Christmas 2012: Part 2

We had Christmas with my family in College Station this year.  Evelyn is due to arrive in the next two weeks or so, so the Paweleks were staying put!  We arrived in College Station on Monday evening with just enough time to change the girls into their matching Christmas dresses and head to church.  For some reason we didn't get a picture of them...maybe because it is next to impossible to capture the two busy bodies in a picture together.

After church, we had a dinner, visited, and opened our matching Christmas PJ's to wear to bed.  Fernandez Family Christmas Eve Tradition.  Barry & Michael especially love it.  On to Christmas Day...

I have a feeling this may be the last year of a "leisurely, sleep in past sunrise" Christmas morning...so we took full advantage.  We cooked breakfast, ate and did stockings.

We then let the girls open all their presents.  They would unwrap them, then insist on having everything opened so they could play with them.

My parents were thoughtful enough to buy Cora and ENTIRE instrument set.  Drum, piano, xylophone, and recorder included.  We had quite the concert.

Sawyer got a much quieter gift.  The girls climbed in and out between music sets.

And then it was nap time and adult Christmas time.  It literally took us hours to open gifts, but it was so much fun watching the girls get so excited about everything...and then crash!  But, they were ready to go when they woke up and the playing continued.  They talked Buelo into lots of walks in the wagon.

Evidence of the matching PJ's.

And Barry & Michael's enthusiasm.

They have so much Christmas spirit.  Then the temperature dropped about 40 degrees so the playing continued inside.

After being in the house all day, and still in our PJs we decided that we needed to get out of the house for a little bit.  We went to Santa's Wonderland in College Station and it was so neat!

Cora was on Santa overload and Sawyer enjoyed driving.

Yes, we were still wearing our pajamas.  It was a wonderfully relaxing day!  I will leave you with a little Christmas song and dance from Sawyer.  She is a natural on the recorder.  And her dancing...amazing.

Hope you all had a very Merry Christmas as well!

Christmas 2012: Part 1

Christmas is always such a whirlwind for us - in a good way.  Lots of places to be and people to see, which can be stressful sometimes, but we are very fortunate to have so many people to get to see over the holidays.  I managed to bring my camera with us this time...but forgot to charge it.  Good thing for iPhone cameras...

As Sawyer gets older, and our family continues to grow (one day...not yet!), we would like to establish some of our own holiday traditions.  This year, that meant starting to celebrate on the 23rd.  We had lunch at our house, then did our family Christmas before heading to church.  Sawyer caught on to the stocking thing pretty quickly!

Santa visited Sawyer in the form of a savings account this year, we knew she would have plenty of presents to rip into at our other Christmases.  But, she was more than thrilled to pull sippy cups, bubbles and other things out of her stocking!

After church, we were on the road to Yoakum.  Sawyer was fully prepared for snow in her boots...just in case.

Grandma had cookies waiting for Sawyer to decorate.  She wasn't quite sure what to do at first, but it didn't take long for her to get the hang of sprinkles.  All.  Over.

I very much appreciate her love for sprinkles.

Sawyer spent Sunday morning hanging out with Aunt Tammy and all her animals...

She was loving it!  After church, we spent the afternoon watching football and visiting with family.  Sawyer made herself comfortable in Logan's bouncer...

We did Christmas with Barry's family on Sunday evening.  Stocking #2.

She walked around with this little bottle for most of the night.

And, now that she has her own vacuum and kitchen, she can really help me around the house!

She would rip the tiniest pieces of paper off of each present.  And, of course, the boxes were a huge hit!

Monday we went to Barry's grandmas house for lunch.

How sweet is Logan sleeping by the tree??

We had a really nice afternoon visiting with family and eating tons of good food and way too much pie.

Or squeeze food in Sawyer's case.  Someday she will learn that Grandma's house is not the place to decide to be a picky eater!

And then it was time for the Chinese Christmas gift exchange.  Sawyer claimed Barrett's tractor for her own.

She is very into babies right now.  She calls all her stuffed animals, Lori, other kids & dolls "baby."  So of course, she was REALLY into Logan.

She was also really into this pond and the fish swimming in it.

Sawyer & Barrett, who is 1 week younger, had so much fun playing together.  They were just standing there giggling and splashing in the water.

And then it was time for a long nap on the road to College Station to continue our celebrations...

Too many pictures for one post...Part 2 coming soon.

Sawyer's Slideshow

This is the slide show that Barry made for Sawyer's birthday party.  He worked on it forever and surprised me with it.  I think he did an awesome job on it!  I am glad I got a sneak peek before the party because I can't watch without crying...make sure you have your volume up.

Sawyer's Winter One-Derland

We had Sawyer's birthday party on her actual birthday since it was on a Saturday.  Fortunately, we had lots of help getting ready on Friday night...I could never have done this all by myself!  While we were busy crafting, the girls were busy driving Lori nuts and taking over her bed.  She was a good sport.

We started the day off with family pictures...what better way to spend a birthday?!?  Thank you to Barry's cousin Kim for doing an awesome job!

In hindsight...this was probably not the best scheduling decision because when we  left to go take pictures, my mom & Becky had quite the to do list.  Or maybe it was a good idea??? ; )

They were soooo helpful and they party was pretty much ready to go by the time we got home.  The weather was not the least bit wintery, but we had a lot of snowflakes and sparkles going on inside.

Becky put together this display of all of Sawyer's art work...

It may or may not still be hanging in my kitchen.  Along with her snowflake month pictures......
Since the weather was so nice, we got to spend a lot of time outside.  Sawyer got some fun new toys, so all the kids had a blast playing.

After a seriously tear jerking slide show that Barry made for Sawyer - I am hoping to get it uploaded onto YouTube so I can put it on here - we enjoyed some chili.  And then it was time for cake...

I think she would have sat there and eaten the whole thing if we would have let her.  She LOVED it.

As did Lori...

How cute is that red picnic table?!?!  Barry made that for Sawyer for her birthday.  We had lots of family and friends join us to celebrate Sawyer, many of whom traveled pretty far to be with us, she is one blessed little girl!

And since she ate almost half of her cake...she was wired and ready to open presents!

My mom got me and my sisters all life-sized Ragedy Ann dolls for our 1st birthdays.  Every time we are at my parents' house, the girls always point and want to play with them.  So, she has carried on the tradition and gotten mini ones for the grand-daughters.  I don't know what she will do if anyone ever has a boy!

I think she really enjoyed herself!  The party turned out great - thank you to everyone who came and everyone who helped, we had a wonderful time celebrating the best gift ever!!