Christmas morning in Galveston 2011

Oh what a great day it is- to celebrate the birth of Jesus! we started with our very special friend- Elf on the Shelf, "Elvis" reading Luke 2, to keep the real meaning of Christmas close to all of our hearts!

Look who stopped by...

SANTA!!!!!!

The jolly old guy even left a special candy cane shaped present for Belle.

The girls in awe of their gifts...

We enjoyed opening all of our gifts! Some highlights were: a furnished dollhouse, a piano, play kitchen supplies, a digital camera, remote control cars, a singing doll, Calliou figurine and so much more...

Finally we ended our special family day at home with a traditional "Happy Birthday, Jesus" celebration. We even sang to him. That is on a video I will try and post later today :)

Enjoying our cake! Since Christmas morning, every day that I go in to get the littles, they ask me if it's Jesus' birthday again and if Santa came... whew...

Happy Birthday Jesus!

XOXO,

Christmas Eve: Galveston 2011

Well- not everything goes as planned and Christmas Eve is proof of that...

As I said in a previous post, Ken was on call- not trauma call, tooth call- and of course as luck would have it a random guy in Beaumont let his tooth infection get so bad that it couldn't wait and Ken had to go into the OR... on Christmas Eve.

***Don't get me wrong- I am SO SO SO SO proud that my husband could help this man, but I am a little sad that this man has had this infection for several days, even weeks and did nothing for it until he couldn't breathe.... But like us resident mom's do- we carry on and love our surgeons! :)

Mattie, Hailey and I got ready for the Candlelight service at First Baptist Church. I couldn't imagine not going- although I knew that the girls would have to go to the service with me. I have gone to a candlelight service on Christmas Eve as long as I can remember and I want that special memory for my girls too! It was a great service- as usual, God provided me with an "angel on earth"- Laura Vance! Even though she is 7 months pregnant, she helped me corral my tow! I love our friends here! I love how much they love our girls! :)

Some of our favorite FBC friends: Jeanine, Laura, and Kate (not pictured yet: Ellie and Nora).

M &H after the service- which they did great sitting through! They even joined in on the singing. Precious hearing their voices in my ear as the congregation sang.

Since Ken was still in the OR after the service, I made the executive decision to swing through McDonald's for the girls dinner... (don't judge).

Since our dresses were cream and we had ketchup as a dip, we dined topless by the tree... they didn't care. I can hardly keep clothes on these 2 as it is...

After dinner, we got ready for bed- talked about baby Jesus, God's love for us, Santa coming to see good girls, and took an auto timed pic for the memory books.

After the girls went down- I kicked into high gear! Our little elves, The Pampalon's came over to help get the girls goodies situated! It was a lot of fun sharing our "set up" with them.

Thankfully Ken was home about 9:45pm- so Santa could come. :)

All in all it was a great Christmas Eve with our friends here in Galveston!

Merry Christmas to you and yours!

XOXO,

Christmas in Galveston: Round #1

Thsi year was a little different for us all- as it is Ken's last year in residency, it is the OMFS dept. tradition that the chief takes call on Christmas- so we stayed put... but thankfully my family come here for the festivities! It all worked out BEAUTIFULLY, not to mention it was SO MUCH FUN!

We played, ate, napped, played some more. We went to Moody Gardens Festival of Lights one night. The girls loved the walk and the lights. It really is something worth going to see.

Sure does look like we have our hands full. After the light seeing... we headed back to The Haynes house for PRESENTS!

My little photographers!

Let the present opening begin!

Honey and PaPa enjoying the grandbabies and fun!

A highlight of our gifts received were our Batman shirts- capes included! :)

The night ended with a dance party in the "bat cave"! It was a great Sutton, Baird, Haynes family Christmas! Thank you everyone for coming and celebrating with us.

We LOVE you all!

XOXO,

Holiday Class Party- 2 year old class

One of my favorite treats as a teacher at East End Preschool, is getting to sneak down and see my girls throughout the day! I love that one of their teacher's is also a mom of a little girl in my class- so we can just switch rooms! It is so fun getting to be a part of their "party"!

The group of "friends" is just adorable! The girls LOVE going to school...

I don't know how we are going to handle 2 weeks of not going! Whew! I'll have to be creative- and thankfully we will have quite a few visitors.

As Buddy the Elf says:

"The best way to spread Christmas Cheer, is singing loud for all to hear!" This is SO appropriate for this room!

Merry Christmas!

Celebrate good times... Tis' the season!

This was our party weekend! RIght up my alley! We actually had 4 parties in 2 nights- which even I will say was a little overwhelming, but in the true Christmas spirit- we didn't miss a one! Party #!1 was the Department of Surgery party at 901 Postoffice. It was great mingling with all of Ken's coworkers!

Next was our Resitern Christmas party- a yummy dinner at Gaido's!

Saturday night- we got all dolled up for the JLGC Holiday ball: theme Moonlight over Manhattan! I was on the committee this year- so I was really extra psyched for this party- but before we went- we stopped at an Open House that was hosted by Ken's dept. Chair, Dr. Throndson and his wife, Mrs. Darla. It was a great way to quick off the evening!

Love these girls- Love the dresses- LOVE the special time we all had! Ask Ken about how much fun he had?!?!?

Merry Christmas!

XOXO,

Breakfast with Santa

Christmas is most definitely in full steam- and The Haynes girls are crazy about the man in the red sit! We have our friendly little "Elf on the Shelf", ELVIS, watching to let Santa know if we are being naughty or nice! He has worked wonders this year! We also had a big turn out at our house last Saturday for the annual Breakfast with Santa!

Lots of friends, lots of food, lots of playing and LOTS of fun!

Mattie loving on all the babies...

Santa arriving for a little visit between work hours at the workshop!

Mattie loves this man from a distance, but will do anything for a present.

Hailey on the other hand, like her Mommy, never meets a stranger!

Playing with our new toys with one of favorite friends, Everett.

The gangs all here! Pretty funny that all daddies are taking the pictures (except Benji- who is holding a Coughlin twin).

Great Day!

Thanks for visiting Santa!

The Haynes girls will see you soon!

XOXO,