My dad is now working second shift so I didn't get to see him, but I did give him a call during lunch! I told Brian to tell Josh happy birthday from me, I hope he got the message after church!
Happy Birthday Dad and Josh!!
This is the 8th nephew/niece for Chris and I! We are now at 5 boys and 3 girls.
This picture (above) almost looks like he is smiling :)
Chris and I went to see him for the first time on Thursday afternoon and I made sure to take my camera of course! What I forgot though was the memory card!! Darn!! So I had to wait a few more days and go see him again.
All of these pictures are from Sunday afternoon, Colin has had his days and nights mixed up a little so Stephanie and Brian have been trying everything they can to keep him awake. I thought taking pictures might do the trick, but as you can see it didn't phase him a bit!
Everyone is in love with him, especially his big brother Alexander. He just doesn't know how to contain himself around Colin, it is quite funny to see. I will try to get video or pictures of it.
By this point it was about five after four and we were beginning to wonder where she was, she was supposed to get there at 4:00 and she is never late.
Mom was just about to get on the phone when she pulled up...
Surprise! We don't get to see our family as much as we would like, especially our family in Georgia: My Uncle Bob, Aunt Lona, and cousins Steve, Tracy, Julia and Nicholas. Uncle Bob and Julia above, Aunt Lona and Nicholas below.
We enjoyed some good food and yummy cake! 
Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you...
The kids definitely enjoyed the cake!
Allison watching as Nicholas got in and out of the chair over and over and over again, so cute!
Jade and Ethan trying to avoid the paparazzi as always...
Father (Steve) and son.
My grandmother, my mother, and my three uncles Tim, David, and Bob.
Look at all that red hair (or what used to be red in some of the cases)!
You can read about her redneck style birthday on her blog (hint: it starts with the recurrence of the lighter in the picture)!
After I successfully made a simple hat I decided to make one for Allison's friend's little girl. Her 1st birthday is February 8th.
Picture stollen (borrowed :) ) from Sara, Samantha Jane the birthday girl's mom.
Here is Samantha Jane modeling her hat! We are going to have to teach her a few things about modeling, like standing still for example, haha!
This picture was borrowed too :)
Our not-so-successful attempt at a picture with all the little kids. I find it funny that the boys are just sitting there minding there own business and it is the GIRLS that are jumping up and running off!!
Everyone (almost everyone) anxiously awaiting Santa!!
He came!!
Alexander was thrilled, at Thanksgiving dinner we asked him what he was thankful for and he promptly said "SANTA!!"
Samuel was definitely not thrilled, he was scared to death. Poor thing!
Sydney enjoying her goodies!
Here is Ben showing me what he got in his stocking, he got lots of cool toys he was excited about!
Grace got a really neat doll and LOTS of accessories to go with it!
That's better, Samuel did warm up and enjoy opening ALL his presents!
Nice face Josh!
Mimi and Paps got a neat photo book and several other things!
Watch out Sydney! Don't fall over the "aftermath!"
That's a LOT of boxes!!!
We had a great Christmas and I think the kids all had a great time! Stay tuned for Christmas 2009, it is sure to be just a little more crazy with baby Colin in the mix!
Since Jade had already left when we decided to take pictures at Thanksgiving I took a Christmas family picture of Allison, Matt, and Jade.
Here are a few of my mom's pretty Christmas decorations:
This is my dad's Cowboy Christmas area! You can also see his cowboy boot stocking in the picture above.
Jade played Santa and passed out all of the gifts.
Here she is trying to read through the wrapping paper on one of my gifts!!
Jade was the first to open her presents, she got lots of cute clothes and pajamas that she LOVED!!
And of course lots of toys and games too!! She was definitely more excited about the toys!
My dad got this personalized mug and plate for Jade to leave milk and cookies for Santa. They are engraved, if you click on the picture and look closely you can see the engraving.
Allison and I got my mom and dad photo albums from our weddings. I made one of our wedding a while ago and my mom wanted one, so when I decided to make Allison one (and it took me until THIS Christmas to finish it) we decided they would be good gifts for Christmas.
There is no doubt that my lovely sister likes to take goofy pictures:
There was also one that she took of herself, I am not going to put that one on here though because it isn't very becoming!
Allison's hanging jewelry box that has places to put pictures on the front, perfect gift for her!
Here is me with my matching digital picture frame, which could be a whole other post of it's own, but to make a long story short I had to take it back and get a different one from a different store.
Matt with one of his gifts, Allison's head was in the way of all the other pictures!
Evidently we had put up the camera by the time Chris got there after the Titans' game because I don't have any pictures of him with his gifts!
Don't ignore the fact that the Star of David is reflecting in the mirror though! When Allison and I saw this it kind of freaked us out! We have no clue what caused the reflection!!
