Christmas with the Hornsbys

This afternoon we had our final (thank goodness) Christmas at Mel's.

It took him a while to get it out of the bag, but Jackson finally freed his quillow from Heather.
This oatmeal box was the only thing I could find to fit Bradley's present into. I think he was worried for a minute.
Here's Jackson with his boots Papa bought him. He asked Santa for these and before we went over to Mel's today he said, "Mom, did Santa forget my boots?"

Christmas at home

Okay, I know you're getting tired of our Christmases. Santa came to our house and brought way too much stuff as usual. Morgan woke us up around 6:30 so we got up and opened presents with her and played until about 7:30 when I made Lee go wake Jackson up. There are only a few pictures because we were videotaping.

Morgan playing with one of her new toys.

Jackson got a "dirt" bike.

Christmas with The Smiths

On Monday, we went to Lee's mom and step-dad's house for Christmas with them.

Morgan loves to stick her hands in the pool so they put up these gates the other day so she can't get to the pool. She's trying hard to figure out a way to get to that pool!
Here's Jackson sporting his Auburn camoflague hat and race cars shirt.
This is Lee after I surprised him with a tripod hunting stand.
Morgan posing in front of Lee's mom's tree.

Christmas with the Byrds

Sunday after sacrament we went down to Geneva to have Christmas with Lee's Dad, stepmom, and 1/2 brother Aaron. We had a good time.

Here are the kids attacking their uncle Aaron.
Here's Jackson with his remote control dump truck. He loves it and Morgan does too.
Lee took pictures of Morgan to keep her happy.
Here's all the grandkids in front of the tree.

Jackson's Christmas Party

Instead of giving his classmates candy, I bought them all reindeer ears. They loved them.

This is Jackson with his 2nd cousin, Eli.
Here they are clinging to Santa while he tries to leave.
This is Jackson "helping" his teacher open her present from him.

Anniversary

Wednesday was mine and Lee's 9th wedding anniversary. He brought me these flowers. Purple is my favorite color, so he did good. Jackson associates flowers with getting married and asked if he could marry me. When I told him no, he asked if he could marry sissy. Then he asked if he could marry Lauren. He's so funny. We're going to see Peter Pan at the Shakespeare Festival Saturday to celebrate.

Field Trip to Wal-Mart

Today I took 24 7th graders on a field trip to Wal-Mart. Our school has mentoring groups and I have really tried to get mine involved in doing service for others because I think that will teach them more than anything I can say. We did a canned food drive earlier this year and we decided to adopt an angel for Christmas. I'm sure other towns do this, but it's where you buy gifts for children who may not otherwise receive anything. We talked another mentoring group into going in with us. The students brought in a total of around $150. We adopted three boys and one girl. I talked our principal into allowing us to go during school time to purchase the items for the children. Everyone in Wal-Mart looked at us like we were crazy, but the kids were excited about helping someone else. When we got back to school, one student said "That makes me feel good inside." It was a rewarding moment. This is our group in front of Wal-Mart.

Party Time

Today was my last graduate class. Yay!!!!!! I am now officially done with school and plan to never go back. Now I just can't wait until my raise goes through. I feel like singing and dancing.

I'm also excited because we found out niece or nephew number 7 is on the way (compliments of Mel) in July.

If you're squeamish, look away...again!

Lee took Jackson hunting this afternoon. Jackson's not very good at sitting still, so I'm sure he didn't expect to see anything. If you know anything about hunting, you don't typically get more than one large buck in a year unless you pay big bucks for prime hunting land and all the gear. Well, Lee doesn't pay for his land at all (except in labor). I'm sure he was beside himself with the 2nd 8 point in the past few weeks walked out. Jackson had to go potty, but Lee told him just to hold on because they were about to get down. Well, that's when the deer walked out and Jackson wanted Lee to shoot it. When he did, Jackson peed on himself. It was kind of funny. Now we'll have plenty of deer meat to last the year.

The proud hunter.

Downtown Christmas

Today there was a Downtown Christmas. They had Santa, arts n crafts vendors, and man made snow. The snow was basically ice chips and people were balling it up and throwing it everywhere, so we didn't really do that. It was fun, but crowded.

Jackson sat with Santa after running away first and told him he wanted a truck.
Jackson is fascinated by firetrucks.

Here Morgan is patiently waiting with her fruit snacks while Jackson rides the bull.

I think the mechanical bull was the best attraction. Jackson couldn't wait to get on. It was funny watching all the kids.

Jackson was so excited.
Here he is in action.
Here he is on his way down.

The operator let all the kids get back on after falling off the first time, but once was enough for Jackson. He had fun though.