28DEC10

We had a very Merry Christmas at the McBride house. The girls slept in till 8 (Merry Christmas mom and dad!) We opened stocking and a couple gifts and then they were hungry so we paused and went and ate our homemade cinnamon rolls for Breakfast and came back for some more presents. Then we had our appetizer lunch and spent the rest of the day playing with our new toys and relaxing together. None of us got out of our p.j.'s (well except when the girls modeled their new dresses from Grandpa Jones.) It was a very perfect Christmas. Thank you to everyone who spoiled us rotten!

Ry with her present stack.

LExi excited with hers!

Ry loving her baby (Thanks Holtgrewe's!)

Lexi was VERY excited to get her Rapunzel doll (thank you Grandma Bevvy!)

Snuggies and a book from Tori and Josh. Already been washed twice! HEHEHE Seriously Tori, I'm wearing it as I type!

I had to get a litebrite for Alexis. I loved mine growing up!

Sweet bears from the Beans!

Tea party time!!

The loot.

I completely forgot to wrap their gift from my dad so they got those last and they were thrilled. Insisted on putting them on immediately and both proceeded to strike some poses. My dad got these dresses in Mexico when he was down there picking up my brother from his mission! He picked them out AND got the right sizes. Impressive dad!

And last a video of the girls playing with Ryan's new toy from Grandma Kerry. They played this for a good hour and it's quite a work out if you do it right and not like Ryan who is jumping on the OUTSIDE of the toy.

27DEC10

We had such a wonderful Christmas. We are a very blessed family. With our family being so far away we are also blessed to have wonderful friends to spend Holidays with. This year our Christmas Eve started with Trav and the girls making cinnamon rolls for Christmas morning. They were all so adorable and I was thrilled that I got a little break from the kitchen! :) Later, we went to our friends Jessica and Grant's house for pizza, hot Dr. Pepper, decorating sugar cookies, and Christmas p.j.'s. We went over there last year too and we all had a blast.

Trav and the girls doing some baking.

Sugar cookies (note the Sonic cups I'm all about traditions but I need my ice cold diet dp too! :) )

Opening their Christmas jammies.

Our sweet girls.

Flynn and Mcbride kids (Caed, Kiera, Ryan, and Alexis)

Lexi being the clown!

McBride's Christmas Eve 2010

26DEC10

Travis and I love musicals and almost anything on stage! :) We would like the girls to appreciate and love it too so we figured we better start taking them now! The Wizard of Oz was playing at the Springer Opera House in Columbus so we went with our family and Nic and Dak. It was fantastic! I thought the cast was fabulous and it was very well done especially for how small the stage was! The girls enjoyed every minute and only got a little antsy in the last ten minutes or so. That may have mostly been from the fact that it was almost 10 and everyone knows my kids are usually in bed by 7:30. It was a very fun night and I hope we are able go to more plays soon(although the next one we're planning is an adult only play GREASE in April!) I didn't get a lot of pics b/c obviously no flash during the performance but here are a few and a couple videos with my phone.

The fam.
I LOVE this pic. So classic! Ready for the show. More fun Dak.

The cast at the end. I didn't get any of the munchkins... :)

This first video is hilarious to me b/c you can hear Ryan Roaring and giggling in the background. The lion was definitely her favorite!

And just b/c it's my favorite.

20DEC10

A few weeks ago I bought the girls their Christmas dresses for half off and I was really excited. Then I got a box from my mother-in-law and she had gotten them these BEAUTFIUL dresses and I couldn't wait for the girls to wear them! Alexis is always asking me why her hair isn't curly like Ryan's so I decided to give her some curls. I was going to straighten Ryan's but she wanted it curly like Lou Lou's! :) Alexis LOVED her hair and I thought they both looked adorable. Trav took the pics b/c by the time I was done I was running so late for church! :) They love to cheese for the camera. I love my girls. We are all so excited for Christmas and are already enjoying our vacation at home.

