Recovering from the "Jolli-Days"

We are back. Hasley Hogwash is not doomed to enter into forever oblivion. I hope you are as excited about that as I am. Our hiatus is over...at least I hope so. We experienced the never ending holiday trip this year. For starters, we weren't our typical excited selves about the holidays and for the first time ever were ready for them to be over with. Because of all the craziness leading up to the holidays, we were not in full spirit. On top of that, Greg got the stomach virus Christmas Eve day. He then passed it on to Evie 2 days later, then John Reagan 2 days after that, then me 2 days after that. Get the picture yet. Now let's add a cherry on top of this wild cream sandwich...I started itching like crazy the day we arrived in LA. By Christmas Eve I had a full blown rash from the face to the legs. I will go ahead and mention the fact that I kept the rash the whole 2 weeks we were there and finally went to the dermatologist on Wednesday. A nice little shot and some cream later, I think I have recouped. Greg also gave my mom, his mom, and his dad the virus. What fun! Now I am going to completely and totally blow your world away. We had to rent a small U-Haul trailer to make it home with all of John Reagan and Evie's loot. Crazy! Crazy! Crazy! As you have figured out now, we did make it home and did get all the Christmas decorations down and gifts put up. I can't believe we can actually see the floor. The bad news is we ran through the whirlwind of the holidays and didn't spend the time needed to reflect on the true meaning of Christmas. So we have to start right now on revamping our holiday traditions. We don't want next January to be like this January..."Mommy, where's the Christmas tree. Santa Claus coming?" We would prefer something along the lines of, "Mommy, we celebrated Jesus' birthday!" Any ideas while they are still fresh in your mind?

Our Christmas events started earlier than usual this year. We had Christmas lunch with family on the 21st instead of the 24th. When I say family, I mean my mom's mom, my aunt, and all my cousins. We are always minus an aunt and usually 3 sets of cousins, but one set made it in from North Carolina this year.

I had John Reagan's portable DVD player out to keep him entertained, and as you can see, it kept quite a few of the kiddos entertained. On that note, Greg and I were temporarily without children this day. Everyone held Evie and took care of her while we visited, and John Reagan did just what you see above along with play a little bit.

Here are all the great-grands (minus 2 in VA). You can barely see Gracee in the left, back corner.

For those of you who have never seen my sister and might wonder what she looks like when you hear about her children, here is a picture for you. This is Brad, Marla, Breyden, and Kenden.

We did get the opportunity to go down and visit Daddy a couple of times while we were home.

Evie is all bundled up and ready to go see Pawpaw Donnie in her adorable vest from Auntie Marla.

This is Pawpaw Donnie and Breyden. John Reagan was supposed to be in this picture, but you can see below what he was doing instead.

John Reagan is a big fan of horses (Why? We don't have a clue). Pawpaw Donnie has 2 horses, so we got to go pet the horses and feed them apples. It was great fun!

Back at Fifi's house...mom has the neatest pantry. The doors have shelves on them, then there are 2 double-sided swiveling shelves (the best way I know to explain) that open up to more shelves in the back. Very hard to explain, but great fun for grandkids.

Breyden loved to play in the pantry and so does John Reagan. Here he is taking a rest and drinking his chocolate milk. It is a great place to play peek-a-boo.

We let John Reagan and Evie open their stockings before we went to LA. I didn't figure Evie would pay any attention to what was going on, but she went crazy flailing her arms all over the place.

Needless to say, she is a "girly" girl because she loves her little bear and her baby doll she got for Christmas.

She was also teething over the holidays. Her first tooth broke through on the way down there and her second right after we got home.

Here she is working those gums over with her 2 fingers. I thought this was the cutest thing.

Remember the "What is Evie's is John Reagan's post?" Well here is a follow up to that post.

Mom has a saucer at her house for the babies. It was Breyden's, then John Reagan's, and now Kenden and Evie share. As you can see, John Reagan took his share of turns in it. I don't know about you, but I think he might be getting a little big for it.

Because Christmas lunch with extended family was moved up a few days, we were able to spend a little more time at Pawcaw and Nana's on Christmas Eve. John Reagan and Daddy like to fish, and when Pawcaw is around he goes too. In other words, fishing is Pawcaw, Daddy, and John Reagan's thing. John Reagan has a "fish pole" he gets out and plays with in the house. Well, he found Pawcaw's stash while we were there. Not only did he find Pawcaw's fish poles, but he found a fish.

This is John Reagan's BIG catch for the day. This fish came on a flower arrangement for Greg's grandpa when he passed away. He was a fisherman, and now John Reagan is helping carry on that tradition.

Greg with the stomach bug.

Evie's blanket was on hand when Daddy got the chills. I thought this would be a good bribery picture.

Christmas with Pawpaw and Fifi...I could only put a few pictures on here, so I chose the horse trailer and truck. Last year Breyden got a blue horse trailer and truck and that was all John Reagan played with.

So John Reagan got his very own this year. He was quick to tell Breyden "mine."

Marla and I started a new tradition this year. We decided to buy christmas pajamas for each other's children to wear for Christmas morning. John Reagan and Evie would give Breyden and Kenden pajamas and vise versa.

This was our best attempt at wrangling them for their pj picture.

Evie loving on her cabbage patch doll from Pawpaw and Fifi. I'm telling you she loves giving her babies lovin's.

Playing on Christmas Day!

John Reagan got a basketball goal from Santa.

Playing with Christmas at Pawcaw and Nana's

Now here's the BIG toy! Pawcaw couldn't resist buying John Reagan his first 4-wheeler as John Reagan refers to it.

Uncle Brad and Auntie Marla's

Uncle Brad and Auntie Marla just built a new house and moved in while we were there. We went to visit and celebrate Kenden's 1st birthday. Breyden's christmas last year was an alligator. He likes to ride John Reagan around on it, and anyone who will ride with him for that matter.

He even lets John Reagan drive. Aren't they too cute? Of course Breyden had to help John Reagan with his steering on occasion.

Kenden turned 1 on Dec. 28th

I can't believe how fast a year goes by now. Here is cutie pie Kenden eating up his birthday cake.

Remember John Reagan and the big drawing paper at Fifi's?

Well he likes to hide under it as much as he likes to color on it.

Home AT LAST!!

Daddy unloaded the trailer on Sunday after we made it home. This would be Sunday, the 4th. John Reagan naturally wanted to take a spin in the 4-wheeler. He also wanted Duchess to ride with him. This is classic. Cracks me up every time.

Hope I haven't pushed you into overload. One day I will write a short blog. Hey, I did good when pairing down the number of pictures I put on here. There were lots more I wanted to add. Maybe Greg will assume the "short blogger" responsibility...lol!

Brandi