Mire Family Reunion

This past weekend we spent with the entire Mire family. The festivities began on Friday evening when everyone arrived at Sam Houston State Park and checked into their cabins. Aaron and I went up and visited for a while, then left the girls with Maw Maw and Paw Paw to spend the night in their cabin. They were so excited to go 'camping.' Aaron and I opted to stay at home where I could rest better, and everyone else too really. After all, how much sleep would the other seven people in our cabin get with me up every hour or so for water and potty breaks?



Katie and Jaimee enjoying some tunes on Jaimee's new MP3 player.



Sarah enjoying a 'shoulder ride' from Uncle Ammon.

Saturday morning we headed back up to the park for a day of fun activities, such as.................




..........a treasure hunt, which was quite the challenge. I actually sat out, since it involved walking Sam Houston Park over several times, and my ankles were already starting to swell. But everyone seemed to enjoy it. Here is the green team finding one of their clues. Katie thought the treasure hunt was the coolest thing....................



................but the pink team were actually the winners.



There was also an egg toss, which was quite entertaining to watch.



Katie really enjoyed this event too.....................



................especially the fact that Stacy got egged instead of her.



Sarah really enjoyed feeding the ducks. She fed them so much that they finally left, but she kept on throwing bread out for them. She said they had to go home and take a nap, but they were coming back later to eat the rest.



Katie had a whole loaf of bread, but she wasn't feeding the ducks.



"Katie, are you feeding the ducks or yourself?" I guess she figured Sarah had the ducks covered.



While we were feeding the ducks, Shane told Jarrett that he would give him $20 if he would swim across the river and back. And like any crazy teenage boy would, he took the dare for just
20 bucks. It was a little chilly outside, so I'm sure the water was really chilly, but it didn't seem to phase him.



And here he is...............victorious and $20 richer.



The challenge was also given to Jacob, who was not as convinced as Jarrett that it was a good idea. So his Uncles, Ammon and Adam, and cousins, Forrest and Dallas, tried to 'persuade' him to give it a try. But, lucky for him (because they surely could have thrown him in), they had mercy on him.



We saw lots of deer at the park. Too bad for Aaron that hunting isn't allowed at Sam Houston.



And no, this has nothing to do with the reunion, but Aaron was so proud that he and his brothers were there representing what he called 'Team Toyota', since Ammon converted too and bought his white Toyota Tacoma while he was here over Christmas. Boys and their toys.

The fun was stifled a bit when it started pouring just after dinner, but only long enough for us all to gather in Aunt Renee and Uncle Dave's cabin for more fun and games. It was such a fun day, and the girls are already planning a trip back for our family and some friends to hang out and enjoy the park.

Sunday after Sacrament Meeting we all gathered at Kent and Johnice's for some more visiting, some of Johnice's delicious gumbo, and goodbyes. Thanks to Aunt Renee and Uncle Dave for planning such an awesome reunion!

Christmas with the Cliffords

On Christmas Day the Cliffords invited us over for lunch. Letty made tamales and some other yummy Mexican food, which was all delicious. She also made these awesome pinatas, which the kids and adults had a blast with.



This is not your Walmart pinata. This is the real deal, and it takes some beating to break into.



Luckily, the kids were up for the challenge.........



......and the candy too, of course!



This one was for the adults and I think the adults enjoyed theirs even more than the kids.



Poor Santa. This must be what he feels like every Christmas morning after a long night of delivering toys. Thanks Marc and Letty for a fun Christmas Day!

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

That used to be (and still is, actually) my favorite song to listen to at Christmas when I was a kid. My dad had an Andy Williams Christmas record (yes, I said record--I know I'm old) and we used to love to listen to it non-stop at Christmastime. To this day when I hear it, I still think of Christmases when I was young and we would dance around the house singing "It's the most wonderful time.....................of the year!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Good times. Anyway, we have had a fun past two days celebrating this most wonderful time of year. On Christmas Eve we went to Maw Maw and Paw Paw's house for some delicious grilled steaks, chicken, and sausage, and of course some yummy desserts to finish off the Christmas feast. We then visited, laughed, had a special visit from Santa himself, sang Christmas carols, laughed some more, and opened some presents. Unfortunately, somehow all of my pictures from all of the fun we had (and all of my pictures from the last 6 months too!) somehow were mysteriously deleted from my memory card. I was and still am seriously bummed out about it, so I can't think about it right now. After all of the festivities there, it was time to head home to get ready for the big visit from Ole' Saint Nick. When we got home, the girls put reindeer dust (aka glitter) and reindeer food (aka oatmeal) out on the driveway.



