Christmas Trip...Part 3 (better late than never :)

After we left Jay, we headed to Georgia to visit Shane's fam. To make the trip slightly more bearable, we stopped halfway in Montgomery to stay the night (thanks to the Smiths for letting us crash at your house :). We got to visit with our good friends, BK and Delta and their hilarious boys. They work for an inner-city ministry in Montgomery called Common Ground. They recently renovated this building in their neighborhood and made it into a community center. It was SO cool. Isn't this painting on the wall AMAZING? Love you guys! It was SO great to see ya'll!

The girls LOVED opening presents this year. Here they are with Uncle Lance (the very bearded one :) opening their first gifts in Georgia.

Cell phones! Yay! Exactly what they needed! Maybe they will leave my cell phone alone now :) Thanks Uncle Lance and Aunt Julia!

"Excuse me, can you PLEASE pipe down...Can't you see I'm on the phone!"

They loved the huge Doodle Pro Uncle B and Aunt Marcia Lynn got them. They are still fighting over it!

They also got babies from Aunt Julia and Uncle Lance. Gabbie is currently OBSESSED with shoes....as you can see from these two pics...

Trying on their new cool shoes...

Jocie's hair in a very cute ponytail...

Jocie's hair 2 minutes later after she takes the ponytail out.....

They are currently in LOVE with Elmo so Gran and HayHay got them each an Elmo baby that also had his own paci. And, of course, they needed baby carriers for their Elmo's as well :)

Second favorite gift from Gran and HayHay were these Walmart grocery buggies (ok, I know some of you "not country" people call them carts, but they will always be buggies to me :)

Aunt Marcia-Lynn and Gabbie enjoying a snack (or coffee) together. Too cute!

Jocelyn eating dinner with her baby attached to her tray. This has become a MUST. They will not eat unless their baby (or babies) are all piled up on their tray as well. It's insane.

Uncle B and Aunt Marcia-Lynn playing with the girls...

Our great friends, Justin and Leah stopped by the Sham for New Year's Eve. It was so great to see them! They have two girls as well. This was the best shot I could get of all four girls...

The girls playing with Gran...

Jocelyn and HayHay (and Elmo, of course)

Aunt Beth "gettin" Jocie. They have the EXACT same hair!

Daddy performing his nightly ritual :)

Mama and Jocie :)

We got to hang out with the Ak's while we were in GA. Here is Country Chris and Shane (posing, of course)

Their sweet new addition, Eli. How cute!!

Me and April

On New Year's Eve we hung out over at Chris and April's with Shane's brothers and some other good friends. It was the first time in YEARS (17, to be exact for Shane, 13 for me) that we weren't at the New Year's Conference. That's crazy! Here are all the boys...

New Year's Eve pic..

I know I have mentioned before that they girls travel HORRIBLY. This trip was no different. It was a nightmare, as usual. They literally screamed for 11 hours in the car as we drove from north GA back to Orlando. There was actually 4 minutes in the car when they weren't screaming. (yes, we timed it) I took a picture of them during this precious, very brief block of time. We called both of our families on the way back and told them we were never leaving Orlando again until we moved. Period. They are just THAT insane in the car! We even tried benedryl......didn't touch them. BUT, now that I have had a few weeks to recover, I'll probably reconsider the "I'm never leaving again" vow....we shall see. HOWEVER, despite our traveling woes, it was so fabulous to see our friends and family over the Christmas holidays!!!!

Christmas Trip...Part 2

After our visit in Mobile, we headed over for Jay, FL to spend a few days with my fam. The girls love being in "the country". Jocelyn had a blast riding on the tractor with PawPaw. Gabbie was a little too afraid of the big tractor...she decided to just watch Jocie on the tractor from a distance while daddy held her :)

On Dec. 23rd, we had our Christmas gathering at my grandpa and grandma's house. All the Uncles, Aunts, and cousins come over and eat an enormous meal and then the kids open gifts. After that, all the adults play dirty Santa (which can really get interesting :). The finale of the evening is building a big bonfire and shooting fireworks. (Does anyone else shoot fireworks on Christmas Eve? The first year Shane and I were married and we did that, he thought it was so weird...he had never heard of anyone doing that. I thought everyone on the planet shot fireworks on Christmas Eve...hello?!?)

