After Christmas & New Year's

We didn't have plans after Christmas this year and hung out around the house while Kenney worked.  Keyan & Kelli along with Kacy & Coby came over to our house for a fun night of pizza and games.  We spend New Year's in Childress with everyone above and the Payne's.  We didn't do too many exciting things, but it was kinda nice to just be home.  However, the kids are ready to go somewhere!

 

Bentley, Kenney, & Kyler all got their eyes checked. 

Bentley has been dying to get her hair cut to her shoulders, and Zadi was nice enough to do it for her.

Jamar came to visit us!

And so did baby Milo!

Damon finished his puzzle he got for Christmas

We spent more time with Milo, and Kacy & Coby for New Year's.

Happy New Years!!

Christmas & Christmas Eve

 

Christmas this year was good.  We spent pretty much the whole day on Christmas Eve in Childress because of church and other Christmas activities.  Christmas day was nice to just be home and have a quiet day.  Rachae and the kids and Nanny came to our house for dinner.  It was a simple dinner but still nice. It's crazy to think these kinds of Christmas mornings are limited in number with the kids growing up!

Christmas Eve at church

We went to the Stingel's house after church while we waited for Nanny & Papa's Christmas Eve celebration.

Notes the girls left for Santa

So many people at Nana & Papa's house. On Christmas Eve we filled Kevin & Kerry's house with even more people for Nanny & Papa's Christmas!

The kids got ready for church in time for us to open their sibling presents since we were going to be gone all day. They enjoy getting things for one another which is always fun for us to see!

Christmas!!

Other December Stuff

 

Pajama Day in Pre-K, but I forgot.  Luckily she at least had a Christmasy outfit on!

Radley performed his play for the student body and these are all the participants afterwards.

Bentley's class with ugly sweaters.

Pre-K at their class party with ugly sweaters.

Damon was such a good brother and let Mackenzie and Presley put makeup on him, painted his fingernails and did his hair.  They had so much fun with him. 

Kenney was able to get around the back of the house and finished painting it (for the most part).  There are a few areas that need to be finalized, but until warmer weather comes around it's good enough.  And the windows have been ordered!

Semiannual cardiologist checkup for Bentley.  No changes and just a refill on meds!

Mackenzie was loving her Rudolf nose!

Decorating cookies for her class party

Kyler had some disappointing news about his knee.  There was some residual swelling that wasn't seeming to be going away on his knee.  He was just starting to jog and felt great.  Dr. Souder decided we should probably get a MRI to make sure there wasn't cartilage damage.  Unfortunately, there was cartilage damage.  However, the good news is that no surgery was required.  There was not a flap in the cartilage and it already showed signs of healing.  Cartilage does take 12 weeks to heal though.  That means he will be out for the entire basketball season.  He was super bummed!

The kids all made gingerbread houses with Oma & Papa Dude.

After many hours working and working, Kyler finally solved the impossible Rubik's cube!  It's impossible because the faces are all iridescent and it's hard to tell which color is which.

Christmas Performances

 The elementary kids had the Christmas Sing (even Pre-k was included for the first time ever), and the junior kids had band performances.   They all did a great job!

Mackenzie was getting into it!!

I had never heard this song before, but I really liked it. I also love that our school still sings songs about Christ!

As with most of the other 5th graders, Radley is more than happy to be done with the Christmas sing!

Damon was able to announce the song selection for one of the pieces they played. He was confused because someone had left the microphone half on / half off so he didn't know which was to turn it on.

It's not often we can see Damon so well as he is in the low brass section, so it was cool that he was on the end.

I've never heard a band play this song before! Kyler decided the percussion pieces were too boring for these songs so he went back to the trombone, but he made that decision right as he got his braces on. It's been a little more difficult to get back into playing trombone.

This was a new twist also with the techno type style of song.

Radley's Christmas Play

 A couple people got together and decided to organize and produce a children's Christmas play for the elementary kids called Letters to Santa. Radley wanted to do it, so he auditioned, got a part and went to all the practices.  The play went really well!  Radley did great and seemed to enjoy it.

He was one of the lucky kids that was able to sit on a ladder.

This was the opening scene with all the kids getting on stage. Radley is gathering all the presents from the other kids.

I was surprised he didn't sing out like he does at church, but he knew all of the songs really well.

He memorized his part super fast and didn't seem to have any problems when he got up to say it!

The Amarillo Symphony

 We were able to get free tickets for the Christmas performance of the Amarillo Symphony.  We weren't sure how well the kids would do, but it was a great experience.  We got dressed a little nicer than normal, took the kids to dinner, and went to the performance.  It was so amazing to hear the musicians and singers.  The music almost seemed fake it was so good and pure sounding.  The girls struggled a bit, but they had a great time overall. Santa even came during one song and handed out candy canes!

 

Mackenzie was clearly over it all by the end, haha!

Santa was at the concert hall, and again Mackenzie was the only one who wanted to talk to him.

Excited for the show to begin.