Christmas morning with the Masons

We had so much fun opening presents and having the Mason family to our house this year to celebrate Christmas morning!

the girls were always willing to help open gifts :-)


Samara's "Christmas do"

Doesn't Santa bring everyone pop-tarts in their stocking?!

Fielder slept through most of it, but here he is with his new lovey

After Andy, Tara, and Samara left for Danville, we had a quiet relaxing Christmas Day with Mimi and Papa. Rob took a long winter's nap while I put away gifts and straightened up! Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night! (well....I hope someone had a good night that night because Fielder kept us up every couple hours!)

Animal Critters!

Christmas morning was here at last! Claire woke up right at the normal time (I know one of these years soon that won't be the case) and she looked over the railing from upstairs. I asked "what do you see?" She said "Christmas!" Mimi and Papa had come early so that they could be here to see what Santa brought. (Don't you like our matching pj's?! Thanks Swick family for the hand-me-downs!! And thanks Rob for being a good sport!)


First she opened her stocking gifts which she seemed to think Santa did a good job....but you could see the anticipation that maybe Santa would bring some animal critters?!


And he did!


We have animal critters galore in our house now and she has played with them non-stop since Christmas. After Santa gifts, Christmas morning continued when Andy, Tara, and Samara arrived....more to come.

Happy Holidays!

Happy Holidays friends & family!

I love the tradition of a family Christmas letter and since having Claire, I have enjoyed writing them for the last four years. (Well, technically Charlie wrote them for 2 years and then I took over.) This holiday season has been such a whirlwind and I just never got around to it. I still wanted to take a moment to wish everyone a wonderful holiday and a very happy new year!

We are so thankful for all of our blessings this year, especially our little Fielder. We look forward to the coming year and all the excitement it will bring. I hope 2012 will bring peace and happiness to all of you!

Love,

Kat, Rob, Claire, Fielder, & Charlie

Christmas Eve Part II

After brunch with the Barnes family, we headed to Mimi and Papa's house for Christmas Eve dinner. When we got there, I saw a gingerbread house kit and asked if we were making another?! Luckily this one was MUCH easier (the icing is pre-made and you only have to wait 15 minutes for the house to set up! phew.) Uncle Andy built the house while Claire pre-licked every single piece of candy.

We all helped out and I think it turned out great! (Apparently Andy's cat Ace thinks so too...he was snacking on it today!)

We took some photos of the kids for Mom's New Years Card....this one is NOT it, but we all thought it was hilarious. Claire's having a craaaazy Christmas this year :-)



After a delicious dinner we let the kids open a few presents and stockings from Mimi. Why not spread it out and let the kids really enjoy each gift!

Claire got a new animal magazine called Zoo Babies from Uncle Andy and Aunt Tara and this adorable apron! Fielder got this floor mat from "Replacements Ltd" and he loves it! It's so fun now that he can look at toys. He also loves to look at himself in the mirror :-)

Rob and I even got to open a gift that night....2 new chairs from Andy and Tara since we're "a family of four and now we need more!" Woo hoo, that's 2 less folding chairs we'll need at the dining room table!

We had a great day and so much fun with both sides of the family. Rob and I took 2 tired-out kids home so we could get some sleep and wait for Santa to come. It was a little nuts when we got home, but we got all the important tasks done: we left a"donut" and milk for Santa along with a note dictated by Claire, we put a carrot on the front porch for Rudolph and sprinkled reindeer food all over the front yard, and we read The Night Before Christmas! Here's the note left by Claire:

Dear Santa,

Please give me animal critters. Would you like the donut? Tomorrow is going to be Jesus' birthday and all the people will be there and all the animals and baby Jesus. Thank you Santa.

Love,

Claire

Christmas Eve Brunch

We got to spend Christmas Eve (Day) with the Barnes family for brunch and presents! It's the first year we've been able to all be together with Matt, Alison, and Katie. The girls were so excited for presents! Before Claire would even see what the gift was, she'd say "it's what I've always wanted!"