My cousin and his wife have 2 year old boy/girl twins. Here are both sets eating Grandma's country cookin'....yummy

My Uncle, Aunt, and cousins are ENORMOUS Alabama fans. My dad hates Alabama. When Alabama played Florida a while back my dad made a bet with my cousin that if Alabama won, he would wear an Alabama hat and cheer for them in the championship. Well, here he is in the hat my cousin gave him for Christmas :)

I remember as a small child every Christmas at my grandparents, my grandma would get us all to sit down before we opened presents and she would read the Christmas story to us and then talk about it with us. I love this tradition. Every year it get more and more crowded in their tiny living room because there are more and more great-grandchildren. It had an extra special meaning for me this year as I sat there listening and watching MY children hear the same story that I remember her reading to me when I was little. She has truly put a lasting mark of her faith on her family. I am so thankful for such wonderful grandparents that love Jesus.


Grandpa with cousin Landon

Jocelyn giving a kiss to the baby she just got from grandma

It gets just a LITTLE chaotic when the presents are handed out :)

Gabbie showing off her new baby

This, my friends, is my grandparent's purple 2 foot Christmas tree. The picture says it all....

Aunt Emily and Gabbie (who refused to look at the camera)

The best family pic we could get :)

We opened presents at my parent's house on Christmas Eve this year. The girls had so much fun opening their gifts this year.

Cousin Landon was being sneaky and stole Jocie's cup....look at that face!!

Cousin Kaylea and cousin Ashton patiently waiting to open their gifts :)

My sis, brother-in-law, brother, dad, and Landon (Juliet, where are you? I don't have any pics with you in them!!? Were you hiding??)

Jocelyn trying on her new striped tights

Gabbie was obessed with the bows. She stuck them all over her face....

and on PawPaw's head....

and on Jocie's head...

My mom's decorated gourd...maybe the most unique gift of the day...

Jocelyn taking a break from playing with Gabbie to answer her phone :)


OUR CHRISTMAS MIRACLE

Since we opened presents on Christmas Eve, we really didn't have any plans for Christmas morning. However, that did not mean we could sleep in...oh, no...our children, especially the Gabster, ALWAYS wake up at the crack of dawn or earlier :) Shane and I were sleeping in the living room and when I woke up, I noticed that there was alot of light shining into the room (the previous two days we had been there, it was still almost dark when Gabbie would wake up). Confused, I looked up at the clock on the wall and saw that it was 8:15 am....WHAT?!? Of course, immediately Shane thought something was wrong with them, I mean, why else would they still be asleep?? OK, Jocelyn has slept a little later before, but Gabbie has NEVER slept past 7 am....NEVER. OK, so maybe they are awake and we were just sleeping so hard that we didn't hear them?? We look at the monitor and they were both still sound asleep. Of course, since we didn't wake up until 8:15, it felt like we had slept in till noon! Shane actually goes into the room and touches them to make sure they are breathing. No, I am not joking. So, we are sitting there in complete amazement. Waiting....Waiting....Waiting...

8:55 am!!! Jocelyn wakes up. We couldn't believe it. And yes, the Gabster is still asleep.

Daddy and Jocelyn having some chill time....still WAITING on Gabbie to wake up...

9:37 am!!! Gabbie wakes up...We totally were in shock. We didn't think it was humanly possible for her to EVER sleep late. She was incapable of doing such a thing! Then we realized....this was our CHRISTMAS MIRACLE!! I took a picture of the clock just so I could have proof that it really did happen!


Our sweet, VERY rested Gabbie...

They loved running up and down the ramp at grandpa and grandma's house....

The swings are their favorite at PawPaw and MawMaw's house....They fought so bad over the tree swing that PawPaw bought another one while we were there to end the dispute. Thanks PawPaw!! We love you!

I forgot to mention that while at my parent's Gabbie got the stomach virus, then I got it, then Shane, then my dad, then my grandpa. Not fun. SOOOO sorry we brought sickness with us! We are so glad we got to spend Christmas with you!