Christmas Parties

Tis the season for Christmas parties and visiting Santa!

The base had a visit from Santa and Mrs. Claus! We could not pass up a chance to see them!

Ada jumped right up on Santa's lap!

Will had a good laugh about Alabama vs. Auburn, hoping his Christmas would be filled with all things Alabama!

There were also lots of crafts for the kids to do!

And the kids got to shop in Santa's workshop! They got to fill a bag full of 20 things!! Ada picked out this crown! What a princess she is!

Our church Christmas part was also lots of fun!

Another visit from Santa is always the best! One more chance to get your wish list in!

And to top the night off, the kids participated in the Nativity!

Sugar Cookies With Friends

One day we invited some of our friends over to make Christmas sugar cookies! Ada has such a fun little group of friends!

Katie and Elliot, Alice and Tallon, and Lindsay (photographer) and Lily!

And even more fun than decorating is eating the cookies!

We love Christmas sugar cookies!

CHIP

Our elf, Chip, came back again this year! It is always fun to see where he will pop up next!

I love the notes the kids write to Chip! They want to make sure they take the best care of Chip!

Somebody got stuck eating chocolate!

Chip even brought this giant Santa for us to play with! :)

Cruising' around with some other toys!

This was so funny-Chip wrapped our toilet downstairs! Ahhhh how will we ever use the bathroom???

Even Chip needs electronic time!

Can't wait to see Chip next year!

Light the World

This year The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints created "Light the World" for the Christmas season. To take part in the initiative, we used this Christmas tree and calendar from the Small Seed blog to see how much we could Light the World and show Christlike love to others!

It was fun to start with a bare tree and

throughout the Christmas season watch more and more stars fill our tree.

I love to teach our kids about service....even when they gripe about raking the "mean" neighbor's yard who doesn't like kids. In the end they walk away knowing they did something good for those we love and those we may not love so much!

One of my favorite scriptures!

Looking forward to the Christmas season and celebrating our Savior!

Thanksgiving in Texas

This year we went to Texas for Thanksgiving!  Here are some random happenings of our family time!

I always know when I am home when I see this nightly sight! It's good to be back!

We went to the new Sugarland Children's Museum. It was pretty fun! I didn't take too many pictures while we were there, but this nephew of mine is pretty cute!

Handsome Lincoln! 

Some of Grandma Joan's specialties are snuggles, back rubs, songs, and stories! I had to capture this moment of Grandma Joan and Ada Joan!

We also saw Trolls! My new favorite and I'll probably end up driving my kids crazy with the movie quoting and dance parties that we will have with the music! :)

And we made fun Thanksgiving crafts! Alisha taught us how to make these cute turkeys!

Some made theirs TOO fat :)

Max and Owen

I think Will and Nathan ate more of their turkeys!

And who knew getting stung by an Asp would be so painful--Ryan does, just ask him! :)

Thanksgiving Week Family Pictures

Oh boy were we excited for these! We haven't had Oldroyd family pictures taken since Gavin was like 2!! It was much needed and a lot of planning went into matching these outfits! They turned out beautiful! And we are so happy to have these!

These kids are so lucky to have Marianne...I don't know that they all realize how much she loves them!

Cutest kids around and best grandparents!