Plants & Volleyball

Sure love these 2! 

Hopeful that Madi gets her Grandpa Heider's green thumb!

They had open gym and Madi couldn't wait to get there to practice volleyball!

Then it turned into a game of girls against dads!

Sunday morning we had breakfast at the Lewis's house! 

We have enjoyed celebrating Christmas with our dear family and friends. 

More Christmas Fun!

Christmas Eve morning, the kids started painting a fun snowman picture while we also made candy and baked tons of cookies (strawberry, lemon, cookie bars, and more!)! 

Hard at work . . . 

Finished masterpieces!  We were surprised by how much fun they had doing this!

Keeping with tradition, we went to dinner on Christmas Eve night.  The kids chose 50th Street, big surprise!

We enjoyed dinner and the kids enjoyed winning games and tickets!

Then it was time to open presents and have dessert back at our house! 

Madi loved watching her Daddy open his gifts from her.  She picked both out and was so excited for him to open them! 

Every single morning as her Daddy kisses her goodbye, he says "be good, do good" and then she responds with "work hard."  Pretty good words to live by.  She had it made on a keychain for him. 

He's been playing his guitar more and more lately, so she had a wooden guitar pick made with the nickname he calls her everyday "Goosie, McToosie."  I say it every year, man she is one lucky little girl to have him as her daddy. 

After opening all the gifts, we went and looked at lights!  Each of the kids had a bingo card with different lights and decorations to find.  It was so fun!  Tripp and Madi tied! 

Day 25:  Again, Matt and I question Madi's sense of humor lately.

Matt made a yummy Christmas breakfast complete with homemade biscuits and gravy! 

Then it was stocking time!

Maci bought and made gifts for everyone.  I love that age when they just want to give gifts to everyone. 

Later that day, the cousins headed to celebrate with Cody's mom's family and we headed to see more family! 

Christmastime!

Day 22:  Madi was excited to do fun things with Fred and the cousins' elves Winter and Violet.  
Matt and I are questioning her idea of humor . . . 

Maci stayed with a friend from Lubbock so it was just these two for breakfast on Tuesday! We had to have donuts since they are Tucker's favorite and they don't have a place in Jayton to get donuts. 

Tripp has been wanting his ears pierced for a while now but his parents kept saying no.  Out of the blue they both said yes so I was the cool aunt and took him right away!

All done! 

Tuesday afternoon, Madi and I headed to Cheesecake Factory so she could have dessert and a gift exchange with Allison, Jessica and Mattie B.  

They all loved their gifts!

And they all loved their desserts!  The moms enjoyed a quick happy hour while the girls walked across the parking lot to shop in the mall for a while. 

Matt texted me while I was there to show me that they painted our trim . . . 

And they put in our microwave!

And they fixed our entry way light fixture!  We're getting close!

Day 23:  Fred, Winter and Violet brought Maci an elf sized candy pizza by sleigh and reindeer!

Wednesday afternoon, we rented out a theater and watched Elf with just our family! Tucker invited a few Lubbock friends and so did Maci. 

It was fun having the theater to ourselves and we loved seeing Grandma, Grandpa, Uncle Rod, Klay and his girls Elora and Kiran. 

When we got home it was time for cookie decorating! 

Then we played the Saranwrap ball game! 

They were ruthless!  

Since they're getting so much older, we put mostly money and lottery tickets in it this year! 

Our pups sure love having the cousins here!

That night we made fajitas with all the fixings and played Phase 10!

Later that evening Morgan and her boyfriend Tim came by for dinner and dessert!  We also introduced them to Left Right Center.  Tim won this time! We played earlier too and Tucker won! 

We sure love Christmastime with family!