Stickles Christmas {Part Three}

After opening all of our Santa goodies, we all got ready and headed to Chris' granparents for brunch and more presents!! The food was, of course, delish! (Nana's scalloped potatoes are incredibly yummy!) The kiddos loaded up on even more gifts!

The kid's (and Brittany and Brian) sang Happy Birthday to Jesus.

We spent the rest of the morning at Nana and Papa's and got visit with family. We had a great time!! We left Nana and Papa's to come home and take naps! They were MUCH needed considering that we were all up at the crack of dawn!! (and C and I were awaken by JUMPING on the bed!!! ha! gotta love the ages of 6 and 3!)

After naps, Noni and Papa (and B & B) came over for dinner and MORE gifts!! It's always fun having all of them over!

We got a Wii!!! Thanks Noni and Papa!!!

{that yellow candlestick is one of my new ones from C!!! Amazing, right??!}

Christmas is never complete without a new CAT tractor! ;)

the orginal 3!

(yes.. i look TERRIBLE!! told y'all that this pregnancy was kicking my you know what!! it took all i had to even get out of bed to attend all these celebrations.. looking good was NOT an option! ha!)

my sweet little fam (with ALL THAT trash behind us! yikes!)

Well, Christmas was so much fun this year! And despite me feeling bad, we had a great time!! We had a total of 5 get-togethers (still one more with the Hunt Fam!) and 5 gift exchanges. My kids are officially spoiled! And my house is officially a wreck! We had no room to begin with.. now, it's just a total mess! Poor baby bean.. we have NO room for you!!! ;) We are definitely excited to have you join us for next Christmas though!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas!! And here's to a safe and happy New Year's!! We did a little celebrating today with the kiddos (post to come tomorrow!) and are excited to get together with the Caldwell's tomorrow night!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from our family to yours!!

Stickles Christmas {Part Two}

Now.. onto Christmas Eve!

Oh.. and I just noticed that I left out a VERY important part of the last post!! (OH MY!) Just in case y'all are wondering... YES!! Ethan does have a black eye in the pics with Santa!! The black eye was compliments of his sister and a door knob... THREE DAYS BEFORE CHRISTMAS!!! Oh man.. it was bad too! She went to close a door and he was in the way. PERFECT height for the door knob! Go figure! It immediately got a huge bump right on the bone under the eye and started turning all shades of purple, yellow and black!

Now... back to Christmas!...

We spent Christmas Eve at my grandmother's house. It's our traditional Christmas Eve gathering. Of course, Goo Goo was overloaded with gifts for the kids and even managed to spoil Chris and I this year too. We ate some yummy snacks and enjoyed ourselved so much! I always look forward to Christmas at Grams! It's defintely not the same now that Pop isn't with us anymore, but she still manages to make Christmas incredible! Bless that sweet woman!

LK and her Goo GOO

BATMAN!!!

LK and MeMaw

and thanks to my brother... NERF guns!!! I see trouble brewing from this one! ;)

my mom

POWER TOOLS!!! {and they're real!!! SCARY!!}

AMERICAN GIRL!!! Last year she got Felicity.. this year she got Felicity's friend, Elizabeth!

matching nightgowns for LK and Felicity!

We left Gram's house to come home and get ready for Santa! LK got his cookies and milk ready.. and of course carrots and celery for the reindeer! E went out in the front yard and sprinkled the reindeer food! They were so excited!! Then Chris and I got busy getting all of Santa's gifts ready!! I took it easy on Chris this year and there was nothing for him to really build (unlike last year's doll house - that took SEVERAL days - and the playhouse from the year before - that took about a WEEK!).. he was thankful!

stockings are ready!! LK's was filled with hair accessories, a VB purse, PBK dollhouse pets, a Tangled Christmas ornament, and a new Leapster game. E's was filled with a reversible superman/batman cape & mask, a Leapfrog Jr game, superman legos and a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse ornament.

SANTA CAME!!!

LK's loot - cafe table and chairs set, Easy Bake oven, Singer sewing machine, LaLaLoopsy, and American girl dog and a Lilly Pulitzer paper doll set

E's loot - an iron man mask, Batman batcave legos, a rocket ship, a basketball goal and a Tee Pee (that i sewed and chris put together!! i LOVE it!)

LaLaLoopsy!!! apparently this was a big ticket item this year??! who knew!! good thing I purchased one months ago! whew!

This was in my stocking.. Chris picked it up at an antique store for me. The characters in the book look exactly like me and Ethan! It's adorable!!

One of Ethan's favorite movies is Alvin and the Chipmunks, so Chis couldn't help but getting this ginormous container of cheese balls for him. It was the first thing he grabbed.. and yelled, "CHEESE BALLS!!!!" just like Alvin!

she's hooked already!

NA-NA-NA-NA-NA-NA-NA-BATMAN!!!

Huck even got a few goodies too.. a new turtle leash and a bear lovie (ethan said that he needed his own lovie b/c he kept taking his! ha!)

I didn't get any pics of mine and Chris' goodies, but we ended up surprising each other with a few happy's! Chris got some new shoes from J.Crew and tickets to an upcoming concert! He surprised me with a new antique chair for my sewing room, some amazing tall candleholders (like 3 feet tall!! awesome!) and an antique silver pitcher!!

Christmas morning with the kids was incredible! They were so happy with everything Santa left them! I think Christmas morning is one of the best things about being a parent.. the looks on their sweet faces is just priceless! It just doesn't get any better than that!

..more christmas coming soon..

A Stickles Christmas {Part One}

Just a warning... I have TONS of pictures from Christmas!!! It's going to take quite a few posts to get them all in! ;)

We started Christmas the weekend before by going out to my grandparents in Rosemark. We ate a delicious lunch and the kiddos loaded up on way too many goodies!

Ethan, Lilly Kate and Great Great Grandma Mae

LK and my "baby" sister, Elena - who just turned 16!!!

I actually spent most of last week in bed. :( My morning sickness was at an all time high. I definitely drug myself out of bed for a few very special activities though...

Thursday, we went to the Children's Museum to visit Santa!! I am definitely not a big fan of going to the mall.. it's always way too crowded.. and I refuse to let Chris have their picture taken at Bass Pro.. I dont care if it's free or not! haha! So.. we took advantage of our membership and headed to the Children's Museum. Santa was actually pretty good! And the kid's got to play in the museum for a while.. it was a win-win!

they LOVE Santa!!

After the museum, we headed back to East Memphis but a quick stop at Sweet Cici's first. If you live in Memphis and haven't been there, I definitely suggest going! It was delish!! (and such a fun little place!) We loaded up on some yummy frozen yogurt (with just about any topping you can imagine!) and then headed home to rest up for Christmas Eve!

Santa also came a little early... on Thursday he had his special elves (aka the FedEx man!) deliver a gift for me!

I am one happy mama!! I have wanted a DSLR for quite a while and Santa sure did deliver!!! I got several lenses and am LOVING it!!! Now.. I dont know how to really use it yet, but Candice promised the she'd give me a some lessons! :)