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Peyton and Daddy putting together the marble rollercoaster.

Peyton anxiously waiting for the "Perfect Brownies" to bake.



Reagan road around on her tricycle for several minutes with a pecan half sticking out of her mouth. Then she took it out an announced (surprise), "I don't like it!"

While waiting for Grandma and Grandpa to arrive, the kids and I went to Chick-fil-a to kill some time. We joined a few other kids in the play area. Reagan decided to make friends with a little girl, probably 3 years old while playing on a platform. A few minutes later a little boy about 2 (who was playing a bit rough like most 2 year old boys do) joined them. Peyton decided that he wanted in on the fun, too. I was reading and glancing at the kids every now and then (or when I heard screaming!). Then I heard Peyton say in a very big-boy voice, "Don't hit my sister!" I looked up in time to see the little boy run to a corner to hide and the little girl run out of the play area "tattling" on her friend. Apparently, Reagan wasn't phased by the incident and she and Peyton continued to play, as I beamed at having a son who looks out for his little sister! :)

Back in McKinney...

On Sunday evening, all of the immediate family came back to McKinney. Kelsey, Bethany and Banzai spent the night with us (Peyton was more than excited about Banzai spending the night at HIS house!), while Granmommy and Grandaddy stayed at the Garden Inn. The next morning we met them and the Bennetts there for an awesome breakfast - the best breakfast in town! We spent the rest of the day at our house. Granmommy, Bethany, and Mommy went clothes shopping for Reagan - only to have Reagan declare "I don't like it!" as she pulled an adorable dress out of the wrapping! We opened more presents that afternoon. The Aggies played in the Independence Bowl, which the boys watched while the girls - minus Reagan - went to see the movie - The Young Victoria. While we were out, poor Banzai decided she needed some attention and, well, did something on Reagan's run. Fortunately, thanks to Kelsey's quick attention, the rug was saved! That night, Peyton got to sleep at Granmommy and Grandaddy's hotel. The next morning, everyone headed back to Tennessee and Dustin headed back to work. Later in the morning, Peyton made the comment, "I'm sad." When I asked him why, he said, "Because Granmommy and Grandaddy leaved today. But I'll be happy again tomorrow when Grandma and Grandpa get here." We're already looking forward to next Christmas, when Shelby, Jenna, Mia, and Lennon will be here to celebrate with us!

Francis Family Christmas

On Sunday, we all traveled to Sulpher Springs for the annual Francis Family Christmas at Stan and Wrenda's house. The kids enjoyed playing with cousins Braeden, Evan, and Kaley, and we got to meet the newest addition - Cade. During the traditional Evil Santa gift game, a "Perfect Brownie" pan was opened. Peyton and Reagan had seen a commercial for this pan and had been wanting one ever since. When it was Mommy's turn to select a gift, Peyton (with permission) marched over to Nona and asked, "May I have the brownie pan, please?" Nona was a good sport about losing the pan, and Peyton and Reagan have already enjoyed a yummy batch of "not-so-perfect brownies"! Peyton and Reagan always have a wonderful time playing in Stan and Wrenda's big backyard, and Mommy and Daddy have a great time getting to visit with relatives we don't see often enough!

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day

Christmas 09 was very exciting around the Francis household! In addition to all the fun activities at school and church and around town, we celebrated for about a week and a half with family in town.

Granmommy, Grandaddy, Kelsey, Bethany, and Banzai drove to Greenville and we got to see them starting on Christmas Eve. We drove out to Gran Gran and Pe Pa's house that day and then returned home in the snow storm! Once again, we had a blanket of snow at our house! That night, the kids excitedly got ready for Santa. They left out cookies (Peyton insisted that Blue cookies were Santa's favorite) and milk and made sure the fire place door was opened.

Peyton was awake bright and early on Christmas morning. He made a bee-line for the Chistmas tree and was overjoyed to find his traffic cones, his links (which looked like Santa had been playing with them), his brown dirt legos, and a new DVD. "Santa brought me everything I asked for!" he exclaimed. We then woke up Reagan and brought her into the living room to see her gifts from Santa. "Chairs!" was her excited reaction! She also got a doll house (which she calls a "castle") and a Strawberry Shortcake DVD. Next, the kids tore into their presents from Mommy and Daddy. The kids then dug into their stockings and found other treats including Smurf beanies and tickets to Great Wolf Lodge to be used at a future date.
After presents and stockings, we ate a breakfast selected by Peyton - cheesy bread and chocolate covered donuts. Then the kids put on coats, shoes and mittens and went outside to play in the snow! This was the second time in Peyton's short 5 1/2 years that he has seen snow on Christmas day! His first Christmas snow was on his first Christmas at Grandma and Grandpa's house in South Texas. Reagan decided that she did like the snow after all and had fun playing outside with Peyton!

After everyone was good and frozen, we went back inside and let the kids play in a warm bath for a while. Then it was time to load up and head back to Greenville. In Greenville, we enjoyed a yummy lunch prepared by Gran Gran and Pe Pa and spent an enjoyable day with them, Granmommy, Grandaddy, Kelsey, Bethany, Randy, Dana and Kendra. Both kids had an especially fun time with Kendra this year! At present time, Peyton received a toy microphone stand from Gran Gran and Pe Pa and spent much of the afternoon entertaining everyone by singing into it as loudly as he could! Song pic of the day - "Joy to the World", a "rock" version we learned at school. We sang Happy Birthday to Jesus and each kid got to blow out a candle on the birthday cake. Peyton and Granmommy enjoyed a cup of hot chocolate together. Peyton and Reagan spent that night and the next night in Greenville, while Mommy and Daddy were treated to some time at home by ourselves!