We had such a nice time together and it was so fun to see the girls together on Christmas Eve. Thanks Matt and Alison for hosting!

Fielder Makes Four

It took us 5 weeks, but we finally got a picture of our family of FOUR!

A Quilt is Love

Fielder received a beautiful gift in the mail from "Aunt Vicki" and I just loved what she wrote in his card. Thank you so much Vicki!!!

In the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, quilts were given to the athletes with these words:

Love is a quilt, a quilt is love --

Both love and a quilt should be:

Soft enough to comfort you,

Bright enough to cheer you,

Generous enough to enfold you,

Durable enough to last a lifetime,

And given gladly from the heart.

Santa Land

Sunday morning we made our trek to Santa Land to visit the Legendary Santa. Rob and I have the routine down pretty good by now - he drops me off when the door opens, I wait an hour while they have breakfast at "Old McDonalds" and then he rolls up at the last minute when it's time to go into Santa Land! Works great! This time of course I had Fielder with me, but he slept the whole time in the car seat.

Claire was so excited. She had rehearsed what she was going to ask Santa for and she was really hyped up about the Snow Queen.

Fielder had only woken up long enough for me to change his diaper and outfit AND nurse him while in line (go me!) and then went right back to sleep! Santa called Claire's name and she marched right up and sat on his lap! We got the picture with Fielder (I totally forgot to put his socks on) and then Claire had her chance to speak with the big guy all by herself. He asked her what she was hoping for this year and she leaned right into the microphone and said "animal critters and their parents." Santa looked puzzled for a moment and then said "ok and maybe some surprises too." Hopefully he'll do his research and know to bring Claire some Calico Critter families this year! :-)

(she did smile for the picture, but they waited a few seconds too long!)


Andy let me borrow his camera so I could do a little photo shoot with the kids. Since they were in their Christmas outfits I wanted to get a good picture for the Christmas card (that will have to be revealed later!) Here's a couple pictures I got of Fielder sleeping. I just love watching those little grins in his sleep....can't wait for a real smile!

Family Photos

Bob & Coral invited the Barnes crew over for lunch this past weekend and a family photo. It had been a long time since we had a picture taken and we especially needed an updated one with the newest member of the family!

Coral fixed a delicious lunch and the girls had fun running around and playing together!

I think we ended up with a great picture!


(the girls helping Aunt Alison open her birthday present!)

Gingerbread House

Claire and I had a special project together of making a gingerbread house. Mimi found a kit for us, but we had no idea how much work this thing would be!! Claire was so excited to decorate it, but first we had to make the icing, build the walls, wait an hour, put the roof on, wait 3 hours....and THEN she could decorate it! Phew! My kitchen was a disaster, the icing was like glue on my mixer, and there are still sprinkles turning up everywhere, BUT it was really fun!

I let go of making the "perfect" house and let her be creative. She had a great time putting on sprinkles and candy (although most of the candy was licked before being added to the house!)

"Licking the icing? Who me?"

Our finished house! She is so proud of it!

A few recent pictures...

Claire loving on her little brother


Love the hat! :-)


Claire sees me "wearing" Fielder all the time with the Moby so the other day when she asked me if she could borrow the Moby, I remembered that she had her own!! Mom had stashed it away for her to play with sometime and I pulled it out - she was SO excited to have her very own Moby!

Yesterday Mom took Claire to see The Nutcracker (it was a smaller scale performance at a local high school, but put on by a ballet company) - She was so hyped up and has played with this nutcracker all week. I think she really enjoyed it! Mom said the cutest part was during intermission when all the little kids when up to the front and danced together pretending to be ballerinas!

Last night we had an early dinner and got Claire all dressed for bed and went out to see some Christmas lights! She had a blast! What a fun day :-)

Here she is when we first got there, dancing to the music and looking all around - so much to look at!