A Tennessee Christmas Part I

Watching a movie & eating popcorn.....it's their favorite thing to do!

I don't care what age you are......you gotta love pillow pets!

Haley giving come Christmas sugar to Aunt Lisa.

We love our cousins!

Haley's favorite present was Hanna's Rapunzel Barbie!

Hanna snuggling with Jenny and her new cheetah.

Aunt Lisa read Llama Llama Holiday Drama....such a cute story. We love all the Llama books.

We finally got to spend Christmas in Knoxville! A short 3 hour drive sure beats the usual 11 hour drive we've been used to for the last 5 years. Now that we live closer we can spend more time in Knoxville and not have to share time with both families. We were able to celebrate Christmas with Jason's family for the first time since 2008. We had such a great time and love that we are closer to family!

Christmas singing to get you in the holiday spirit........or just make you laugh

Christmas songs from Heidi Kaiser on Vimeo.

I love to video Hanna and Haley singing Christmas music or any music for that matter! They love the attention and love to perform. While Haley didn't sing a lot, she was entertaining in her own special Hay way! I love how Hanna makes up words in songs when she doesn't really know what to say. For example, in a very popular Christmas song have you ever heard the line "porkbutt night"? Tears of laughter ensued........did she just say "pork (hysterical laughter) butt (more laughter) night (tears streaming)?????" I'll let you listen for it.

Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah from H & H!

Hanna turned 5 today!

After school we picked Hanna up and went to the mall for some birthday fun!

We saw Santa.......Hanna asked for Tiana pajammies for Christmas.

Haley asked for her very own colorful iTouch and fruit snacks. She was quite upset when we walked away and she still didn't have those fruit snacks.

Then we took birthday money and went to Build-A-Bear. For the holidays they have all the characters from Rudolph that are so cute! Haley chose Frosty but Hanna wanted to stick with a bunny.

Stuffed and ready to be dressed! Hanna picked out a Rapunzel dress for her bunny and named her Sally. I bet you're really surprised.

Haley loved on her Frosty and picked him out a cute winter vest and named him Hindy. She said she loved Hindy best of all. Okay. With new friends in tow we headed to the movies to watch Tangled. We loved it! Hanna said at the end of the day, "Mommy, this was the best birthday ever! Thank you!" It is all worth it when you hear that!

Hanna's 5th birthday party!

Hanna woke up way before 7 o'clock this morning & crawled into bed w/us. Things were going great; quiet and all until I decided to mention her birthday present; restlessness ensued. She kept saying, "If I don't open it now I won't know what it is and I might not like it". What???? That doesn't even make sense especially at 6:45am! We genteelly offered her another alternative to go read books in her room which she did for about 20 minutes. Enter Hanna back into our room (just as I've fallen back into pre-bday-hysteria-induced sleep. "Can I open my birthday present now????" Why oh why do I even open my mouth. In the next hour or so while Jason picked up the cake I somehow deferred her from solely thinking of her birthday present with a bowl full of marshmallow fruit loops. Trust me it works!

As soon as Jason got home she asked if she could open her present. She was quite surprised with her new bicycle but kept saying, "I thought it would be a game that Haley and I could play together."

When the doorbell rang Hanna & Haley both were very excited to see who it was.

I didn't feel like making a banner this time around and found the cutest one on etsy!

I did make the water bottle labels myself though!

Dinosaur party treats!!!

I found dinosaur egg bubblegum and dinosaur activity books at the party store.

I ordered these dinosaur charm sucker covers from etsy and found the same paper at Hobby Lobby to go with the decor.

Another etsy purchase......dinosaur shaped crayons! Adorable!!!!

I ordered the cake from Publix since we had a Publix cake a few weekends before that was scrumptious. I obviously tweaked their dinosaur cakes a bit and I think it turned out great!

I made dinosaur shaped cookies for the kids to decorate as well as dinosaur shaped magnets.

Some hungry little dinosaurs!

Haley loved being at the party and has asked Hanna for the last 2 months......."Hanna, can I come to your birthday party"? Hanna replies with, "Yes Haley. You live there!!!!"

Ben and Jack decorating their dinosaur cookies. Ben has a twin brother in the class, Christian, that has darker hair.

Richie on the left (our sweet little neighbor) and Gavin from Hanna's class.

Cooper and Lucas, our other cutie patootie neighbors!

Richie again......is he just the cutest?????

Birthday girl showing her dinosaur creation.

The kids also painted dinosaur shaped magnets. Thank you Hobby Lobby!!!!

Time to open presents!!!

Hanna got a lot of fun things for her birthday! Thinking we need to ask Santa for new vessels now instead of new toys!

Our little Hannasaurus! Another purchase from etsy. Hanna loved it and will wear it all year long!

Sweet Brinly eating some pizza.

It's time to blow out the candles!!!!!

Brinly doing some painting. She is really good!

Everybody wanted to play duck-duck goose.

They were so cute! Hanna and Meredith even included their little sisters!

Hanna got some lip glosses and fingernail polishes that Haley loved trying out!

Family picture attempt; I actually like this one a lot.

Jason with his Mom (NuNu) and Hanna & Haley.

It is so nice being closer to family!!!!

Does Hanna look 9 yrs old or what???

They loved trying out Hanna's new make-up products!

A Thanksgiving proposal

We had a lot to celebrate this Thanksgiving! I got a text from Marco (my sister's boyfriend) earlier in the week that read, "I am sending you a pic. Let me know what you think." So, I was thinking it might be something funny or a pic of Heather doing something funny but when I opened the text and saw a beautiful shiny ring sitting in a little box, I was absolutely giddy with delight!!! I walked around on a cloud all day in fact. My immediate response was, "When are going to do it???" I was going to be miffed if he didn't bring that thing with him and propose at my house!

He did bring it and ended up telling the rest of the family the night before Thanksgiving. It was kind of fun being the only one that knew for awhile (I did tell Jason though). We sat down to dinner and even I was getting nervous.....when he is going to do it??? Mom said a prayer, Jason said a few things and the rest of us put in our two cents, Hanna & Haley said at least 3 prayers each. Finally Marco had the floor and BAM. I was expecting this long mushy gushy proposal but it was over in 3 seconds! I'm not complaining because I was really hungry by that time. There were some tears and some laugher.......good times.

Oh, and she said yes!

Congratulations Heather and Marco! We love you both dearly and feel blessed to have shared in your special moment. Thank you for letting us be a part of it!