Christmas Day 2009

Christmas Day at the Byars' house was the best one yet! We had such a great time with our families and the girls had a blast with their new toys. We opened gifts first thing, had breakfast, played, opened gifts again, played, rested, ate dinner, played, rested and went to bed. It was a great day!

Here is their loot from Santa. Their big gift this year were bikes and they were very excited. Katie Jo has ridden hers a lot and Georgia will probably take some time getting used to hers.Santa left the girls a note.

Georgia on her bike.

Katie Jo has mastered the art of riding a bike while holding the umbrella!

Georgia and her new sleeping bag.

The barbie head was a BIG hit. She has played with this thing endlessly.

Daddy, his girls and his gifts.

Mommy opening her gifts. Jay and I decided this year instead of giving gifts to each other, we would get the girls to give gifts to each of us that they helped pick out.

Me and my girls!

More gift opening. We do gifts from Gran, Pop and Uncle Brian on the back porch. It's a nice change in scenery.

Katie Jo got a karaoke machine and boy have we ALL enjoyed using it!

Georgia got a princess pop up tent. It was a little bigger than expected but both the girls have loved it!
Everyone had to try out the new singing machine. The girls provided the entertainment.

Fried turkey for dinner. Can I get a YUM?

The parents/hosts/gift-givers; Amber and Jay.

Are we ever going to eat?

Yay, finally sitting down to our Christmas dinner.

What a wonderful day we had. If gifts hadn't been present (no pun intended) we would have still had the greatest day spending time together and having fun! Happy Birthday Jesus!

Christmas Eve 2009

We had a truly wonderful Christmas and wanted to share a little of it with you. Our Christmas Eve was jam packed with activities and memory-makers but that's the way we like it! Here's a little tour of our day through photos.


We began the day with breakfast: casserole and croissants, yum!Mia and Uncle Matt came in town and we did our family gifts on Eve morning after our eats.







Here I am with the girls right before braving Publix for the "last second, just gotta have it" groceries.

Our meal of Lowcountry Boil was enjoyed outside. Gotta love that lowcountry weather.

We took our annual hayride around the neighborhood to see the luminaries and Christmas lights.

Santa came to visit us at our house. Can you believe he had time to squeeze us in?

Opening the Eve gift. Christmas pajamas, of course.


And off to bed they went!

A little update with PHOTOS!!!!

The last couple of months have been a blur. The girls started preschool and soon after I started subbing again. I've consistently been subbing two or three days a week so life has been a bit more hectic. The girls have gotten into a nice routine and Katie Jo loves going to school four mornings a week. I fretted at first, thinking it would be too much, but she loves her teacher and has begun "teaching" at home. Georgia loves her days at school too and the days that she isn't in school and I happen to sub I have a wonderful friend of mine that keeps her. Georgia especially looks forward to these days since it's something she has that's just her without the big sis around.

I put together some moments from the last month or so.

Georgia's position to watch tv or to take off on the ladybug depending on which comes first!Katie Jo had show and tell at school and she was beside herself with the chance to take in Daisy, her lovie.

Both girls have gone on a bed strike. Katie Jo's started about a month ago when Jay built her a tent in her room with her sleeping bag. Sometimes she makes her way to the door and then usually into our bed. Georgia has completely given up the crib and we made a pallet on the floor. She loves this and as soon as we get our hands on a twin mattress set we'll set her up in a proper bed.

This was my view from the front of the van last weekend when we traveled to the upstate. Gotta love it!

A week or so ago I took the girls to a local corn maze/petting zoo/pumpkin patch/hayride place and the weather was terribly yucky. Georgia didn't mind but from the pictures you can see KJ felt otherwise. They both loved painting pumpkins and the hay bale maze.









The next picture makes me laugh. When I look at it, it makes me think of the following nursery rhyme.

There was a little girl,
Who had a little curl,
Right in the middle of her forehead.
When she was good,
She was very good indeed,

But when she was bad she was horrid.
-- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

No, she's not really horrid, but sometimes she is hard to keep up with.

These photos were from last Sunday when we were in the upstate.