Footprints Christmas Program

The last week of Footprints (for the fall semester) was back on December 19, so this post is a little late, but better late than never, right?  (Our camera battery went dead right as Brynn's class started singing, so luckily we took some on my sister-in-law's camera.)

Brynn's class at school, the 2-year old class, can go on either Tuesday/Thursday or on Wednesdays.  And several of the kids (including Brynn) go all three days.  Since the big Christmas program was on a Thursday, the Wednesday kiddos didn't really have a program.  So we invited the Wednesday parents to watch their kiddos sing and have a little party on that Wednesday morning.  Brynn was a hoot!  She did so well and I was so proud of her!

Brynn and one of her best friends, Scarlett! (or "Car-Lit" as Brynn calls her).

We had cookies and punch afterward.

I love that I'm able to be there working while she is attending pre-school.  It's such a blessing!  I got to set up for the little party and then watch them sing.  Brynn was HILARIOUS during the singing.  First of all, the kids were just a hoot because they were pretty much yelling the song at all volumes and they were all over the place and not singing together.  The parents were dying laughing it was so cute!  Then the song ends and Brynn just kept on singing...like for an extra twenty seconds BY HERSELF she just kept singing "bells are ringing, bells are ringing, etc."  On the video you can hear her teachers saying "Brynn, the song is over.  Brynn, you can put the bells down now.  Brynn...song is over!"  HAHA!  It was hilarious!  That's probably the only time my child (with my singing voice) will ever sing a "solo" in church!  HA!

Then the next day, ALL the kids (the ones, twos, three, and Pre-K classes) had their big Christmas program.  We had practiced all week and it was just adorable.  I seriously almost teared up just watching them all walk in to the music.  Each class got up on the stage and sang a few songs and it was just precious!




The little boy by Brynn was just hilarious!  He is so little but when he starts singing he belts it out (let's be realistic...more like a yell, but just hilarious!)  The crowd was DYING he was such a hoot!





It was such a surreal moment to watch our BABY get up on stage and sing a couple of songs...just precious and we are so thankful and blessed!

Christmas Day 2013

We had such a great day celebrating Christmas with our families!!  We are so blessed that both our families live nearby.  Even though it's a little hectic, we are able to spend time with both Ryan's family and my family throughout the day!! 

We started the morning off by waking this little one up around 7:30.  Even though she's been congested and sick, she did so well all day!  (It must have been a little Christmas miracle, because she had a rough night that night and we found out a couple of days later that she had developed her first ear infection...boo!)

Brynn must have been WORN OUT from our Christmas Eve party because we had to go in and get her up around 8:45.  She was so excited to see what was in her "tocking" and to open presents!

She wanted to get out all of Emory's stuff and show her everything.  It was too cute!

Then she kept taking Emory's little hands and tried to get her to "open" her presents.

She has talked about wanting this princess umbrella ever since Ansley got one in July.  She was thrilled!  She walked all over the house with it and about knocked over half the house while she was parading around!

Then we headed to Ryan's grandma's cottage/clubhouse to celebrate with his family.  Gigi lives in her own cottage, but all the residents share a clubhouse and it is so nice!  So we all met there for Christmas lunch.  It lets Gigi still feel like she's "hosting" everyone, and it is so special.  This year there were several other residents and their families who also joined us for lunch.  Some can be a little crotchety and we have been laughing since last year about one lady who kept yelling "I NEED A FORK...AND BRING MY DESSERT!"  This year we had a new funny story because Ryan looked out the clubhouse window and goes "uhhh...who is that old lady SITTING IN OUR CAR?'  HAHA!  I guess we forgot to lock it, and this older lady got confused and just opened our car and sat there.  Ryan went out to ask her (nicely of course) what she was doing in our car.  She said she was waiting for her daughter to pick her up.  OH MY WORD.  He helped her find her daughter, who was clearly not in our car.  WHAT??  HAHA!

We made all the grandparents and great-grandparents a really cool handprint and footprint calendar.  They turned out so cool, but if I decide to make another one of those in the next ten years, someone please remind me that I've lost my mind.  HA!

Yep...it was a hit!

Uncle Dave sharing about Christ being the light of the world, before we opened some presents.

Brynn helped Emory put her little candle on her tummy.  HA!  (They were the fake ones of course)

Everyone in the clubhouse...all of our family plus some other residents and their families.

After lunch we headed to Oran to my grandparents house.  We hung out awhile and then it was time to let the little kids open presents.  My grandparents got all their great-grandchildren presents, and then everyone else brought a "favorite thing" and we played Dirty Santa with the presents.  It was so much fun!

My Aunt Gina got in some snuggle time with Emory.

Sofia stuff is a big hit right now!  Thank you Granny and Pawpaw!

