The Gee Family

We had a great Christmas this year.  It was just the 5 of us this year with no extended family.  But, we ended up having a very nice Christmas despite that.  (This is probably our 4th or 5th Christmas with just us, so we're getting used to it.)  On Christmas eve, the boys decorated gingerbread houses, which has been a tradition of ours for the past few years.  Here are the masterpieces.  (The boys decorated them all on their own with no help from us, as you can tell from how beautiful they are!)

Then, that night, we had Christmas Eve dinner with some friends, the McBrides and Fitgeralds.  We had a nice dinner and then let the kids act out the nativity as we read the story from the Bible.  They did really well and it was very cute!  Landen was Joseph and Nathan was a shepherd.  Carter was going to be baby Jesus, but he was asleep and we didn't want to wake him up.  So, luckily, Cole (who is only 2 days older than Carter) stepped in performed the role rather nicely!  The three dads were very good sports and played the wise men.  After the nativity, we had a white elephant gift exchange.  We are grateful to have such good friends to spend Christmas Eve with.  Thank you McBrides for having us over!

Carter's First Christmas!

We were so lucky that it snowed most of Christmas Eve a and then stayed around till Christmas day.  So, we had a white Christmas.  I haven't had one of those in a while, and it reminded me of home!  It was great!  So, we took advantage of the snow (while it lasted- we had to hurry!) and played in it.  The boys loved it.  They had a snowball fight, made snow angels and built a snowman (if you can call it that).

Here are some pictures of the boys in their Christmas outfits for Church.  I think they look so handsome, so I had to share the pictures!  

I'm a room mom in Landen's Kindergarten Class this year. Today, we had our "Winter Party".  It turned out great and the kids had a lot of fun!  We did a little craft with the kids (made holiday mugs), then played bingo and had lots of yummy food.  One down- two more to go!

Landen and his teacher Mrs. Jackson

Last night, the boys and I (Phil was sick, so he stayed home with Carter) went to Santa's Village in Richardson.  There's a whole little village set up and in each house, there's an activity for the kids:  the pet shop had little puppies and kittens, you could write Santa letters at the post office, Mrs. Claus gave out cookies at her bakery, you got your nose painted red like Rudolph at the Reindeer shed, etc.  It's super cute and the boys loved it!

Last weekend, we went to Six Flags Holiday in the park.  We went with my cousin Summer and her family, my cousin Eric and his family, my Uncle Brad, Aunt Mary Ann, my cousin Brandon, Curt and his wife Whitney.  It was so much fun.  The kids had a blast!  We stayed for about 4 hours and rode rides non-stop.  They were able to pretty much walk on all the rides.  It was pretty cold- but we all bundled up and it wasn't too bad.  I was really worried about Carter freezing- but he was such a champ.  He didn't make a peep the whole night!  After we were all tapped out on the rides, we headed over to a BBQ restaurant in Southlake for dinner.  It was a great night.  I love being able to get together with the family that we have here in Texas!  It makes me miss my family in Utah less.  

Landen had a friend party this year for his 6th Birthday.  He got to invite six friends and he had it at Allen Bowl.  They got to all bowl for an hour (which was equivalent to one game) and then we had cake and ice cream and opened presents.  Landen requested a BYU cake this year (much to his Dad's delight), so I attempted to make one.  Luckily my kids aren't too picky, which is good, since their mother isn't too skilled in the cake making department.  Bakugans were the hit present for Landen this year.  He had a great time at his party and I loved it because I didn't have to do anything but make a cake!  That's the best kind of party!

Since Carter is now 4 months old (well 4 1/2 months actually) we started him on rice cereal today.  He actually seemed to like it pretty well and ate all of it.  Here's the play by play.

                               First bite.

Not too sure about it.

OK, this is gross!

Well, maybe this is OK.

Yeah, I like this!