christmas with the SMITH'S

after our relaxing christmas at home, we hit the road to celebrate with my side of the family.

lucky for me, i got to hang out with my two sweet and beautiful nieces!

and allie LOVED it too!

we had, as always, ridiculous amounts of food

and lots of unique moments... like, 

griffin riding in my grandmothers new "winnie wagon"

and shooting off a rocket in the church parking lot

sadly, the rocket only went up for one ride... we lost it in the wind. 

the next day... another trip to the doctor.  griff got a double ear infection.  yay for antibiotics!

family pic with one sick baby and a stubborn 3 year old

here is my sister with her girls and the additions to her family coming in 2013!  she will be getting married this summer to Travis and his two boys, riley and taylor, will join their family.

we left late in the evening a day early because my mom was still recovering from a sinus infection, lance got sick with a head cold, and my dad was coming down with the flu.  all the kids passed out in the trip and made for an easy trip home.

 

and that wraps up christmas!  

christmas DAY

christmas morning was really sweet.  i was up with a sick baby most of the night so  it was easy to slip off the couch and start our cinnamon rolls.  i turned the tree lights on and waited for the pitter patter of little feet.  the kids enjoyed playing with unwrapped gifts while the rolls finished. 

griffin got a mini train set, caleb got a nerf gun and bullets, allie got a barbie pool, and riley got a toy story set.  

 then someone found the stockings all filled up and they dove into those.

once those were all dumped out, it was time to dig into our christmas morning rolls.  sadly, i had an oversight and forgot to buy the cherries this year... lucky for me, everyone was ok with the icing substitute for ornaments.  oops.

after breakfast we started ripping into the gifts and the kids were blessed with many fun things.  while they played, karen and i worked on christmas lunch.  i have no pics of opening or lunch, but it was good and super fun.  by the time we had lunch cleaned up... the ground was covered in snow.  it was a special christmas IN DEED!

we were grateful to have grammie with us, but also missed our poppy tremendously! Thanks for making it a really special christmas grammie!!!

that evening, we drove around and looked at christmas lights while  i read the christmas story from the bible.  on the trip home, every kiddo fell asleep in the car.  we might have to make that a tradition because it made for a super relaxing evening!

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL AND TO ALL A GOOD NIGHT!

Christmas EVE

we decorated cookies FIRST THING on christmas eve. 

and i have to say... they have gotten pretty good. the bottles of icing, rather than bowls with spoons or knives was a HUGE help. 

then, it was off to the doctor... because, it is NOT a holiday for the sisco family if someone is not sick.  ;)  you can't tell by this lovely photo, but griff broke out in a red rash all over his face, back, and tummy.  he had to have blood work done and turns out that he had TWO separate viral infections that his little body was fighting.  croup and measles!! i'm sorry, is it 1960?  i didn't know kids could still get measles???  i mean... we get vaccinated for that!  weird!

none the less, we attended the christmas eve service and don't worry... our sick griffy stayed in his stroller the whole time... he enjoyed it and we were glad we went.  it was such a beautiful time of singing and pondering on Christ's birth. 

even riley had a good job listening and thinking about the hope that Jesus brought.

once the kiddos were in bed, the tree was prepped and the stocking were stuffed...

tomorrow will bring some BIG smiles!!

leading up to christmas break

so many things happen in the few days before christmas. here is a peak of what we juggled... 

the kids made their own list of thing to hunt for while we looked at lights.

allie playing christmas bingo in her first grade class

caleb making a snowflake ornament at his kindergarten reindeer party

griffin saying, "cheese"

and being all together cute

lance and i watching christmas vacation and sipping on egg nog

visiting santa's villiage

finally completing all six stockings (plus an extra guest stocking since our grammie spent christmas with us this year).

Growing up so FAST

oh, man! i just can't believe how the time is passing.  Caleb turned six last week.  SIX, people!  it's almost mind numbing! 

We started by celebrating with his class the day before. he wanted Lego head cake pops.  i tell you... my kids always keep me on my toes when it comes to trying new things. 

he shared a bday with another sweet boy in his class. 

and here is mrs. lemmon... the world's sweetest kinder teacher!

then next morning...birthday wake up with balloons... this might be my favorite wake up pic in the last six years... he was eating up the attention!

bday donuts!

we opened gifts friday afternoon and one of his gifts had a surprise written on it!  Miller, one of his little buddies from Tyler, was going to come for a sleep over!  he was so pumped!

so, on saturday we met up with mills, grabbed another good friend from school and headed to jump street to party hard.  these boys don't look excited, do they?

carson and caleb, for reasons unknown to us, have been dubbed coocoo 1 and coocoo 2 by their friends at school... so, of course, we had to take this pic!  i don't even know what that place is, but it's right next to jump street.

it was hard to get good jumping pics, but here are two from the inflatable slides

no words... so funny!

after they jumped themselves tired, we swung through QT for lemonade, grabbed some pizzas and headed home!

 

pizza time!

caleb wanted a transformers cake this year

after church on sunday, we went to In and Out after church and topped off our big birthday weekend!

it was fun celebrating this BIG guy! another year in the books!