Christmas 2010

Since I never was able to finish adding pictures, I went ahead and decided to post this since Christmas was well over 2 months ago!!!



Okay, this blog will probably be much longer than I anticipate, but I want to capture every moment from this Christmas so that I can look back on it and remember every detail!!

We started our "4 Christmases" the weekend before Christmas by going to Tullahoma to celebrate Christmas with Dennis' dad and Barbara. We met Daren, Rachel and McHaney down there on Saturday and we all spent the day there. We had a wonderful dinner and opened presents and then we had to head back to Gallatin because we had to be at church on Sunday morning! Here are a few pics from the day. We hardly got any pictures because we were so busy talking, playing and laughing, but here are just a few!

Our next Christmas event came on Thursday night. My dad came by our house to get his Christmas gift and then we all went to Jeffrey and Rachel's for dinner and to open presents!! We had so much fun, as always! My dad cooked a delicious prime rib dinner and we had wonderful desserts as well.

Poppy with the kiddos after he opened his electric smoker.

Sawyer LOVED his train tracks from Poppy! It was definitely the hit of the evening!!!!

Sadie got some great Cabbage Patch angels and a Snoopy puzzle that she put together about 40 times!!!!

Rach, Dad and me!

Sadie rang the "dinner bell"!!!

All of the cousins playing with Sawyer's new racetrack!

Thank you daddy for all of the wonderful presents and memories!!!!

The next day was Christmas Eve. We got up and got ready and headed straight to Grammy and Captain's house. We opened presents right away because Grammy has never been one to want to wait on that. She's always WAY too excited!! The kids got so many fun things! The biggest surprise was for Sadie and McHaney. They both got new 4-wheelers!! Sawyer had already gotten one for his birthday, so Grammy had to get them for Sadie and Mc too! They were both so excited. We ate a wonderful lunch and let the kids play until Sawyer was about to fall over.

Grammy and Captain coming down the stairs with more presents, just as they do every year!!!

The kids having a ball riding their 4-wheelers together for the first time. No more sharing!!!

The girls were sent to the garage to get their "big surprise"!

This was shortly after we gave Grammy and Captain our picture of the kids. This picture says a thousand words. Grammy was touched. She sure loves her grandbabies!!!!

Deda played princesses and horses with the girls. He was cracking me up!! I thought it was so sweet!!! He was really getting into it.

We came home and let the kids take a nap while Dennis and I cleaned and got things ready to prepare for Christmas later that night. When they got up, we went over to my Grandma's house with Rachel, Jeffrey and the kids to visit with her for a while. She's such a precious, precious lady. I love her dearly. Before we left, we hugged her and she said "I love you. I know I don't tell you that very much, but I mean it". Broke my heart. Dennis said she was crying as we were leaving. God bless her soul.

Afterwards we headed over to my mom's house to have Christmas with her! We ate a delicious dinner and then opened lots and lots of presents!!

When we got home that night, we got things ready for Santa to come! We let the kids put out "reindeer food" (new concept for me!) outside on the front lawn. It was oats with glitter in it and it was meant for the moon to glisten on the glitter and attract the reindeer. Hilarious!!! Then, we got Santa's cookies, milk, and cheerios for Rudolph. (We saw Santa at Chick fil A one night and he informed us that Rudolph's favorite cereal was Cheerios. Who knew, right??) The magic was beginning.
The kids took their baths and got ready for bed and we read "Twas the Night Before Christmas" in Sadie's bed. Then, after much convincing that Santa was not going to come until they were asleep, Sadie finally fell asleep.

That's when the real work began! Dennis and I spent hours putting toys together, cleaning, laughing, playing and of course eating freshly baked Monkey Bread!! YUM!!!! It was also snowing like crazy outside when we were getting ready to go to bed. Dennis even went outside and found some real live Rudolph tracks right outside our back door!!!!!!

We finally went to sleep and we woke up on Christmas morning much earlier than the kiddos. We were so excited! We woke up to a White Christmas too!! The first recorded in 17 years!!

When the kids finally got up, they were so excited! They came into the den to see that indeed, Santa had come!! They played, opened presents and had the best time. After the initial excitement and after Dennis and I opened our presents from each other, we started cooking our Christmas Day breakfast. Mornin' Glory Oven French Toast with egg nog syrup, eggs and bacon. I can still taste it!!

