Merry Christmas!

Evan usually calls for us from her room when she wakes up in the morning. This morning she was calling us from the living room telling us Santa Claus had come. It is so fun to see her finally completely grasp the concept of Santa and really have fun with it. I think she was a little overwhelmed, though, by all the toys he brought. Santa sure did overdo it!! So far her favorite toy is Lucky the Pup. He does quite a few tricks and is really pretty cool.

We went to Longview for Christmas lunch with my side of the family. Evan had a great time playing. She had MiMi going in 20 different directions trying to keep up with her. She got a huge Barbie castle and remote controlled Barbie VW Beetle that she was so excited about!

Christmas Eve

What a day, and it's not even Christmas! Mike decided to let me Evan sleep with me last night, so guess who got NO sleep! She did sleep in longer than usual since I was right beside her, so I caught a few winks out of sheer exhaustion. We got up and starting baking and getting ready for tonight and tomorrow. We decided to open our gifts this afternoon since we have to get up early in the morning to go to Longview. Evan was so excited about her gifts and was so appreciative of everything! She was really excited to get new makeup!

We spent some time at Aunt Cody's playing with Rylie, Jax and Ian before heading to Mike's sister's house for Christmas with the McConnell's. We all had a great time. Jax is 6 and had a tooth that was so close to coming out. After Mike offered him a dollar to pull it out, Evan took a dollar out of her wallet and offered it to him. Before too long, Evan got so excited with Jax's progress that she offered him $10 (or was it $20)? This was about the time he finally worked it all the way out! We were able to talk her into just giving him the dollar, though.

TAG!

My friend Julie tagged me a while back, but I'm just now getting caught up on blogging. This is the 4th picture in my 4th folder (from 2008). I think this was during Evan and Kassi's first soccer game. Check out the butcher job on Evan's bangs!

Three Little Carolers

Evan, Kassi and Bailee made PDQ Turtles from my Southern Living Christmas cookbook this afternoon to take to some of our neighbors. When they delivered them, they decided to sing 'Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer'. They did a great job and were so cute! Evan had been looking forward to this for days. She loves having the Wilson girls over and thinks that they cannot have any fun without her. Miss Julie, thanks for lending us Evan's surrogate sisters!

My Little Model

MiMi, PaPa and Big Girl (Evan's term of endearment for my grandmother) came to visit this past weekend. My mom brought my prom dress to see if Evan would model it. My grandfather used to photograph me in my mom's old dresses when I was her age and took some great pics, so we were interested to see what we could do. I can't wait to do a photoshoot with my wedding dress.

Santa Claus

The weekend after Thanksgiving Evan and I went to see Santa. The pictures were not very good, but still...it was Santa and that was one chore I could check off my list. Last week Mike accidentally cut a wallet-sized chunk out of my 5x7 Evan and Santa picture. I guess that was a good excuse to redo it. This time I found a good Santa, though. You know how so many of them just don't look right - well, the first one we chose had that look. We went to the Boardwalk (our local shopping area on the river) to ride the trolley and the Merican Round (Merry-Go-Round for those of you who do not speak Evanese) and see Santa at the Bass Pro Shop. They do Santa right! She then wanted to pose just like the snowman. We always have a great time at the Boardwalk!

Preschool Christmas Program

Evan had her Christmas program and party last Friday. The program was great! The children got to choose who they wanted to be, and Evan chose to be Baby Jesus. When she was told that Baby Jesus would just be a doll, she decided she would be an angel. She and her BFF Kassi were both angels and sang very well! They reminded me of the Philadelphia Cream Cheese commercial where the angels are in the clouds eating bagels with cream cheese.

American Rose Center

Julie & I took the girls to the American Rose Center Friday night. During the Spring and Summer this place is full of blooming roses adn is really pretty. For Christmas they light the place up! The girls got to watch "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" in an outdoor theatre. Afterwards we stopped at McDonald's for treats (the little girls picked the place), and can you believe they do not sell hot chocolate!?!?! It was a great little outing!

Fancy Nancy Birthday Party

Evan's BFF Kassidy had her 5th birthday party last Saturday. The theme was Fancy Nancy - you dress up in your fanciest clothes and act prissy (in a good and funny way). Surprisingly, Evan really got into it. She had me put makeup on her and let me put all kinds of jewelry on her. She even let me borrow her crown and boa so I could get fancy. I stayed to help Julie with the little girls and had a blast! One of the games that the Fancy Moms took part in was walking with a banana on our heads. (I have a feeling this picture will come back to haunt us one day, Julie.)

Last Two Disney Pictures, I Promise

These 2 pictures were taken by Disney staff, and I finally had a chance to go through them to see which ones we ones we wanted to buy. I love the Tinkerbell one!

Leaving Disney

What a sad ending to such a great week! We have loved this time together as a family after such a hectic few months. Evan is already planning to bring Sydney back when she is 5 so she will tall enough to ride most of the rides.

Last Day

We slept in this morning since we were wiped out from staying out so late at the Christmas Party. We decided to go back to the Magic kingdom for our last day and try to catch Ariel - Evan's favorite. We went back and rode Evan's favorite rides, one of which was the Tea Cups. I didn't go this time, so Mike was able to spin them so fast non-stop.

Disney Day 5

We started our day at the Animal Kingdom. We wanted to ride Mount Everest but Evan is just not tall enough yet. She's excited to ride it next time. The safari took us in a big truck into a wildlife reserve that was awesome.

After a nap at the hotel, we went back to the Magic Kingdom for Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party. If you ever have an opportunity to go, take it! This place is even more magical after dark with the Christmas ambience. The lights were amazing and there were stations set up with hot chocolate, cookies, apple juice and apple slices. Who needs dinner?

Evan's favorite rides were Thunder Mountain Railroad and the Haunted Mansion (now that we are home and there is no danger of having to go again).

Just a Few More

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