13DEC10

Lexi told me today, "mom, today is December 13th. The next row is going to be CHRISTMAS!" She loves the calendar at school. :) I have not done a ton of my normal "Christmas-y" stuff. Crafts, sweets, etc. I still plan on making some cookies but the other stuff I may or may not do. It's not that I haven't been in the Christmas spirit I have. Our tree is up, we have a few lights outside, my presents are almost done and mostly wrapped, our cards have gone out... I feel like with Alexis in school somehow we are MORE busy. I guess I always thought when the kids go to school life is calmer and I am figuring out that's not really true. It's not a bad thing it just makes me appreciate staying home and just hanging out as a family a lot more! Even if we're doing nothing! I did take the to the PX today to see Santa. Lex has written him about 3 different lists (always with Bubble tape at the top of the list making it an easy Christmas for Santa this year! ;) ) so we went and saw him and she gave him her list and sat on his lap. Last year she refused so I was happy to get a very sweet picture of both my girls this year. Ryan was happy to get the candy cane at the end!

And just b/c this picture is ADORABLE! Our friends from Church Tonya and Will came over to play some games (WOO HOO for games it's been a while!) They have 2 boys around the same age as Lex and Ry. I told them all to hope up on the couch for a movie and this is how they sat. I just thought it was so cute brothers on one side and sisters on the other. Thanks for hanging with us Shomakers! :)

09DEC10

Alexis had her school Christmas Program last night. The kindergarten classes all sang a song called 8 Tiny Reindeer. Lexi was very excited and she was so cute. We got really lucky and we were sitting right next to her and her class (Thanks to our friends and neighbors who saved us a seat!) At the end of the night everyone was singing Feliz Navidad. Lexi's teacher asked Ryan if she wanted to go on the "stage" with Lex. That's what the video is. The whole concert Ry was dancing to all the songs and she had as much fun as Alexis! :) My girls are such sweethearts. I did videotape Lexi's song too but it was on my video camera which is a dvd... So here are some pics.

Lexi and her friend Macayla before the concert.

Before it started.

Singing 8 Tiny Reindeer!

Love her red nose!

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The short video of Ry with LEx.

And this is how I found Ryan this morning. Yes I waited to take the picture before I told her to stop! :) And don't worry too much it's just his water bowl not his food!

A girl and her dog. Just so everyone can sweet how sweet (and big) our dog is getting! We love our Tuckeroola (Ry's name)Tuckerman (Lexi and Nic's name) Tucker (his actual name!)

07DEC10

Update on Lexi...

We had Lexi's pediatric urologist appointment today. All the way in Birmingham (2 and half hour drive for those who don't know.) It went well. Everyone there was super nice and we didn't have to do too much waiting. Okay there really was a lot of waiting but it was between a lot of testing and Alexis was a rockstar. It helps that her mom is a rock star and packed a TON of stuff to do while waiting. :) Despite the fact that I forgot AL is an hour behind GA and we got there 2 hours early! Here is where the Too Much Info begins so click out if you don't want to know.

There are basically 2 reasons they think Alexis is having problems. 1. They believe she is having constipation. I have never noticed her having problems with pooping so I thought that was odd. The doctor said she is pooping but leaving stool inside still which is resting on her bladder causing her to have bladder control problems. 2. She has a lazy bladder which she will probably grow out of. One of the tests showed that she had to push to try to get some of the pee out and that's not normal (I swear the fact that they can figure this stuff out through tests is AMAZING to me!) They can actually give her a pill for this that helps her not have to pee so much. The problems is one of the side effects is constipation... SOOOO the doctor wants us to try a high fiber diet, including a fiber pill, for a month. If she is still having problems she wants me to call and she will prescribe the pill (she realized how long of a drive it was and said I could just call or e-mail even though usually they have you come back in. VERY happy about that!) All of this is also related to the UTI's but they said they don't prescribe the everyday low dose antibiotics unless the child has 3-4 UTI's in 6 months (I can't even imagine how sad that would be!) I'm actually happy about that. I don't really want her on antibiotics EVERY day!

I am so happy with the outcome of this visit. I really didn't want anything to be wrong with Alexis but I didn't want to leave with them saying, "we have no idea!" I feel like I got the best of both worlds... Something is wrong but it's minor and it should be an easy fix! :) Very productive day today!!!