Erika's youngest, Bowen, had a Christmas "blow-out".  It was so bad he had to have his clothes washed,
so he was hanging out in his diaper for awhile.

We got to give Granny and Pawpaw their calendar.

Everyone, especially Granny and Pawpaw, got lots of time snuggling with little Emory.  I love seeing all my family members love on her!

Morgan and Ty...luckily Ty got this scarf stolen from him because I don't know that he was thrilled to open it!  HA!

With several cute scarves in the Dirty Santa game, we had a lot of steals going around among the girls.  At one point, Kelly stole a scarf from Ty, only to have it stolen by me, so she stole Erika's scarf.  Then after Erika opened a present that had another scarf in it, my grandma stole it from her, she stole her old scarf back from Kelly, who stole the scarf I was wearing, so I stole from my Grandma, etc.  IT WAS CRAZY!  But SO MUCH FUN!  Thankfully we all ended with scarves we liked!

Oh I love these girls so much!  And can I just say that as much as I love the Aztec cardigan I'm wearing, when I see myself in pictures, I totally think it adds about 50 pounds.  I think I was saying something about that and Kelly and I got so tickled and we were all cracking up!

Erika?? 

Erika??? What are you doing in this picture?

We've taken family pictures and groups of grandkids, etc. every year.  But this year with little kids running around and taking naps, we just never got around to ours.  Good job Huffman clan...(minus Bowen).

We left my grandma's around 6:15 and headed home.  It was a great, great day!!  The girls both did so well with napping in other places and it was so much fun and so special getting to visit with all of our families!  We came home and unloaded and just hung out as a family of four.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve we had a pretty low-key morning.  Emory had been so congested and coughing for the last four to five days, and we were SO HOPING that she would begin to feel better with her antibiotic.  She coughed up a bunch of mucus that morning (gross I know) but from that point on it seemed like she was on the up and up and had turned the corner!  YAY!  Ryan and I took the girls and we finished up some last minute shopping and ate at Chick-Fil-A.  We came home for naps and then around 4:30 we headed over to my mom's house.  She always hosts a big family Christmas Eve party, so we took some food over and I fed Emory before we all headed to church.

Our church has a BEAUTIFUL Christmas Eve service every year.  The church is always packed and the best part is that our ENTIRE family is there.  My grandparents, my aunts and uncles and all of my cousins and their spouses and kids (who pretty much all live away from here, but they are all here for Christmas).  (All except my sister this year, who was working in Nashville and then headed to Knoxville for Christmas with Curt's family...she will be her the day after Christmas...we missed you Lindsey and Curt!).  We took up several pews and it was so fun all being together.  However...little Miss Emory was not really having it.  (They don't have child care at this service).  Ryan took her out at the beginning because she started crying as soon as the louder music started.  I thought she would enjoy that, but nope.  =)  Then later on she just couldn't get settled so I took her out.  I just listened from the hallways (and heard one of my FAVORITE songs being sung...go figure!).  Pretty soon I saw my cousin Erika come out with her little one, and then Kelly came out with Paxton!  HA!  I saw my sister-in-law come out with Charli and our pastor's wife come out with her little grand-daughter!  It turned into a little party out in the hallway.  While I would have rather been inside the service holding a sleeping baby, it actually turned into a special little moment!! I tried going back in for the candlelight singing of Silent Night, but it was like Emory knew as soon as I stepped inside the sanctuary...ha!  I think the people around me were probably like "give it up lady...just stay in the hallway!"

After the service we headed over to my mom's house for the par-tay...SO MUCH FUN!  We ate all the yummy party food we always have, and just hung out and enjoyed the crazy!  And with all of our little ones, it definitely got a little crazy!  But we wouldn't have it any other way...LOVE MY FAMILY SO MUCH!









Then, the "bigger" little kids (Ebby Lee, Nixon, Brynn, and Camden) had fun wrestling and dancing to "What Does the Fox Say?")

I promise Brynn was not hurting Ebby Lee!  Nobody better mess with her...she can hold her own!

All the cousins had fun hanging out...Ryan and Ty were talking about pant inseams (for whatever reason) and they were measuring against each other.  Ty is only an entire foot taller...he's 6'9 and Ryan is about 5'9!

Morgan got in some good snuggle time.  We were all joking that when Lindsey, Morgan, Tarah, and Tori start having kids, we are going to have to move our party to the Osage Center!

Yes, Emory has on her big sister's PJ pants because she got spit-up on her other ones and I forgot another pair!

Emory thought Bowen was too sweet!





When we got home from the party, it was time to set out some milk and cookies for Santa and to sprinkle our magic reindeer food!

What a fun and special Christmas Eve!