Future X-Gamer

REWIND: Christmas 2010

Christmas with a 3 and 4 year old is a lot of fun!!

Arianna and Bernie had fun pointing out every baby Jesus we drove by, playing with nativity sets, and even singing some Christmas carols about Him. They were very well behaved in our Christmas Eve service and they even received nativity scene faithbands (sillybands) during the children's time. And I can't forget to mention that Arianna was picked to tell what she wanted for Christmas during the children's story. She, of course, said a guitar, so the pastor made her stand up, so everyone could see her, and said he wants to see her play if she gets one.






They also know about Santa and had tons of questions. Where does Santa live? How will he fit in our fireplace? Did you hear the reindeer or his bells? How did he know I wanted a guitar? (whoops! We forgot to take them to talk to Santa! But I told them that mom and dad wrote him a letter) and last but not least, why did Santa leave the guitar box in the garage? (whoops again!)

Santa came!!!

Santa ate our cookies, drank the milk, and wrote a letter!

Santa's elves didn't get to bed until about 2:30am because there were some toys to put together. And would you believe that the excited children woke up at 5:30 to see what Santa brought?

Beaming with joy as she picks up the beloved guitar

Dinosaurs for Bernie

Little Drummer Boy

Daddy got to open up all the fun new toys!



We made it to daylight and Papa and Mimi are here to celebrate!

Arianna waited until Bernie opened all his gifts before she opened any.

So sweet hugging the beautiful bear Mimi handmade.

Paps - this is for you since you are always asking about Lunchbox.

Big hugs for Mimi and Papa after opening gifts.


After that early morning, Marty's sister, niece and mom came over to join us for a nice Christmas brunch. And it was 10 am, with 3 hours of sleep, awake for 5 hours and 0 pictures of brunch.

We made it over to Grammy and Grampy's house around 4 pm for more presents and a Christmas dinner.


More Presents!! (Bernie's favorite phrase of the day!)


Grammy's beautiful tree and she (Grampy too!) can tell you exactly how many red ball ornaments there are!


Grammy and Grampy watch all the opening madness!

P.S. You can also visit upwiththehowells.photoshop.com to see more photos.

Merry Christmas!

From our family to yours!

The angel answered, The Holy Spirit will come upon you, the power of the Highest hover over you; Therefore, the child you bring to birth will be called Holy, Son of God. Luke 1:35

Christmas around the Howell House

I must apologize now for the lack of blogging. I could write so much at Christmas time. Unfortunately, on Thanksgiving I found out that my nice, new camera had a messed up lens and couldn't be used. It took a while for me to get a replacement lens, but my work gave me a generous Christmas bonus and voila! Pictures again!

We have our Christmas tree decorated, lights outside, stockings hung and even a fire in our fireplace.

Ramsey Reunion

The first weekend in December the best 3 friends a girl could ask for came to visit!

We had a bit of a college reunion (Ramsey was the Samford dorm room we lived in together) since we hadn't all been together since our senior year in 2004.

This time things were a little different...

KIDS!!!!


We had a great time and just did a lot of hanging around our house and catching up. It's hard to do much with three 1 year olds plus Arianna and Bernie. Although my kids tried to be helpful with the "babies".

The adorable Teddy and Danielle

(and baby#2, which we now know is a boy!)

Sweet Archard and Jenn

Cutie Hudson and Katie

Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture of all of us with the kids or the four of us girls, but I know somebody did!

Also, a major props to amazing Marty for letting all the girls crash at our place and having 3 additional kids. AND having to listen to our girl talk/loud obnoxious laughter all night.

We promised to get together at least every 5 years, but we hope to see one another sooner. And now that our kids have met, next time is ALL girls and NO babies!!!

To send or not to send...

Every year I've wanted to get the perfect Christmas card picture and send out the perfect Christmas card. Finally, this year I decided that I will be sending out the photo Christmas card, not the Christmas card with photos in it. I have my nice, new camera to take the perfect pictures too!

Shutterfly has a great selection of templates to choose from and all you have to do is add your perfect picture! I am still deciding which one to choose, but I have a few favorites.

I've also been browsing their site for other Christmas gift ideas.
Check these out:
photo playing cards
Turn your pictures into a canvas
Precious ornament
I've always wanted to create a photo book - these are so easy, yet elegant!

Have you ever ordered from Shutterfly? They always have promotions going on to get a good discount. Go check it out!

Alright, I've got to go pick my cards or I'll miss this Christmas too!

Christmas Card Outtakes

Alas, there will be some good ones coming your way soon!