Hale Household: December 2011

December 29, 2011

Just the Five of Us...

The girls wanted to spend Christmas Eve and Christmas Day "Just the Five of Us" at our home so that is just what we did! It was pretty special and very relaxing. They also wanted to choose special gifts for each other so I took them to shopping to pick something out for each other...

Lainey and Abbey chose a fish and little aquarium for Miss Em... So was so excited and named her fish Hot Tamale because he is red, we LOVE the hot tamale candies and we had tamales for our Christmas Eve dinner!

Abbey and Emiley got Lainey a LaLaLoopsy Doll. She had been REALLY wanting one! Cant you tell!!!

Lainey and Emiley got Abbey a hair dryer to match her straightener. They also got her some baby pacifiers! The joke around our house is that Abbey would still be sucking on pacies if she could even though she is 12 years old. I think I broke Abbey from the pacie 5 times but she would keep stealing her baby sisters pacies!

Christmas Eve we had a VERY RELAXING dinner of tamales, salad, chips, hot sauce! Lainey set the table for us. {Not our relaxing clothes!}

That night we opened gifts from each other. I got a cover for my Bible and a very special necklace from the "Red Envelope". It is engraved and says "We Love You. Abbey, Lainey, Emiley." {The picture is on my phone.}

Will is stylin' in his new Ray Bans and some new running pants!

Emiley gets excited about ALL THINGS MONKEY!!!

And Lainey is still a BIT obsessed with Yetis!

The next morning, of course Santa came... He surprised Miss Em with a basketball goal and a new basketball goal since ours got blown over and destroyed in the wind storm this summer.

Abbey was super cool in her Jessica Simpson shades and her ACU hoodie. Santa actually brought her a laptop to do her homework on since lots of it requires the internet. {That way the HOME computer will be FREE to others after school!}

And Lainey girl got her Kindle from Santa!

Then it was time for a little basketball goal construction in the garage... Daddy daughter bonding time!

They got it done before church!

We attended church and had a wonderful time singing praises to God on Christmas morning!

December 27, 2011

Fourteen...

Fourteen years ago we said "I Do"... {Engagement Picture}

We have learned a lot about LOVE, marriage, family, life and so much more. We have been through good times and bad. We have been blessed with three beautiful girls...

Through the ups and downs, I would do it all over again. I LOVE you, Will Hale! Heres to 14 +14 + 14 + 14 more years...

Happy Anniversary, Babe...

December 26, 2011

Christmas {Take 2}...

Friday night my brother and his family and my dad and Dee travels to our house to celebrate Christmas. I got my camera out and had big plans of doing a "good" job at picture taking but I failed... because we were having too much fun so that is OK!

I do have the regular Christmas pictures of the kids opening presents. Miss Em was excited about her doll clothes...

Lainey Beth seemed to get "all things owl!" These P.J's are SO CUTE!!!

And I did catch Abbey Grace NOT trying to be cool for a second when she had these bows stuck on her face!

The one things we DID do was take a few pictures in front of the tree this time! These sweet cousins are growing up way too fast! Garrett {1st grade}, Emiley {3rd}, Lainey {4th}, Whitney {5th} and Abbey {6th}!

Yep, We even got a family picture, too!

And one with Poppy and Dee Dee and the kiddos!

I tried with all my might to get Chad to eat shrimp and sushi but he stuck to the steak and potatoes... We had a yummy supper of steak, potatoes, salad, corn, shrimp and sushi! The girls and I made sugar cookies, cheery crumble and a caramel, pecan cheesecake that was gone really fast!

Family Time is the BEST and I am so glad we got to spend time with our family over the Christmas season!

December 24, 2011

From Our Family To Yours...

Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace, goodwill to men!"

Luke 2: 14

Merry Christmas

December 23, 2011

Friday Favorites...

My Friday Favorite just has to be our...

Cousins at Christmas Time... Doesnt get much better!

