I was so thrilled that D. Marie Photography was doing football mini sessions this fall. I have been SO excited to share the pictures but couldn't because they were a Christmas surprise for Paul and the grandparents. JP had the BEST time getting these pictures done and Dawn did an amazing job capturing our sweet, football loving boy!
Paul's dad coaches at Berkeley High School so of course we had to do some pictures in JP's Berkeley shirt!
The kids got out of school the Friday before Christmas and when they got home we did our Christmas baking and also decorated gingerbread houses. The kids look forward to decorating their houses every year!
JP helping me crush candy canes for the peppermint brownies.
Sunday before Christmas we did Christmas with the Edwards side of the family. We had lots of fun exchanging presents, hanging out, and eating dinner together. The kids got lots of new clothes and JP was so excited and wanted to wear all of them! The kids also got a "day out with GiGi and PaPa". This was the first year that JP gets to go too so they did a little charades game so he could guess everything they would do.
(Also, I majorly failed at picture taking...thankfully Emily got some good ones!)
JP wearing ALL the clothes he got from Aunt Emily and Uncle Blake (on top of the clothes he already had on lol!)
Aunt Emily and Ellie ready for the New Year!
Christmas Eve we went to church for the afternoon service and my parents, Ben and Ruth and baby Katherine met us there. Katherine was about 2 1/2mo old at the time and that was the first chance we'd had to meet her. We were all SO excited!
I claimed Katherine as soon as they got to church! Aunt Stacy has been waiting 2 1/2 month to squeeze that sweet girl!
After church they all came to our house. Once we got to the house the kids immediately wanted to hold and snuggle Katherine. They are so in love with their cousin! (Well, we all are!)
Franklin had to meet the new member of the family as well!
JP was amazed at Katherine's tiny feet.
Uncle Ben gives great rides!
We had dinner and then watched The Star Movie, ate some yummy goodies, and drank hot chocolate. This is one of our favorite Christmas traditions. This year, the cousins also had matching pajamas. Everyone was thrilled to have pajamas that matched Katherine's!
Snuggle time on the couch during the movie.
Emmie and Ellie wanted to read books to Katherine at bedtime.
Christmas morning the kids were up bright and early at 7am and ready to check out their presents! Emmie asked for a crawling Baby Alive, Ellie wanted a Calico Critter house, Ruthie asked for small hatchimals (but Santa thought she would love a big hatchimal instead!), and JP asked for a broom. All the kids were very excited about their gifts from Santa and JP went right to work sweeping the floor!
So excited about his broom!
Franklin is always great entertainment! He gets SOOOO excited about his presents!
JP was all about the M&Ms.
Ellie got some new Hogwarts accessories.
After everyone had played with their presents and checked out their stockings we had a delicious breakfast...monkey bread, cinnamon rolls (bc most of my crazy crew doesn't like monkey bread), bacon, eggs, and grits. We ate well!
After breakfast we opened presents. Everyone was thrilled with their gifts...highlights were the money for summer camp from Uncle Ben and Aunt Ruth...the top bill was a $2 bill and there wasn't a better present Emmie could have gotten. (All the girls got this and were pretty impressed but Emmie opened hers first so she had the shock factor!) I thought she was going to cry she was so amazed! JP got a rake from Gran and Granddaddy...he had a ball raking all the leaves in our yard! He also got lots of train tracks from everyone and he and Uncle Ben have big plans to build a huge track at the beach this summer. Ellie was so excited to get a Harry Potter Lego Quidditch set. A Lego catalog appeared in our mailbox about a month before Christmas and she obsessed over all the Harry Potter sets! Ruthie was SO excited and totally surprised by the iPad she got from Gran and Grandaddy!
Books are always a favorite for Ellie!
Emmie's reaction to her $2 bill!
Roo loved her new jacket...it's super soft inside!
iPad!
I call this gift "notamug". The kids shop at the Holiday Shoppe at school and I have a LOT of mugs...I campaigned hard this year to get "notamug"!
Ellie did a great job building her Quidditch set! I pulled out the pieces she needed for each step and she followed the directions and put them in the right place. This was her first Lego set and she did a great job!
I had to get a video of the Ellie bounce. She does this when she's bored or when she's focusing on something. She's done it since she we first put her in the highchair as a baby and it always makes me smile...it's very uniquely Ellie.
Every year we give all the aunts, uncles, and grandparents, and Paul for his office) a calendar with pictures of the kids. We also give them an ornament or other handmade item (we've done mugs and canvases in the past as well). This year one of my favorite presents the grandparents and Paul got, in addition to the calendar and ornament, was some football pics of JP. A local photographer was doing them in the fall and I was so excited to get some done of JP! He LOVED the session and the pictures turned out even better than I'd hoped! Thanks so much to D. Marie Photography for these fabulous pictures...check out tomorrow's blog post to see them!
The top ornament was the final product. The bottom was the "rough draft". After making the first batch I discovered some technical issues so we started over.
My mom fixed us a delicious steak dinner Christmas night and some of the kids helped her with the preparations.
The Rainey crew stayed until the day after Christmas and we loved having them with us for a few days. We loved getting some extra time with everyone. We especially loved getting lots of time to love on sweet Katherine!
We very much enjoyed all of our Christmas celebrations and we feel so blessed that we were able to spend time with ALL of our family!
