Memaw's Birthday

Memaw's birthday was on Sunday and we all got together to celebrate. Here's the whole gang before we headed out to dinner at Carrabbas.

Miss Madison watching the festivities...

and Jackson helping Memaw open all of her presents.

Happy Birthday, Memaw!

Breakfast with Santa

Saturday morning we all got up early to go have breakfast with Santa. There were lots of things to do before he got there and the kids had a really fun time. They played the bean bag toss game for a minute or two...

and then moved on to do some crafts. Here's Jackson with the candy cane that he made.

After listening to a man read "Twas the Night Before Christmas," Jackson discovered Santa's cool sled. He climbed all over it and made sure it was in tip top shape for Santa and all his toys.

When Santa arrived Jackson walked right up to him just like last weekend. I think he was a little surprised that Santa didn't recognize him, but he quickly got over it. What the kids didn't really understand was why they didn't get to sit on Santa's lap first this time.

They both did good again--no tears at all...

and Jackson told Santa again that he wants a "yellow vacummer and Maddie wants a pink backpack." Sure hope Santa comes through cause this kid is not kidding!

First Christmas Program

Jackson performed in his first program last Wednesday at school. The 2 - 4 year olds sang 5 christmas songs, complete with motions, and it was soooo cute! We were really excited to go watch him! He'd been singing all the songs for weeks, so I knew that he could sing them, I just wasn't sure if he would. He did so good, though, and we were all very proud. Here he is on the front row...singing and clapping along.

We roll pretty deep around here and Jackson had a pretty good sized fan club attend his performance.

Even Daddo took off work to come see his little guy in action. Jackson was so excited about this--he woke up on Wednesday morning and said, "Will my daddy come see me today?" When I told him yes, he just got this huge grin on his face. Almost made me cry it was so sweet.

Jackson has had the best teachers this year. Here he is with Ms. Christine. Apparantly the way to make him crack up for a picture is to ask him to say, "spaghetti and meatballs!" Who knew?!

Thanks, Ms. Christine!

Santa came to town!

As previously mentioned, my parents had their big Santa party this past weekend. Taylor took lots of great pictures of the night, so I wanted to share some highlights. The night began with Santa arriving in a fire truck. So fun!

Jackson ran right up to him and gave him a big hug. Might have been one of the sweetest things yet.

Then he led Santa by the hand into Gigi and Boom's house. I'm pretty sure he thought that Santa came just to see him:) He was the first one up on Santa's lap and promptly began telling him what he wanted for Christmas.

Then it was time to let some others have a turn. We had kids of all ages. The youngest was only 3 weeks old.

We also had an engagement take place on Santa's knee! That was a first for a Raines Christmas party!

People came in from all over--here's my cousin Shelly with her family. They drove in from Houston just to come meet Santa. Their girls all wore matching tutus--too cute!

My cousin Leslie and Aunt Glenda flew in from California and it was so good to see them.

The Hays group with Santa--Jackson even smiled!

The Raines fam with Santa. Wish I could scan some old family photos with Santa for y'all. They were something special in the late 80s and early 90s!

We all had so much fun and were sad when the party was over.

Santa and Mrs. Claus had to get back to the North Pole, though, and get busy on all those toys.

Santa Party!

When I was growing up, my family hosted an annual Santa Party that was always SO MUCH FUN. It ended when I was in high school since we weren't little kids anymore. This year, however, the Santa Party came back and we are all so excited about it! Here's Miss Madison all dressed up before the party started.

And her sweet cousin Jackson posing like a little angel here. Wish he acted like one all the time!

All four of us ready to party with Santa and Mrs. Claus.

Jackson was the first one to sit on Santa's knee. The experience could not have been any different from years past when we would go visit Santa at the mall. Jackson ran up to him, gave him a big bear hug and immediately began hollering "I want a yellow vacuumer for Christmas!!" He was so excited and really neat for us to watch.

I didn't get too many pics at the party, but here are a few. Here's some of my girlfriends who came to the party.

My best attempt to get all 5 cousins.

A couple of the guys--love how Cowen is posing for the camera, too:)

Stephanie and Sam who drove in from Austin just for the party

The next day my cousin brought her three little girls over for a visit before they went back to Houston. They all had a great time playing and even posed for a few pics, too.

Thanks everyone for a great weekend. We had so much fun seeing all of you.

Bubbles, bubbles everywhere!

Last night I might have gotten a little carried away when pouring the bubble bath into the tub. Somehow I don't think the kids minded one bit, though! Madison thought it was way fun to cover Jackson's back in bubbles.

And Jackson got quite a kick out of having a bubble arm!

It was a little crazy, but these two munchkins had a great time!

Love that smile:)

30!

So the hub-dog turned the big 3-0 today! We had a really fun weekend celebrating and I think he's handling this new phase of his life (dare I say mid-life?) pretty well. We began by going out to the Bavarian Grill on Saturday night with some good friends. It was an interesting place, to say the least, and we all had such a great time. There was live music (in the form of an accordion player) and sing-a-longs were highly encouraged! Thanks Sarah for the idea:)

Last night we had a family celebration at our house. Here's all of us helping daddo blow out his candles. Singing Happy Birthday and eating cake might be two of Jackson's favorite things to do, so he was in heaven.

Jared got some really cool gifts, but I don't think anything topped this one. I rented a corvette for the weekend for him to drive! It was so fun!

Jared had a good time taking it out for some spins and seeing how fast it could go. He liked it so much he's now declared "you know, I have to get one of these now." Oh my--what have I done?

Happy Birthday, Babe! I love you!!