Pure Sweetness! Bundles of Laughs! Loads of Fun!

And enough LOVE to go around the world and back!

December 22, 2011

Christmas Flashback...

Abbey's First Christmas (1999)

Abbey Grace 2000

Abbey and Lainey's First Christmas (2001)

Abbey, Lainey and Emiley's First Christmas (2002)

Rough Year I guess... Christmas with Santa at the Family Dollar! (2003)

Emiley was NOT his biggest fan!

My Sweet Babies (2004)

Christmas (2005) This was the year I felt as though they were triplets!

With Santa at the Civic Theatre after Abbey's performance (2006)

I'm guessing Em was having a bad day or was NOT a Santa fan AGAIN!

Merry Christmas!

December 21, 2011

This, That and That, This...

(First, This is what happens when your girls get a hold of your camera! Miss Em is always being silly. I just LOVE her to pieces!)

This is a post FULL of this and that! Things I have needed to post but haven't!

Oh my Miss Lainey! She is a crafty girl and this is HER time of year. She has been busy and has had craft ideas running crazy in her head. She comes home from school with ideas and spends hours in her room crafting. Her favorite thing to make is hair clips...

Her hair designs all began with making felt hair flowers. Then throughout the holiday season it has ventured into Christmas Holly...

And her favorite thing right now now OWLS! She has had some special requests from others to make them OWLS, too! They are pretty cute and OWLS are the going thing right now.

The girls and I have been baking like crazy. I just love these little cute cupcakes we made... "Happy Birthday, Jesus!" Remembering the reason for the season. We plan to make Cherry Crumble, Caramel Pecan Cheesecake, and cookies in the next day or two.

Abbey's One Act Play team one 1st Place in the UIL Jr. High One District Act Play. At the actual competition, we were not allowed to take any pictures. They performed again for the school last week and I snapped a few pictures. That is Abbey as Lily Belle in the red dress... She is the rich, sassy, spoiled daughter! In this scene she is talking to her older brother the Senator.

And here is the entire cast at the end of the play! I am so proud of them. The did the play "Curious Savage."

And Finally Miss Lainey again all dressed up for her class party last week. She had to wear her tutu and her Christmas shirt I got her with the Yeti on it!

Santa and Miss Clause came to visit our school on Friday Lainey and her BFF got a picture with the duo!

December 20, 2011

Christmas #1...

This past weekend we headed down to my brother's to celebrate Christmas with my brother's family and my mom and Papa Jim. Of course there was a little bit of playing of the Ipad by Garrett...

The girls had to decorate Christmas cupcakes! They got really fancy because Aunt Gina is really AWESOME! She let the girls mix colors and use zip-lock baggies as piping bags and EVERYTHING. Now Emiley is asking for a baking set so she can be a professional baker!

Maybe it runs in the family because my mom got really serious about the Christmas cooking, too and made us all new aprons. They were super cute! I am pretty in LOVE with mine! It has an "S" on it and its black and white! I will be stylin' in my kitchen now :)

Garrett taught the girls how to shoot a BB gun and a bow and arrow. Abbey got a little made with Garrett hit the target 8 times and she NEVER hit it. Yes the 12 year old was a little "ticked" off that the 1st grader was beating her! Garrett was super proud!

We even took a ride out to Bub's place and visited the exotic game and the Longhorns! The girls got a bit excited. I hope we didnt scare the exotic deer that Bub had locked up in the barn.

Gift time was of course the best part of the evening for the kids. They had waited ALL.DAY for it!!

Lainey told us OLDER folks that we opened our presents way to slow... So she was showing us how to open them FAST!

EE and PaPa Jim...

Abbey Grace was pretty excited about her "grown-up" gifts... A straightener and perfume!

I was super excited about giving Garrett his gift from us... a light up Camo hat! I think he LOVED it! It went perfect with this Camo rainboots!

Oh yes, and Miss Em was head over heels in love with her monkey pajamas.