Christmas Came and Went

Christmas is an amazing time of year when we actually focus on the birth of Jesus Christ and honor Him for all that He is and all that He has done. It's unfortunate that sometimes we don't slow down throughout the rest of the year to give Him the glory that He deserves. In the midst of celebrating His birth, we did a little hustling and bustling of our own. Here are some snap shots of how our week went.

Pops came by early this year to play with Rylan. He brought some Christmas Money so we could buy him whatever he needs. Thanks Dad!

The craziness began on December 23. We celebrated with Mee Mee, Uncle Corey, Uncle Kyle, and Aunt Tiffany. We celebrate early so we can actually spend some quality time together. Mom cooked an awesome dinner, and we opened gifts and played games. Every year we have to play Christmas BINGO. That's Mom's favorite. Rylan got lots of FUN presents and Mee Mee even bought him new stuff for his bathroom....because he is such a little monkey!

Aunt Tiffany, Rylan, Uncle Kyle

(I don't have a picture of Corey and Rylan...sorry Corey)

If you've seen any cute monkey pictures, I'd love to know so I can put them in his bathroom! Thanks Mom for Rylan's new place to "monkey around."

Christmas Eve was very busy! We had 2 services at our church. It was an amazing time of worship. After that we headed to Colbert for a Mattox Family Christmas. Here is the brief moment that we had all of the kids in one place at the same time. Then the fun began!

Here's a shot of Pa Pa and his family.

Tom, Erica, Eric, Rylan, Erin, Dustin

Here's a picture of Rylan enjoying someone else's toy. As if he didn't have enough of his own.

After a very long day and night, we went home and slept. When we woke up, there were toys everywhere! Here's the before Rylan shot.

And here he is playing with all of his fun new stuff.

Will he be a conductor?

... a musician? (It runs in the family)

a builder? (like Granddad and Uncle Jack)

...a professional golfer? (Thank you Grandpa and Grandma)

...a professional basketball player? (not likely)

...a car mechanic? (Thank you Pa Pa)...a businessman who "makes deals"?
He says he's keeping his options open right now.

After a fun and busy morning we headed to Denise and Tom's house for a family Christmas with Erin's family. Great Granny and Great Granddad were our host and hostess. Here's Rylan with Great Granddad, learning how the woodpecker doorknocker works.
Here's half of the family....

....and here's the other half!
Our next stop was Aunt Valarie's house for some fun with Dustin's family.


Rylan enjoyed the bows!

Here he is with his Great Aunt Val

Posing for a quick shot with Grandma. He wasn't still very long.

And after he's worn out and ready for bed with his Nanie. Rylan is so excited about the swing set that his grandparents and great grandparents got for him. It should be delivered soon, so all of his buddies will have to come play when the weather gets warmer. Thank you grandparents!And here we are the day after Christmas for our annual breakfast at Team Jenkins' house. Next year we'll be at their new house. Check out their blog on the Team Jenkins link. We were joined by the Lyon Family, with their new addition-Abigail. You can see more pictures of their girls on their blog page. Also this year Russ and Kristy Masterson came. They brought their dog whom the kids loved! They will be welcoming their first child this summer. We had a great time!
And now we are back to a normal schedule. Dustin is back at school. Erin is trying to straighten the house and find a place for all of Rylan's new toys. Rylan is growing and growing and growing. He finally got his two front teeth! Just in time for Christmas. Hope all is well and we hope you have a Happy New Year!