Christmas Morning

We had a relatively calm morning. The kids came down around 7:30 so it wasn't too early. We decided to do one main gift plus stockings this year to cut down on the overindulgence of years past. Overall, it worked out well and the kids seemed to enjoy what they received.

Whit the Christmas Elf

Here are some photos of Whit enjoying his 1st Christmas. Believe it or not the "My First Christmas" pajamas were Griffin's!

American Girl Christmas Party

For the past couple of years Carson, Reese and Hadley have hosted an American Girl Christmas Party. We are treated to a pizza lunch and cookies and then we get treated to a theatrical performance written and performed by the Markland Girls and Brett. This years show was titled "Rudolph Jr.". It was about Rudolph Sr. getting sick and the need for his non-flying son, Rudolph Jr. to save Christmas. It was quite entertaining as usual!

Nutcracker

Gram treated us (the girls) to the Nutcracker ballet. The girls love it because they get new, fancy dresses to wear. Their favorite part was when it "snowed".

Brett's 4th Birthday

WOW! I can't believe Brett is 4! We celebrated with a "Bob the Builder" cake and a really big dump truck ballon. He got lots of trucks and tools- his favorite! On his birthday it was so nice (70 degrees) so we went to the zoo and then went out for a pizza lunch.

Christmas Tree

Here is our Christmas tree. I was not looking forward to putting it up because I had visions of Whit pulling it down. Luckily, it is still standing but it now only has ornaments on the top half of it because we keep having to move the low ones higher and higher as Whit finds new ways to grab them off of the tree.

Hadley's beam routine

Hadley did really good on the beam. She got the highest score for all level 2 girls (9.45)!

Hadley's first gymnastics meet

Hadley had her first meet in early December. We had to wear our fancy ($100) leotard and fix our hair just right (the biggest challenge for Mom!). She had fun and did really good.

Griffin's basketball team

As you all know, Griffin made the basketball team at middle school. They are currently 3-2. Griffin has proven to be a solid member of the team and if he has not started he usually comes off the bench to give the team some quality minutes. His season high so far was against Lexington where he went 5-6 from 3 point land and ended up with 17. Unfortunately, his team still lost! On game days the boys have to wear a tie to school. At first, Griffin was not to happy with this but I don't think he minds it now because I think the 8th grade girls like it! Here is a picture of him with his tie before the 1st game and in his uniform.

Whit ripping paper

This is a video of Whit trying to rip paper. We thought it was very funny!

Thanksgiving

We spent Thanksgiving at home. The weather was nice so we were able to play outside and take a hike to the playground. We had dinner a Gram and Grandpa Markland's house in the evening.

November pictures

Sorry it has been almost a month since I added a new post. The month has just gotten away from me. Here are some pictures of the kids over Thanksgiving break. We were able to spend a lot of time outside because the weather was warm-Thank Goodness!