Finally some Christmas pics!

Well I know it has taken me a while, but I'm finally ready to post some Christmas pics. Thanks for your patience!

Ok, go with me back in time to Christmas Eve :). We celebrated early with Nana and Pops on the 23rd and had a great time building and decorating a gingerbread house that a good friend, Melissa, had given to Kinsey. It was really fun and Kinsey had a great time, especially sampling the decorations ;)So the night of the 23rd, we told Kinsey that since we were going to be out of town for Christmas morning, Santa would bring a few presents that night and we could open them in the morning. To make a long story short, she got more than a little wigged out at the thought that Santa was going to come inside our house so Nana came up with a brilliant idea that Santa would leave the presents on the driveway and so our little punkin was able to drift off into a peaceful sleep.
On Christmas Eve morning, we opened a few presents and had a yummy breakfast. Thanks to a Santa's Elf named Dionne who is a master at snagging toys at the last minute, we were able to give Kinsey a Nativity puzzle like her friend Emma has, and she has put it together at least once a day every day since she got it!! Anyway, this was her face when she opened it.Kinsey got lots of great presents - what she really wanted was books, and Nana and Pops got her some great ones, including this one "Pinkalicious" which is now a favorite and stays in her bed 24/7 so she can read it at all naptimes :). You can also see another puzzle in on the board - Kinsey is really getting into puzzles lately and is starting to figure out how to work them. Tag wasn't as excited about presents, he's still a little young to even grasp the fun of ripping paper. But he was awfully snuggly in his Christmas pj's. He did enjoy playing with the presents once they were opened. He got some cool new bath toys and some plastic keys that make fun noises! Then we made Nana and Pops pose for some pictures by the tree. We had a super yummy Christmas breakfast of biscuits, eggs, bacon, and orange juice but the best part was getting to enjoy it with family. Christmas Eve evening we had a beautiful candlelight service at church. Our pastor and good friend Keith preached an amazing message about the gift of Christ's love and grace that God gave to us when we were completely undeserving. It was a great way to usher in Christmas and we were so grateful to celebrate Christ's birth with our wonderful church family and so many visitors.

After the Christmas Eve service, we piled the kids in the car, snuggled them in their blankets and drove to Montgomery, which is near Houston, to spend Christmas with Obi, CC, Uncle Robert, Uncle Brian, Aunt Crystal, cousin Hailey, and soon-to-be-born cousin Walker. Obi & CC rented an awesome house on the lake and we had a great few days with them. Here are a ton of pictures from our time together.

On Christmas morning, we woke up early when Tag was ready to eat and let Kinsey sleep in while we waited for Brian, Crystal, and Hailey to come over. Tag was pretty excited about his 1st Christmas.

We decided to go ahead and let Tag open a present instead of waiting for the girls so Daddy helped him open some cool blocks. Kinsey finally woke up and was very glad to see that Santa had found us. Look at these cute pjs on my little monkeys!Hailey and family came a little later and the girls had a great time opening presents and playing with them. Uncle Robert gave Kinsey a Mr. Potato Head set with 2 grown-ups and a junior sized Potato with tons of noses, eyes, arms, hats, etc. She loves it! Aunt Crystal got the girls laptops and they had a great time "doing work". CC got Taggart this penguin and he got to play with it for about 5 minutes until the girls decided to fight over it for the next 5 days :). This is one of my favorite pics from Christmas morning because it looks like Tag is getting crushed by this box :) Crystal got Brian a guitar for Christmas and he and Douglas quickly started playing together. It's not a Hallam get together if someone isn't playing an instrument - well, at least one of the original 5. Crystal and I are usually wrangling kids, that's our talent :). Robert got Crystal a really cool game for Wii and we had a blast doing the motions it required. Another Obi/CC gift was cool digital cameras for the girls that take real pictures and can record short movies. They had a really good time - mostly taking pics of the ground, but they got a few good ones and I'm sure they'll be pros by next Christmas. We couldn't believe all the things the cameras could do!Uncle Robert got Tag an awesome little Tiger mommy and cub that growls and sings - it was another big hit among Tag and the girls. There was a dock at the house that Kinsey insisted on calling a bridge. The girls had a blast out there. They learned to shout across the water and hear the echo and sometimes Kinsey tries it in the bathtub now :).The next morning, the girls had breakfast outside on the porch with Obi and CC. I'm pretty sure anything is more fun when grandparents are involved - eating outside was a pretty cool treat. Tag enjoyed some time on the porch with Obi...and Kinsey came out to model one of her favorite Christmas t-shirts :)(for those of you wondering, CC's name is Candy)

Douglas decided that he wanted to learn to make homemade tamales and CC decided that she wanted to spend many hours helping him on this crazy idea. They were quite a bit of work, but they turned out delicious and they ended up making like 8 dozen of them! Kinsey and CC give two thumbs up...Douglas and Brian continued to practice whenever they could. I tried to take a candid picture and here's what I got...So I asked them to just be normal and I got this...Obi came to join them and I was able to get a good action shot :)The house we stayed in had some eclectic decorations including some freaky safari masks. The guys wanted to put these on and freak out the girls but thought better of it thank goodness.
Hailey really enjoyed playing with Taggart - he thought she was hilarious! In Hailey's mouth is a glow-in-the-dark necklace. The girls had great fun with these at night and one night Obi put them on their wrists, ankles, arms, necks, and heads and had them running around like crazy. It was hilarious, but hard to photograph. Here's what I was able to capture...Kinsey and Hailey had some awesome fun together. It was so sweet to see them together for more than just a few hours at a time. When we would go in another room, Hailey would call Kinsey's name and Kinsey would shout "Hailey, I'm comin'!!!!!" They giggled and shrieked and ran and played all over the house and the yard, and even the mall :)Here they are catching a ball...And here they are rolling the ball. It was hilarious because Hailey was very particular about how Kinsey should position her legs for optimum ball rolling...Making time for some coloring...At the mall, we got to ride the carousel and that was a really big hit. While we rode the carousel, Tag hung out with Daddy and he made this funny face. One day we went bowling and the girls got to use a cool ramp. They had a great time - Kinsey's favorite thing was picking which color ball she was going to roll each time.Tag enjoyed his first bowling experience as well. Unfortunately, all holidays must come to an end and it was time to head home. We stopped by Obi and CC's house on the way for Tag's first official ride in the crazy swing in their backyard. Kinsey was really excited to help push him. Kinsey and Hailey of course wanted their turns as well. Thanks for a great Christmas Hallams - we love you guys!!!