Christmas Eve 2013

I love Christmas Eve! It's such a laid back day for us. All the shopping and wrapping and prep work is done and we get to just hang out and enjoy the day together.

Plus I love the candle-light service at our church. It helps remind me what this season is really about as we celebrate the birth of our Savior!

The Long's. Love them!!

So beautiful!

After the service we took our traditional Christmas Eve family picture.

Sweet friends!

Me and my girly!

After church we headed over to Mimi and Papa's house for their Christmas Eve party. Where the kids had to endure yet some more pictures before I'd let them go play.

This little cutie didn't mind posing for mommy though!

We got there early to help my mom get set up and almost had to call the fire dept because their oven literally caught on fire. I wish I had a picture of this scene because it was quite comical. The grease from the sausage balls dripped off the pan and caught on fire. There were huge flames and tons of smoke. I was standing in the kitchen doorway holding a huge box fan trying to blow the smoke out the door, my mom was trying to wrangle my 3 kids as my dad and Shane were trying to put out the fire. Shane would open the oven door and my dad would throw a handful of baking soda in and then they'd slam the door again...this went on for a while until the flames were out. They did have a fire extinguisher, but my dad didn't want to use it because that would, "Ruin the food." Um, dad, I think it's pretty much ruined at this point. The ironic part was that my brother had to work on Christmas Eve, so he was at the fire station as my parents kitchen just about went up in flames. Anyway, it was quite the scene, but the boys got the fire out and we aired out the house before everyone got there.

The girls all wore these adorable matching dresses this year.

Ava, Kennedy, Avery, Berkley, and Taylor

Sweet cousins

Then the boys jumped into the picture, doesn't Cade look thrilled?

Playing our traditional game of Left, Right, Center.

Shane let Carson play, and he actually won the first game!

The kids got to open up their new jammies from KiKi!

Everyone cooperated for a picture in their new PJ's

Merry Christmas Eve!

4 Year Interviews

I totally forgot to write up the kid's 4 year interviews that I video taped a couple of months ago. Here are their responses to the same questions I asked them last year, plus a few new ones.

Carson:
1. What is your name: Carson Daniels Alan
2. How old are you: 4
3. What is your sister's name: Avery Daniels
4. What is your brother's name: Cade Michael
5. What is your mommy's name: Mommy
6. What is your daddy's name: Shane
7. What is your favorite color: green, yellow, and blue
8. What is your favorite food: hot dogs
9. What is your favorite fruit: salad
10. What is your favorite toy: dinosaur
11. What is your favorite movie: Elmo
12. What is your favorite book: The Pirate Book
13. What is your favorite song: ABC's
14. Who is your best friend: Dada (He still calls Shane Dada...so sweet)
15. What is your favorite animal: giraffe
16. What is your favorite TV show: Oso
17. What is your favorite thing to wear: My Firefighter costume
18. What do you want to be when you grow up: A daddy, so I can take care of my kids
19. What is your favorite place to go eat: Chick Fil A
20. What is your most favorite thing to do in the whole world: Go to Disney World

Avery:
1. What is your name: Avery Elizabeth Daniels
2. How old are you: 4
3. What is your brother's name: Carson Alan
4. What is your other brother's name: Cade Alan
5. What is your mommy's name: Mommy
6. What is your daddy's name: Daddy Shane
7. What is your favorite color: pink and purple
8. What is your favorite food: Re-tella (Nutella) sandwich
9. What is your favorite fruit: strawberries
10. What is your favorite toy: baby dolls and their stroller
11. What is your favorite movie: Tinker Bell
12. What is your favorite book: Sophia Matching Book
13. What is your favorite song: Itsy Bitsy
14. Who is your best friend: Katelyn and Ava
15. What is your favorite animal: Bunny
16. What is your favorite TV show: Sophia the First
17. What is your favorite thing to wear: My lemon shirt (a random t shirt she has with a glass of lemonade on the front of it)
18. What do you want to be when you grow up: a mommy
19. Where is your favorite place to go eat: Kabachi (Habachi)
20. What is your most favorite thing to do in the whole world: Go to Disney World

Little Feet

Ok, these pictures are totally random, but I realized that I never posted them so here they are. I love baby feet, they are just the sweetest. So in my postpartum hormonal state, I decided to take a few pictures of Cade's little newborn feet with Carson and Avery's toddler feet. Check out his little chicken legs!!

ICE

MiMi, Avery, Cade and I got to visit ICE at the Gaylord Texan while the boys were at the deer lease.

This year's theme was the Nutcracker

Cade actually stayed very toasty warm in the Ergo while we were inside this giant freezer, all except for his nose. It was ice cold, poor buddy. He didn't fuss at all though. Such a trooper.

Avery loved the ballerinas.

She also loved the slide. It wasn't very crowded when we went, so she was able to slide like 5 times. Then she was cold and ready to go.

They also had a Christmas in NYC section, which I loved!!

Love this taxi cab!

Mimi and Avery in the big apple!

There was a lady making balloon animals for the kids. Avery was her last client for the day.

Then on the way out to her car she heard Cade screaming in the parking garage, while we were standing in the very long line to pay for our parking, and stopped to make him a snowman. It was very sweet.

And actually worked, he stopped screaming :)

The Polar Express

On Christmas Eve-Eve MiMi and Papa took us to Grapevine to ride on the Polar Express. Carson and Avery are obsessed with the movie, so they were very excited!!

Dressed in their Christmas jammies!

We boarded the train and took about a 40 min ride. There were elves that entertained the kids and we sang Christmas Carols and they read "Twas the night before Christmas" on our ride.

They passed out bells to all the kids.

Then they got to walk through the snow to the North Pole.

To visit Santa's Workshop.

Thanks MiMi and PaPa for the fun trip to the North Pole!