"Official" Christmas pics

I know...I know...so many pictures! This is what happens when you are too busy to update the blog! I have no idea how many people actually check this blog but if you do, these pictures probably look familiar as they were part of our 2009 Christmas card. A few weeks ago our dear friend Jon came to the house to take a few pictures of us! His work is as good as any professional! A huge thank you goes out to him, and to April for letting us steal some of his time! The pictures turned out great!

The ones of Kate sticking out her tongue are my favorite. Also the one where she is writing her "Letter to Santa"...priceless.

As I was putting Kate down for her nap, we were talking about all the milestones before her baby brother will be here! It all started with Halloween, then Thanksgiving, then Christmas. It is hard to believe we only have a few more milestones to make it through...Disney World (Jan), Ryan's birthday (Feb) and then his arrival! Wow!

Happy Holiday's from the Mardis Family!

http://picasaweb.google.com/whitneymardis/MardisChristmas#

Work on the house

Janet and John were nice enough to take Kate home with them from Nashville and John just dropped her off (Wednesday morning). It was a nice break but we are so excited to have her back. She called me last night after her 1st UK Basketball game, saying over and over how much she missed me. Talk about tugging at your heart strings...ugh. Now that she's back, she keeps talking about how much she missed Aunt Granny, Uncle Pal, Sawyer, Cam, Jenn and Judd. Us girls are never satisfied.

While she was away, Ryan has been busy removing all the wallpaper from the kitchen walls. Before and after pictures will come later! We got most of it done and now he is going to sand them down in preparation for painting. We have paint colors picked out for the kitchen, dining room, and formal living room and have purchased a few items for those rooms. It seems to be coming together just as we planned...slowly.

Thank you Janet and John for allowing us the time to get some things done. We needed it!

Opryland Hotel

We started a new tradition this year that I hope will never go away. My dad, Janet, John, Judd and his family and the 3 of us all headed down to the Opryland hotel for 2 days/1night. We decided to do this in lieu of our gifts and I hope we continue to do it for many years to come. The girls had more fun than I can possibly express in words in this blog. The hotel was amazing. For those of you that have never visited Opryland, I highly encourage you to do it and time it for the Christmas season. There are holiday decorations everywhere, including over 15,000 poinsettas, a 50 foot Christmas tree, and 1,000,000+ lights (don't know the exact number but there are lights everywhere)! Ryan, Kate and I toured the hotel for an hour or so before we met up with everyone else. We captured a few great shots of Kate! She kept saying, "can you believe all this, mommy?" Too cute!

We only left the hotel to venture across the parking lot to the "Charlie Brown Ice" exhibit! It was almost as amazing as the hotel, except it was 6 degrees! Everything in the exhibit was ice! They said it took them 6+ months to sculpt everything and I believe it as their work was incredible. I didn't get any pictures of the girls (or Ryan and Judd) slidding down the ice slide but the other pictures turned out great! We lasted about 30 minutes and then had to get to some warmth. The beautiful parkas they provided helped but 6 degrees is 6 degrees! The pictures of all of us in the parkas are classic!

I still can't get over the number of people at the hotel! It was the eve of the UK versus Clemson bowl game. Even though we didn't stay Sunday night for the game, I feel like we got to experience all the excitement and festivities of UK fans in Nashville! It was a perfect weekend.

To top it off, The Bates family stopped by the hotel Sunday morning for a quick visit on their way to Franklin. Kate calls Anna Cate her best friend so it was good to get the girls together for an hour or so. It was great to see Sarah, who is just a few weeks ahead of me in her pregnancy, BJ, Molly, and Doug.

A huge THANK YOU goes out to my Dad and Janet and John for such a wonderful trip! I know I can speak for the entire family in that we hope this is a tradition we can continue for many years to come! It was perfect. Tons and tons of playtime for the girls with very few melt downs...PERFECTION!

