Christmas 2008

We had a wonderful Christmas with all of our family! We had Christmas with my Dad last Sunday, then headed to DeRidder Wednesday, then to Carthage on Friday, and then finally back to Ruston to have Christmas with my Mom. We all had a very good Christmas and feel extremely blessed to have such a wonderful family!

Look what I got for Christmas!!!!!

So today I opened a present from Trey and the girls and it was a box of Bounce. Upon further inspection I realized that the side was opened so I peeked in and there was a picture of my new washer & dryer!!! I was so surprised I cried!! They will be delivered Monday. We had a great Christmas here in DeRidder with Trey's family! We are headed to Carthage tomorrow then we will have Christmas with my Mom in Ruston on Saturday. I love it when Christmas lasts a week!!!! Anyway, I was so excited I had to share!!!!

Christmas at Dad's

We had Christmas with my Dad last night. We had a great time! Dad got them a Barbie jeep and super cute rain boots and a jumpy thing! They also got a baby doll and stroller. They had fun playing with it all! Mallory pushed her baby all around in the stroller and Alyssa tried to get in it! They both got in the Barbie jeep but haven't quite figured it out. It is too cold to go outside and play with it today so they will have to wait! When we got home last night Andy & Kelly were pulling into town! We are heading to DeRidder on Christmas Eve. Have a Merry Christmas!!!!

I've Been Tagged

Suzanne tagged me! The way the game works is you have to post the 4th picture from the 4th picture file on your computer. So, here is ours. This picture is from October 2006. Alyssa was about 6 1/2 months old and we had custody of her for about 2 weeks. This was her first trip to Carthage to meet Trey's Grandparents. Actually, I think this was the first time Trey's Dad met her too! This is Trey's Dad holding Alyssa. My how time flies!!!!!!



Now I tag Megan, Marcie, Elaine and Ashley.

UH-OH

So today I dropped Mallory off at MDO and EVERYONE was handing out presents! I was doing good to get the teachers a gift! So I decided to run to the store and figure something out. I lucked up and found a few things at The Dollar Tree, put some ribbon around it, and used my new CM tag maker to make some cute tags. Fortunately, the parents don't really do that at Temple so I only had to make 6! I took cupcakes for each of the girls Christmas parties and so the girls had the leftovers for snacks after school. I don't know if you can tell but Alyssa has green all over her mouth from them! Mimi & Poppi sent the girls a musical Christmas card with scooby doo singing jingle bells. Mallory LOVES it! She threw a fit when I took it away! Anyway, I thought I would share a picture of the gift I made and of course a few of the girls!

Christmas with the Critters

We took the kids to Papa Simpson's Farm this weekend. We have never been but they were having Christmas with the Critters so we decided to go. It was fun! We weren't too excited about paying $8 per person but we really enjoyed it! We went on a hay ride that took us to the back of the farm. Mama Simpson was there and read a Christmas Story to the children. There were 7 boxes out on the hay bales where we were sitting and the child that was sitting closest to it brought it up front. Boxes 1-6 were different pieces of a nativity scene and the last box was the gift God wanted and it had a mirror in it. Then all of the kids got a Christmas book and we got to roast marshmallows. The girls enjoyed the marshmallows! We then rode back on the hay ride to where all of the other activities were. We looked at chickens and roosters, petted goats and baby cows, found baby Jesus, looked at Santa, and dug through snow. They had horse rides and you could take your picture with Santa but it was $5 and they wouldn't let you use your personal camera. It wasn't too cold. We will probably make that a Christmas tradition!

The Tyler's Birthday Party

We went to a birthday party last weekend for Jake and Landry Tyler at Gymboree in Shreveport. The girls had so much fun! They went wild playing on everything. Mallory was not too fond of their little mascot clown. In fact, she was down right terrified of it. Of course, she was also scared of making cookies with me yesterday too - but that is another post. Anyway, I thought I would share a few pictures from the party.

It's THAT Good!!!

Trey has been begging me to make some baked potato soup. It takes a good hour of constant stirring to make so I don't like to make it very often. Well, I made it last week and Mallory loved it! She likes anything with potatoes in it but she REALLY liked this! We had the leftovers for lunch Friday and she had two bowls. I was eating mine and looked up at her to see her licking the bowl! I had to get a picture! I guess I need to make it more often!!!!

My Big Girls

Just wanted to share some pictures of my big girls. They are growing so fast. I have been going through some old pictures lately and have really noticed how much they have grown over the last 6 months.

So I have a new addiction! Yes - my name is Tara and I am a digiscrapaholic! Last week I got Storybook Creator (creative memories digital scrapbooking software) and LOVE it! I haven't even gotten to an actual book yet. I have been working on some Christmas presents and our Christmas cards. The banner at the top of my page is one of the Christmas cards I made. It is so easy to use and it can do anything you want it to. I HIGHLY recommend it to everyone! After I complete the current traditional scrapbooks I have been working on (for 2 years) I will only do digital!

Here is another interesting fact about Christmas I learned from my Bible study:

Xmas. The Greek name for Christ is Christos. It begins with the Greek letter chi which resembles a small x. During the 16th century, Europeans began using the first initial of Christ's name, "x," as a shorthand version of Christ. One of the many words they abbreviated in this way was Christmas, making it xmas. Although early Christians understood who the x stood for, later Christians did not and mistook it as a sign of disrespect, "taking Christ out of Christmas."

WOW! I am one of those later Christians!

Our Future Gymnast

We have decided that Mallory is going to be a gymnast. She LOVES doing flips and jumping off of things. Trey caught her in action last week. I thought I would share some of those pictures. You will have to look at them from bottom to top to see them in order. For some reason when I download pictures it does that. It took too long to download to redo it!

We had a great Thanksgiving. We ate lots of food, put up our Christmas tree and decorations, and shopped on Black Friday. I even have all of my presents wrapped! I know the next few weeks are going to be busy so I tried to get everything done while I could. I love looking at my Christmas tree! I am in a 4 week study on Christmas and a the end of each day of homework she adds an interest tidbit about Christmas so I thought I could share the one about the Christmas Tree.

Martin Luther as walking home late one Christmas Eve and looked up to the heavens. he saw the stars shining through the branches of a fir tree near his home. Inspired by its beauty, Luther brought the tree inside his house, and using the candles, replicated what he saw.

"The glory of Lebanon shall come unto thee, the fir tree, the pine tree, and the box together, to beautify the place of my sanctuary...." Isaiah 60:13

Today the Christmas tree has become a symbol of Christ, the evergreen Tree of Life.