Merry Christmas

I can't believe its over.....all the shopping, cooking, planning, wrapping, for the past month and a half, and its over just like that....whew! Why is it that the older you get, the faster life wants to go by. It's not fair....when you finally reach the age where you really appreciate things for what they are, you barely have time to really sit back and enjoy it!

Christmas was a lot of fun. We started off Monday night with the Collins/Cooper Family Christmas party. We got to see a lot of my cousins and now their kids, and catch up on old times. Wednesday was Christmas Eve and we spent the evening at my parents house with a wonderful meal and of course presents.

Christmas morning everyone came over to our house to open presents. Granny and Pa-paw came over, and Pa-paw made his wonderful pancakes. Nanny, Papa, and Uncle Sean came over too. They helped the kids set up a few of their new toys and then went back home to open their presents. We had lots of yummy food for breakfast, including an awesome French Toast Bake!! We opened presents and stayed in our jammies all day playing with all of our new Toys. Uncle Aaron and Becky stayed over all day too, and played and watched movies, and just hung out. What a perfect laid back Christmas Day!!!

We had a yummy christmas dinner and continued hanging out and playing with the new toys. Josh and I got a Nintendo Wii for Christmas, so we all had fun playing the Wii. Josh got a little too into his Wii bowling game, and he almost took out the Wii, our TV, and our Glass Doorwall. Lucky for us, his knee got the worst of it, and everything else made it through!

Christmas Program

Today the boy's had their Christmas Program. They did such a great job, I was so proud of them. Justin had a small speaking part in the program, I was really nervous for him. He did sooo good. He was loud, clear and said it perfectly. Way to go Justin!!

I did not catch Justin's part on video cuz I was too busy being nervous for him, but here is a video clip of the final song!

Book Club

We've established a book club.........and a blog to go with it!!!

Check it out - downriverbookies.blogspot.com

Current read is Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer

One-derful One!!

WOW! Madison turned 1, its hard to believe. I think I say that everytime my children have a birthday and turn another year older. In part because we made it another year, and in part because time just flies by way too fast.

We were going to have a birtday party for Miss Maddie, but we have been battling the flu and colds for about 4 weeks now. Rather than infect everyone right before the Thanksgiving Holiday, we decided to cancel the party and just focus on getting everyone well.

Granny, Pap-paw, Nanny, and Papa came over to celebrate with her, so that was much appreciated. We had a nice little quiet party which I have to tell you was way less stressful than the bigger party that was originally planned.

Anyways, Madison is such a joy. She is not walking yet, but thinking about it, you can see it in her eyes. She is often content just watching her crazy brothers run circles around her and doesnt really have to work at walking. She got a cute little stroller to push her doll around and help her learn to walk, so hopefully that will do the trick.

She still only has her two bottom teeth which seems very unusual to me, but doctor is not concerned. I have to take her for her actual well baby visit next week. She's very much a drama queen and has learned from her brothers how to get her way quickly.

Here are some pictures from her birthday........

I Hate the Flu

Ok, so we all had the flu about two weeks ago and somehow it creeped its way back into our house. Round 2: Josh started, followed by a quick knock out for Sara. Justin came in next and we are waiting to see when the rest will join the fun! :(

It's horrible being sick, but its even worse to see your kids sick. I hate feeling so helpless and trying to explain over and over why they cant eat or drink anything. Poor little justin looks so miserable on the couch next to his bucket. He was pretty happy though because his teacher called and told him that his friends prayed for him in class today. Justin asked his friends to pray for daddy on Monday.

Anyways, since we are dealing wiht the flu, and we don't know to what degree this will go, we have decide to cancel Madison's first birthday celebration that was supposed to be on Saturday. I am really bummed, but I dont feel like dealing with a house full of people when I am trying to get my family feeling better. Not to mention, I would hate to infect all our guests right before the Thanksgiving holiday. I am sure they are thankful for the cancellation... ;)

Of course we will still celebrate our pumpkin's first birthday but just minus a few of hte guests! I can't believe she is 1 on friday. I will be sure to update you all with her birthday post and pictures.....

Hope you all are healthy and stay healthy.....this flu is miserable!!!

Joe Lovers

Tina and Julie.....

Ok girls, so this picture was at like 2am right after their concert. They put on a 3 hour show, then attended an after party at LAX after the concert, so this picture was taken after all that craziness. We actually happened to run into him in the lobby when he ran into the hotel gift store to grab some nyquil and advil. Poor guy was sick and just wanted to get in bed, but I couldn't resist stopping him for a picture (ha ha). I mean honestly, how often do you run into a New Kid - lol! So we have to forgive him if he looks a little rough, but i will tell you that he still sings amazing and does an awesome rendition of Please Don't Go Girl.....he still has it after all these years.

:)