Attached are pictures from the past 2 weeks! Enjoy!

http://picasaweb.google.com/whitneymardis/Christmas2009#

Christmas Eve & Christmas Day

Thankfully, Christmas Eve and Christmas Day were spent in Louisville! Ryan had to work on the 24th so Kate and I spent the night with my mom on the 23rd, enjoyed the Armstrong traditional breakfast, and then made our way back to Louisville. We ran a few last minute errands and then enjoyed a quiet afternoon at home. I made a Shepherd's Pie that was delicious and then the 3 of us grabbed some ice cream and drove around to look at all the lights. Kate was not into it very much this year so after her milkshake was done, she was done! We fed the reindeer a few carrots and some "Reindeer dust" and then off to bed!

Santa was very good to Kate this year, bringing her the baby changing table she has been asking for! There were also some other goodies, including a lot of art supplies and a Leapster2 game system. To no surprise to us; however, Kate was soon back to asking to play hide and seek!

There is a little story behind the huge Santa bags in the pictures. When I realized that our upstairs family room didn't have a mantle on the fireplace, I found these Santa bags that I thought would be a great idea to use in place of stockings. We contemplated back and forth on what size to get and settled with the large. Well, large they are!!! As you can see in the pictures, the are big enough for Kate to sleep in, which will likely be done next year! Ryan and Kate also found another use for them! Good thing they are well made :)

Merry Christmas to everyone!

Christmas with my mom

The 23rd is our annual celebration with my mom and Bob! As the kids get older, it gets more and more fun! The joy in their eyes as they tear through the gifts is priceless! Sawyer, Cam, Kate and Tripp all play so well together. Kara was a trooper as she experienced contractions most of the day that day and still made the hour trip down to my moms! (She ended up having a little girl on Sunday, December 27th named Madison) So another year down and another year of memories! This time of year is incredible when you get the chance to experience it through a child's eyes.

The start of the Christmas celebrations

Our Christmas celebration started the weekend of the 19th & 20th. Despite all the driving, we had a blast during each and every celebration! On the 19th, we drove to Berea for our Christmas with Jo and Michael. We ate a delicious meal and enjoyed the time with Ava, Chad, Melissa, Shirley, Michael, and Jo! Thank you to everyone for all of our wonderful gifts and for another year of Christmas memories.

On Sunday morning, I snuck in a quick visit with several of my girlfriends as we met at Sarah's house to "meet" Stella Grace. Ryan and Kate picked me up after lunch and we drove to London to visit with the Mardis side of the family (too many to name everyone)! Again, thank you to everyone for all the wonderful gifts and memories.

On Tuesday the 22nd, we Kate and I made the trip to Lexington for the Ellis's Christmas get together! It was wonderful seeing Joel, Cathy, and Benjamin (who all live in Florida), as well as, Aunt Thirza, Jay, Theresa, Janet, John, my Dad, and the girls! Kate had a blast playing with the girls and enjoyed the extra attention she received from the rest of the family.

After our visit with my family, Kate and I visited with Sarah, Sam and Stella again, since our visit on Sunday morning was not nearly long enough. Sam and Kate play really well together so they had fun, despite the total state of exhaustion Kate was in. I was not good about my camera during these first few celebrations, but trust me...A LOT more pics are coming! Stella is about as precious as can be! Hopefully the chicken pot pie was good!

Here are a few pictures of Sam and Kate!

Christmas cookies with Sue Sue

My mom was nice enough to drive up to Louisville this morning and spend the day making cookies with Kate and myself. This is a tradition she and I have done for years and it is nice to have Kate involved now, especially since she seems to really like cooking. We laughed at the mess while we made it and somehow got it all cleaned up!

Attached are some pictures of all the cookies we made: sugar cookies (decorated by Kate), sugar cookies with cherries and almonds (delicious), buckeyes, bourbon balls (only in Kentucky), and a homemade version of Tag-alongs. Luckily we are giving these away as gifts so I can get them out of sight soon.

There are also some other silly pictures of Kate attached. It is so funny how much she likes wearing my clothes. Here is a picture of her in a pair of my boots. There are also some of her new "silly face". She makes her silly face all the time...any chance to stick out her tongue.

For those of you with little ones...age 3 and up...I HIGHLY recommend getting the "Elf on the Shelf" book/elf. Huge hit in the Mardis household. Once you read it, you will totally understand.

http://picasaweb.google.com/whitneymardis/ChristmasCookiesWithSueSue#