Maria's Going to the Chapel!

On New Year Eve's afternoon, Tyler Clardy popped THE question to Maria, and she said YES!!  Louis and Michelle told us about the forthcoming news, so Bennett and I made a sign and they planned a lovely party for close family and a few of their friends.

Maria was caught off guard, but was thrilled with her beautiful ring! We are so excited for her, and can't wait to celebrate them this year!  The whole family was just glowing with happiness.

Pres smoking a chocolate candy ;)

A Whole Hand!

Walker Texas Ranger turned a WHOLE HAND this year!  It is hard to believe our baby is five years old, and is going to real school next Fall.  We definitely can't remember what our family was like before he came, and my how he shook things up for us.  He is definitely the "boss baby" of our house, and everyone bows down to make him happy.  Reality is going to be hard for this kid one day....

As always, his birthday snuck up on me....being 5 days after Christmas just SUCKS!  Since Walker has few true interests (outside of coloring/painting and playing office), he is very difficult to buy for since he has everything he really needs.  I ended up holding back one of his Christmas presents and giving it to him for his birthday, with the idea that we will get him something special later this year.  Of course the rest of the family wanted to get him something, so we had the family over for dinner.  We had Taco Mama catered for dinner, bought a cookie cake and Mimi made him a chocolate cake.  The Bantas went to Urban Air with us that afternoon (per Walker's request), and then the whole family came over for dinner and Walker had his party!

The fab 6 have grown really close this year!

Lucky kid to have 2 birthday cakes!

Walker loved the attention, and was thrilled to get some more gifts to open.  I love that he is young and doesn't demand anything too big, but he did inquire about having a party with his friends.  Last year we celebrated his half birthday, and that worked out very well....so stay tuned, we may do it again.

I LOVE all of these kids!  So blessed to have all of these cousins in the same city!

Banta Christmas.....the final round!

By 10:30 AM, we arrived at our final Christmas celebration....with the Bantas!  It didn't take long for the kids to talk us into the unwrapping of the last of their gifts.  This year we didn't exchange with the Bantas, but the children and adults still had a ton of gifts to unwrap from Nene and Poppy.  There were lots of surprises, lots of smiles, a few tears (of happiness), and lots of laughs!

Pres was SUPER pumped about receiving James Harden basketball shoes!

Nene loved her new photo album

Poppy got his own photo album from the Bantas filled with memories!

The boys were ecstatic with their arcade basketball hoop for our basement!

Shuffleboard tournament!

What an awesome day!  We spent all day over there eating, drinking, telling stories and playing shuffleboard.  We finally headed home around dinner so we could feed Beckham.  The next day we met everyone for dinner before Mom and Dad headed home.  It was a short visit, but another memorable one.  What a wonderful Christmas with all of our family!

Christmas Morning Surprises

Christmas morning the children all awoke in the same room, and stayed upstairs until the proper time as they were instructed.  But when 7am hit, they were calling for us and ready to see what Santa brought them.  So Steve and I got in our positions to video and photograph their faces.  There is no doubt that they had a great Christmas morning!

All Bennett wanted was a phone, and since she had all A's in school, we told Santa he could bring her one.  She also received a ton of new clothes, an echo dot, fishing pole and some makeup.  Our little girl is growing up, and her asks are much more practical nowadays....thank goodness.

Walker received two new nerf guns, a remote control car, earphones, a nerf bow and arrow and clothing.

Preston received a new fishing pole, a headset for his Xbox, a lava lamp and clothes.  However, the icing on the cake for him (and the other two kids), was the crossword puzzle we made them solve to figure out their last gift from us.  When Preston realized that we were giving them a ski trip to Breckenridge over Spring Break, AND that the Bantas were going to be there during the same time ….he started crying.  When we can bring our kids to tears because of happiness, we know we succeeded!

solving crossword puzzle - Breck with Bantas!

Christmas Eve - Round 1

Since being apart of the Mizerany family, we have celebrated together on Christmas Eve.  Myra makes spinach and meat pies, stuffed celery and hummus and we snack and have a couple of cocktails until everyone makes it there.  As our family grows, as do the challenges of getting everyone together at one time.  Though Maria has worked the past couple of Christmas Eve's - we wait for her to arrive around 7-7:30 before we begin opening presents.  Though there are so many gifts, it all happens very quickly....especially among our children.

So many presents, it is hard to photograph them all

Uncle Dan decked out in his Santa outfit

Mizerany Grandchildren

Annual pic with Uncle Dan!

Love this girl's smile!

Walker is at the age where he loves to tear open as many presents as he can.  So when he got to the end, he was upset.  However, then became the opening of the packages, inserting batteries and putting the items together.  The big kids are at the age where they are asking for more expensive items.  So they open fewer gifts, but they are all nice ones....which they are okay with.  Like every other year, the kids were spoiled and had a great first round of Christmas.  

Sadly we are always the first to leave, since we know our kids will be up bright and early.  So we headed home a little after 10pm.  That night the kids blew up the air mattress and all slept upstairs together.  Their excitement for Christmas morning was so cute.  What will Santa bring???

SO excited to receive an Alabama Tua jersey!!

Bennett did JM's hair

These two....rocking and relaxing!