Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!

What a great December 2010 we had!!  The Ferguson Four were BUSY!!

John became officially certified as a Cisco Certified Network Associate!!!  It was a ton of work and the remaining Ferguson Three are SO PROUD!!

Daddy had to miss one of the highlights of the month due to his diligent studies.  He was sad to miss it, but of course, Mommy took lots of pictures to commemorate.

The kids went to Dinner with Santa in their Pajamas!!  It was so much fun.  My dad (Paw-Paw) came with us in Daddy's place and we all had a great time.  Here are the kids en route (picture texted to Daddy, who then asked if I was driving when I took it.  No - I wasn't).

And here is an adorable picture of Paw-Paw with the kids.  Katherine really was having fun despite the look on her face in this picture.

We actually got there before Santa, but he arrived very soon after we did.  David went running to him and promptly began listing all of the NINE items he wanted for Christmas.  Luckily, this was a very patient Santa.

David sat on his lap for quite a while.  While they sat there, only one other family arrived and the kids waited patiently (if not a bit intimidated) for their turn.  Without the big line to sit in Santa's lap, the kids were a bit unsure as to what they were supposed to do!!  Good thing my 7-year-old was there to show them!

After dinner, Santa read "Twas the Night Before Christmas" to the kids.

This is ALL the kids that were there.  It was so awesome!!!

After the story was over, Katherine was finally warming up to the idea of sitting on his lap.  When she finally did, she told him that she wanted "Toy Stormy Three!"  Which means that she wants the Toy Story III DVD.

Then she gave him an adorable little hug.  Ahhh, how sweet!!

At the end of her turn, David hopped back up on to Santa's lap for the photo opportunity for Mommy.  Santa was so patient and sweet to the kids!!

Also, on the night of the Lunar Eclipse, we woke David up at 1AM to go outside, lay down on the trampoline and watch history happen!  It was really cool.  Daddy was trying really hard to get a good picture, which is pretty close to impossible unless you're either super patient or super talented.  Both of which John is and he got this great shot!!

We had fun outside watching it, but we didn't stick around for the 70 minutes (supposedly) that it was that orange color.  We went back to bed.


Paw-Paw and I also took David to Magic Time Machine.  It's a super fun restaurant where my Dad used to take me and my sister when we were younger.  It's mostly unchanged, except for some of the staff characters are updated.  Our waiter was Captain Jack (aka Johnny Depp, and no, he didn't look like Mr. Depp at all).  He was a good waiter and the food was actually decent!

Katherine had a Christmas Pageant at day-care!!  Oh my gosh, the cuteness was overwhelming!!!  Katherine told me that morning (while we were walking with David to school) that she was supposed to "SHAKE [HER] HIPS!!" during the show.

Well, when she saw all the parents (there must have been 100 people there) she totally froze and wouldn't move a muscle.  Her teacher went over to her and tried to get her to move, but she wasn't doing anything.  I have a really cute video of the whole thing, but I'm not smart enough to transfer video from my phone to the Internet-thingie, so you'll have to just trust me.  It was CUTE!!  She even had the audience ohhh'ing and ahhh'ing at her!

So, since Mommy is very Anti-wait-for-Christmas-Day-to-open-your-presents, we started opening early - on Monday I believe.  We let them each pick out a gift and open one.  They really had fun with it and it allowed us to make Christmas morning last a week instead of 10 minutes!!!

Before we went to Lubbock, we decided to let them have their big-out-door presents.  I think this was on Wednesday morning before we left for Lubbock on Thursday.  I'm not sure about days - I lose all track of time when I'm off work!!


John's hiding the gifts and told them they couldn't peek.  Katherine had a very difficult time with this, but I'm pretty sure David already knew what was coming, so he was a tiny bit more patient.

David's new bike.  With GEARS!!!  He's so excited.  He and John went out that morning for a ride and David had a much easier time with the undulating hills in our neighborhood.


Hopefully you all know that the hills around here don't really undulate.  More like slope slightly.  Very slightly.  But, he was able to keep up with Daddy and learn about when to use the gears.  Overall, we think a good purchase!

 

Katherine got a scooter!  We're not as sure about this purchase.  It doesn't work all that well and she wasn't really stable on it.  Either it's not a very good one (likely) or she's not coordinated enough for it yet (unlikely).

Although she looks happy about it!

So we went to Lubbock and got to spend some quality time in very close quarters with the family!!  It's a long story, but suffice it to say that there was NOT full-disclosure about the housing situation before we left home.  It all turned out great - thanks to lots of flexibility by everyone and some awesome family bonding!!

I noticed this year that I have almost NO pictures of Grandmothers and my kids.  So I tried to do better this Christmas.  I don't think I got many, but I did get this little gem!!  I LOVE this picture of Katherine and her "Grandmother Walk"!!

Okay, so this was hysterical.  When the Henry's walked into Meme's house, Katherine gave them all quite the reception!  She was so excited to see her cousins, Aunt Amie and Uncle Gary!!  When Josh walked in, she screamed (at the top of her very healthy lungs) "THERE'S JOSH.  HE'S A COWBOY!!!"


She then proceeded to steal his hat every time he left it unattended.

Our sweet little cowgirls!!!

On Christmas morning, the Henry's and Grandmother came over bright and early to see what Santa brought!!

No kids were allowed in the living room until everyone was ready.  They were so ready!!  They started screaming for Meme so they could come out!!

Santa brought Katherine the Barbie guitar that she LOVED in the store.

Santa brought David the Minute To Win It Wii game that he wanted!!

Then came the presents!!!

Ummm, there were a lot of them.

Katherine's new doll house was a bit of a favorite.  She played with it quite a bit while we were there.

David got an iTouch.  Something that no one else in the family has.  He wasn't all that excited about it when he opened it, and he really didn't ask about it very much while we were in Lubbock, but since we've been home, he's been pretty much glued to it.  He puts it down to charge it.

Marky Mark got the horse and carriage out for a ride!!  It was a little windy/chilly, but not too bad.  Aunt Amie ended up riding with all the kids.  They had such a great time.  Katherine talked about the BIG horse!!

As for the rest of the vacation, it was pretty relaxing!!

Here's another cutie picture of Aunt Amie and Katherine.

And of course, apparently I always take a picture of the kids riding in the car.  I'm not sure why I do this, maybe because they always look so peaceful and happy back there!!

It must be Toy Story III.  It has some kind of hypnotic power over Katherine.

David played DS.

When we got home, I was (very abnormally) inspired to cook dinner!!  It was so nice to have some home-cooked meals while we were out of town, so I tried out a recipe for chicken spaghetti - it was YUMMY!!

Reading with Katherine and David playing on his iTouch self portrait.

I hope you all had as wonderful a December as we did!!!