Stuckey Christmas

Today was our Christmas celebration with the Stuckey/Showalter clan.

Rachel got up bright and early to bring home donuts for breakfast. 

We opened presents...the girls enjoyed trying on their new Frozen clothes.

Rachel, Sue, and I had a good afternoon. First, we took the kids to see Annie. 

Then, sans kids, we made our annual trek to Trader Joe's, and then checked out Fresh Thyme. So fun.  I had to take a picture of my cashier's name tag for Dad. :)

The evening meal was another incredible family-style meal at Maggiano's where we all stuffed our faces. So. Good.

Grandma Sue got the girls matching outfits, so we got a few pictures of these little cuties.

Decatur then Indy

Monday, we headed out and spent a few hours with Grandma Billie and Max in Decatur. It was great to see them again. It was nice to reminisce about Grandpa Wayne, and laugh with Uncle Max because, well, he just has a way of entertaining us and making us laugh. :) I stink, apparently, at taking pictures and completely missed capturing the moment. But we really enjoyed our visit.

Then we headed down to Indy to start the Stuckey Christmas festivities.

Jillian and Aubrey worked on some crowns for the little ones.

Sunday

So...Sunday we all kind of crashed. Aubrey wasn't feeling well, so she and I missed out on seeing Dave, Teneesa and family.

After some clean up, and packing...we just chilled. 

Aubrey wanted to take a picture of me and it was actually in focus....

Mom did some cupping...it looks awful but feels nice.

We Wore Mama Out

She was MIA for a few hours...then I found the mummy...

Henry Turns 3!

Henry turned 3 on December 27th...and we celebrated with the family. I often wish we lived closer to  all of our family...and birthdays are no exception. It's nice to celebrate together. 

Singing Happy Birthday

Love that smile between Daddy and Son.

 Zion and Gabe were unicorns for the party.

A wolverine/robot/whatever pinata was lots of fun for everyone!

Henry starting off the festivities.

Watching the fun

Layla - 3 1/2

Aubrey - nearly 5

Caroline - 1

Israel - 8

Tyler - 10

Gabe - 10

 

Grandma taking her swing

Lynette's turn

Carrie - Hi Ya!

Wayne gives it a kick

The candy scramble

Silly Israel

Time for birthday cupcakes and blowing out candles

Stories in the cabin

Every night, Mom and Dad slept with an assortment of the "big boys" in the cabin. Mom would read to them and Dad told them of his tales of bear hunting in Maine and adventures in Alaska. It was very important to each of the boys to be there as they didn't want to miss any of their story time.

Christmas

We did things a little differently this year...one thing we did differently was to have the cousin gift exchange on Christmas Eve followed by an impromptu dance party. 

For some reason, this is the only picture I took...Wayne with Layla's new Frozen backpack. 

Christmas morning, Tim told the Christmas story to/with the kids...and then led us in a few Christmas carols.

Dad snuggling with the girls.

And now with Henry too

Carrie and Caroline...love her happy little tongue!

Tim very patiently telling the Christmas story...

silly

Guns

Tim's family arrived and brought with them some fun laser guns. They were cracking me up...

Tim taking aim

Naughty

Cutie Patootie Caroline

Can't you sense their joy?

Mom had dressed Aubrey up in my flower girl dress...and she's in on the fun too with one of Henry's many toy guns.

All the boys are having fun now...

And after, I thought it was sweet to see Tim patiently teaching Aubrey about playing guitar...