**If you are coming over from TipJunkie, please click here to see my Christmas card, (family report card first, then Savior picture). Laurie will fix the link on Monday when she is back to ‘work’ again. 
We wish you a blessed Christmas and may you celebrate Emmanuel! God with us!
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| Christmas Eve 2009 |
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| My 3 kids who love each other so much! |
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| the Paquettes 2009 |
We just got home spending the ‘first Christmas’ of the season with James’ family. We always enjoy spending time with them-don’t get me wrong, but, GOSH! Asher sure makes it hard to really enjoy the holidays right now. Is it his age? Or that he is a boy? Or a sign of things to come with his personality? I don’t know, but what I do know is that pictures don’t lie…(okay, sometimes they do when I cleverly photoshop them, but I promise, these pictures were not photoshopped!) 
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| ‘Bruiser’ was his nickname on this trip because he received
a busted bottom lip, a rubber burn on his chin from the mall playcourt, and an unknown head injury |
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| Lollipops kept him content, (he still is looking for trouble in this picture),but if
you dare take the lollipop away because there is nothing but the stick left… |
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| you get this |
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| and this |
James’ Christmas in Fort Worth could be summed up as “Sprite and Saltines”. He got food poisoning right before we left and he never fully recovered the whole time we were there. Poor guy!
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| blah! |
The girls had fun playing the ‘money game,’ as they called it, in Oma and Papaw’s dining room.
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| Jackpot! |
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| There was no shortage of fun for the girls! Ella with her game face! |
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| Cindy, Braden, Ben, Asher, Ella, Bear, Rilyn, James, Mandy, Allen, and me |
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| the kiddos |
On Wednesdays I usually babysit 7 kids throughout the day. It is wild and crazy but my kids love having their friends over all day and I love helping out my friends! This afternoon, one of the boys came downstairs to tattle on Ella for drawing on the carpet. Ella quickly came downstairs to tell me it was an “accident” (she was holding a dry erase marker because she was drawing on the whiteboard easel). I didn’t even go upstairs to check, and just thought she probably swiped a short line across the carpet. (Our carpet upstairs is pretty gross and we should of replaced it when we moved in, but thought, “it’s a giant playroom-so what’s the point?”) Anyway, tonight I went upstairs to get something and this is what I saw…
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| This masterpiece was about 12 inches long and 6 inches tall |
Ella, dear. I don’t think this was an “accident.”
Ella had her preschool Christmas show today. She tried to sing every song and was very animated, even lifting up her dress to show everyone her belly and showing off her tights where the crotch was down to her knees. We’re so proud of our little star!
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| Look at me!!! |
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| Ella singing her heart out! |
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| not sure why Ella is the only child holding her hands out…(somebody likes attention!) |
We braved the chilly weather and took to the streets of Bethlehem (in Burnet, TX!)
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| Roman soldier |
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| petting the camels |
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| all bundled up! |
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| no room at the inn, but the innkeeper let us walk through! |
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| the girls, daddy, Asher, and Grandpa looking at baby Jesus |
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| Asher and Grandpa |
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| We got a little distracted when we saw this boy’s mullet!
We just had to take a picture! |
In our house we “pretend to believe” in Santa Claus. The girls know that Santa is pretend. Why? Because we want to keep our focus on the birth of Jesus at Christmas time. (I truly believe families can do this and still ‘believe’ in Santa, but in our family, our conviction is to keep Santa pretend.) We still like to sit on Santa’s lap and read stories about Santa and watch Polar Express though. The girls’ have big imaginations and as much as they like pretending to be princesses, they can also pretend Santa comes down their chimney as long as they know it’s pretend! So this year, for their annual Santa lap shot, Rilyn told Santa she wanted, “an ipod and a phone.” (Whoa! If this is what she wants at 5, then we’re really in trouble when she’s a teen!) Ella said she wanted a new nightgown.
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| From December 2009 |
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| Ella-almost 4! |
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| Rilyn-5 1/2 |
James took the kids tonight (by himself!) to take pictures on Santa’s lap at our neighborhood Christmas party. I knew it was coming…”the second Christmas Santa shot”. Rilyn and Ella both had it, (although Ella showed it dramatically more in the picture!) and I knew Asher was going to have it…
You have to admit Santa is a scary looking dude to a little child!
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| Asher 19 months |
Here’s Ella’s second…
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| From December 2007 |
And Rilyn’s second…(we got all her crying on video, this shot was after daddy calmed her down a little by sitting with her)
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| From December 2005 |
It was a great weekend at my little sister, Jessica’s wedding! We all had important roles to play and her wedding turned out beautiful! We are very excited for our new brother in law, Eric King. Some highlights during the ceremony were Ella tripping as she was walking up the stage, me getting to wear 5 inch hot pink high heels, and Asher stopping in the middle of the aisle and had to be lured by daddy holding a lollipop (in which he devoured the whole thing including half of the stick and we couldn’t get the stick out of his hand for pictures because he would start crying!)
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| Before the wedding we all got manis/pedis!
We all had tank tops that read ‘bridesmaid’ or ‘flower girl’! Of course Jessica’s said, “Mrs. King” with a crown on it! |
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| me and my girls before the ceremony
Classic Ella face! |
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| my beautiful sister, Jessica, and me |
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| the girls peeking downstairs at all the guests arriving! |
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| the new Mr. and Mrs. Eric King! |
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| Asher kept his tux and flower on all night! |
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| Ella dancing on daddy’s feet! |
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| sisters dancing the night away! |
I am a sucker for buying class photos and yearbooks. Why? For reasons below. I knew my Lexington Jr. High (in Cypress, CA) yearbook would be useful one day!
If you own a television, you have probably heard of the new Fox show, glee. I do not watch it regularly, but I’ve seen an episode or two because some of my friends love it. When I first saw the Spanish teacher Will Schuester, played by Matthew Morrison, I said to myself, “That guy looks just like I guy I went to school with-Matt Morrison.” Nothing clicked. ‘Matthew’ and ‘Matt’ are apparently totally different names to me.
Finally a couple of days ago, at a totally random time of the day, it clicked! I DID go to school with him! But I had foggy memories of when.
I looked him up in my yearbooks, and it turns out I only went to 8th grade with him. Apparently, I thought he was ‘funny’ as I wrote that below his picture. (Yes, I went through every student I knew in my jr. high yearbooks and wrote something about them on their picture! Again, it must have something to do with my curiousity for people.) I remember he was in Theatre Arts at Lexington and I must of had a class or two with him since I thought he was ‘funny’!
Here is his 8th grade picture circa 1993:
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