December Events & Christmas 2008

Breakfast with Santa at the annual Terri Lynn McNaughton Realty office. This was my 3rd year for me to take pictures for them as lots of kiddos come to have their picture made with Santa! It is always fun to get a family picture together with him.

Cambry and Julie

Julie: "...and I would like a 'shooter'"

Santa: ".. a what??"

Julie: ".. a 'SHOOTER'

Santa: ".. a 'Shooter'?

Me: "... Oh- She said she would like a 'scooter'!

Santa: "...Oh! A Scooter!!"

...and Alyson just watched from a distance this year. She wasn't too fond of the idea of sitting on his lap.

Another birthday rolled around for me Dec. 7. I had a nice day.. I got to go with my two aunts, Linda and Janice, and my sister, Rachel, to the Christmas Tour of Homes, then to eat at the Catfish Hole that evening with my family. Patsy and Randy had us over afterwards to blow out candles on my cake (I'll save your eyes from having to squint and count the candles... THERE'S 26 OF THEM!!). The girls especially enjoyed the moment =)

Me and my dad at dinner for my birthday.

Brandon's birthday December 15. Daddy and his girls! (do you think there's room for one more baby to fit on that lap?? I think he can do it =)

Alyson and Grandpa

One day I dressed up the girls in their Christmas dresses and had a photo shoot at home with them. It was fun to dress them up with no place to go but home!

Julie went to her friend Emory's birthday party in December. The theme was to dress up as a bible character, and since this year we are studying the "Life of Moses" in Bible Study Fellowship, Julie chose to dress up as Moses! So, we made her a beard and Ten Commandments to wear around her neck. Mimi (my mom) even had a staff she could carry. Looks like a pretty good Moses, huh!

This year we hosted our Sunday School class Christmas party. We had a really good turn out as several couples got to come. We are so thankful for this group of friends to share with in the celebration of Jesus' birthday at Christmas time.

Every Christmas my dad's side of the family gets together for a big family party at the Ozark's Electric in Fayetteville. It is always a special time to be together and celebrate!Me and my lovely momma, Kim. (*You're never too big to sit on your mom's lap)

It is always fun to take the girls to the Fayetteville Square every Christmas to see the lights and ride the ponies. It is one of Julie's favorite highlights of the Christmas season! Alyson even enjoyed riding this year for the first time. She was all smiles the whole time.

We have began our little (but growing) family Christmas tradition every year by opening our gifts at home on Christmas Eve. The girls each get to open new Christmas pajamas to sleep in that night and wear the next morning to Grandma Patsy's and Grandpa Randy's, then to Mimi and Papas to have Christmas with them.

Julie got a shooter!.... I mean a scooter!!

Christmas morning at Grandma and Grandpa's house with cousins Cody and Cambry

Cambry and Julie- good buddies

Chad and Amber

This year Patsy and Randy went in with Brandon and I to give the girls a play house. Brandon and Randy put it together for them and now they are just anxiously waiting for some warm weather to get out and play in it!

Papa even made a little wooden kitchen to go inside. But, this picture is the first model.. after this picture was taken he took it back out to the shop and remodeled it. Now it has a vent hood with a real light underneath! One of dad's gifts (from his sweet nephews) was a deer plaque (without a deer rack) and at the bottom it says, "Randy's first deer 200?" I think the funniest part about it was dad laughing... he's a good sport.

Christmas at Mom and Dad's (Mimi and Papa's)

Rusty and Rachel were excited to get new Twilight books

Julie and her daddy- Hugs are the best gifts of all!

Beginnings of a New Year!

New Years Day 2009
We were so excited to have Evan, Leah and Kendall from Louisville, KY! The Negleys came, too, and we all brought in the New Year with a yummy lunch with some black-eyed peas.

Brandon, Jonathan and Evan
Rachel N., Me, and Leah
We all have girls and they enjoyed playing together
Kendall, Alyson, Julie and Mya

Cheap entertainment: Having daddy pull you in the laundry basket around the house.

Well, little Miss Alyson isn't quite a baby anymore. She's sure of her capability of eating spagetti with a spoon and bowl by herself... She is doing really well...

....Well, other than the nice big mess!

Julie LOVES to help me cook in the kitchen. She's quite the 'chef', too! Here she is helping me make banana bread.. one of her favorites!

Which one of us is having the baby?

Each year our church hosts an annual Chili Cook-Off where each Connection group gets to have a booth. Each group can enter a chili, a cookie and a theme. This year mine and Brandon's parents' group was a Dr.'s theme...

...and ours was a 'Antacids Required' theme. Each couple (4) litteraly dressed up as antacid medicines. (from left to right) Kellye, Gary and little L.J. Hamblen dressed up as Tums bottles (L.J. was a Tum); Rachel and Jonathan Negley were Rolaids; Brandon and I were Pepto-Bismol (Julie was a Tum, too); and Rachel and Rusty dressed up as Beano. Behind us we painted cardboard to look like an Antacid shelf at the store of all sorts of medicines.

...and since my belly was too big for the cardboard to go on my front we had to cut out a hole in the middle. So, I painted a t-shirt the same color as my bottle and it says, "Cherry Flavored". Also, the goofy things on our heads are flower pots painted to look like measuring cups..

A Carter-Campbell Reunion!

Our previous next door neighbors, Jim, Becky, Emory, Avery and Colby Carter came for dinner a couple weeks back. It was so good to see them and let the kids all play (and we can't get together without getting out the dress-up clothes!)

Emory & Julie: Princesses and Friends forever

Bathtime with cousin, Cambry!

As Alyson is getting older, she is becoming more and more of a daddy's girl. Everyday when Brandon comes home she runs up to him with such excitement saying, "Daddy, Daddy, Daddy!!!"

Alyson and Papa reading a book... Aly is really into it, too!

The girls and I with Rachel at mom and dad's. Rachel is showing us a few nice guitar attempts on dad's guitar =)