New Years - Poff Family Style!

We'll start by saying Happy New Year to everyone, and we wish you all a prosperous, safe and healthy 2010! Ok, there you go, that is out of the way. Now, we will get to New Years - Poff Family Style. You see, 6 years ago, our New Years took on a whole new meaning. Yes, it is exciting to bring in a new year, and even a new decade. But, for us, it is very exciting to celebrate the birth of our first child.

Six years ago, we were in the hospital this very night, not knowing what to expect. We were excited, scared, nervous, anxious, you name it ... we were soon to be first time parents. Everything that could possibly go wrong did, of course! We weren't even expecting to have a New Years baby ... and little did we know that she would arrive via c-section in the afternoon, or we might have had a little more to say about that! But, 6 years ago, today, we were there. In the hospital, waiting ... and then she arrived in the afternoon of January 1, 2004. The most beautiful little girl we had ever laid our eyes on (of course! She was ours!). It was the most elated feeling we have ever felt in our lives.

Over these six years, we have watched her grow. We have watched her turn into a drama queen, a superior reader, a lover of books, a little artist, designer, dancer, cheerleader, soccer player. We have watched her excel, and we have watched her fail. We have watched her find her way. She is in Kindergarten now, and my how she has grown. But, she is and always will be our baby girl, Hayley!

So, now back to New Years - Poff Family Style. What do we do first?? Well, little brother is just a little bit young to stay up so late, so we put him to bed ...

And tuck old Cher Bear in tight, too!

Then, Mommy has a little glass of wine because there are preparations to be made. We have a birthday party to get ready for!~

The cake ..... Mommy's masterful creation. This will be revealed later. All I will say is that, Yes, this is Gabriella!

All you adults, don't you worry, we have cake balls! (I cannot guarantee how good "Gabriella" will be, you should see what all I had to do to her!!!) Lots, and lots of cake balls. These are the white ones. There are chocolate ones and brownie ones. Yummy!!

Hayley in her PJ's with her American Girl doll ...

Then, we hit the Band Hero!!! Hayley started out on drums ... quite the little drummer these days!

Then, she moved on to the vocals ... loves her some Taylor Swift songs!!!

It's getting close to midnight (in NYC that is!) and time to watch the ball drop, so Daddy pops open a little champagne!

And, the glasses are poured!

We sit waiting patiently for the countdown ... with Daddy ....

And, with Mommy ....

It's time to toast as the ball drops!

Happy New Year, New York!

And, a little drink to ring in the new year!!! (yes, that is orange juice ... we're not that crazy!!!)

And, Hayley is off to bed to grow and relax and turn 6 years old! She has a big day tomorrow with family and friends, birthday party and more! We'll be sure to post more pics!

But for now, Mommy and Daddy will prepare to ring in the New Year together. It's close to midnight, so Happy New Year 2010, and HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO OUR SWEET LITTLE HAYLEY!!!!

This Is What Happens When I Have Nothing to Stress About ...

A few days before C.J.'s birthday, I decided that I just didn't really have much to stress about. I mean, I had all Christmas shopping done, house was clean, all the Christmas decorations were up and ready and things had been like this for weeks. I guess I was just too calm that I needed to create something to stress about. So, I decided to remodel the hall bathroom.

I started demolition, then realized that we did not have any before pictures, so I did snap a few on my phone.

Here is the before ....

And, here is the after .....

After it was all finished, we had scraped the ceiling of all of its popcorn texture, took down a soffet that housed the lighting, retextured the ceiling and walls where the wallpaper once was, painted the ceiling, walls and trim, hung a new mirror, cabinet and towel ring and bar, accessorized and voila! All in about three days! Yes, I burned some midnight oil (acutally up til about 3am one time!) and wore myself out, and yes, I was stressed. But, I was very pleased with the outcome! Oh, and a big thank you to Charlie for his help in taking down the soffet, and to my dad for his help in doing some of the finishing touches (like putting together the cabinet, hanging it and the toilet paper holder!)

Also, on the day of C.J.'s party, my dad got rooked into hanging a new storm door on the front door for us. A great big thank you for that one!!!! It looks awesome!!!

