Merry Christmas!

I hope everyone had a great Christmas! We could not have been more blessed. Below is our family Christmas picture, taken by Natalie (my sis) of course. KatieLynn shows off some new games: Noah's Ark go fish & Bible memory.

Dean loves his new green boots!

KatieLynn passes out a present to Daddy (we did one at a time), as Daddy tries to get new tractor out of package.

KatieLynn helps me open presents.

Darren's parents with grandkids: Emma, Dean, & KatieLynn

My mother (Bebe) with KatieLynn & Dean

We had our 1st Christmas Wednesday, the 23rd at Darren's parents (Gigi & Papoo). We all got enough there to last for the whole Christmas! KatieLynn's favorite presents were a teaset and leapfrog scribble & write. Dean's favorites were big CAT backhoe and leapfrog scribble & write. The next night we spent Christmas Eve at Darren's grandpa's. It was great to visit everyone, and the kids enjoyed playing with all their cousins! All the kids were very anxious to open presents, which we of course did at the end of the night. :)

Christmas Day the kids woke up after 7am (I think that was their present to us!), but got in the swing of things very quickly!! Santa brought a digital camera (KL) and a John Deere planter (D -Darren went and bought on Christmas Eve! Dean had talked about asking for lots of different implements: shredder, mower, planter, and also construction. I had gotten wooden construction trucks before Thanksgiving... but for the last week and a half all he talked about was the planter. I told Darren it didn't matter, that he'd be happy with whatever, but Darren said he needed the planter... so we put the construction up for another event). KatieLynn and Dean were just as excited to pass out presents as they were to open thier own. Fun times!!

We headed to Brenham for lunch. We had a great visit with everyone, including Johnny & Lauren. We all got lots of goods there too, including a double stroller, girl train, game, and Strawberry Shortcake for KatieLynn, and remote dumptruck and conveyor, mater, construction magnets, bulldozer, and dumptruck for Dean. Then the next day we drove to west Texas to get together with my dad's family in Miles, and my mom's family in Robert Lee (San Angelo area). I enjoyed catching up with lots of my cousins and extended family.

We came home Sunday night, and began the cleanup of the present tornado! Things look much better now, we have kind of found homes for all the new stuff and trash pickup came this morning. :) I imagine I'll start boxing up our Christmas decor tomorrow. It will be sad... but much less clutter.