New Year's Eve

This year we celebrated New Year's Eve with all the cousins! We had a blast on our last day of 2011- celebrated with Mento's Geysurs, Twister, milkshakes, and pizza! Next year we'll be celebrating with another little girl cousin to make it even!

We celebrated a little early- around 7:00!!! None of us made it 'til midnight

We played Twister and the kids loved it. Only a few meltdowns (All Congleton's like to be winners, especially the girls, so when Christian finally won she was happy!) and injuries.

Emory would not leave Mason's side. She wanted to be with her cousin Mason all night! I think she even caught on that she was being a little overboard with it:):)

EMory kept telling Mason, "SIT IN MY LAP". then she would tickle his ribs. She thought it was hilarious, which it was!

We did another Mento's Geyser. Emory knew what to expect and stayed far away this time!

She got her blue lollipop from Aunt Paige and happily handed over her pacifiers! YAY! She hasn't mentioned them and had no problem giving them to the baby.

She might be licking on this lollipop long enough for baby girl Drew to have when she hands over her pacis!!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!

After Christmas fun

The girls got a mentos guyser kit, where you put mentos into a coke bottle and it shoots out.


The string got stuck on CC shoe and it shot out faster than we were were ready for. Emory got covered in coke! needless to say, it didn't go over well with her!!





Tuesday, my parents came up to see what Santa brought the girls. We headed to the Mcwane Center early Wednesday to play.


CC loved the Winter wonderland, especially the zip line.


Emory liked it too.


until it was time to get off. We weren't there fast enough to get her off and she got really scared!!


She loved this thing though (ugh- think of all the germs that are on their faces--ewwwww!!)


and the tornado


CC and Gran being the weather man.


inside a giant bubble




Every time we go to Mcwane, CC wants to touch the shark, but never has the nerve. She finally did it and was so proud! Look at how well she follows the rules- only 2 fingers!!


Emory even did it!

We had a blast! Now it's time to get this house in order and back to normal. Where am I going to fit all their new toys....we need a bigger house!

Christmas day

We woke up around 6:30 (actually later than we expected), and rushed into the den to see what Santa brought the girls. CC and Emory were beyond excited about all they got.


They both got guitars and CC got a microphone that changes your voice. She LOVES it and sings Justin Beiber's "Baby" song over and over and over and over. Thanks Santa:0


Emory got another ishy!


Then we remembered the carrot. It was raining pretty hard, so Bryan and Emory ran outside to get it. Funny picture of Emory:) She was so excited about the carrot that when we told her to pick two things to take to Aunt Paige and Uncle Robert's house, she chose the carrot as one of her presents to take.


CC did some shopping at her school's Santa Shop. She got Bryan a blue mug and me a chocolate scented heart candle.


She also painted me a vase. She did it when we went to make Daddy and allt he grandparent gifts. She went into another room to paint it secretly so I wouldn't know what it was. She was so proud of it, as she should be- it was absolutely beautiful. Now I need some flowers to put in it:)


We made monkey bread, like we do every Christmas morning. Emory was a big help and LOVED eating the brown sugar.


Then Mimi and Granddaddy came over to open more presents. Emory got more peaches and jelly, which still got the best reaction of any of the presents she got!!!!


we're going to have to get her peaches and jelly every Christmas from here on out...maybe one day she'll be able to tell us WHY she wanted peaches and jelly:):)


I don't think she could have been any happier.



After naps and showers, we headed to the cousin's house for Christmas dinner and more presents.




The girls got Alabama cheerleading outfits. Emory put hers on immediately- don't worry...she knows it's just a silly costume and that she really cheers for Auburn. We just have to somehow get her to stop saying "I like Alabama":):):)


Christian was so happy since she got everything she wrote to Santa about. Although, she's a bit confused b/c she wants to make everyone happy and she's finding that half the family likes Auburn and half like Alabama. I guess now she has both outfits to wear whenever she wants!!!!

It was yet another great and perfect Christmas with our families...great ages for the kids and it's fun being Santa (just a little stressful and we still can't remember where we hid a few of the presents- ha!! maybe by next Christmas we'll locate them:):)

PS- since Christmas Eve turned chaotic, we forgot to leave Emory's pacifiers to Santa. So, Christmas night we gave them to Aunt Paige's baby in her belly. Emory walked right up to her belly and stuck it on her belly button!!! Aunt PAige told Emory she would buy her ANYTHING she wanted if she went 3 nights w/o a paci. Emory said she wanted a blue lollipop (the girl doesn't ask for much!!!) We are on night 4 w/o one and has a blue lollipop coming her way:):) She did find one hidden in her bed during nap, but confessed ("I put it in my mouth mama to go to naptime, tay"). She does wake up WAY earlier now and cried hysterically the first 2 mornings for her paci, but it seems to be getting easy as the days go on. I'm kinda sad that our baby isn't a baby anymore......potty trained and no paci:(:(
Thanks Aunt PAige for letting us use your baby/belly button to get rid of our paci. Let's hope she doesn't snatch it out of the babies mouth come February:):):)

Christmas Eve

This is the second year for us to be at home for Christmas, and the first year to go to our church Christmas Eve.



Don't the girls look cute in their red and white outfits. I ordered them off of Facebook and they came in the mail Christmas Eve. I actually checked the mail as we were getting in the car to go to church and we had to make a mad dash inside to change outfits!!!! I've never seen the girls change their clothes so fast:):)





Mimi and Granddaddy met us at church






They have the cutest children's service where the kids can dress up as parts of the Christmas story. The girls chose to be angels.


fitting, right?!


As the story of the birth of Jesus is told, the children come up during their 'part'. It really was the cutest thing ever. I loved it and so did the girls.



Then we headed back to our house to eat and make cookies for Santa. The kids loved it.


Mimi and I got sucked into making most of them!!!


how cute is Mason in his button up shirt and sweater:



Wonder how easy it was to get Carter to bed after all this icing!!!!! If we have any comedians in our family, it will be Carter and Emory. They are both hilarious


Christian with a green nose.




Then when everyone left, we did our tradition of putting reindeer food and a carrot out for Rudolph and looking for Rudolph's nose in the sky. I did this every year with my dad growing up. We would look in the sky and find Rudolph's red nose in the sky. Then I would run to bed quickly so Santa would come to my house. Well, Christian saw his nose really close to our house (a red blinking light on a tower down the street). She FREAKED out b/c she read in a book that Santa skipped a house one year, and she thought since we weren't asleep he wasn't going to come.


It became complete chaos for the entire time we were outside. Emory didn't know what was going on but started crying b/c CC was crying. They both were in such a hurry to get to bed they just dumped all the food out and ran inside. Emory was so confused and scared that she just wanted to sleep in her clothes.


We laid out the cookies that they made and Santa took a bite out of each one. They were so full of icing and sprinkles that Santa had to spit out each bite. Mrs. Claus helped eat Rudolph's carrot and make teeth marks in it...ugh.


It looks like they were REALLY good girls this year:):)