Christmas at Legoland

For Christmas with the Gowan's this year, I convinced GiGi and Pops to only buy one present for each boy, and not any for us and to use that money for a fun trip.  We don't need anymore stuff and we rarely get to go on trips with them so it worked out great.

Our first stop was Legoland Discovery Center:

I didn't take many pictures because we were all too busy chasing kids around.  But the place was a huge hit with ALL the kids.  Cory had fun building cars to race with the boys.

 Momma and Cole enjoyed one of the rides.  He talked me into riding it several times!

 Cole and Caden were being goofy before we went in.

 The lego city of DFW was a huge hit.  The boys loved looking at "JerryWorld" and Great Wolf Lodge made of legos!

After a few hours here the boys were ready to check in at Great Wolf Lodge and continue the fun!

Christmas In Guymon

This year we got to do Christmas with the Reid side of the family a little before school was out.  It was a quick weekend but we had a lot of fun.  For some reason I don't have many pics from the opening of presents.  Maybe they are all on Grammie's camera?!  But here are the few I have.

 

Before we headed out we got to see the store front window and the painters had finished the Christmas window!  Kirstie had a great idea this year and it looked amazing!

 This was also a few nights before we left, but it has Papa in it.  Crosby has learned that Papa is the best to write letters on his back and begs for him to do it EVERY time we see them!  It's so cute!

 Once we got to Guymon, I didn't move from this spot.  I made fun of John for buying this while he and Cory were in Las Vegas earlier this month, but it was absolutely WONDERFUL once I tried it out.  I apologized for my comments and begged for forgiveness so I could continue using the chair :) John and Cory just gave me a round of "I told you so!" and all was good.

 The evening we had to leave, Kayla thought it would be fun to take a limo ride around town to look at Christmas lights.  It was fun at first, but a few of my kids got a little car sick and it took a little longer than their attention spans could handle.  It started out fun though!

It was a quick weekend but a fun one.  Any time we are with family it is fun! 

Carter's New Eyes

Carter was complaining of headaches a lot lately so I figured with our family vision history we should take him in and sure enough, he gets to join the world of glasses.  But he looks so sharp with them on!  It took a while for him to get used to the attention that he would receive, but he is good now.  You are handsome Carter Andrew with or without your glasses! 

Carter's Christmas Program

The kids cooperated and I was able to go watch Carter in his Christmas Program at school. He has a new music teacher this year and she had them put on a short play with dialogue and everything instead of just singing 6 songs. It was cute!  Afterwards we got to go back to his class and take a few pictures.

Carter and Cole

 Momma and Carter

 Carter and one of his friends, Cameron.  Their brothers played basketball together this winter and these two tried to act like they didn't enjoy playing together :)  So cute!

Caden had a great program too, but I didn't get any pictures of it.  The baby we had at the time cried most of the way through it and Crosby wouldn't sit still either.  So instead of taking pictures, I had to wrangle babies.  :(  But I was there and he had some amazing dance moves to one of his songs.

Cole's Christmas Program

Cole had his Christmas program Monday night at Free Spirit.  He did a great job overall but we had a little scare :)  No one really noticed because they were paying attention to their child/grandchild, but we had a good laugh.  After the first couple of songs he started wiggling and dancing and I just knew he had to go to the bathroom.  But he kept on singing and doing most of the motions.  About halfway through the program, I snuck up front and told one of his teachers about it and she tried to get his attention to no avail.  Needless to say the wiggling, crotch grabbing, dancing, squeezing of legs, etc. got worse and worse with each song he sang.  On the final song, I was laughing so hard I couldn't video, I just knew he would wet his pants right there on stage!  So I ran down the middle aisle as soon as they stopped singing, his teacher finally got his attention, and he jumped off stage and we RAN to the bathroom!  I barely got his pants down in time...LOL.  So funny!  Afterwards, his head teacher, Mrs. Gari said he just would NOT make eye contact with her.  Like he knew he would miss something if he went before it was over!  Crazy Cole!

 

 

Here he is on the way down to the stage.  They introduce each child and give them the spot light for a second or two.

 

 Here is a group shot of the class singing.

 Mrs. Gari always gets Santa to come to the program. This is the best shot of the 4 boys with Santa!

