Kinley's first Christmas

Disclaimer: Please excuse the excessive amount of pictures that this post entails. Kinley's first Christmas was documented in excess and keep in mind....I probably narrowed down from around 700 pics to get to these...no lie.

We had a fantastic Christmas this year! I already posted the Harrison Christmas that we celebrated on the 22nd...but, we also celebrated the Joyner family Christmas on the 23rd and then, the much awaited Flying H Trailer Park Christmas in East Texas.

Kinley was also totally overwhelmed with the number of presents from my mom's side of family Christmas...among her favs were Ni Hao, Ki-Lan DVD's from Mom and Dad, a Kai-Lan doll from Matt, and a Harvard Sweatshirt from Bart & Olivia. Also, Aunt Jan gave Kinley a book with a fantastic poem she wrote which told her how much she loved her and how she will give her a book for all her Christmases to come! So sweet and thoughtful!


I love this face!

The traditional stairstep pic...it was a tough race between Danny, Bryan and Ben this year...but, Kinley was for sure the shortest....yea for Olivia!


Scott's fantastic WT hair...that happens to be mine :-) looks awesome with the Santa hat!



On the 24th, the morning after Joyner family Christmas, we left with our trailers to the trailer park Christmas!
We set up a camp of 4 trailers in a circle with fantastic Christmas welcome signs outside each trailer. The boys also went out in Inie & Bull's yard and cut down a pine tree for a Christmas tree in the middle which the boys decorated with tinsel and white lights!






Kinley's set-up in our trailer!


David carved this fantastic sign for Bull out of a tree off his ranch over the course of about 10 months! The perfect entrance to our trailer park!

Bull's face when he saw the sign...I love this pic!

Christmas Eve all the family went to Christmas Eve service at Dekalb United Methodist Church...we basically took up the whole right side of the church and Inie and Bull heard about it for days. We worked hard months in advance for the babies to have exactly the same matching outfits for church and they looked adorable!

The girls in church!


We tried as hard as we could to get a good pic of all the babies after church...here is the best we got. They did well for a while until one started crying and one by one...the all started :-)





The lineup of babies in age order: Aubrey (16 months), Kinley (9 months), Winlon (7 months), and Luke (4 months).

Christmas day we opened our stockings in Mom & Dad's trailer...never thought I would say that!



Pretty blue eyes!

Then we all put on our shirts for Christmas day!


Boys in green...girls in red!

Christmas lunch was good for everyone!



Look how big Luke is!

A tradition of ours that we do every holiday is sit in a big circle and basically tell each other what we are thankful for and what we loved during the last year...it is a big excuse for us to all sit around and cry a lot. Maybe weird for some but, normal for us. Bull starts it off and we cry the whole time!




After lunch it was time for family pics outside with our fantastic trailer park as a background!


It was really bright...so, the boys are squinting.



All the grandkids and great-grandkids with Inie & Bull

Bull wanted a pic with all the 'red shirts'...

...so Inie got a pic with all the green shirts!

Overall, it was a wonderful Christmas! Kinley was so loved on and we are so thankful for the amazing family that we have!

Christmas Etsy purchases

I was so excited this Christmas that I found some fabulous gifts on Etsy! I am kinda new to Etsy, so I was a little overwhelmed at first about how to search for things. But, I just love everything I bought! It is all handmade and personal and just fabulous!

I bought these personalized baby blocks for all the new babies in the Howe family. I got to request fabrics and try to match the babies nurseries or favorite things. I loved how they turned out! If you want some of these take a look at Spotted Whale on Etsy.


I also bought this awesome turquoise magazine holder for Mendy. I just loved it! I think it is so cute for a new apartment or house or something and even cooler if your name starts with an 'M!' If you want one of these you can get one from paperdollwoodshop!

Flying H Trailer Park Christmas Preview....

For those of you not on the Howe side of my family....then you are probably not planning on spending Christmas in an RV. I know this sounds crazy...but, this year for Christmas my family will be sleeping in trailers! We are all traveling out to East Texas where Inie and Bull live and will set up a trailer park of 4 RV's so that we can all be in the same place for the duration of our trip. The hotel / motel option just would not cut it for us. There are a total of 30 of us including 4 new babies this year and we all wanted to be together! So, here is a little preview of our Christmas this year....more to come!

