More Christmas celebrations and New Years Eve

Here are some random pictures from my phone of some after-Christmas celebrations!

Claire helped watch the kids for us for a few days while she was home from school.

WE LOVE CLAIRE!!!

 Eli LOVES Claire, too!!

We had another Teson Christmas celebration at Katie and Michael's house with all the Teson cousins.  It was full of delicious food, fun, and conversation.

 Grammie had the kids all playing some games - lots of giggling was happening!

 For one of Grammie's Christmas presents, all the Teson ladies went to Board and Brush to make signs for our houses.  It was a lot of fun and our signs turned out great!

 Caitlin had never used a drill before - she was a natural!

 Our finished products - so much fun!

Maggie and Eli were lovin on each other one night

 We let the kids stay up late(r than normal) on New Years Eve.

We had some snacks, played games, watched a movie, took some selfies, etc.

 These crazy kids!

Grammie took the kids roller skating while on break from school - she sent us these cute pictures

 Bathtime is a favorite for the kids right now

And...Colin has started his basketball season with school - Brian is his coach

The 2nd grade boys have enough players that they formed 3 separate teams - which is good for the kids since they will get a lot more playing time than with one HUGE team.

I am so proud of Brian for stepping up to help coach.  He is really doing a great job with the kids and I hope they are all learning a lot from him.

Gingerbread houses and the Dudley Christmas

I'm almost done with sifting through my phone pics - 

So much fun getting these pictures up on the blog, finally!

We made and decorated our gingerbread house again this year.

The kids always ask to do it, probably because they end up eating a ton of candy in the process, which is important to them...

Eli always loves to be in the thick of things.

Here he is 'cutting' out some of the silhouettes that stood around the gingerbread house

Colin and Maggie are pretty creative these days...

Eli needed a break apparently, it's hard work being 2!

His feet look huge by the way!

Look at the concentration!

Eli did a great job adding to the house for a bit, then realized he could just take the candy off of the house and eat it.  The kids got a huge kick out of that.

Colin thought it was particularly hilarious that Eli was eating a ton of candy.

Yes, bedtime was tough that night...

The finished product

Maggie lost her front tooth - her first BIG tooth (she's only lost her bottom teeth previously)

It was only a little wiggly, and she ran to her room and twisted it enough to come out.  She's so funny about some things - very emotional and dramatic about little bumps and bruises, yet can yank her tooth out without any issues...

We then headed to Belton to spend some time with the Dudley family for Christmas

It was tons of fun!

The kids all got great gifts - Eli got this cute doggy backpack and fun games!

Tiff and I each got some thoughtful gifts, too!

Colin got some Legos that had to be put together immediately!

Along with his hoodie sweatshirts that he had to put on immediately, too!

Gordy with his PJ Masks mask.

Maggie was looking at her awesome gift from Tiff - all those Ball jars for organizing her desk in her room!

Maggie LOVES this purple heart pillow for her bed

These two...

Eli insisted on a picture with Santa

Tiff and Chad worked their tails off to finish their basement enough for the kids to hang out some downstairs.  Eli thought this little kid nook was awesome (even when he slammed his head into the ceiling a few times!)

Yee haw!

Arleigh and Meemaw

Colin loved hanging with Arleigh and taking care of her

The traditional grandchildren picture.

Love this group of kids so much!

Random December happenings and Maggie's dance recital

Can't believe December is already almost over - I am trying to get all the pictures off my phone, so this post will be a somewhat random one...

The kids had their annual eye exam - Colin's eyes needed a little bit of a stronger prescription, and Maggie's are holding steady (but might need some glasses next year)

They both did awesome, and we loved our eye doctor (we tried a new place very close to our house, Dr. Hug was awesome!)

Maggie had her Christmas Dance recital on December 9th

She did amazing, of course :)

We all loved her dance costume, and I am still finding those little sequins all over the house, multiple weeks and many vacuums later...

Meemaw came up and was super excited to watch Maggie dance

I love this picture of the 2 of them after the recital was over

We were a little concerned about Eli staying quiet during the performances, but he did AWESOME and loved every second of it.  He kept saying "lets do that again" after each dance performance...

Maggie with some of her dance classmates

(she's so little compared to the rest of them...) 

Our best attempt at a family pic

A few nights later, Colin had his first Reconciliation sacrament.

He was a little nervous, but did great.  He waited in line for Father Joe and was very proud of himself afterwards.  He's growing up so quickly!!

Colin with Father Joe

We went out for some ice cream afterwards to celebrate.

The kids had a random dance party while watching the Chiefs game one night

These crazy boys...

Love my goofy family

A few days later...we took Maggie to see a Nutcracker performance held at a high school just north of us, put on by a very good dance studio.  It turns out, we knew 2 of the girls dancing in the Nutcracker, so we waited afterwards to get a picture with them.  So fun!

Studying the program during intermission

Madeline, a daughter of one of my Bunco friends in the neighborhood

and Katie Jane, an older sister of one of Colin's classmates.

Such a fun and busy couple of weeks!