holiday fun!

whew! we made it. :) the holidays are almost over. i will have many pics to upload, but am trying to save my camera battery power until i am able to get the charger out of the camper. here's a quick rundown of the past couple weeks:

12/17 - the kids school had child-led worship at 7 pm. i have a video but have to figure out how to make it work in the laptop. kaetlyn was precious! dancin' and singin' away!
12/19 - had our christmas party with our traction racing friends. we all cooked up and ate a huge feast, exchanged gifts white elephant style, let the kiddos play, and of course rode '3 wheelers.' we spent the night at brian & traci's in the rv, woke up, ate breakfast and rode some more! it was a fun weekend!
12/23 - dad came to town to celebrate christmas with us. i spent the previous two days finishing up christmas, wrapping, cleaning, etc. we hung around and looked at christmas lights in the evening.
12/24 - craig had to work in the morning, but got off around 11 am. we took kaetlyn and sam to chuckee cheese for lunch and came home for naptime. we went to the church that the kids' schools is part at 7 pm, looked at a few more chrismtas lights then came home, put out reindeer food (kaetlyn dumped it in one big pile in the front yard), made cookies for santa, and got ready for bed. kaetlyn donated her binky's to all the small children that need them, so we wrote a note to santa so he would know to take the binkys. it went quite well, except that she wanted one to sleep with and said that santa can take it from her mouth while she's sleeping. for the most part, she's doing quite well... big girl! it's a little said for me... my baby girl is growing up.
12/25 - christmas morning was a blast! all the hours of preparation were over with the blink of an eye! kaetlyn had a fun time opening, not only her own presents, but cj's, mommy's and poppi's as well. after we finished our family christmas, dad headed back to LA, and craig, myself and the kiddos drove to houston to spend a couple days with the perkins family. we were on the road by 10:45! once we got there, we had another christmas! presents were had by all, followed by naps, and a wonderful christmas dinner. the children played and the ladies even got a few card games in. :)
12/27 - we left Houston and drove to LA for a couple days. we arrived around 6 pm and had darrell's po-boys and MORE presents waiting for us... so we had christmas once again. the kiddos had fun playing with their new stuff, and we enjoyed the family time.

we had a blast! all the excitement and memories... i wouldn't change a thing, but boy am i glad to be home! we got home last night around 6 pm, and i am thankful to have the next few days off with the kiddos. i will have a chance to get caught up on things and maybe even relax a little! this week we are working on getting kaetlyn out of diapers. she has had on panties and jeans all day, and hasn't had a single accident! i added a diaper for her nap, but am hopeful we can knock this out before the weekend.

some of kaetlyn's prizes include: a bucket of dinosaurs, a bicycle, a kids digital camera, a talking & walking t-rex, a baby nerf gun, a singing dolly (thanks grandma!), a little einstein computer, and the list goes on and on.... cj made out pretty well too... but he doesn't really know the difference at this point. his hammer and drums suit him just fine!! he is trying desperately to crawl, and is extremely frustrated when he can't get where he wants to... he ends up going backward, then cries for help.

this weekend we are planning to go to a race near dallas if the weather permits. we'll know by tomorrow evening if we're racing or just going to a favorite camping spot nearby. today is cold and sleeting... not a great day to be outside, so we're just hanging out.

many pictures to follow! last night when putting kaetlyn to bed, i hurt her feelings and she told me that jesus was going to come take all my presents away. i told her that she was my present... she is my gift from God. she said, 'mommy, i'm not a present with a bow on top!' i told her she was silly. she said, 'that's me. silly silly kaetlyn.' funny girl.