Farewell 2012

We said farewell to 2012 with a fun dinner at The Chimes with The Barrois.

Lila was really excited about her outfit and told me to take a picture. :)

Not a great pics, but the only ones I got. We were having too much fun catching up and eating!!

Milkshakes topped off the night!

Happy Birthday, Grandpa

My parents hosted a birthday party for my Grandpa, who turned 95!! 

It was wonderful to get together with my Dad's side of the family and to celebrate my sweet Grandpa's life.

4 generations!!

I love, love this pic!!! Still teasing Bennett at 95!

This sweet man (and my Dad) is who Elise is named after. It means so much to me that she is able to know him and have him in her life. 

So blessed.

Christmas 2012

Merry Christmas!!!!

We woke up and spent some time together as a family opening gifts and just enjoying the morning. 

The girls were excited to open their bedroom doors and see bikes waiting for them downstairs from Santa. They have both been doing so well on their smaller bikes without training wheels, and so they were both hopeful they would get new bigger bikes.

Bennett is the best present opener! His expressions!

The girls also each got an American Girl doll from Santa. Elise got McKenna and Lila got Julie. Lila's other Santa gift was a karaoke microphone, and Elise's was the complete set of the Magic School Bus DVDs.

Bennett had a very "rescuebot" Christmas. He did not wish for a new bike, but the Transformers rescuebot police station and fire station and the two new rescuebots, all of which he got from Santa.

After we finished with the three Santa gifts, David and I gave them the gifts from us. We got them some fun little things and some that they also needed or had wished for. 

Elise wanted a Bible and a calendar, and she got both. The Bible and the daily devotional to go with were two of her favorite gifts, and that made me smile. She also really appreciated the customized calendar I made her on snapfish, and that made me smile as well.

Lila didn't have as many specific wishes, but I found some cute quirky things for our cute quirky girl. A retro game of jacks, some "big girl" clothes and pjs, 

Bennett was thrilled with his Spider Man glove and Batman pjs (notice a theme?). He also got a Skylander for his Wii game and Transformer book.

After we hung out a little while we headed over to my parents for some more gift giving and receiving. The kids are definitely showered with love and gifts from their Aunts and Uncles and Grandparents!

All of the kids were excited to chip in and get SuSu and G an Ipad.

It was a pretty dreary day and so the kids had a Christmas pajama day! We even had Myrt and Baker come over for Christmas dinner in their pjs!

My Mom cooked an amazing spread and it was just our family (including Mimi) and the Mills, which was really nice.

Awesome food and fabulous family and friends. What a perfect day.

We missed Grandpa a lot, and I know he was on all of our minds all day. So many wonderful Christmases that he was a part of. We love and miss him dearly.

Christmas Eve

We were thrilled to have the whole Legendre side of the family together for Christmas Eve. Jared and Erinn were originally scheduled to be in Salt Lake with Erinn's Mom, but they were not able to get on the flight. We were sad for her, but happy to have them with us.

We all went to church together- we take up an entire pew these days - and then everyone came back to our house to eat. I did a pretty simple dinner of gumbo and heavy appetizers. 

As soon as we walked in from the church the kids all changed into Christmas pjs. So fast that I didn't even get pics of them all decked out!

Uncle Jared and Aunt Erinn decided to let the kids open their gifts on Christmas Eve. Can you tell Elise loves her fancy calculator??

Time for the babies to head back to SuSu and G's for bedtime!

Snuggling with Uncle J.

Sweet B and Aunt E.

Then it was time to head out and signal Santa and the reindeer that the Parnell kids were heading to bed!

When we went outside our friends, the Schroeders, were driving around looking at Christmas lights and so Landon jumped out and joined in on the fun!

I love the last picture...pure JOY!!! 

Which pretty much sums up the night.

1st grade play

One of my favorite Christmas activities was the play put on by the 1st grade at Elise's school. 

They took us around the world for Christmas. Her class represented Mexico.

She was so thrilled with the costume and extremely specific with how she wanted her hair styled for the big day. She kept pretty quiet about the details, wanting us to be surprised on the big day that she had tried out and gotten a speaking part.

After we learned some fun facts about how they celebrate the holidays in Mexico, her class performed a Mexican Hat dance!!!

It was precious!!

We loved seeing her friends in other classes, and learning about their countries as well. It was a memorable way to spend a morning!

polar express day

It was Polar Express day at school on Tuesday, and wow I had more time in the morning since I didn't have to help the kids dress! :)

The kids loved wearing pjs to school. I wish I had snapped a pic of Lila and Bennett, but I forgot! Elise's Christmas party was Tuesday as well, and so I snapped a few pics of she and her classmates enjoying the party.

beginning to look a lot like Christmas

The celebrating is in full swing around here!!!!  We had a Parnell Christmas this weekend, celebrating with David's parents. They accompanied us to breakfast with Santa at the club, and then we spent time hanging out together. It was a great time full of family, fun, and food!

Some pics from "Christmas Morning".

Love these of the kids excited about breakfast.

Everyone had their own turn with Santa and then we squeezed the three of them onto his lap for one picture. Before long they won't be able to fit on all at once! 

We were excited to see some of our most favorite people there as well. The Brister boys all looked so handsome in their red!

***

Monday was Lila and Bennett's school program. It was hard (for so many reasons) to hold back the tears. This was our last preschool Christmas program. We love their school and it has been an amazing part of our lives for 7 years!! The Christmas program is always so sweet, and I love the collars they wear.

Lila and Bennett were happy to have Mimi there.

Lila with two of her favorite boys!

Bennett, Cal, Lila, and Ellie- some of our favorite new friends!!!

The girls of pre-k5. They are a sweet and spunky bunch!

Their absolutely wonderful teacher, Mrs. Cantrelle.

Lila and Bennett with their buddy, Stevie. This pic kills me. Sweetness!!!

How blessed are they to have both sets of Grandparents in the audience?!

This picture (although fuzzy) had to be included because Bennett ringing the bells was the one thing that helped me keep the tears away. Every time he would ring he would drastically cock his head to the side (as you can see)- just hilarious! Not sure if he thought he was going to hit himself on the head or what? So much fun to watch!!

Without going into too much, definitely felt overwhelmed with both gratitude and sympathy while watching our sweet babies sing while other families mourn. Our hearts have definitely been hurting for those in CT. How blessed we are.