Christmas 2009

We drove late Christmas Eve to Huntsville (in the worst weather ever). Luckily, the girls slept the whole way and we were able to carry them in and put them in bed so Santa could come. It had been 2 years since my brother-in-law had seen Mamie, so she had changed quite a bit. Unfortunately, she had an ear infection just in time for Christmas and felt terrible Christmas morning. When we brought her downstairs to see her presents, she just fell over and laid on the rug. It took about an hour and a dose of Motrin before she even wanted to look at her toys or open any presents. It was pretty pitiful. Aside from that, we had the best time and the girls played with Dylan and their Aunt Sissy from the time they woke up until they went to bed. The poor kid could hardly go to the bathroom by himself. Now I know what it's like to have a live-in nanny :) I'm trying to figure out a way to get him to come stay for the summer...
Here are pictures from our Christmas. I promise this will be the last Christmas post!

Aunt Sissy checking out Lilly's loot from Santa

Santa brought the doll Lilly wanted--she's named Lily Anna

Do you think we had enough presents?

Dylan's new air-soft gun from CJ and Pop

and his new trumpet from "Santa" (he did a FABULOUS job playing along :)

Now Uncle Tim can finally cut all that hair he has :)

Here was the only thing Mamie asked for (pre-scooter discovery) for months. CJ got it for her.

A blue crawling baby. She was so excited.

My mom got Lilly an easy bake oven. She was so excited. I never had one when I was little, so I had no idea what to expect. She started out wanting the princess oven that "cooks" with ice, and when I read reviews, I told my mom she had to take that thing back to the store. It sounded so disgusting--everyone described the stuff that comes out as "congealed jelly-like inedible goo." The easy bake stuff actually tastes pretty good.

Opening stockings. Lilly gets so excited about everything.

Last year, I had the picture of Jon with the beads the girls had put on him. This year, I think I've topped it. Here he is modeling his new PJ's and Lilly's new pom-poms. I love you honey!

Lilly and Uncle Tim

A very handsome turkey carver :) I don't know why I always get a picture of my dad carving the turkey. It was delicious.

My mom had the table set so pretty with special plates and jingle bell napkin rings for the girls.

Dylan helped Lilly set up the entire oven, read the directions, washed the pans, made the mix with her for the sugar cookies, and helped her cook them. Such a sweet cousin.

Dylan and Sissy with the girls before bed. My sister put them to bed the last night we were there and read 6 LONG books to them. They usually just get one from me. They were in heaven.

christmas eve (aka "scooter day")

Jon's family always celebrates on Christmas Eve night. This year, Santa had all of his presents ready for the Carman girls, and I was all finished with my shopping, when we went to play at Livi and Grant's house about 2 weeks before Christmas and they had a scooter from learning express. It just happened that the very next day we were going to see Santa at the mall. For months Lilly's Christmas list read, "American Girl doll, Barbies, Tag books, etc." and Mamie's was, "crawling baby and baby stuff." What do you think they both told Santa they wanted? A SCOOTER like Livi and Grant's. They were OBSESSED. Anyway, Sassy saved the day by getting one for Mamie for Christmas. Lilly is hoping for one for her birthday--we'll see. I don't know if I can handle 2 scooters doing laps in our little house. They literally take tuns riding it around the house constantly. They love it. It really is neat and so easy to maneuver around on. So anyway, back to Christmas...

Mamie and the infamous scooter

Lilly and Sassy

Aunt Kristin and Uncle Branson gave Mamie a HUGE coloring book and set of markers. She LOVES to color. She was getting more than a little bit stressed about having to share her coloring book with Hollis.


Opening presents with Uncle Jeff and Aunt Kellye

Mamie showing her new robe to Hollis and checking out his new wheels.

