The Brown Kiddos: Pictures from Christmas

It's been a while since I updated my blog, and I needed to report on all of our holiday happenings! We had a great Christmas and got to spend time with a lot of our family members and had a great time catching up with them. We didn't get to see some family, and we sure missed them and hope to get to see them soon, too.

Here are some family photos after church on the Sunday before Christmas.

We spent a couple of days with Lane's family down at his sister and brother-in-law's new place. It was a nice, relaxing time, and it was great to get to see them all. Lane got his Christmas present from me early, so that he could take it down there and play. I got him Rock Band 2, which is the most fun thing I have encountered in quite a while! You wouldn't be able to tell it from looking at me, but I happen to be quite the drummer! It is so fun, and Lane and I have been "rocking out" most nights after the kids go to bed. I guess we had the volume up too loud one night, because the next morning, Dane told Lane that he heard us "rocking out last night". I think it's funny that he just stayed in bed and didn't come out and tell us. He must have been really tired. Here's some pictures of us hard rockers - Our Rock Band names are Juarritos (Lane) and Red Cat (Mary).

We've decided that we are going to try to make Christmas Eve a really special night for our little family of four. We get to open the presents that we got each other that night (a Bowers family tradition), then we get Santa's cookies and milk all set out and ready, write him a thank you note, get our new PJ's on, grab a cup of coffee (or coffee milk, in Dane's case) and get in the car for one last, long ride around to look at Christmas lights. As the kids get older, we are going to try to go to Marshall to look at the lights there on Christmas Eve, but it's just a little too far now. When we got home from our lights tour this year, Lane put Dane up on his shoulders and stood in the front yard to look for Santa and his sleigh. Well, Dane claims that he spotted Rudolph, so we hurried in, and Dane went right to sleep. He was so excited, but so tired.

I woke up at 7:45 Christmas morning, looked at my watch, and decided that I couldn't wait any longer, so I went into Dane's room and said, "Dane, guess who came!" That's all I said, and I am not exaggerating when I say that he opened his eyes instantly, and he literally popped out of bed in less then 3 seconds and was running to see what Santa brought him! Lane went in and woke Sydni up, too. Her reaction was not nearly as exciting.

We spent a couple of hours enjoying our gifts and then headed to my parents house for a few days there. We got to stay there for three days, and it was so nice to get to all be together. The kids were all so sweet and played so well together. I forgot to take many pictures there, except for when we got all six grandkids together for a picture. Lane had to preach on Sunday so he had to go home Saturday, but the kids and I got to stay and go to church in Daingerfield with all of my family. It doesn't happen very often that we all get to be there together, so it was very special.

All six grandkids (Jed was mesmerized with his mother)

The beautiful and sweet granddaughters!

I'll end the post with a couple of pictures of Sydni from today. Sydni has had a cold all week, so I've been keeping her in so that she can get rid of it. Lane took Dane down to Timpson to see family for New Years Eve, so it was just us girls here last night and today. When Dane was just about Sydni's age, I got the sweetest picture of him with my cat, C. John, so I had been hoping that I would be able to do the same with Sydni. Today was the day, and I got the sweetest pictures of them together. I wish you could see her shirt, too, because she's wearing a cat onesie!