Leia

Day after Christmas to NYE, Goodbye 2018

Lisa (and Stacy) follows in Mimi’s footsteps and believes in getting Christmas down as soon as Christmas is over so the house can be cleaned and we enter the New Year with a little less clutter. Thus Lisa got all the Christmas decorations down the day after Christmas but we still wanted to enjoy the festive time of the year. Last year we had ran out of time to go Christmas light looking and had to do it after Christmas but it was fabulous since there was only one or two other cars going through it when we went through. This year we purposely waited until after Christmas. We enjoyed a nice family dinner then drove to the race track to see the lights. I do believe we started a family tradition of light gazing the day after Christmas. 

  

Daddy had help driving

The girls liked sticking their heads out of the sunroof

Just a few of the lights

Thursday, the girls played with Reese while his Papa worked with Mr Steve on our house since they built daddy a office for Christmas this year. Daddy and mommy worked on odd and ends around the house too so there was not as much fun but we did experiment with Leia’s ice cream maker that Santa brought; it was yummy! That afternoon Mimi picked up Leia when she brought Sara and Katie home from their spend the night fun for Leia’s one-on-one night with Mimi (all the grand-girls are getting one during the break). This gives mommy and daddy a one-on-two with each of our girlies. Ivy got to pick to do anything she wanted so what was her pick …. stay at home. She sent daddy to get her favorite coconut soup while she and mommy rough housed on the white rug then we all danced to gonoddle before playing a little more before bed time. I am not sure the TV was turned on until we climbed in bed which is a great night for Ivy since she likes to be active. 

We made ice-cream in Leia’s ice-cream maker she asked Santa for
Everyone gave it a thumbs up 

What a fun night … both girls got to rule the house they were at.
Leia chose to go around Mimi’s neighborhood to look at Christmas lights, look through Mimi’s jewelry, and snuggle watching TV. Ivy chose to stay in the whole night rough housing, having mommy and daddy do gonoodle dancing videos with her, then snuggling in bed.  
    
Selfies from Mimi

  
Selfies at home
    
Ivy got to sleep with mommy and daddy 

Friday morning we worked around the house getting things organized before mommy took Ivy to Mimi’s to join the spend the night party with all 4 monkeys. Daddy stayed home to get a head start on school this semester. Mommy hung out at Mimi’s for a few hours too since she missed Leia and wanted to visit everyone too. Through out the day there was rocket riding, picking up sticks, foosball playing, and lots of fun had at Mimi’s. Lisa headed back home to go on a date with Chris while the girls hung out with Mimi. They had planned on all 4 little monkeys staying the night but Katie had forgotten her bear, bananas and said she couldn’t sleep without him so uncle Mark came and picked them up after his and aunt Stacy’s date night.   

 Friday morning selfie with Mimi

This girl was still planning what they did and got to go to Chickfila for breakfast and Moe’s for lunch

Mommy took Ivy out and aunt Stacy took her girls when she dropped off their tree for off season storage so Lisa snapped a few pictures before heading home for a date night with Chris
   


Evening fun and facetiming mommy and daddy

Last picture of the fabulous four before Sara and Katie went home for the night. Katie forgot her bear she likes to sleep with and said she could not sleep without it so uncle Mark came to get them
 
Sleeping angels slept with Mimi and the unicorn sleeping bag, Ivy’s uni, and Leia’s big zebra …. that bed was packed
 

Lisa of course woke up early to a very quite house with both girls at Mimi’s while Chris slept in on Saturday. Sweet Ivy face-timed mommy though to say good morning between breakfast, playing, and whatever else the girls decided they should do. It was a slow moving morning without the girlies but Mimi was heading to Vestavia since the family was gathering at the Rhoads house for a late lunch. 

Morning selfies from three of our favorite ladies

These two monkeys were having fun getting pictures taken and sending them to mommy. My favorite was their text that, “This is Ivy and Leia we love you and we miss you a lot”. These two have my heart and I miss them like crazy when they are not home thus I headed to Mimi’s early to get big hugs and kisses 
  

 
Lunch with Mimi; I think they like playing on the indoor play stuff more than eating there 

Missed our girlies!!! And it was not even 24 hours without them. Glad they are home

There was no Sunday school at church so we decided to stay home and sleep in on the last Sunday of the year. No one in the house woke up until almost 7 which is very unusual in our house since at least one person is up by 6 normally. We fixed a big breakfast for some sweet family time. Chris and Mark went to see “Bumblebee” at the movies while we girls had a little more time to chill before we started a day of cleaning. The Rhoads and Mimi came over for a early dinner; blessed to get to hang out with them for a little bit today in a clean house. After they left we decorated for our NYE party we are having this year.  

The girls put on a dance show for us before we cleaned the house and decorated for our NYE celebration 

Last day of the year so we were reflective of all the ups and downs 2018 brought into our lives. We are thankful for the friendships we’ve made, memories we’ve shared with family and friends, and love we share. We spent most of the day at the house getting ready for our NYE party with some sweet neighbors and friends. We did use part of daddy’s gift card to Metro Diner for lunch so we did not mess up the house after cleaning for the party. Since we were letting the girls stay up late we had them lay down to rest after lunch while mommy finished cleaning and prepping. Mimi stopped by for a few minutes after she dropped Katie back off at her house for one last hug in 2018. She did not stay long be I enjoy and savor time spent with all of our loved ones weather it is 5 minutes or a week long trip; life is short, enjoy the people God gave you when you are together. Our party time was coming so Lisa and the girls got their baths while Chris jumped on prep duty when we figured out we’d misplaced our paella pan. It was a family affair looking for it for 30 minutes when we finally figured out where we stored it and could finish our party prep so we could ring in the New Year with sweet neighbors and friends with great fellowship, food, and laughter. Looking forward to what 2019 brings as we celebrate the memories made in 2018. 

Ready to ring in the new year

 Thankful Mimi came by so we got to see her one more time in 2018.

Love my momma! Pray I have a close relationship to my girls when they get older like I do with her

The girls were ready for our guest to arrive so we had pre-entertainmentwith the photo ops
   
Enjoyed spending the evening with our sweet neighbors and friends to ring in the new year

We had sweet fellowship and yummy food

The fountain was a hit with the kiddos

Jack stopped by for a few minutes with his family before going to his party
   
Love that Jade suggested we do family pics with the props


Of course the littles jumped in on the photo fun and discovered the horns
     
Claire was not so sure about the horns so she stuck close to her sweet momma

           
  
Picture ops turned into a snowball fight

From snowball fights with he kids to adult game time while kids played downstairs and made up dance routines to put on a show for the adults, it was a fun night to say adios to 2018

Ringing in the New Year EST before Emma and Maddie had to go home; the poppers on the carpet may not have been the best idea but it was fun

This girl is awesome; right after we did the poppers she grabbed the broom to clean up the mess 

Ringing in the New Year in CST

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