Christmas Pics Part Deux

Here's some more of our holiday pictures. This first one is Maddy Moose. Check out her bed-head. lol My three sons (Nick, Kaleb and Jacob) all lined up on the couch Christmas morning.

Nick and Kara, checking something out. The look on Kara's face just makes me smile.

But this look really cracks me up. She was fascinated by this little Snow White baby doll. She pressed her little face right up to the package to try and get a closer look at it.

Here's Kara and Jodie, working on unwrapping something. Just look at Jodie's hair...should anyone really have hair that looks that good first thing in the morning?? lol

This is Kara with the Elmo doll Nick and Jodie got her. She LOVED it. I've never seen one so young get so excited over a toy.

Now check out the look she's giving Jacob.

This is a favorite of mine: Maddy wearing her Harry Potter glasses (and her Harry Potter Time-Turner necklace). She was opening up the last of her gifts while Sydney the Wonder Dog supervised.

Maddy loves Texas so Randey and I had to get her this shirt when we saw it.

This is Maddy crawling up under the tree to dig the presents out Christmas morning.

This is me with the Darth Vader statue Nick and Jodie got me. Way too cool. Love it. (And what granny wouldn't, eh?)

This picture cracks me up...Kaleb and Jacob, first thing in the morning. Not looking too spry, are they?

They started perking up the more gifts they got to open.

Kaleb's "big" gift this year was a GPS system for his car. That boy could get lost in his own backyard so this was a darn good gift for him. Jake asked for an X-Box 360. I had no intention of getting him one of those...Kaleb already has one and so does Randey. How many 360s should live in one household, I ask you? Apparently three, because Randey thought getting Jake one was a primo idea. And, I have to say, Jake was sure surprised. He really didn't think we'd go for that particular wish. I told him he really had his father to thank (or to blame, depending on your point of view. lol).

Here's Sydney the Wonder Dog supervising Randey's gift opening technique.

Finally, Desiree', Russell and Skye arrived, laden with gifts!

Here's Skye, opening her Batman toy from Nick. Nick thinks every child should have superhero toys. lolAnd here's Skye opening one of her barbies. She was so thrilled with everything she got. It was just precious to watch her excitement.

And finally, here's Sydney the Wonder Dog enjoying his Christmas dog biscuit. (How cute is this little guy????)

Okay - I guess that's enough with the holiday pictures, eh? I can't wait to scrapbook about this holiday. It was special like no other one has ever been.

Tomorrow we'll talk Weight Watchers. Yee-haw!

Our Family Trip to Oklahoma

Ten of us drove up to Oklahoma this past weekend to visit family. Here's all of us together at my dad and Wendy's house. (I meant to crop the picture before posting it, but well heck...I forgot to.) We took tons and tons of pictures, but don't worry, I didn't post them all. Just a couple of dozen or so. lol Here's Skye, wearing Maddy's new hat. She really thought she was stylin' in this. lolHere's Nick and Kara, opening gifts.
This is Maddy, sportin' her new OU beanie.

And here's Maddy, opening a gift (I love this sweater...wish it came in my size. lol).

And here's yet another one of Maddy. She's a bit of a hippie...perhaps the ribbon tied around her head gives that away, eh?

This is my step-sister, Leah. She totally cracks me up.

This is four generations of Steeds; Kara, Nick, me and my dad. We do have a better shot of this, but I thought this one was funny because Dad and I have the same look on our faces. :)

And I'm not sure how this picture got into the mix...it was taken before we went to Oklahoma. But whatever. It's still a good one. It's Kaleb, Randey and Kara. Randey was surprised to see how tall Kaleb really is. He just doesn't seem this tall in real life. ha!

And here's Kaleb again. Jodie (my daughter-in-law) and I kind of used Kaleb as our model while we were playing with our cameras. He's the only one who would sit still and smile on command. Everybody else ran.

And here's Jodie herself, probably laughing at something Nick or dad had said.

This is Jacob, wearing his new shirt that Wendy picked out for him (he didn't realize a camera was trained on him!). Terribly GQ, isn't he?

This is Nick...undoubtedly arguing with someone over something. (He's so like his mother, you know).

Now check out these big blue eyes! This is little Kara, eating one of her toys.

Here's Jake again. I can't believe he actually looked at me when I called his name. He usually doesn't if he knows I'm holding a camera.

This is Maddy, showing us what she opened in the Steal-a-Gift game.

This is me and Leah, showing how much younger we'd look with a little botox. Okay, so maybe this wasn't the best demonstration of that, but we were trying.