Aunt Kellye helping Lilly with her new Barbie make-up set

still on the scooter... we had to make her stop to open her other gifts

Look what Papa Al got! :)

Jon's mom got all the guys some new Christmas PJ's. Notice who the real Grinches are...the Carman men wouldn't model theirs for us ;-)

Christmas with the cousins

This year, we celebrated Christmas with all my cousins at the farm on Christmas Eve. This was the first time that all of my aunt and uncle's great-grandchildren were here at the same time. Also, my sister was in town from Tampa along with my parents, so everyone was there. There were 18 kids--15 great-grandchildren and 3 great-nieces/nephews. When I was growing up, we put on a play every year for the grown-ups and sold tickets. This was the first year that they were old enough to attempt it. Sweet Emma (8) spent days making signs, tickets, a script, name tags, etc. and assigned everyone a part. She had a hard job trying to get a bunch of toddlers to cooperate :) It was so much fun to watch them all.

The three kid tables.

Emma's sign for the play :) The money really did go to the "needy" in case you are wondering.

Are you tired of seeing these pants in every picture yet? :)

They were my first sewing (clothes) project ever, so I was pretty proud of myself. Just don't look at them too closely :)

This was hilarious. Baby Tate stole the show as Baby Jesus in the play. Haley laid him in the doll cradle and he literally didn't move a muscle. He just stayed still with his little legs poking up out of the end.

Dylan's part of the play. Definitely the oldest one there (13), he was a good sport to play along. Can you tell from this picture how much my girls ADORE him? We wish you lived closer, Dylan!!!

I guess you would call this the finale of the show :)

Time to open gifts!

And the most amazing feat--getting all 18 kids in ONE picture! Sure, they aren't all looking, and one may be crying on the arm of the couch :), but they are all in the picture!

Our family (minus Jon, who was WORKING! of course)

Dylan, Tim, CJ & Pop, Lilly and Mamie, Deborah (my sister), and me

Christmas with Sassy's Family

The girls with Sassy and Papa Al

Can you tell Hollis was about to make a run for it?

Mamie, Lilly, Hollis, and Sean (Jon's cousin, Allison's little boy)

Jon's grandparents (Lilly and Mamie's great-grandparents)

fun pre-Christmas activities

In typical fashion, once Thanksgiving was over, the rest of November and December seemed to be gone in a flash. I forgot my camera a few too many times (school party, etc.) but I'm sure I still have enough pictures to post to be a little obnoxious :) Jon works every other Saturday, and it unfortunately fell on every single Saturday we had something this year (in case anyone is wondering where he is in all these pictures).

Our first Christmas in our new house with our LIVE tree Jon insists on every year. I complain about having to water it and the mess it makes, but I do love the smell when you walk in the door.

My blurry picture of the girls at Breakfast with Santa. I don't think I have ever waited so long to have a picture taken. We were there for almost 3 hours! The one the photographer took was great, and there was fun stuff to do, so the girls didn't really notice the wait as much as their mommy did.

Mamie's buddy Campbell

After Breakfast with Santa, we went to see Santa and his live reindeer. I think this is Dancer, but don't hold me to that :) We ran into friends there and had lunch--it turned out to be a fun little outing!

Last year, Sassy started the tradition of taking the kids to make a gingerbread house at Richland. The girls loved it and Hollis tried to eat his weight in candy. I forgot my camera and had to get these from Kim. Aunt Kristin came by to help.

Notice anything different about Lilly's gingerbread house and the one that Hollis and Mamie are working on? Lilly was very serious about hers. Mamie and Hollis were very serious about what went in their mouth--not on their house.

hard at work

We brought Lilly's home and Hollis took the other one. I let the girls eat whatever they wanted on it on the 23rd before we went out of town.

The only picture I got from Lilly's program at Crieve Hall :( She was so excited and proud. I was trying to video, so I didn't get any pictures.

Hollis hanging out with the girls watching cartoons--and pretty much drowning in pink.

photo shoot

My friend Chesley recently offered to "practice" her photography on my girls. It was the best Christmas present ever! She took the stress off of me having to take a picture for our Christmas card. I think we picked the only cold day that week, but fortunately my girls will play outside no matter how cold it gets, so we went ahead and tried for outdoor pictures. I loved them--she took a ton, and I probably posted way too many, but I couldn't make up my mind, and wanted my mom and dad to see them. I think she did an incredible job and was able to get pictures of Mamie a) smiling and b) facing the camera, which are both close to impossible.

Lilly loves to strike a pose.

Future competitive tricycle rider. It is serious business. She would sleep with it in her bed if I let her.

Thank you Chesley!