Pants on the Ground...

Delainey was over on Saturday and Darin put on some music for her to dance to. Here's a little clip of some of her dancing. (She does have a hard time keeping her pants up--sorry about the full diaper view--this was towards the end and she had been dancing up a storm!!)

SNOW!

Winters in Oregon when I was growing up were great! I'm sure we had rain and cold, but pretty much I just remember the snow. Whenever it snowed, we were out of school--and what is better than a snow day!! :-) My children have grown up in North Carolina--an entire continent away--and yet they have had the same experience! We love snow because we get to stay home and play in it as everything is closed down for the duration. We also never know if we will actually get snow so we have the excitement of wondering whether it will really come....This time it came. The forecasters were calling for snow starting around 7pm on Friday night. At 6:50 (by my car clock), it began snowing. It was beautiful! It snowed most of Friday night and then it began sleeting so we can snow with a coating of ice--just right for some great sledding!Jenna getting ready to go outGetting the saucers out...

Darin came home from college and Jenna and Erik came over so all the kids headed to the hill to sled. Darin, Sarah and Delainey stayed at their home--but one year, when Delainey is a little older, we'll get them over here for the BIG hill!! ;-)

Delainey is 18 months!!

Little Delainey is 18 months old. She is such a joy to all of us and is still the topic of conversation--have you seen Delainey this week? Did you hear that Delainey....? Delainey can do....

This week I went to Devin and Sarah's to watch Delainey on Thursday night while they went to church. The door opened and she saw me. I smiled, she smiled, the smile got bigger and then she ran to me saying "yaya, yaya!!" It still melts my heart, three days later. While I was watching her, Jenna and Erik came over to see her. Before the night was over, she was saying "nenna" (Jenna) and "air-kuh" (Erik). (She puts a very definitive 'k-sound" on words that end with K: milk, book, and now Erik.) It is SO much fun to see her learning so quickly. Everytime I'm with her, I am amazed by how smart she is and how much she can do. What a perfectly delightful 18 months these have been--and I am SO excited to watch her continue to grow throughout the years! (Pictures courtesy of Sarah....) :-)

Sarah's Birthday

We had our first birthday of 2010 this past week. Sarah is one year older--and wiser too!! :-)

We celebrated her birthday at our monthly family dinner. I LOVE those dinners!! I love that I get see all my children so often--but I especially love having everyone all together!! After some homemade pizza (by me), a yummy spinach salad (by Jamie) and some delicious cheesy bread (by Jenna), Sarah got to open presents (with Delainey's help of course!!).

In December all the girls went to the Cheesecake Factory and Sarah talked me into splitting their strawberry shortcake with her. It was amazing!! I tried to replicate that last night for dessert and I wasn't quite there, but somewhat close... If anyone has an amazing shortcake recipe to pass along, I want to try again. The flavor of the shortcake I made last night was wonderful but I want one that is a little "softer".Devin and Sarah have been married for 5 years so this was the 5th birthday that we were able to celebrate with Sarah. What a delight she is! She's added so much to our family. She's kind, loving, cheerful, spiritual, a wonderful mother, a great wife, a fabulous daughter-in-law, and a great "sister" to Darin, Jenna and Jamie. I really could go on and on. We wouldn't trade her for the world!! :-)

Christmas Day

Christmas morning started off bright and early. We were up a little after 6am to open presents.

The snuggie wasn't a Christmas present--but it came in handy to keep Jamie warm...

Darin got tickets to a UNC game...

After we finished opening our presents, we headed to Devin and Sarah's to open more presents with them and to have breakfast. Donald and I got Delainey a wagon which we thought she would love....

but she didn't....

She would much rather walk around--especially if it's in someone else's shoes...

Christmas Day afternoon we headed over to Donald's sister, Kelly's house. I am so mad that I forgot my camera. It was the first time in several years that all the "Gilreath" cousins were together. We had a great time: laughed, ate, talked, caught up and loved every minute of it!!

Christmas Eve

We have a favorite Christmas Eve activity that involves the Clawson family(the family of Bronwen from the post before). For several years, they have invited us over to spend the evening with them and we get to take part in the traditional reading and acting out of Luke 2. Since we don't have young children, this has been so fun for us. Whomever is home at our house on Christmas Eve heads over to the Clawsons after dinner and the fun begins.

Donald was the donkey that carried Mary this year...

Jenna was Mary and Darin was Joseph...

Jamie was the angel....

("and they were sore afraid....")

Erik was a wise man (but I don't have a picture of him separately because I was trying to film at that point).

Here's a picture of the entire crew after the production.....

Thank you, Clawsons, for allowing us to join you once again!!

Bronwen

Bronwen is a darling little girl that is the youngest daughter of some friends of ours. Our family adores her (and the rest of her family) and she will often come home from church with us for a few hours. Yesterday she helped me cook dinner and as we cooked, she kept singing "Angels We Have Heard on High". It was delightful to have Christmas music sung by a 5-year-old in the house. She put us all in the Christmas mood. Here's a little video of the chorus. (Sorry I didn't get the beginning...)





Merry Christmas!!