Christmas at Aunt Sandra's with the Herringtons

Saturday we had another Christmas celebration, this time in Wetumpka, AL at my Aunt Sandra's house (you know, the one who spoils our kids to death with love and gifts?!) CeCe especially was super excited to go to Aunt Sanda's house this year.  She's been talking about it for weeks! 

 

CeCe and Winnie dressed and patiently waiting for the crazy boys to get ready to leave. 

 

 

My beautiful neice! 

 

These two cooking up a jumping on the chair game together!

 

Jude went first and opened his birthday present from Aunt Sandra

 Then the kids each took turns opening Christmas gifts.  There were so many of them we opened some before brunch and more after brunch! 

Thank you Aunt Sandra!! 

 

I love you Aunt Sandra!

 

Jasper helping Bryce with his big workbook

 The crew!  Minus three.  It's still hard to celebrate these holidays without my Uncle Charles and Grandmother and Grandpa.  The last year we did Chrismtas in Wetumpka (two years ago) Uncle Charles thought he was sick with a cold or sinus infection.  It turned out to be much worse than that and would be his last Christmas with us.  My mom's cousin Milton joined us again this year from Birmingham and Sandra's good friend Carolyn was there with us. 

 CeCe reading to Winnie

 We got back to the lake and Bryce couldn't wait to try out his new marshmallow bow and arrow from Aunt Sandra.  It is FUN!  The next day we had a bonfire to burn old wood and he had a blast shooting the marshmallows into the fire and watching them grow and pop! 

Christmas with the Bordens

Friday we left West Point very early to drive to Tallassee, AL to my dad's youngest brother's new house on their farm, Longleaf Breeze.  We had delicious brunch food and played and visited and of course my dad led us all in singing Christmas hymns and songs. 

 

 

I can't believe how much these older kids have grown up.  They and Chandler were only 6 and 2 in our wedding!  The ages of our kids now!  They are SO GOOD with our kids.  My kids love their older cousins and talk about them all the time.  Anna and Borden in the playroom with the kids.

This is the view from their huge screened in porch.  Harrison is runinng around with the boys and Ben and Jack were sitting in front of the fire like two old men.  It was so funny!  

 

 CeCe and Jude took turns driving Uncle Lee's tractor around.  She was so proud!

 

 

Snow and West Point

We were supposed to leave for West Point the day after Chrismtas but were very nervous about spreading the stomach virus to family there.  I just knew CeCe was going to come down with it anytime and the rest of us were just starting to feel normal again.  We decided to delay our trip one day to be on the safe side.  That winter storm that was forcasted ended up just being a very nice light blanket of snow for us when we woke up!  I took CeCe to the window and showed her and she said "what is that white stuff?!"  They were so excited to get bundled up and go out and play in the snow.  Unfortunately we don't have water proof gloves so the playing in the wet snow didn't last too long!

 

 

Cappy and Bryce had a snowball fight!

 

Everyone seemed to be feeling better on Thursday morning so we drove to West Point bright and early that day to see Kiki and Papaw Duke!  Buddy's wife had surgery the week before Christmas so they weren't able to travel at all and Tracy Dave and Daniel left Wednesday morning (they were sick with colds and probably didn't want to be around our sick germs either!) so it was just us that day.  My camera was still in the truck while we were opening gifts but this is from my phone....Bryce LOVED his new football uniform from the Hills! 

 

Kiki and Papaw Duke weren't feeling good at all while we were there.  They were coming down with colds and coughing alot, poor things.  We were still able to have a nice quick visit with them though. 

 

Today, January 6th is Papaw Duke's birthday.....HAPPY BIRTHDAY PAPAW DUKE!!!  WE LOVE YOU!!!

Christmas Day

I don't have nearly as many picutres as I would like from Christmas morning, I guess half the crew being sick took away some of the excitement! 

 

CeCe with her new coffee pot and pizza set from Santa.  So glad to have Cappy back in the land of the living!  That bundle on the stairs that Anthony is talking to is Hunter, poor thing had fever and felt terrible but didn't want to miss the fun. 

 

Bryce got a Cardinals batting helmet, a football book and some baseball and football cards from Santa. 

 

And this awesome Mt. Rushmore swim cap was in his stocking!  Santa is one smart dude! 

 

This cracks me up, she has the drinking coffee stance down perfectly already, doesn't she!?

 

And sweet Winnie.  Poor Blakeley was pretty stressed, she had no one to help hold Winnie that morning (4 of the 5 other adults were sick or just recovering and she felt sure my dad was going to come down with it soon, how it escaped Papaw Ruff and CeCe I'll never know, but thankfully it did!)

The Williams packed up and headed home that afternoon to try and beat a winter storm headed our way.  Hunter was starting to feel a little better thankfully.  

Sunday and Christmas Eve

Sunday we were going to go downtown to ride the trolley and walk on Main Street and then go to the Peabody but it was rainy all morning.  We ended up at Memphis Pizza Cafe in Midtown for some delicious pizza.  My parents stayed home with little Winnie so they missed out on the good food! 

 

 

 

After eating the rain had stopped so we drove on to the Peabody to see the decorations.

 

And of course check out the ducks!

 

 

We went up to the roof and the kids had THE BEST time running around with each other.  It's funny how just a new space to run around can get them so excited! 

