New Years Day!

We usually have a gathering at our house for New Years Eve, but this year was a little quiet. Mom was in town and we really didn't feel like doing much. We ate boiled crawfish and they all were in bed before midnight. Ryan gave up at 10:30, Mom and Cullen gave in at 11, and I caved at 11:35. It isn't any fun by yourself!!

New Years Day Uncle Steve, Granny, and Uncle Pat joined us for lunch. I forget what all we had, but it was pretty amazing. Of course we had black eyed peas and cabbage just in case the old wives tales prove to be true!

My birthday is December 28th, and I received this as a present from wonderful lady!! 

It is absolutely amazing and I could never say thank you enough!!

Of course I had to play around with it. This is just a random shot of Cullen at the top of our stairs!

 Uncle Steve and Mom preparing the food. (I really did it all....they were posing!) 

:-)

Granny & Uncle Pat watching the Rose Parade. She loves that parade.

"Unka Pat" & "Unka Cullen!"

He thought he was a big boy because he was able to eat with a tv tray like Uncle Pat and Granny.

All in all it was a great day. I was able to take the Christmas tree down and get our dining room back into a room instead of a dump! We took naps, and did absolutely nothing most of the day. It was just what we all needed! 

We had a great first day of 2011, and we were all hopeful that the year would continue in the same direction.....

Christmas Eve and Christmas Morning

We have Christmas Eve at Brandie's house every year, and this past year was no different. All of the kids have started pulling names for them to buy for each other, so they get to open those gifts and they get to open the gifts from their god parents. (The ones that are on our side!) They also get their gifts from the grandparents as well. We usually eat, open presents, and then play games until we all decide that we hear Santa coming!!

This was our tree this year. It has been white and gold for the past couple of years so I decided to change the gold to red. I must say I loved the improvement. My tree is always a work in progress, and by the time I get it where I want it....I CHANGE IT! Next years will be even better.

Cullen opening his gifts from Tauntie Shea. He loves Mickey and these books were perfect! He still reads them!

He is also very obsessed with flashlights. I have one that stays by my bed in case the electricity goes out and he is always playing with it. His Nanny decided to get him his own...it's at the bottom of the toy box and he continues to play with mine....FAIL!

He also LOVES to pretend he is shaving when he and his Daddy are in the shower together so his Nanny bought him his own shaving kit as well. (She racked up in the points this year!) He honestly thinks he is shaving every time and he comes and asks me to feel how smooth he is. 

Uncle Mikey is always joking with the kids to make them smell his feet, so each child (and every adult) got him a new pair of socks. Cullen gave him 3 pairs. I wrapped each pair separately and gave them to him from each child. It was pretty funny!

Katelyn and Megan in their Christmas PJ's waiting for Santa.

Christmas Morning 2010!!

His poor pajamas were a gift from the night before...it was the only night he was able to wear them!

 Playing with his trains on his mat that Santa brought him!

Here he is in action. He is a pro at this now!!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Chirstmas holiday. We sure did and we were very thankful for all the great company, gifts, and memories that were made!

Christmas festivities!!!

I obviously did a horrible job and did not take any pictures of Thanksgiving. We had it at my house this year, and my Mom, Granny, and my Uncle Steve joined us. We had a wonderful meal and Ryan left that afternoon to go hunting in Alabama. It was a relaxing holiday!!

Next of course we had Christmas festivities the entire month of December. We absolutely love Christmas time and I could drive around looking at Christmas lights every night of the month! I remember going to look at lights when I was little and I always thought it was the coolest thing to be able to do that. I want to be able to share that with Cullen!

Ryan, Cullen, and I decided to go to dinner and head to Acadian Village one Saturday night. I had never been and it had been a very long time since Ryan had gone. We really enjoyed it. Although as soon as we waited in line and walked through the gates it started pouring down raining! It actually worked out in our favor because it was packed but when it started raining people started going home!! While we were waiting for the rain to stop we ran into Ryan's cousin Alaina and her family. She has a little boy who is 9 months older than Cullen so they got to enjoy all the lights together!!

Sweet Cousins. Cullen and Grant

They were too cute!

Grant decided he wanted to be a part of our family picture. He is family so that was just fine!

Cullen wasn't to sure why I was holding Grant and not him though! HA!

They had a steamboat full of lights.

They have a little kid section with a couple of rides and activiites for them to do. 

Cullen was a huge fan of the train. He drove it as if it was his full responsibility to get everyone else on the train back to the depot safely!! It was hilarious!

Captain Cullen!

Daddy and Cullen in front of one of the scenes they had created.

It was a very fun night and is something I will definitely want to do every year!! It will be so much more fun as Cullen gets older too!

Off to bed for the night, but will keep going tomorrow! I will catch up!!!

Here it goes....starting with Halloween!!

Ok, so this has been a long time coming!! I have not blogged since Cullen's 2nd birthday. As of this past Saturday he is now 2 years and 9 months....that means I am terrible at this!! I am going to catch everyone up from the last post until now....Halloween is first.....

We went Trick-or-Treating with the Braman and the Horaist family.

Our kids!

Jordan as the hippie, Julien as the football player, Cullen as an elephant, Jackson as a cowboy, Adalie as Snow White, and Trey as a hunter.

 

Momma's elephant...he wasn't a big fan of the cosutme....Mom either. It was a last minute thing!

Candy please!!

It was Adalie's birthday on November 1st, so we had a party for her after we got back from riding around the neighborhoods. 

This was the first year Cullen could actually ask for candy and he knew what was going on. It was pretty funny and cute. He definitely racked up....the adults enjoyed it along the ride too!!