Life as a Lewis

This is where we've spent the last few days. And this was our view. Not bad, right?

Too bad I thought of this a little too late and already deleted lots of bad pictures. Serious hat head, William. Does it look like Camden is in trouble? Cause he wasn't! Mid-kiss. Although, on second glance, this is not an outtake, but a sweet moment. She was fake pouting. Are you kidding me, mom?

Okay, seriously can't help myself. Not to mention I haven't taken a single picture this week. Gramps and Rory Catching snowflakes Skyping with Uncle Matt, the only family member on my side not at my house Christmas. And, yes, those would be Uncle Michael's knees you see. Even in December with snow on the ground. Singing Christmas carols before opening presents Spontaneous hand holding. Is that sweet or what? Rory is quite taken with her stuffed Dora. After all the excitement, covering up with her new Dora blanket and reading her new Dora book.

I wasn't planning to share more Christmas pictures, but I found these from Christmas Eve and decided there was no choice but to post them. Mom brought her famous sugar cookies to ice and decorate and let the kids help out. She enlisted Dad's help. The kids had a blast although I'm pretty sure Mom and Dad were ready to just call it a day and go to bed when they finished. Have you seen a cuter chef? Mr. Personality William was slightly quieter Our tradition for Christmas Eve is to attend a Christmas Eve service and then come home for appetizers. Because of freezing rain, we had to skip the service, but appetizers were definitely still on the agenda. I actually have food pictures, but thought I'd spare you all the details. They'll kill me for this. The group. Notice the Sequence game already on the table. The theme for the week during each meal was to let the kids eat on a blanket in the living room with a Christmas-themed TV show while the adults a...

My top 10 favorite things of the 2010 Christmas Week   10. The food at the Lewis/Hale/Derby Christmas never disappoints. 9. The fact that we were snowed in Sunday which meant we had a quiet day to unwind when all our company left. 8. Watching William and Xavier's Christmas program. There's a whole lotta personality in those two! (click here for a small sampling) 7. The excellent coffee. Does that fall under the food category? 6. Camden and Rory's expressions when they opened a "pink weapster" (for Rory) and a DS (for Camden). 5. The Italian Drip-Beef sandwiches . Yes, it falls under the food category, but Brian says the sandwiches must have their own space in the list.   4. The many hours spent playing Sequence . The girls totally rule.   3. The poem Brian wrote for me (it made Becky and my dad cry so you know it was good).   2. This picture . 1. The sweet time we had on Christmas Day reading Luke 2 and singing Christmas carols. And let me just leave you w...

Tennessee's version of a White Christmas. :) Very little stuck to the ground (until last night), but there were large fluffy flakes most of the day. The kids ran outside to catch snowflakes with their tongues for a mere 5 minutes, but I think it was long enough for them to thoroughly enjoy themselves.

The last few days have been filled with really good food, four very energetic little ones, and a whole lot of laughs. Here's a little peak into our Christmas week. Pioneer Woman's cinnamon rolls . Seriously best thing you'll ever put in your mouth. Except for maybe these Pioneer Woman Italian drip beef sandwiches . We're kind of a PW fan around here. A sweet 4 year old girl Family picture courtesy of Becky I returned the favor. A mischievous Xavier. Since this is our last Tennessee Christmas, we decided it was time to head to Opryland Hotel to see the Christmas lights. Unfortunately, the entire state of Tennessee had the same idea. Rory hitched a ride. Rory and Grandma at the poinsettia tree. Camden eagerly awaiting the light show that never happened. Long story. Our two munchkins No children were harmed during this photo shoot, but it was a close call. Today's agenda originally included passing out some Christmas bags to the homeless downtown and att...

Today was Rory's date day, and despite all the activities I mentioned to her, she really wanted to see Tangles (a.k.a. Tangled ). She was so funny as she giggled and danced her way through the movie. She kept saying, "I just wuv this movie. It's hiwawious" (hilarious). Considering she mentioned it about every 10 minutes throughout the day, I'm pretty sure the prospect of skipping naptime was almost as exciting as the date. I decided to have Camden take a quick picture of us before we left instead of taking the camera. This is what happens when a 7 year old is in charge of the pictures. We've done this "date" thing with the kids a couple of times now since Rory has been home, and I'm always surprised by how much they adore the alone time with us. I highly recommend it!

Hold on, it's going to be a long one! Our weekend started with our afternoon with Camden Friday. We took him to Target to do a little shopping for Rory before the movie. Something we started this year was taking each kid not only on a date, but letting them choose something for each other for Christmas. It's a way for them to do something nice for each other and I tried to make both of them to really think through what would make the other happy. With a $5 limit, of course. Camden was pretty enthralled with Voyage of the Dawn Treader and was literally on the edge of his seat the entire time. Brian fell asleep so that tells you how he felt about it. I thought it was fun, but not nearly as good as the first two. Really, could I have taken a worse picture? One of these days I'll start leaving the tiny purse camera at home and lugging around the big girl all the time. This cracks me up. He's so skinny, he still doesn't really hold the seat down on his own. We kept t...