Christmas Cookies

 Since we did the Hartsock Christmas early this year, so on Christmas eve we made sugar cookies.  

 Some liked LOTS of icing...

 some were VERY serious...

others REALLY liked sprinkles!

The Golden Ticket

 I give all credit to my sweet friend Shar for this idea, but I absolutely LOVE it!

I made some "Golden Tickets"and we coordinated our secret night with the Billingsley's.  We hid them under the kids pillows before they went to bed.  We let them lay in there for about 10 minutes before Brian and I came in and told them to check their beds for a golden ticket!  

 They were SO excited!  Especially once we told them they were waiting for the "Nala Express"....the Billingsley's car:-)

 Everyone was in their christmas jammies and ready to go!

 Mr. Mike punched tickets in a funny accent...the next day Ella asked,

 "That was Abbey's dad last night right?!?"

We hopped in the car and went to look at Christmas lights in the neighborhood.  The kids were all crammed in the back having a blast!

 We decided to make a snack stop at Lolli's...she never fails us!

All the kids cheered as we turned onto their street:-)

We had the best night and can't wait for next year!  

This was our new tradition we added this year:-)

Haynes

When we left the North Pole there was a stream of water that Port jumped over.  Haynes really wanted to do the same, but I kept warning him that I didn't think he would clear it.  Well...I'm sure your not surprised but he tried anyway!

He cleared the water, but lost his balance when he landed and fell on his bottom.  Then he JUMPED up and ran after Port and me trying to wipe the mud on us!  We laughed so hard, along with all the customers coming out of the North Pole.  

*I would have expected him to cry that he fell in the water, but he found a way to make the best of the situation...love that about my little man!

Next stop... Benton Christmas Party!

 Our final stop for the night was the Bentons!

They threw a fun Christmas party for all our friends!

This is a shot of all the boys, some how I didn't manage to get the girls picture!

Fun night with friends!

Happy Birthday Braxton & Sutton!

 Braxton and Sutton had a great ice skating party this year.  We let the girls have a night with Lolli and Champ while we took the boys to the party.  Haynes didn't really listen well when we were getting ready and forgot socks...Dad to the rescue!  Brian sacrificed his socks to Haynes...what an AWESOME daddy!

 Port practiced with the cones until he got confident on the ice!

Great job Port!

 Singing Happy Birthday to the Birthday BoYs!!

*They had the cutest cookie cake that looked like a football field and wore their new jerseys.  Their buddy Landry came too...JuJu told Haynes who he was and I wish I would have taken a picture of his face...it looked like the little boy in Home Alone:-)

 These are some SILLY

Mighty Men of God!

After skating the big boys headed back to Jake and Kourtney's for a slumber party.  Port's never actually stayed over night, but we got a text from Jake saying he did GREAT!  

The North Pole

 We headed to the North Pole one afternoon so we could get our pictures taken with Santa.  This is one of our favorite traditions.  The Santa tells the REAL Christmas story, they take AMAZING pictures, and they have a fun train ride too!  

 We thought our timing was perfect, but we were completely wrong!  We got our name on the waiting list and had to wait for 1.5 hours!!  We ran and got some ice cream after exploring the store for as long as possible and we made it back perfectly timed!

I forgot to upload the sweet picture of my kids, but it was a fun afternoon together!

Gingerbread Christmas Parties

 That's right...three Christmas parties at the same time! I guess I should get used to it and add one more! I got to see Ella's class meet Santa, but Ella was more interested in loving on Halle...she almost missed her turn:-)

 I got to sing carols with Haynes class and open his stocking.  He loved Halle joining his friends for singing time with the jingle bells!

I got to see Port eat some treats and open his stocking too!

I just love these kids so much!!!

Hartsock Christmas

 We are just missing sweet Harper!!

 Halle's wearing my old nightgown!

 These girls LOVED playing with their new dolls!

 These two were exhausted from our FULL weekend!

I just love watching Ella and Bitty together.  

Oh if they lived closer....they would be absolutely inseparable!

We love Hartsock christmas!  

Liddell Christmas

 This year for the Liddell Christmas we decided to meet early and have church together.  We all worshiped and shared how faithful God has been over the last year...it was AMAZING!

Look at all these cousins worshipping together!

 Santa came by and told the story of Jesus birth

The kids had the best time playing together, but one of my favorite things was the gift from Mimi and Papa.  Nancy had t-shirts made for all the kids that say...

World Changers

We have an army of World Changers in the Liddell family!

Christmas Traditions

We have TONS of traditions around here...not that anyone is surprised!  I am constantly trying to find new ways to include family time and focusing our attention on Jesus during a busy season.  I got this fun advent wreath that we LOVED using this year.  Every night we would take time to read, sing worship, and pray together...but the best part was blowing out the candles of course:-)

Christmas gifts

 One of our dear friends, Virginia, came in town from Austin.  She bought the kids some fantastic Christmas gifts.  Haynes got this little bug and a maze for him to play with.  Brian made it a competition, of course, to see who's door the bug would try to get out...

It made for an AWESOME night of laughter!!!

LOVE IT!!!

Happy 60th Birthday JuJu!

My mom  made this entire jar full of turtles for Judi for her 60th birthday!!

We threw a surprise party for JuJu's birthday this year.  We told her we were going to go to dinner, just adults, and then awkwardly got her to the Train Depot.  I managed to not take a single picture, but we had some friends take pictures instead.  Hopefully we will get the pictures soon and I'll post those!

The best part of the party was the sweet video of all the cousins telling JuJu why they loved her!