 

 

Christmas Eve started out with Cappy getting sick (The Williams had been passing around a stomach virus the two weeks before Christmas but thought all the germs were gone....) She slept all day and missed out on the cute kids!  I started feeling bad after breakfast but was hoping it was just sympathy yuck for my mom! It wasn't.....I didn't eat anything for the next two days but never got sick, just felt yucky. 

 

 

Blakeley made these super cute bowties for the boys and a matching hairbow for CeCe.  They looked so good!!  Unfortunately Jasper refused to smile when I was trying to get a picture before church, even when the cousins and his brother resorted to silly faces!  

 

After church we got matching PJs on and ate dinner 

 

Then Papaw Ruff and Hunter read Christmas stories.  Notice Jasper sitting IN Bryce's lap. He loves Bryce so much!  Last Christmas Eve this same exact thing happened!  

 

The kids got to open one gift from Cappy....new blankets she made!  They were so proud of their blankets with their names on them!  

 

The 3 oldest kids got to sleep in the shed with Papaw Ruff!  They were so excited and had been planning on all 4 sleeping in the shed with Cappy and Papaw Ruff.  Papaw Ruff was brave to do it with these three by himself!  

 

That night was a LONG night.....Anthony and I were both feeling yucky and could hear Hunter getting sick all night.  I was worried about the kids down in the shed with my dad since this virus seemed very contagious.  He had his phone and I felt confident he would call me if one of mine started throwing up so when I didn't hear from him I relaxed that morning.  And then the kids came up from the shed and Bryce told me he had thrown up twice.  Nice.  Thankfully he didn't seem to feel too bad and still enjoyed the morning.  He didn't get sick anymore but didn't eat until the next day.  Hunter was low sick but Cappy was finally feeling better.  We had a puke bucket in the middle of the living room on Chrismtas morning! 

The week before Christmas

We started our Christmas festivities with not one but two Dr. visits.  Bryce had croup again on Monday the 17th so we had to see our pediatrician here to get steroids.  That afternoon we drove to the lake for a quick sleep and left early the next morning to complete the drive to Birmingham for his ENT appointment with Dr. Woolley.  You should have seen the Yukon packed for the trip.  Cappy, the kids, Reagan and I climbed in and Anthony had to pack around us.  We couldn't move our legs for the whole trip! 

 

Here is Bryce before the nasal scope that can see down to the vocal chords.  He got to watch it on the TV in front of him as it was happening and was SO BRAVE!  His vocal chords have some scarring from the big surgery in Dec. 06 but we knew that and it is not getting any worse, but is what is causing his voice to be so low.  We hoped that was the only scope needed, but Dr. Woolley thought that doing a full DLB scope (general anesthesia in the OR) was needed to rule out any new scarring below the vocal chords.  Having croup so much has been concerning to us so we agreed it would be best to see what his airway looks like 6 years later.  They agreed to squeeze us in on New Years Eve to avoid another trip to Birmingham (we were going to be at the lake already). 

  

We drove on to Olive Branch the afternoon after the appointment with Dr. Woolley and early the next morning CeCe and Cappy were in the kitchen baking! 

 We also spent lots of time on the trampoline of course.  Even the cold weather can't keep us from jumping. 

 

 

 Bryce took full advantage of having his Daddy around all day and they played tons of football in the backyard.

 "All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth!!"

 We went to Zoo Lights at the Memphis Zoo one night and it was great!  The weather was not too cold and the kids loved walking around looking at all the lights.  The highlight of the night was definitely the lighted ferris wheel! 

 

 

 My dad got us tickets to see Annie on stage!!!  Annie was my favorite movie when I was little so this was extra special for it to be CeCe's first theater experience! She loved it and has been singing the songs ever since. 

 When we got home from Annie the Williams were there!  The kids were so excited to see each other. 

 

 

 

 My mom bought the kids a Razor rip rider 360 and everyone (adults included) had so much fun riding on it! 

Cappy taking a spin!!  

 

 Winnie finally woke up and CeCe couldn't wait to get her hands on her.  So sweet!!  She said "I love you Winnie" at least 100 times in the few days we were all together. 

That night my dad had neighborhood watch for their neighborhood and Bryce got to tag along!  He loved it!

Christmas, Finally!

I know Christmas posts are so last month, but life got pretty busy there for a while so the pictures just piled up!  I have at least 8 posts worth of pictures from the last 3 weeks so bear with me here!!


GRRRRR.  Blogger won't let me upload any pictures right now. Of course.  Since I actually have an hour to sit down and work on this!  Geez! 

I will post this though.....Anthony's mom (Kiki) had another small stroke this week.  She has been in the hospital ever since and needs prayers.  They've been running tests and are going to keep her in the hospital for another few days to few weeks while she does some rehab.  Her left side is pretty weak right now.  Please pray for her to have the strengh to do therapy and for her to get some rest in the hospital.  Also pray for Papaw Duke, he's pretty shaken up about going through this again.  Anthony's brother and sister have been able to go there this week and weekend to help out and Anthony is on pins and needles wanting to go too.   I'm not sure what his plans are yet, but I know he is going to get over to West Point to see his Mama sometime in the next few weeks!