North Pole City

My mom and I took the kids to the North Pole City on Monday morning...along with most of Oklahoma City!! The kids couldn't hardly get in the door to hear Santa tell the story of Jesus.

My mom got their early and we were still #9 waiting for pictures. We got to have a long tour of the North Pole City. All three kids went into the little house where "Rudolph" is playing. I kept asking Port if Ella and Haynes were in there too (it was REALLY crowded). A few minutes went by and then we heard an announcement over the loud speaker that there was a lost little girl in a blue dress and red bow...Ella Rose! She had decided to go find Santa on her own I guess...

Next we moved to the train ride, where I could keep a better eye on my kids:-) They loved it! Port immediately ran to the front so he could ring the bell.

Haynes and Ella rode in the back together. Every time they would pass us they would stick their faces to the window. We quickly were called to take pictures. The kids did great, unfortunately they deleted the good photo! All that to say...we made a memory:-)

Kooper's Christmas Performance

Sunday night Kooper had a Christmas program at Antioch. Brian and I weren't able to make it to the last program the kids were in, so we couldn't wait to see this one. Kooper did a great job acting...not that we would expect anything less!

We all enjoyed their fun Christmas program and lots of friends and family!

Liddell Christmas

Every year the Sunday before Christmas we plan to celebrate Christmas with the whole Liddell side of Brian's family. We are rapidly outgrowing MiMi's house with almost 30 great-grandkids!!! It is so much fun, really one of my favorite ways to start our Christmas celebration.

MiMi's gift to the kids were treasure boxes that they each got to paint and decorate. The treasure boxes were to remind them that they are all God's treasures. My kids love arts & crafts and had a blast!

Cousins painting together!

After lunch the kids always act out the Christmas story. Jeannie had a fun plan this year and got all the kids coordinated into parts and costumes. I told Blake I would put this picture up to show him taking pictures. We always tease Blake and Marci that they don't take pictures or record things...love you guys!

The Christmas story in action...

We lost a few angels in the process and the wise men decided to play soccer once their part was done. Other than that...it was just your normal Christmas story:-)

After the Christmas play everyone got candles (and yes we lit them!) and we sang together. It was super sweet once we were confident no one's hair or clothes were going to catch fire!!

Mama & Papa (and Jade) with all the cousins

(a few of the little ones didn't quite make the picture)

Happy Birthday Jesus!

Happy Birthday Mattie & Jeannie too!

The cousins all draw names and get to buy a gift for their cousin. Port was so excited to have drawn Dax's name, the fun thing was Dax drew his name too!

Mattie got Ella a mixer for her kitchen and Ella was pretty much done for the day. I eventually found her in MiMi's kitchen with her new toys...cooking! Needless to say...she LOVED it!

Uncle Mickey loves to play tricks on the kids. Port doesn't necessarily get sarcasm, so he gets a little confused sometimes:-) Mickey wrapped up trash and gave it to all the kids as their gifts (the older kids know this trick but Port was thoroughly confused).

*Once Port figured out the joke at the end of the day-he is REALLY excited to give Mickey a gift next Christmas...

Mickey's REAL gift was 2 frogs for every kid. Somehow I managed to get home with 8 frogs...what a dream come true:-) So far they are still living, but Haynes did proceed to feed all the food to his frogs...we'll see what happens!

The adult cousins exchange names too-which is always one of my favorite things. Brian's cousin Jesse drew his name this year. (I never take adult pictures...this is all I got)

The kids had a great time playing the rest of the day together. How funny are these two girls!?! We love making memories together!!

House Church Christmas Story

We had our House Church Christmas Celebration the Sunday before Christmas (finals week)! We decided to let the kids "act" out the Christmas story...a little more difficult with 5 kids under 5 (one being a week old). Ella and Asher were Mary and Joseph...our pillow chair was the make-shift manger:-)

Haynes was our shepherd and did a great job!

Port was our angel because he had memorized that part of the story...like our scarf/costumes!

We love making fun memories together with our sweet community!

Football with the cousins!

Saturday morning I had a voice message from Dax asking if Port would call him back (it was pretty sweet). They set up a cousin football game for Saturday afternoon and my boys were beyond excited! They had a little practice session at the house with Daddy and were ready to go! The game thinned out after a while, but Port and Dax loved it! They definitely followed their Daddy's reputation of being quite competitive...I don't know who was more proud Jade or Brian:-) I love watching our boys follow in their daddy's footsteps!

*Meanwhile Ella was in MiMi's house completely consumed with Jamie, Tess and Kate:-)

Happy Birthday G!

Gerod joined the crowd and turned 30!

Kerri planned a fun surprise dessert with friends at the Melting Pot late Friday night. We met the Partridge's, Ray's, Bauer's, Benton's, and Grigor's for such a fun night!

Some of the boys had left...but these goof balls let us take a few fun pictures of them. Happy Birthday G! We absolutely love you!

"You never know deer"

JuJu bought Ella this sweet little reindeer. I asked her what she named it thinking it was probably Rudolph or something like that...Ella's response was "You never know deer." I asked again thinking she didn't understand me, but she repeated "You never know deer!" Then I realized she LOVES singing "You are my sunshine" and there's a line in it that says "You never know dear how much I love you..." I was pretty impressed that she put the two together:-) We don't go far without our "You never know deer!"