watched White Christmas and the girls played and danced. Then, we got our pajamas on, read Twas the Night Before Christmas, set out cookies for Santa, put out the reindeer food and headed to bed hoping that Santa would come the next day! Christmas is so fun and while we wish we lived closer to families so we could pack more family fun into these couple of days, we also really love the flexibility (of kids and moods and schedules) of us doing it just at home. One day, we will be older and kids will be easier and we can hopefully travel more to see everyone sooner!

 

 Oh Sweet Atticus!

And here's my crazy video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HoaHSk4LxrE&t=242s