Christmas Day

We enjoyed a white Christmas in Dallas this year while we stayed at my brother's house.

Drew's sweet girlfriend, Kim, helped him decorate his house for Christmas. She got stocking hangers so we brought along the kid's stockings. The girls wanted to be sure that Santa would come to Uncle Drew's house.
Opening their stockings filled with jewelry,bath foamand their favorite candy.
Carter needed some help opening his new "guys" as we like to call them.
Everyone is enjoying a game of Hungry, Hungry Hippos.
That afternoon my mom and my other brother's family came over to play, have Christmas dinner and open presents. Here are the girl cousins (Carter was napping.)
Bella and Aubrey

Lily and Julia
Nana and Emery say "cheese."
Carter giving Nana some love.

We had a wonderful, delicious and untraditional Christmas dinner. Drew and Mike did a great job with the shrimp boil.
Pot 'o Shrimp
Dinner is served.

The group...Drew, his girlfriend, Kim, her family, a few friends from church, the Hall family and the Seelman family. I was very impressed with Drew's hosting ability with such a big group on Christmas.
My family

Nana with her grandchildren.

Carter thought it was funny that Julia is pulling his ear in this picture.

He didn't think it was as funny when she pulled his hair.

Drew and Kim with...SOME of the kids.

Kim's family

Drew and Kim with some of their friends.

The Seelman Family

Merry Christmas!

Love, The Halls

Christmas Eve

On Christmas eve we went to Plano to visit Mema for a little while.

Then we drove to McKinney to have dinner and open presents at Uncle David and Aunt Ashley's house. It was a very nice and relaxing Christmas Eve.
We decided to bathe the kids before we took them home. Anna's bathtub has never been so full!

Early Christmas in Houston

Each year we celebrate Christmas with MIMI, PawPaw, the Halls and all the Chenoweths early so that EVERYONE can be together.

This year MIMI invited Santa to come to the house and he brought along Mrs. Claus. Mrs. Claus read a fun story and then Santa passed out presents to each member of the family.
This year Aubrey convinced herself that Santa wasn't so bad.
Aubrey and her cousin/favorite babysitter Morgan
The next three kids weren't as excited about Santa and definitely weren't happy with their mother who forced them to sit on his lap. While they weren't sitting on his lap, they kept their distance and clung to anyone that would "keep them safe."
Even the adults had to tell Santa if they had been "naughty or nice."Although they weren't huge fans of Santa, they sure did like what he gave them.
The kids table. (Uncle David, Aunt Ashley and Daddy had to farkle for who sat with them. Guess who lost?)This was Carter's first Christmas.
(Sorry about the yellow picture.)

Carter's 1st Birthday Party

We had a purple/white tailgate themed party for Carter's first birthday. We celebrated his birthday a couple of weeks early because his actual birthday is December 30th which is kind of a busy time for everyone. All of the guests were asked to wear their favorite team's shirt.

All of Carter's biggest fans wore this button during the party.

Happy Birthday Son!
Happy Birthday Little Brother!
All of the Halls with MIMI and PawPaw.
Here are some of our friends that came to celebrate, eat and play...

Adalyn, Tracy and Davis DerrAngela Paschall, Mary and Emily Leamons, Sarah Roemler

Chris and Reece Hartley, Elizabeth Clouatre
David and Lissie Tuley

Uncle David, Josh and Kyle Leamons, Aaron and Will Erickson
Buff Davis
Shannon Michaelis
Some of the activities for the party included...

a bounce house
bean bag toss

coloring #1 paper hands.

The cakes and favors

We love you Carter.Singing to the birthday boy.

Diggin' in.
Eatin' cake.