Christmas Adventures

We survived all of our Christmas adventures! And, what a very fun time we had. Here is a very quick run down. After C.J.'s birthday, Hayley headed to Beaumont with Keena and Poppa, then the rest of us went down on Monday evening. When in Beaumont, we had two Christmas celebrations. The first one being on Wednesday night with just my immediate family ... Keena and Poppa, Aunt Kerri, Uncle Chris and Zac.

Here, Hayley is digging into her presents ...

A quick little snapshot of Aunt Kerri and Zac!

C.J. tearing into his presents ... he had a lot of practice from his birthday!

Hayley was very excited about her Project Runway clothing design from Keena and Poppa. She is very artsy and always has been into drawing dresses and such ... what a perfect fit for her!

More presents for C.J. ....

Cousin Zac admiring the fire truck he gave C.J. as a present ... looks like some fun stuff!

Zac and C.J. playing with the Wolverine bopping bag ... boys!

On Thursday at lunchtime, the rest of the family came over for round 2 of Christmas gift opening! It is always fun to get everyone together and celebrate Christmas as a family. We had lunch, let the kids open presents, then played our game with the adults for our gift exchange!

Hayley was very excited about the new pillow she received! Such cool colors!

C.J. sitting on his new stool painted by MeeMaw, and playing with his new little keyboard toy. So many exciting things!

After our time in Beaumont was up, we headed up to Hemphill to visit my Dad's family. It had been a few years since we had seen them, but we were happy to see Aunt Carol, and a couple of my cousins, Candy and Berger. We continued our trek late into the night of Christmas Eve, and safely arrived back home, though the conditions were worsening with a winter storm that made its way through the metroplex. Who would have thought that we would see a white Christmas in our area????

Christmas morning, Charlie and I awakened before the kiddos. They were just too worn out for all their travels! Santa was very good to them this year ... here's a pic of what they had to look forward to once they woke up!

As I grew impatient waiting for the kids to wake up, I decided to go outside and record some memories of our white Christmas. This was the first we had seen in our lifetime of snow on the ground so much on Christmas Day!

Finally, Hayley woke up, then went into C.J.'s room to wake him up so she could see what Santa would bring! She snuck a quick peek outside to see the snow on the ground.

We made our way down the hallway into the living room ... C.J. still half asleep!

Hayley was very excited to see that Santa had in fact brought her the one thing she had asked for this year ... a new computer!

C.J. wasn't too amused by Santa, he was still trying to get over being awakened when he was sleeping so good!

So, we took a quick break, got dressed, and went to play outside in the snow afraid that it may melt before we had the chance. (little did we know that, while some would melt, much of it would stay on the ground for days to come!) Hayley made a snow angel!

She had so much fun playing in the snow!

C.J. still took a little while to wake completely up ... I don't think he liked being bundled up in all of his snow garb!

Making another snow angel ...

C.J. finally starting to play in the snow ... Daddy taught him how to make snowballs to throw at his sister!

Back inside, Hayley waited patiently to have help in getting all of her gear off ... and was eager to warm up from the cold!

Once we were back inside and derobed of our snow gear, the kids opened up the presents they received from Mommy and Daddy. C.J. really enjoys his new little pint sized desk!

Later that afternoon, we journeyed over to Nana and Gramps' house to visit with Charlie's family for our next round of Christmas joy!

Here is C.J. with Nana .... ready to go explore the new toys he will be receiving!

Oh, wow, it's a new workbench for C.J.!

This little fella loves to play with his tools!

C.J. opens even more presents. Here he has a Cabbage Patch doll that was collected in the original '80s bunch of them by his great-grandmother.

And, Hayley gets her new American Girl just-like-me doll!

And, her very own real digital camera!

The best way to get everyone in a group photo ... just be silly! Here's Nana and Gramps and all the grandchildren...

We had an amazing Christmas filled with lots of family, laughter, good food, fun times and stories. We could not have asked for a better way to celebrate this holiday! These past few days have been spent taking down the Christmas decorations, putting away all the presents and toys, enjoying our time off as a family and praying for friends and family.

The fact that it was a white Christmas made our holiday that much more perfect! Today, we sit here with a little bit of snow left on the ground in the shady spots and await another round of winter weather tomorrow ... what an amazing gift that is!

We hope everyone had as great of a Christmas adventure as we did! We are looking forward to bringing in the new year and decade in a few days and celebrating Hayley's 6th birthday! More to come ...