The reindeer dust is to help the reindeer spot our house easier and the reindeer food is so they can have a little snack while Santa is inside delivering the presents.



This is one of their favorite things to do, and they get so excited about it. It's so fun to watch them.



We of course had to leave out some milk and cookies for Santa, and a few carrots for the reindeer, since carrots are their favorite snack.



Looks like Santa and the reindeer enjoyed the treats. And Santa even left the girls a letter.



Santa always sets out the girls presents with their stockings. Up until this year, the girls have always slept until around 6:30 or 7am. I knew it would happen at some point, but I really didn't think it would be this year that they woke up before the crack of dawn--about 4am to be exact. We tried to get them to go back to sleep, but it just wasn't happening. And honestly, I wasn't sleeping well anyway, and was pretty excited for them to see what Santa had brought. So we all got up and opened presents at an insane hour this morning. And it was so much fun!



Katie before opening presents.



After opening presents.



Sarah before opening her presents.



Sarah after opening her presents. Can you tell she was getting tired of all the pictures?



*Some of their favorites gifts
They were pretty excited about the Lil' Kinz that Santa stuffed in their stockings, since the ones they got last Christmas are about to expire.



They both loved their American girl dolls. Katie opened hers first and said, "She looks like me!" It took her a few hours to figure out a name for her, but she finally decided on Caroline. Sarah took one look at hers and immediately said, "Her name is Elisabeth." I love both of the names that they picked out for their dolls.



Both of my girls LOVE blankets, so I made both of them blankets for their beds out of this cute pink Carolina fleece that I found at a great price. I put pink satin on the back. And since I had some extra fleece and satin, Aaron suggested that I make matching ones for their dolls. He has such great ideas. I thought they all turned out really cute, and the girls and the dolls loved them.



Here's Katie and Caroline with their matching nightgowns, which they love! And I do too!



And here's Sarah and Elisabeth in their matching nightgowns, which they love too! They all changed into their nightgowns soon after opening them and stayed in them until almost noon. I think they are so adorable!



But the most favorite gift that Santa left was the trampoline! They are having so much fun with it. Here they are with Daddy playing 'Crack the Egg'. We've had a fabulous Christmas and hope you all have too!

From Our House to Yours

Holiday Hustle and Bustle

Despite my efforts--which are usually successful--to avoid the craziness of this season, I have been caught up in it everyday this week. I think it is in large part due to the fact that I just don't have the energy I normally do (being great with child, and all), which has left me much more unprepared than I normally am at this point. So everyday this week has been filled with errands, shopping, doctors appointments, doing Christmas cards, making homemade treats, etc., etc., etc. And our nights have been just as busy with parting, caroling, delivering, more shopping, etc., etc., etc. I have been trying to get all of my running done this week in order to be able to relax and enjoy the next week with my family and make it as fun and enjoyable as possible for the girls, but I am tired and I think I need a vacation before Christmas!

One Bright Star and a Little Sheep

Tonight was our ward Christmas party. It was a 'Cajun Christmas', with lots of different delicious gumbo. After dinner, the primary did the first Christmas story. It was so cute. Katie was the star of the show--literally. We made this big, glittery star for her to hold up. She was kinda upset when she came home from church last week because she really wanted to be Mary. But she got pretty excited about being the star when Aaron explained to her how important the star was to the story because it told where to find the baby Jesus.





And the little sheep on the end is Sarah. She didn't have a part originally and was okay with that, until she found out her friend Ethan was a sheep. So Aaron called and asked if they needed anymore sheep. She was pretty excited to be a little sheep, and practiced her part all week with Daddy. "Baa. Baa."





She and Katie helped me make her costume today. You couldn't get the full effect of her costume while she was on stage because we had planned for her to be on her hands and knees, like this. Such a happy little sheep! The night ended with a visit from Santa.

Snow Much Fun!

This is what the house looked like when the sun finally came up. I know, not very much snow at all, but a big deal for folks like us that never get to enjoy it. Sadly, it was all gone well before noon.



Katie started a snowball fight with Daddy just before he took her to school. She was trying to be sneaky. It was so cute.







Somehow I got caught in the crossfire. We enjoyed our few hours of fun with the snow!