Weekend with Lolli & Champ

Making Gingerbread houses

The Christmas Parade

Haynes favorite food...for the moment!

Brian and I try to take a weekend shopping trip to Dallas each year after Thanksgiving, to do all of our Christmas shopping without kids!  This year we took our trip a little late, which gave me a week to get everything wrapped!  Our boys stayed with Lolli and Champ and had a great time.  We took Ella with us, but next year she will get to enjoy a weekend of fun!  The kids made cookies, gingerbread houses, went to the Christmas parade, and a ton of other things!  

My favorite story from the weekend is from their first night.  My mom must have told Port when he woke up that they would make Christmas cookies.  (She must have forgot that if you get Port too excited for things before bed, he will wake up really early because he is so excited.)  So at 5:00 a.m. Port woke her up asking to make Christmas cookies!  She took him back to bed and said it was too early.  At 6:00 a.m. he woke her up again, yelling from his room!  She got in bed with him and told him it was too early.  He laid in bed and starred at her until 7:00 a.m. when she finally agreed to make Christmas cookies!  

Haynes found a new favorite food during the weekend as well.  Lolli cooked dinner one night and made her Autumn Salad (www.recipesforlife.org).  Haynes liked the salad so much he would move the stool around the kitchen so that he could eat directly out of the bowl!  

Poppy's 80th Birthday!

Poppy turned 80 this December!  My parents, aunts, and uncles all planned a huge surprise party for him.  They invited all of our friends, family and some employees to be apart of this special celebration.  They made a special video and personalized Root Beer bottles (my Poppy's favorite).  This party gave us a great opportunity to tell my Poppy how thankful we are for the legacy he has set before us.  My Poppy (and Granny...when she was alive) have taught each of us the importance of Jesus being the center of our lives.  Brian and I plan to carry on  this legacy in our family, and we can only hope to bless people in the way my Poppy does!

Christmas Cookies with Cousins

Jade, Haynes, Anna, & Port eating lunch

Port & Anna decorating Christmas cookies!

This year we started a tradition of decorating Christmas cookies.  We were so excited that our cousins were in town and got to join us for our morning of baking.  Haynes and Jade got to take their morning naps, so the older kids had a great time together.  Anna liked the pink/red icing the very most!  Port preferred the green icing, but both of them loved licking their fingers the very most.  After decorating cookies for JuJu, Grandad, Nonni, and Champ we decided to make some lunch.  Haynes and Jade woke up to join the kids for lunch, we had a great time!

"Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord."  Philippians 2:9-11

Greek Cluster Christmas

"The Wise College Men"

Mary, Joseph, Angels, & the Shephard...

Emma, Chris, Millie, Ella, & Port

Brooke with our famous actors!

This year the Greek Clusters decided to continue meeting over the Christmas break.  We decided to join the two together, since most students would be out of town for the holidays.  Since we now have a few kids...six kids under the age of three!  We thought we should try a small version of the Christmas story.  Our cast included:

Port: shepherd

Emma and Chris Doke: Mary and Joseph

Millie Ray and Ella: angels

Emery, Salvey, and Alex: wise men

I will admit it was a little rough, but there's a first time for everything.  Our wise men came bearing gifts of Christmas napkins, cinnamon rolls, and coffee.  Our goal was that our kids would be a part of celebrating Jesus this Christmas season!

"The Savior-yes, the Messiah, the Lord-has been born tonight in Bethlehem."  Luke 2:11

My boys....

Well, there aren't any pictures to go with this post.  I just felt like I had to keep a record of things these boys do that blow my mind!  They are constantly amazing me with their different personalities, I am so thankful for their differences!

Port:

I came in last night to find Port huddled over Ella.  He was whispering to her, "If you need me just call, okay!"  He kissed her and turned to me and said, "Mom, she can't whistle can she?"  I laughed and said no.  His sweet spirit is revealed through small things like that throughout our days.  I am thankful God has given him a sweet heart for others.  I'm also excited and expectant to see what He will do with Port!

Haynes:

To start this story you must know that I pray specific protection over Haynes each day.  If you knew his little personality, you would understand...hopefully this story will help you!  My mom is a super blessing, she comes over two mornings of the week to watch my kids so that I can go workout.  Not only is this a great blessing to me, but my kids love when Lolli comes over.  This morning I prompted my mom as I left, "Watch Haynes...he's a little nuts."

After working out my mom prompts me by saying, "We had an incident, but everyone is okay!"  Apparently while she was putting Ella in her car seat, Haynes went and found a dish washing detergent packet and decided to taste it.  She came around the corner to hear him spitting it out, which thankfully he only ate the powder.  To make a long story short, Haynes and my mom are now on the poison control list!  Thanks to my aunt Peggy for her help too!

I know that God is going to do great things through Haynes.  His adventurous spirit is contagious and will be used greatly for His kingdom.  As parents we pray that we will direct this spirit, but also keep Haynes safe in the process!!!

Big XII Weekend at the Lake

 

This weekend we went to the Hartsock Lake House to watch the Big XII Championship game.  We brought our friends the Bentons, the Bauers, Wags, and the Dudes (as Port refers to  Thomas, Collin, and Mark)  We had a great time enjoying the great weather and a great football game.  I brought some things to distract the boys during the football game, so they would leave the dudes alone!  We loved making a Gingerbread train, or at least eating all the decorations! 

Christmas PJ's with Lolli & Champ

Uncle Josh and Aunt Jenny

Haynes pj's look like they fit, but really the buttons are popping open on the front 

& the legs have about an extra foot of fabric.  Needless to say, he wasn't pleased!

