Earnest Christmas

      Saturday, December 17th, we had our Earnest Christmas gathering.  We always do it the week before Christmas so we don't have so much the week of.  This is one of my favorite gatherings during the Christmas season because we do all appetizers and party foods and we always have so much food! I wish I would have taken a picture of all the food we had because it was unreal.  My Mom always makes homeade eggrolls and they are so good.  She only makes them once a year usually because they are time consuming to make but it is requested she bring them each year!  

     It is also always great to see my family!  This year, Anna Riley really loved playing with her cousins.  We don't see them all that much but she just loved playing with them.  She felt like such a big girl and they were so sweet to let her play.  At one point, I went to check on her and she came to the door to close it and she said "bye, bye Mommy...see you later!"  Talk about getting so big!! 

Allee Beth and Anna Riley

Granna (or Gigi...I think Anna Riley
changed her name this weekend!)
and Ava Kate

Granny Boo and AR

Granny Boo and Ava Kate

Allee Beth, Addison and Anna Riley
They were so cute playing together!

Telling secrets! ;)

Paw Paw's girl!

Aunt Kat and Ava Kate

Mom and I

The party was at Janet's house and her dogs just had puppies
so Anna Riley got to pet one.  I think they were hoping we
would take one home...that's not happeneing yet anyways!

Ava Kate and Janet

My little Chunky Monkey! :)

Paw Paw and his Girls...He will kill me for
putting this on here with stains on his
shirt from feeding AR but I just
had to it was too sweet of a picture.
Sorry Daddy! :)

Baby Duncan's arrival

Riley's sister, Amanda, had her baby on December 11th.  Amanda had the smoothest delivery!  She was induced that morning and we met little Duncan early that afternoon.  I am so happy for them...I know they will be wonderful parents!

Wesley hugging his Mama after he told us he was born.

The Proud Daddy Giving us all the details about Duncan

Sweet Little Duncan...6lbs 1.5 oz. 19 1/2 inchs long

Amanda with her brothers: Brian and Riley

Mimi and her great-grandson

The new little family!

The pinterest inspired wreath I made Amanada
(Had we had Hobby Lobby,
his whole name would
be on it but of course Michales doesn't
carry enough stock of letters!)

Ava Kate's first time at church

Sunday, December the 11th was Ava Kate's first time to church.  We had actually planned to go a few weeks sooner but since both of the girls had colds, we waited.  We go to the 9:00 service so it was a lot more challenging to get us up, fed, ready and out the door on time but we did it and actually made it on time!  Anna Riley was not happy about us leaving her but she was having so much fun when we went to pick her up, I think she wanted to stay a little longer!  We kept Ava Kate in the sanctuary with us and she did good too.  She was supposed to eat during the time we were at church so I had a bottle ready just in case but she slept most of the time and ate when we got home. 

It is not always the "easy" thing to do to get us to there, but I am so glad that my girls will be raised in church and grow up knowing about Jesus! 

Our Annual Christmas party

   I have had a Christmas party every year (with the exception of last year since we weren't living in our house at the time) since I was in college.  I will say the parties have changed quite a bit since my college days with kids running around but its still so fun to get friends together during this time of year.  We decided to just have a few couples and their kids over this year...which is still a house full because of our growing families! :)  I do wish all of my friends lived close enough to come each year!! 
    We had tons of food!  My family always "over do it" in the food department so I guess I get it from them.  We also had a surprise visit from SANTA!!  The kids HATED him! Ava Kate and Lily grace were the only kids that sat in his lap without crying and AK doesn't count.  Lily Grace was so sweet and told him exactly what she wanted.  Some kids had nothing to do with him and wouldn't even come near him and the others just screamed for their life!!  Anna Riley kept saying "No, mommy! No, Mommy!"  He was great with the kids though and he went in the playroom and sang Christmas Carols with them and they all warmed up to him a little but we didn't try pictures again.  I figured we had traumatized them enough for one night!


All the kids actually sat down together to eat at the table.



I think Audrey made about 3 trips to get more food...
or maybe just cupcakes?!

Sweet little Talon!

Ava Kate with Miss Mandy

Lily Grace with Santa

Poor Chloe did not like Santa!
I do love this picture though!!

Talon also hated Santa...

Audrey looks like she was being
forced to sit!  haha



And once again, Santa is having to force another
child to sit in his lap!  haha...poor Emma!

Caroline was okay wth Santa as long
 as she could have her flashlight!

Anna Riley would not sit in his lap so we just stood by him!
She did reach over and touch his hat but we didnt get a picture of it!

Peyton and I felt bad that no one wanted their picture
with him so we got ours with him! :)

Courtney and her precious boys, Tucker and Talon,
singing Christmas Carols with Santa

Santa singing Christmas Carols with the kids

Lily Grace with Ava Kate...
she is so sweet with babies!

Talon checking out his future girlfriend!! :)

Baking Cookies

Anna Riley loves to help me cook, especially when we are baking cookies.  She just doesn't understand the baking process.  She gets upset everytime they go in the oven to bake! 

We usually make chocolate chip cookies but we made sugar cookies this time so we could ice them and decorate them with sprinkles.

Anna Riley got very sprinkle happy.  I had to keep reminding her to decorate more than one cookie!

Our finished product...pretty huh?! haha  I can't blame the bad icing job on the toddler even though it looks like she did that part too! 

Riley Christmas Lunch and a Triplet Birthday

The Riley side of the family (Riley's grandmothers family)  got together in Bessemer at the Bright Star for a lunch to kick of the Christmas season!  We never get to see all of Mimi's family, so it was great to have everyone together. 

That evening, we headed to celebrate Emma, Caroline and Audrey's 3rd birthday! Can't believe these precious girls are already 3 years old!!

Is it already Christmas??

Just like everyone else, we have been super busy around here.  I feel like I have been running a marathon since Ava Kate was born.  I do bring a lot of it on myself because I don't let things such as, oh having a newborn slow us down.  In the spare time I had to blog, I was working on another project that took up all my "blogging time" so now that it is finished maybe I can get back to it. 

Here is a quick recap of somethings we have been doing this month thus far.  I plan to do separate posts with pictures in due time. 

-We started the Christmas festivties off the first weekend in Decemeber with a Christmas lunch at the Bright Star with Riley side of the family (Riley's grandmother's sisters).
-We have had a three birthday parties this month (next year it will be 5 just in Decemeber!)
-Anna Riley has taken after her Mommy and loves to bake.  We have baked cookies a few times. 
-Anna Riley really liked looking at the Christmas lights this year!
- I hosted two Christmas parties in one week at our house.  One was for my Bunko group on a Thursday night and I had planned to have my month to host be December last Christmas so it was before I knew I would have a newborn.  SO...crazy me thought we would just have a small party that weekend too! Why not?!  haha...oh the things I do to stress myself out!  Both parties were great though!
-I have a new nephew!  Riley's sister, Amanda had her first baby on Decemeber 11th! 
-Anna Riley got her first haircut!!!  I can't wait to share the pictures!
-Becca, Zoe and Evan came to visit!
-We celebrated Riley's birthday with his favorite birthday meal...Spam and Mac and cheese! (weird, I know!)
-We have did a lot of painting and Christmas crafts.  Anna Riley LOVES to do the handprint crafts.  But, now everytime we paint, she automatically starts paiting her hands!
-We went to the Earnest Christmas party this weekened...complete with my Mom's famous egg rolls!!

Pictures to come....