Christmas in Texas

We had a wonderful Christmas in Texas this year! William was giddy with excitement for months leading up to our trip about being with his cousins. It's so much fun all being in Granny's house together, even though it gets a little wild with 5 children under age 7. Payton and Finley doted on Charlotte the entire time which made it easy for me :) William and Tyler became big buds and spent most of the time playing race cars.

 Sweet cousins!!! Crazy to think Payton was only 7 months old when we got married and now she's almost 8!!!

 The boys and Uncle Grant

 The highlight of the trip was riding the Polar Express to the North Pole. We went when William was 7 months (his first Christmas) and it was a blast going back this year and seeing the magic through William's eyes. He was SO excited and interested.

 They bring you hot chocolate and warm chocolate cookies. 

 Waiting for Santa!!!

 How cute is she?! And those eyes!!!

 Getting their golden ticket stamped. 

 So happy and enthralled!!! Christmas morning our family of 4 and Granny woke up at the lake. William was thrilled with his hot wheels track that Santa brought him!

And Santa brought our baby girl a baby doll that looks just like her!

After we packed the car at Granny's, we headed to Waco on Christmas morning for the kids to open their gifts from Granny. Of course everything she gave them was a HUGE hit, probably better than Santa...hahaha. 

 I love that William has a boy cousin on the Davis side that is so close in age!!

 Granny and her grand babies 

 Charlotte's stroller from Granny was a huge hit for our little momma. 

We made Happy Birthday Jesus cupcakes!!

The rest of these pics are from my phone...

 Princess Charlotte had several tantrums in the middle of Birmingham's airport 

 They're always SO good on airplanes!

 Good times in Granny's beautiful yard!

 Christmas day exhaustion. 

 Yes...they went swimming on Christmas day!!!

 Sweet Fin matching her American Girl doll in her PJ's. 

Two tired kiddos back in Birmingham after another amazing visit with our TX family. 

Christmas Happenings (according to the iPhone) 2016

It's hard to believe another Christmas season has come and gone. We loved every second of celebrating the birth of our Savior and experiencing the real Christmas story with William and Charlotte. Now don't get me wrong, there was a magic elf flying around our house at night, plenty of Santa discussions, and lots of lights in our yard but we attempted to make the true magic and meaning of Christmas clear with William. I think we learned more from him this year than he did from us.

 The first week we had the tree up, Charlotte hurled ornaments like they were baseballs every chance she could get her hands on the tree...ACK!

 William and I had a mommy/son night and made a gingerbread house and read The Christmas Story together. 

 He told me The Christmas Story by using the nativity. I wish I could bottle up his innocence and little 4 year old self and freeze time. 

 We also had a lunch date and afternoon of shopping. 

 Santa sent an elf from the North Pole to visit our home. William was ecstatic about Beardy (what he named him) and would race out of his bedroom each morning to see if he came back from the North Pole. 

 Well, we went and visited Santa and you can see how that went. Charlotte is NOT a fan of "ho ho."

 Our Christmas card

 Charlotte and her school buds

 William was Joseph in his school Christmas program. I have never felt so proud or happy than I was seeing him sing in his program. He seemed SO young and for a moment like he was my baby again :) 

It just doesn't get much sweeter. I already can't wait for Charlotte to be in this precious Christmas program when she is in 4K.

 One of the highlights of December was having Uncle Doug, Aunt Katie and Madison come visit for a weekend. We all loved snuggling baby M and giving her very little personal space ;)

 We went to Zoolight Safari and it was FREEZING!!! But we all loved seeing the lights and getting in the Christmas spirit. 

 More elf mischief. 

 School Christmas parties were a blast!!!

 It wasn't all sugarplums and nativity talk, there were plenty of Christmas meltdowns!!!

 We exchanged gifts with baby Lila and she was too busy for a picture. 

 I captured this precious moment when Charlotte showed up to Williams's school Christmas party :) 

 Sunday school tacky Christmas party is always a blast!

 We attempted to get a picture of a 4 year old, 21 month old, 17 month old, and 7 month old. You can see how that went. 

 We loved on baby Madison some more. 

 William started going to big church with us and wore Uncle Doug's vintage red blazer to church. 

 Charlotte and Annie continue to have a love/hate relationship but they love really hard. 

 We played board games and took naps by the fire. 

 Charlotte slept in Mommy's Christmas nightgown. I wore this when I was a little girl!

Next up...Christmas with The Davis Family in TX.