Christmas in North Carolina

We've spent the past few days visiting with my family in North Carolina, and the kids have had the best time.  They've opened lots of presents...

had lots of family time...

enjoyed all of the doggies running around this house...

and spent some time at my grandmother's house enjoying the beautiful views of the Intercoastal and getting a few pieces of furniture to put in our new house.

The kids loved hanging out by the water, tossing hickory nuts in and watching for boats.

We ended our evening visiting my grandmother and packing up for our drive home back to reality tomorrow.

10 years!!!

Yesterday Robby and I are celebrating our 10 year anniversary!  I had graduated in May and started my first year of teaching.  Robby stayed an extra semester to complete his second degree so we planned a Christmas time wedding to work with my school schedule and just before he started working.  We were SO young, at just 23 years old, but we had been high school sweet hearts and were very ready to say "I Do."

I loved everything about that day and the fact that despite it being two days after Christmas, all of our friends and family traveled to be with us.  We got married in Athens, GA, the place we both loved and where our love really grew.

Five addresses, 4 houses, 3 kids, and 2 states later here we are as a family of 5!

Christmas is Here!

We had a wonderful Christmas Day and it was so much fun with the kids this year.  They woke us up excited and ready to go see if Santa and come.

He did!  The only thing Harper cared about getting this year was an iPod touch, but Santa had to come up with some other things she might have fun with, too.

Handley's list was a little longer, but she was extra good this year and got everything she hoped for.

All three kids got these classic big blocks...

Hudson is suddenly fascinated with tools, so Santa knew a tool bench would be the perfect gift.

As they came down the stairs I heard Handley say, "I got everything I asked for!" and Harper was beyond excited about her gifts, too.  

Hudson took his time moving from one thing to the next, but was all smiles all morning.

After checking out all their goodies from Santa we had breakfast and then started opening gifts from one another.

One of my favorite things is taking each of the kids shopping for their siblings.  They are so thoughtful in their selections and so excited to wrap and give each other their gifts.

The girls really got into the gift giving this year and wrapped up all sorts of gifts for all of the adults.  Mine had some of their princess lipgloss, red and green pony-tail holders, and a $5 bill (which they told us was to help pay for our new house).  It was the sweetest thing and I'm just really happy that they are learning how to be so giving. Papa got some (used) Minnie Mouse chap-stick and nicely said that he already had lots of chap-stick if they wanted to have it back, but they insisted he keep it, along with the $1 bill they gave him.  It was so cute because they were so proud of themselves.  :-)

Handley was extremely thoughtful today and kept thanking us over and over for everything we gave her.

Hudson has not quite learned to be so gracious yet and had no problem bringing me a gift that he wasn't interested in and saying, "I no like this one." It was hard to live up to the Jake and the Neverland Pirates ship and cannon launcher from Gigi and Papa that he has been obsessed with since he opened it.  He was thrilled by the nerf shooters Handley gave him and the toy army gun he received (something I never would have given him at this early of an age, but he is obsessed with them when he visits at Rylan's house so I broke down and this dollar store toy was one of his favorites from today).

Hudson played outside for the longest time with Robby and didn't mind at all that he was still in his pj's.  He was bundled up felt like a popsicle when they came in, but he was still crying to go back out.  He settled for running around and shooting nerf guns with his Daddy inside.

Handley was a bracelet making fool and spent hours making bracelets for everyone with her Rainbow Loom Kit.  While she did this she listened to the song from the Disney movie, Frozen, over and over and over on her new device (which is really an old iPhone Santa gave her with a fun new cover).  I probably heard that song at least 50 times today and I'm happy that she can use her headphones in the car tomorrow for our long drive to see my parents.

Harper took pictures of everything she could possibly think of to capture the day and loved informing everyone of the time and weather (by looking at her iPod), writing in her diary, and organizing all of her lip glosses and other goodies from today.

Like Hudson, I didn't even get out of my pajamas today, but with no where to be it was nice to just have a day around the house to let the kids play, hang out as a family, and celebrate a laid back Christmas!

Christmas Eve

We traded in our sleeping in for getting up early on Christmas Eve so that we could make it to the children's Christmas Eve service.  It's something we do every year with Tiara, Avery and Dylan and this year was just a special.

Before the service there are all sorts of animals out front for the kids to get to see up close and personal. They all loved getting to pet them and Hudson was running from one to another.  

During the service the animals are used as part of the story telling and it's always pretty funny to see a real live donkey and camel walking down the aisle at church.

The kids all got a lot out of the service this year and we got a little baby Jesus to take home with us.  As soon as we arrived home the girls were trying to figure out how to add it to the nativity we already had displayed.

We spent the rest of the afternoon waiting for Daddy to get home from work and getting ready for Ryan, Heather and Rylan to come over.  After dinner with them and opening a few gifts my three spread the reindeer food in the front yard, got on their Christmas PJ's and were ready to watch our family movie.

Every year on Christmas Eve I give them what has become named the "family movie" which is a slideshow including pictures and videos from the past year set to our favorite songs of the year.  We all look forward to watching it and then the kids love to see it over and over throughout the year. It's always fun to go back and watch the old videos and see just how much they have changed.  After that they were quick to get to bed before Santa passed us by!

Christmas Happenings

This weekend we got busy with all sorts of fun stuff happening around here. We wrapped lots of gifts, decorated lots of cookies, and had lots of down time (which I was most excited about).

On Saturday night we dropped Handley at her first slumber party!  She was beyond excited about going to this party for her best friend from school.  Handley has spent the night out at a friend's house before, but this was the first time at a real slumber party with more than one friend.  The brave mom and dad had 4 girls in all (so small, but still lots of girly squeals, giggles, and games).  I got a text around 10:00 PM that all the girls were settled down for the night and almost asleep and then another one the next morning that they were all up, had eaten donuts for breakfast, and were back to playing and having fun.  When I picked her up on Sunday she had pink hair spray, face paint, and the biggest smile.  She kept saying how much fun she had!

While she was doing that the rest of us were at our Christmas dinner club.  We usually do a Christmas PJ theme each year and this year Brian and Lisa kept that tradition going.  Harper loved being in charge of the little ones and took her job very seriously since Handley wasn't there.

On Sunday afternoon the Posener girls got busy decorating what seemed like hundreds of cookies that Gigi baked.  Harper and Handley got really creative with their decorations and we have all be enjoying the cookies ever since.

The kids and I took advantage of today being the first official day of Christmas break and did what I call our "summer schedule" because it is how our summers usually go.  We stay up late and all sleep in the next morning.  It was just what we all needed.  After breakfast we hurried to get ready for a Gingerbread House playdate.  Jen hosted the fun at her house and the kids all had lots of fun decorating their houses, eating the sweets, and playing together.

We spent the rest of the day running around doing last minute things before Christmas Eve tomorrow!