Most all of our parents came by to see the kids and what all Santa brought them.

We hung out all day long and let the kids play and rest. Sawyer barely made it to naptime. He was so exhausted.

Dennis cooked a Boston Butt in his new electric smoker and we were supposed to have it for dinner, but it was a bad piece of meat, so we were left with nothing for dinner!!! What a bummer! He ran out and got himself some Subway but I ended up having Cheerios for dinner. Oh well. :)

We busted out the Kinect that I had gotten Dennis for Christmas and we played forever! LOTS of fun!!! I can see many family memories coming from that electronic device!!!

What a perfect Christmas!!!!!

The day after Christmas we had gotten more snow, so hunkered down and decided to stay in and take down all of the decorations. The kids were busy playing all day, so we thought it'd be a good time to do it.

That afternoon, we all went to Grandma and Grandad's for Christmas with them. It was a lot of fun. Sadie was kind of ill the whole time because for the first time that day, we didn't make her lay down and take a nap. Well, that's the last time I will try that! She proved to me that she still needs that rest time!!! But, all of the cousins had a blast playing together for the most part. It was a good ending to the Christmas holiday!!!!

Christmastime Pics

Sawyer had to taste-test his cookies for Santa!!

Working so intently...

Sadie has always loved the frosting. She is MY kinda GIRL!!!

The carload of gifts that our Small Group bought to take to a single mom in need!!!

Our 1st snow of the season! We weren't out in it for very long because I think the temp was only around 15 degrees!

The above shot is of my dad and Sawyer when we went to look at Christmas lights one night. Sawyer looks like he's more interested in watching the Christmas movie!
Our friend, Mr. Elf got into the pantry one night and snacked on some delicious Oreo cookies!!!
The stockings were hung by the chimney with care...

Sadie did a great job helping me decorate the tree this year. She really was very careful with each and every ornament!

Getting all of the decorations out and ready to put up!!

Christmas, Feet, and other Phillips happenings...

Christmas is just around the corner...approximately 3 days away to be exact! This Phillips household is super excited!!!! Our kids literally have been acting like they've been on crack for the past few days. It's been so fun!
Sadie wanted absolutely nothing to do with seeing Santa this year. She pretty much ran from him. It was quite funny. She kind of talked to him at Chick fil A one night, but that was while she was pretty much hiding behind me! Sawyer loved Santa this year, but I'm sure that will change next year. I am convinced that one of these years, I will actually get a picture of both of my kids with Santa Clause!!
They are growing up so fast! I've always been obsessed with my kids feet. I know...very strange, right? But, I can remember how much I loved to smell their feet when they were tiny babies and how much I just love, love, love to kiss on their precious little feet! I looked at Sadie's the other day and they just don't look like tiny little baby feet anymore. Sawyer's are disappearing right before my eyes. My little boy is getting so big. Just a sign that I don't really have "babies" anymore.
They are so sweet to each other. They definitely have their moments when they have wrestling matches in the den, but usually within minutes, they are best friends again. The other night, Sadie and I had gone to see Tangled together and Dennis had taken Sawyer to get his hair cut. When we got home, Sawyer was already in bed, but Sadie insisted that we go in and tell him good night anyways. I let her go in there while I was putting my stuff up and when I went to go in there, I stopped and listened to Sadie talk to him. She was kneeling down, and had her hand through the slats of his crib rubbing his belly and she was saying "good night buddy...if you need me, I'll be right on the other side of your wall". Okay, as a mom, I about fell in the floor bawling!!! I just thought it was precious. The look on his face was as if he knew everything in the world was just as it should be simply because his big sister said so. Priceless.
We are all settled into our home. We love it. We are very "cozy" in here, but it's just how we wanted it to be.
Dennis and I are both doing the AdvoCare 24 Day Challenge. We've never felt better. It's the most amazing product I've ever gotten my hands on. My Challenge finishes up tomorrow and I've lost a little over 10 pounds. Dennis still has about a week left and he's already lost around 13 pounds. We joined the AdvoCare team a couple of weeks ago and can't wait to jump in and start helping people after the 1st of the year. We both believe so much in this product and know that it's going to continue to make a difference in our lives both physically and financially.
We are making lots of memories this Christmas and continue to start new traditions while keeping the old ones. We continue to realize how blessed we are. God has been so incredibly good to us in 2010 and I cannot wait to see what He has in store for us in 2011!!!!!