Tuesday Evening Celebrations

We had such a fun Tuesday evening!  Many of you who know us well, know that Nolan has been talking about going to Chuck E Cheese forever.  All he had to do to earn a trip is to do his #2 business on the potty.  This has been a struggle for him.  Well, yesterday, he finally made it happen.  He was so excited for his reward that we could not delay!!  Thankfully, daddy was able to come home early yesterday and we were able to go before Silas' Christmas Program at school. 

What was so sweet about it all is that his brothers kept telling him how awesome he was and that they were proud of him.  They even thanked him for making it possible for them to go along with him to celebrate.  It is at times like this that I'm sure that these children are the best! :O)  No offense to your kids, but I think that all mothers should have the opinion that their very own children are the BEST!

Enjoy the pictures from our SUPER FUN evening:

Our BIG boy!  We are so proud of you, Nolan!!

Daddy LOVED being able to celebrate with him!

Silas knows how this rodeo goes!

Me and my girl.  This is our "sketch" by Chuck E Cheese himself... lol.

What fun!  They were "riding" a roller coaster!

What game to play next???

Basketball with daddy!

During Silas' program, the children enjoyed sitting with Grandma Debbie!  We couldn't talk them into sitting with us!

Silas was kind of hidden behind Leo during the entire program.  Steve tried to time Leo's "sways" to get a better picture, but we didn't have much luck!

The closest shot we could get of him.  They sang 3 or 4 songs, and the Christmas story was read.

A close up of our "kitten!" He did great!

Our first family Christmas party of 2010!

We had a GREAT time at our Moss & Dotson & Grinstead Christmas party last night.  Enjoy the pictures of our time:

The 9 Grandchildren!

Another take.  They did REALLY well for these pictures!

Ryan and his girl, Kate! :O)

The Moss Family

Our family!  I'm so glad that Grandma Grinstead was able to be here for this!!!

Another pose of our BIG family!

Jacob playing photographer like Wes.

After all the food, these guys needed a break!

Nolan had a little snack.  The funny thing is that he is eating a cheerio mix out of what was supposed to be the "scoop" in the container.  He hand picked out all of the white chocolate chips into the cup!

Grandma and Chey.  Chaille was pretty somber for a lot of the evening, but all of the kids were VERY good!

The Dotson Family (we missed Michael this year!)

Nolan sat and talked to his great grandmother!

"SISTERS!"

Our mothers.  We are blessed that these 3 are such great friends, so we became sisters through their friendship!

Papaw helped Silas put together his new Lego set!

And he helped Avery too!

These last pictures will be sure to make you laugh so hard!!! Let me first give you some background... Steve knows that my mom has never had to color her hair (although she chooses to highlight it, she had never colored to cover gray!) He teases her whenever he knows that she has been to get her hair cut and says that they messed up her color.  So, as a joke to him, for his birthday a couple weeks ago, mom bought him a box of Just for Men hair color.  So... I found this hair color bottle that is for "roots only" for him to give her.  She opened the gift and immediately knew it was from Steve.  He said to her, "Well... I had to do something to get you back.  I used the stuff you bought me and look what it did to me..."  Check him out:



I've rarely seen mom laugh so hard.  The place erupted in laughter.  I love how in the first picture of his hair, Mandy looks in shock in the background.  I think she probably found it out of character for Steve to do that.  He surprises us all like that sometimes!  It was hilarious and totally WORTH the shock he gave my mom! :O)  Last night he came home and shaved the rest...

We had a GREAT time.  Our family party is one of the many reasons why I LOVE CHRISTMAS!

Christmas ornaments

A couple years ago I posted pictures of the ornaments that Avery and Silas made to put on the tree.  They did so again this year, and Nolan was able to color one too!  Here are this years ornaments:

Avery's present with mistletoe.

Silas' reindeer!

Nolan's Gingerbread man and house.

Didn't they do such a good job??  When you are just working with paper, markers, and glue, you've got to be creative! :O)

So, we've had a busy few days and I haven't been on to blog.  We had dinner with my parents and my Grandma Grinstead on Wednesday.  It was SO nice to get to have time with them.  Then, Friday night, Sarah Records came and stayed with the kids so that Steve and I could have a "date" and do a little (or maybe a LOT in a little time) Christmas shopping!  Yesterday we spend the whole snowy day down at Grandma and Grandpa Frye's.  Steve was able to get some work done, and the boys were able to enjoy some fun in the SNOW (a few inches of it!)  We neglected pictures, as Steve was busy and I was inside with Grandma and Chaille.  But I'm sure there will be more chances for snow pictures this winter!

Tonight we have our Christmas party with the Dotson and Moss families.  I'm sure there will be pictures soon from that!  For now, I'm going to end with a picture of Chaille in her new headband.  In the store she acted like she loved it and would leave it in.  Once we got home, however, what happened was exactly what I expected.  She left it in long enough for me to snap a quick picture!



The first SNOW and pictures from last night!

We brought in our December in true, winter style.  We had our first snow of the season.  It didn't leave an accumulation, but it flurried all day.  And that excited the children.  When we arrived home from picking up

Silas from school, the children enjoyed a little time to play in the fun, frigid snow!

Nolan tried to catch some on his tongue!

Silas went straight in for a handful and then ATE it.  He loves to eat snow! Always has, although I think it tastes dirty, for some reason he loves it...

Chaille was taking it all in.  She doesn't really remember snow, so it was like she was seeing it for the first time!

She had to try a bite too!  She is so cute all bundled in her winter coat!

And now for the pictures from last night.  We had a GREAT time with our friends.  We were so happy to get to spend Sarah's Birthday with her too!  Here are some pictures from both the movie and dinner:

Chaille was so funny.  After each preview, she'd start to get up and say "done" or "all done?"  She had no idea what we were there for.

Nolan and Avery enjoyed popcorn and drinks while we waited for the movie to start.

Chaille lasted through about half of the movie.  Then she got squirmy, so I took her out to explore.  She was trying to figure out how to get the toys out of this machine!  Would you believe that I was able to win her a stuffed animal on the FIRST try??? That never happens!

What is better than one Chaille, TWO Chailles! :O)  We took time to change her diaper and play with the baby in the mirror while we waited for everyone to be done with the movie.

And we sat and talked and ate more popcorn for a bit...

The kids were so excited to have dinner at the Pizza King Station.  They were all anxiously awaiting their drinks that come on the train.

Meanwhile Steve was sharing BIG news.  His dad retired yesterday!!

Chaille was VERY good through dinner.  She sat so well in her chair.

Kaleb was teaching Silas all of his "knuckles" tricks.

The kids did a lot of "playing" at the table.  I'm not sure what they were doing here!!!

Silas giggled so hard when Daddy started tickling!

Sarah, Avery, and Kaleb. Logan decided to try to be sneaky and hide over Avery's shoulder.

ONE Happy Child...

TWO Happy Children...

THREE Happy Children

FOUR Happy Children...

FIVE Happy Children...

SIX Happy Children...

SEVEN Happy Children... in just 2 families (and we were missing the other HALF of the Kelsheimer clan!)

Mommy and Chey!  We are such BUDDIES!

Chaille's adorable dress coat.  We are "borrowing" it from Lyndsay until Miss Ellie can wear it!

On our way out to the car, Nolan INSISTED on being carried by Kaleb. Not every 15 year old boy is this wonderful with little ones.  We appreciate what a great kid Kaleb is!!