Here's Nick with his Steal-a-Gift prize. I think Jacob eventually ended up with the hand warmers, though. Good thing, too. Nick lives on a tropical island...don't think these would come in handy there, you know what I mean?

Look at Skye here...she got a dress-up chest as her gift and she absolutely loved it. She modeled for us most of the night. What a cutie.

And here's Wendy Sue. my step-mother. I love her white hair and, while this picture doesn't show you, she has the most piercing and beautiful blue eyes. (Yeah, that's "color" envy you're hearing!)

Speaking of pretty coloring, this is my niece Kelsey. She's got perfectly lovely red hair, eh? I kind of envy that, too.

This is Kara and Jodie. Looks like Kara was telling us something important.

This is Kaleb and his Steal-a-Gift prize. I think Wendy actually ended up with this candle set.

Here's Kaleb holding Kara. Little kids love Kaleb...he's got a way with them. Isn't she cute, how she's waving at us?

Here's my dad, opening one of his gifts. The look on his face says it all. lol

This is my nephew, Derri. He's one great kid, a lot of fun and (almost) always good-natured. :)

Here's Des with one of her gifts. She recently got a camera and has developed a picture frame fetish.

And this is Jake with his Steal-a-Gift prize, a belly dancing kit. This was a gift I picked out for the game. I never intended for one of my kids to get it, though. I thought it'd be hilarious for either Leah or my dad to get stuck with the darn thing. Not to worry...my wickedness came back to bite me in the butt...Randey ended up with it at the end of the game. LOL

We've been having a great time (although I think we all may be looking to sleep in tomorrow...it's been a very busy few days for us lately!) Hope everyone else is having a great Christmas season, too!

I did all my food shopping today and will be baking pies and cookies tomorrow. Right after I attend a Weight Watchers meeting, that is. (Talk about mixed messages, eh???)

It really is a wonderful life!

Check this out...it's our youngest granddaughter, Kara, sleeping on the Santa blanket. Isn't she adorable? I mean really - what a face!! Look at those cheeks. And that hair. And that little nose and precious little hands. Ahhhhhh, how can I explain the absolute joy of seeing her for the very first time in person? Oh I know just the word...magical.
I have more pictures, of course, but they're on my other camera and the cord to download my other camera is currently MIA. I'm sure I'll run across it eventually and then I will bombard you all with many more pictures of this little beauty (and her mom!).
In the meantime, here's a picture of me and my youngest. Yesterday was Jake's 17th birthday. (sigh) Can't believe it was 17 years ago when we met him for the very first time. Has it really been that long? Sheesh.

Now for the next 3 weeks, we'll have two 17 year olds in the house. Kaleb and Jacob are "Irish twins"...they're 11 months and 9 days apart. It's actually pretty cool having kids that close in age. Well, it's cool now. Back when they were both in diapers, "cool" isn't the word I would have used to describe the situation. lol

Adding to my absolute joy and happiness during this wonderful holiday season, my oldest son Nick is home from Okinawa!!!! I'm so dang happy about this that I could just burst!! Look at him:

Isn't he perfect? Oh, I'm sorry - ya'll didn't know that I had perfect children, did you? Well, it's true...all four of them are simply spectacular perfection. At least for this one month of their lives. LOL And once Nick's perfect wife, Jodie, and my perfect granddaughters, Maddy and Kara, return to Texas from Florida, I'll have my perfect family all together for this glorious holiday season. I've already scheduled a session at a photo studio to have our picture taken - all our kids and all our grandkids and Randey and me - together at last! I'm not usually real big on the whole picture taking thing (if it includes me in the photos, that is), but this is special.

Anywho - before all this excitement of Jake's birthday and of seeing Nick and Jodie and Kara, I spent a couple of days wrapping gifts. I wrapped and I wrapped and I wrapped. And then I wrapped some more.

I've decided that wrapping is my least favorite part of the Christmas fun. Well, it's not so much the wrapping as it is the decorating of the packages. I was a bit overwhelmed this year so I kind of cheated. I used some old decorations from years past (like the little wreath pictured on the red and white striped picture above), but for the most part, I did just basic tied bows. So much for getting fancy this year, eh? I guess it doesn't really matter - little Skye and Maddy Moose won't care that Granny didn't attach Rudolph candy canes and sleigh bells to all the packages...they think all the glitter and shine is eye-candy enough. And I think looking at their sweet little faces as they gaze at the Christmas decorations with such wonder is eye-candy enough for me.

Merry Christmas everyone!!

I almost forgot - here's a little shout out to Charlotte back in my home state -

GO OU!!!!!!!!!!!!

:)