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!!

Garland's Christmas on the Square

We braved the cold last night to go down to Garland's Christmas on the square. Even though it was pretty chilly we still had a good time. Here are the kids all bundled up in their stroller.

You'd think that since they were so cozy they'd want to stay that way, but no such luck! Right when we got to the square Miss Madison had to get out. It wasn't long before Jackson followed suit. Here's Maddie sporting her new coat and toboggan:)

We made it in time to see the tree lit up and the fireworks show that followed.

Jackson is a big fan of fireworks and was in total awe during the show.

Then he spotted Santa and began asking to go see him. Since the line was REALLY long, I assured him that he would get his chance to sit on his lap next weekend at our Santa party. That seemed to work and he was content to just wave hello to Santa:)

The whole gang before we left for the night.

Thanks Memaw and Poppy for braving the weather with us!

Baby News!

Yesterday was a very big day for us. We went to the doctor for the much anticipated 20 week sonogram. All great news--baby looks perfect and is right on schedule to arrive on April 19, 2010. After heaving a big sigh of relief, it was time to get to the fun stuff. Boy or Girl? Just for the record, here were our guesses. Jared said girl, I said boy and Jackson held to his very first guess of girl since the day we told him I was pregnant. So who was right??

Looks like the boys knew best! We are having a GIRL!!!

I cannot explain how excited I was when we found out! I cried so many tears of joy. We all could not be more thrilled and cannot wait to meet Miss Lila Grace in a few months.

Out of all the toys....

at Gigi's house, these two munchkins chose the cat condo to play in! They are such silly gooses.

They definitely keep us laughing:)

Quite the big cat here