Uncle Josh teaching the boys about the "sacred ornaments"

Lolli and Ella

(Ella has really cute flower buttons on the front of hers...

I didn't get great pictures! Oops!)

The Wright side of our family has the same tradition of Christmas pajamas on December 1st.  Thanks mom for creating fun traditions.  My mom has continued the tradition even though both Josh and I are married, but it makes for a fun night.  We also received ornaments to put on their Christmas tree.  The boys helped pick out the Christmas tree this year, because they will plant it in the backyard after Christmas.  It's a little "Charlie Brownish" so not many ornaments made the cut this year!

December 1st!

Ella Rose (2 months)

My boys watching "The Polar Express"

Haynes exploring the tree box!

Our family starts the holiday season out with new Christmas pj's for everyone in the family.  This year we also decorated our tree on the same night. I think the boys liked playing with the tree box as much as they did anything else.  Everyone also gets an ornament for the Christmas tree.  Port got a Kung Fu Panda ornament, Haynes got a Nemo ornament, and Brian got a soccer ornament that said "Spider Monkies."

(Brian coached Port's soccer team this fall that was named the Spider Monkies)  While we decorated the tree, we always turn on the Polar Express.  This was the first year anyone was really interested, which left the tree decorating up to mom!  The next morning Port found a jingle bell. After shaking it and holding it up to his ear he said, "I can hear it!"

Greek Cluster

We combined our greek clusters this week, so my kids were so excited to see their "friends" at church.  This is our sweet friend Millie Ray, Haynes's future crush!  My kids really miss seeing the Ray's and Grigor's each week at cluster, so this was a fun treat!  

Thanksgiving at the Ranch

Mattie & Ella

Ella absolutely loved her older cousin Mattie!

Uncle Jake & Daddy helping Port 

climb the rock wall

Red Rover Red Rover...

The Liddell family has a tradition that the day after Thanksgiving we all spend the day at the Boys Ranch in Chandler, Oklahoma.  This year we spent the afternoon in the new gym and playing outside.  All of the cousins are getting older and they have a great time playing together.  Port kept asking when would get to play with his cousins again!  They played Red Rover, took a hike/nature walk, climbed the rock wall, and so much more.

On our way home we were talking to Port about climbing the rock wall.  He was telling us about how he got scared and cried.  We told him that he did a great job and maybe next time he could climb to the top and ring the bell like Kooper.  Port's responded, "I'm only three!"  Yes Port, you are only three and we don't want to rush a minute of that precious time.  Haynes walked away from our day at the ranch by being named the kid without any fear.  Ella was great and got some special time with her cousin Mattie!

We are so thankful for the way God has blessed our family.  We love spending time together and seeing God move throughout our families lives.  God is truly good!

"Oh, give thanks to the Lord, call upon His name; make known His deeds among His people."

1 Choronicles 16:8

Anna & Port

Champ, Josh, & Port

Daddy & Port

Port Robert

The Wright family has a tradition that on Thanksgiving morning the boys go and play in a golf match to determine the "champions."  The losers must serve the "champions" Thanksgiving dinner and then refer to them as "Champions" for the next year.  This year we celebrated Thanksgiving early so they guys had already played their match.  (Champion Larry and Champion Josh have won for two consecutive years)  We thought we might try out a new tradition of Thanksgiving golf including the boys, Port loves to golf with the big boys.  Champ, Uncle Josh, and Brian took Port to play for about an hour.  He got to drive his golf cart around the course, which helped keep him entertained...we aren't quite that competitive yet.  Anna was staying at JuJu's house so she got to take a ride on the golf cart.  

(Anna beware-Port tends to drive like his daddy!)

Thanksgiving P.J's

Juju and Grandad always do a great job at surprising the kids with fun treats.  The cousins always love matching everything from their undies to their crocs.  We all have our Thanksgiving pj's on, the hard part is getting a great picture.  Thanks JuJu and Grandad for making fun memories for us!

Our cousins are home!

Sutton and Ella

Anna, Jade, & Haynes

Preslee Love

Braxton, Port, & Kooper

All of our cousins are currently living in Waco, Texas.  We look forward to holidays when everyone comes back to celebrate.  We all met at Johnnies on Wednesday night when they drove into town. The kids were so excited to see each other.  I actually don't tell Port he is going to see his cousins until a few hours before it happens....we don't have a great concept of time yet!  We are so blessed to have cousins around the same age 

that we not only count as family but also friends!

A Day in the Life...

This is just an average day at home for our family.  (I haven't quite figured out this blog, notice two of the same pictures)  While we continue to tell people how sweet our boys are I think these pictures show a little about them.  This is Port reading Haynes one of our Thanksgiving books.  It was funny listening to him tell the story the exact way I do.  Lesson learned...be very careful what I say and do!

Ella was having some play time in her crib, when the boys decided to check in on her.  They like to dance to the mobile music, but you do have to make sure they don't actually get in the crib with her!  

Our family is known for our love for "Johnnies Charcoal Broiler" as Brian refers to it.  Haynes is not our best eater, I can't actually tell you anything that I know he will always eat.  We went to dinner and he was pretty excited for his grilled cheese and ketchup.  He is not capable of being clean, which is one his traits that I love the most!  Champ (my dad) doesn't quite feel the same!

After much consideration, we have decided to blog...Life is flying by us fast, so I hope this helps us keep a record of our sweet family!  

This picture was taken 7 weeks ago as we left the hospital with our daughter Ella Rose.  Our boys are so excited to have a baby sister, Brian and I are constantly amazed by their love and sweet affection for her.  I do catch myself reminding Port about "personal space" a lot!