Caden's Basketball Debut

Caden was asked to play on a team this year for basketball.  It's been a great opportunity so far for him to work on his skills, get coaching from other people besides his Dad and Mom (who for the record, know NOTHING!) and get to play against other boys!  He is having a great time. 

 

I have been to a few practices, but just got to go to a game this Saturday.  He did great after a rough start...we forgot his basketball shoes.  Here are a few shots I took, videos to follow for the grandparents!

 

Here he is pouting on the bench.  His coach got him to clear his head after a while!

This team had one really good kid, so it was hard for Caden to break free and get an open shot, but here is one!

The team has really worked on setting ball screens and getting open layups, it worked here!

Getting some defense instruction from Coach JP!

Another layup

Here are consecutive shots of the ball screen and drive to the basket, in action!

Two of his many points that day!  They don't keep score in this age group, but Caden does...lol

Two From Galilee

What a better way to kick off the Christmas season than by telling the story of Mary and Joseph and the birth of Jesus.  Back in August, our music minister told our church he wanted to do the musical Two From Galilee.  He needed lots of help from lots of people in our church to pull it off.  I was bummed because there was no way with our 5 kiddos and AWANA meeting on Wednesdays that I could make it to choir rehearsals.  So around October, I went in to talk to Les and told him that Cory and I could be extras, I could even do a small speaking part if he needed me to.  He told me to get a CD and start learning the music.  I was SO EXCITED!  This is right up my alley!  The older two boys were also working on some of the songs in children's choir and they could be in it if I was.  So that left Cory.  I told Les, he could act a little and he got 3 lines as the Inn Keeper!  He wasn't thrilled at first, but he enjoyed it!  He did a great job too!

So things got a little hectic in November with all the long practices.  Our kids were up late some nights.  We are at church late some nights.  A baby sitter had to be hired more than once so my hoodlums weren't in the nursery ALL night.  We got Baby R and that too complicated things.  It seems like when you are trying to serve the Lord, the devil will use any chance he gets to knock you down!  But we survived and it was a GREAT show!  God used many people to get His message out and we were just blessed to be a small part of it!


Here are a few pictures from the church's facebook page from the rehearsals...

The set was AMAZING!  Many people were involved in building, painting, etc.  It looked so great!

 This was taken by Larry Brown one night in rehersals.  Carter and Caden are up front on the left of Mary and Joseph.  Carter is the last kid on the left in brown and Caden is next to him in blue.

 This was taken by Molly Brooks the night of one of the performances. 

 I snapped this on my phone one evening during intermission.  Cory not only played the innkeeper, but also a king's servant.  He was GREAT!

Although it was hectic at times, we were all blessed to be a part of it and would do it again!

UPDATED with NEW PHOTOS: These were posted on our church's facebook page, taken by Larry Brown and Jim Shearhart.

 Cory as a King's attendant!

 In action as the Innkeeper.

 A great view of the whole cast and the set!

Carter's Spy Party

Carter is our Christmas baby!~  But it is so hard to celebrate him on his actual birthday with his friends, since many are still with their families on December 26th.  I always try to do his birthday a couple of weekends before school is out.  But this year, it completely snuck up on me!  Thank goodness he is low key and laid back like his Daddy!  We just had several for pizza and cupcakes, then he got a couple of boys to spend the night and he was totally satisfied with that!

 

He is really into spy gear, so I tried to quickly throw together a spy party.  The invites were no problem, but the cake and party favors stumped me for a bit.  But all seemed pleased!

 

Here is Carter posing by the magnifying glass cupcakes!

Carter is fine as long as his best friend Ben is around!  Love these two boys! 

 He LOVED all the attention during the song!

 In the goodie bags, I put a pair of disguise glasses and they were a HUGE hit!

 Carter was BEYOND thrilled at the gift his brothers got him, I mean who hugs their brother like this!?!?!

 Caden helped me create a few secret code questions about Carter that his friends had to decipher with a decoder disk.  It was a little hard, but fun!  Also the perfect party game at a restaurant!

 Daddy even loved the glasses!

 Half the kids were too embarrassed to wear their glasses, but the rest LOVED them!

 Movie time for the birthday boy and his buddies!

 These three were angels!

They were so tired the next day, they all slept in church, then went home and took naps too!  Carter slept for a total of 5 hours that afternoon!  Crazy boys!  So glad Carter's friends helped make him feel special!