Pics of our home away from home!



Jealous yet????

I laminated these signs to either put on stakes and stick in the ground for the trailer park or to tape on all 4 of the trailers!

Making tags for the T-shirts!

A little sneak peak of the T-shirts! Stay tuned for a glimpse of the whole thing!

Harrison family Christmas

Last night we celebrated Christmas with the Harrison's. Kinley's first Christmas is so much fun so far! She loves presents and unwrapping the bags and tearing paper off the boxes and chewing on everything! It is so fun! It was quite obvious that Kinley made out like a rockstar at the Harrison's! She had 10 times the presents of everyone else and LOVED everything!

Kinley in her cute Santa hat!


Uncle Alex!

Kinley's first cracker...I think it feels good on her teeth!

Kinley's stack of presents!


Drool baby

Opening her first present


By far her favorite gift of the night was this stuffed monkey. She just giggled and giggled everytime she saw it and it is super soft! She loved it!

Ben got presents even though he got his bow a couple months ago! Yay Ben!

kinley's best friends!

Monday afternoon we spent a fantastic afternoon with all of Kinley's best friends at the church! We played in the cube, on the outdoor playground, and around the fountain. It was so fun to have all of Kinley's friends together! It does not happen often...so we made sure to treasure every moment. Kristen bought the most adorable shirts for the babies and we just can't wait to wear them over and over!

The lineup of kiddos (in age order)!

Slide time! Everyone but Kinley could do this slide all by themselves!!


Kinley was slightly traumatized by the big slides....so, Kristen was making her feel better!

Ben is chilling out!


Sassy kept having to walk away to have an important phone call....we were a little to loud for her!

I think this is the best group shot we got...I love Ella's face! See some outtakes below and try to look through the fountain for Avery...she is too big to be in this baby picture!!

This was so much fun! I can't wait to do it again!

CHHS girls gift exhange

We had such a fantastic night on Monday and had a few girls over for a CHHS Class of 2000 girls reunion of sort! It was a blast to get to see everyone even for just one night. We had drinks, enough food to feed an army, and a fantastic gift exchange! We have to make it a yearly thing!


Me and Katy

Al and Kris

Blair, Nina and Kristen...isn't Kristen's scarf fantastic! She knitted it herself! My friends are so creative!

Lauryn and Amy....Amy was thrilled with her gift exchange spoils!

Meredith and Hollie


Kinley had to drop in at the end of the night because she was a little fussy and tired. Teething is painful!

chuck e cheese

Friday night, Ben got home from work and decided that we MUST go to Chuck E Cheese. I try to reasonably tell him that Kinley is a little too young for that...however, he insists that Chuck E Cheese is where we must go and order pizza and beer and play lots of games. So, trying to be a fantastic wife, I decide to please him and pack up Kinley and head on over. We had our friends Matt, Jen and Eden meet us. I was pretty sure we would not be able to get anyone to go with us...but, they gladly agreed! We had a blast! Even if Kinley could not do much but stare at all the lights and kids run around....the adults LOVED it!

However, I must say that I have not been there in like 15 years an it was not quite the jewel I remember from my past. First off, there is no longer a ball pit which was a tragedy for our little ones. Second, no more pitchers of beer for the adults...only by the glass. Third, the "show" with Chuck E and his friends is not really there anymore and those stuffed mascots were just not the allure I remember.....maybe because I am not 10 anymore.

Still...we had so much fun and will have to go again....maybe in a year or so.


This is pretty much the only thing the girls could do....this ride takes pictures and prints them out...as seen below:

Jen and I tried to get our pic made too..but, apparently we were not the right size:


Matt carrying Eden around

Ben...super excited about the hunting game!

We won 201 tickets and these are our prizes....2 suckers, a spoon, a crazy straw, a slinky, alphabet puzzle stickers, and 2 friendship bracelets. You can see through the glass the fake vomit that the boys really wanted to spend 200 tickets on.

Awe...sweet friends. Let's go to Chuck E Cheese again!!