Comments

Mommy (at bedtime to Reagan): "Night-night Reagan. I love you."
Reagan: "I yove you, too, Mommy."
Mommy: "You're my favorite little girl in the whole wide world!"
Reagan: "Yeah."

Peyton (watching someone on TV drink eggnog): "What is he drinking? Egg-not?"

Peyton: "When God sits down, does he still keep going up forever?"

Peyton: "When I get to Heaven, will I see God? Will it take forever for me to see all the way up to his head?"

Peyton: "Do trains have blinkers?"

Peyton: "Who made God?"

Mommy: "Reagan, did you go poo-poo?"
Reagan: "Noooo..... I not go poo-poo no more."

Mommy: "Reagan, it's time to get dressed and go to school."
Reagan: "Noooo.. I wanna wear my 'jamas school."

Almost every time we get in the car to go somewhere now...
Reagan: "I wanna go school...... pweeeeseee!"

Peyton: "God is bigger than the Fair. The Fair is bigger than the mall. The mall is bigger than our church. Our church is bigger than our house. Our house is bigger than Big Brother Bear's house."
Mommy: "How big is Big Brother Bear's house?"
Peyton: "It just has three rooms."

Two Story Stable?

So Peyton may have slightly modified the Gospel accounts of Jesus' birth this evening, or at least the traditional telling of the story. He decided that the simple one room stable needed a little renovation...another room, and on the second floor at that. Unfortunately between Mommy, Daddy, and Peyton, we couldn't figure out a good way to get the new addition to sit on top of the slanted roof of the Little People nativity, so we'll just be sticking with the more humble setting for now! I'm guessing that Peyton might have installed an elevator and a heated manger next.

-by Daddy

Now All Our Houses Have Christmas Lights

In keeping with tradition (last year we decorated the Little Tikes playhouse with Christmas lights), Peyton and Daddy hung icicle lights and wrapped blinking multi-color lights on the swing set clubhouse this afternoon. Peyton was pretty excited about it, and when Reagan woke up from her nap and walked outside she exclaimed, "Wow, it's so beautiful. Thank you, Daddy!"

-by Daddy

Peyton's House Idea.....

Tonight Peyton enjoyed the luxury of both Mommy and Daddy putting him to bed. As we were all snuggling in his bed talking about Christmas, we asked him what Santa should bring Reagan.

"A house with a second story."
"You mean a little playhouse?"
"No. A house people can go in."

Then he got a little twinkle in his eyes and sat straight up in his bed...
"It will be next to this house. Reagan and I can live in it. It will have a door attached to this house." More twinkling..... and the rest of the conversation went something like this:

"Mommy and Daddy will stay in this house. Reagan and I will stay in the other house. The other house will have a real kitchen, but the stove won't get too hot. It will only get as hot as the shower so I can cook with it. I'll cook tortellini, macaroni, grilled cheeses, chicken and green beans...... And I can cook cookies and cakes and cupcakes. I'll cook for you, Mommy. But I'll put the lettuce in your house because I don't like lettuce. And I'll live there when I'm six and when I'm a grown up. And my room will have a door to the bathroom..."

The Partying Continues....

On Thursday, Reagan went to her 4th Happy Birthday Jesus party and Peyton went to his 3rd. Thursday was our last day of school until Jan. 5. As tradition goes, parents and classes tried to out-do each other with cuteness and funess, making for one wild and crazy day! After school, it took me two hours to unpack and put away all of the kids' stuff and my stuff just from that day! Both kids have made some really cute projects that are now decorating our tree and our house!

Peyton's First Christmas Play

Peyton made his acting debut today as a shepherd in his class's nativity play. The first of two Christmas Chapels at school was held today to celebrate the season, and Peyton's class had the opportunity to perform today. He didn't have any assigned speaking lines, but he followed directions very well and performed his scene almost flawlessly! At one point, he did sneak over to a standing microphone and tried to speak into it. Fortunatly it was during a transition and wasn't too noticable! He quickly hopped back into place and performed the rest of the show perfectly! Mommy and Daddy were very proud of our little shepherd. Peyton really enjoyed the play, too, and is now asking for a shepherd costume to wear at home.

Reagan's Happy Birthday Jesus Party #3

Reagan and her teacher, Ms. Regan, and Ms. Regan's son Charlie, who has become a good buddy of Reagan's. The kids were putting handprints on Christmas balls - Reagan thought it was more fun to color on hers!

Reagan enjoying an actual juice box - a rare treat for her!

A couple of Reagan's crafts

Listening to a Christmas story while playing with nativity characters

Crazy Hair Day

In the midst of last-week-of-school madness, we had crazy hair spirit day! Peyton wanted blue hair - "Since blue is my favorite color!" he informs us frequently. I put bows with jingle bells in Reagan's hair, and Peyton decided he wanted a jingle bell, too. Throughout the day, he got lots of compliments on his jingle bell hair - and he beamed every time! The jingle bell actually stayed put all day! Reagan's, on the other hand, came off in less time than it took Mommy to get them in her hair!

Happy Birthday Jesus Parties #1 & 2

Our Sunday School class had our annual Happy Birthday Jesus party last Sunday. It followed the Children's Ministry's Happy Birthday Jesus party at church that morning, so last Sunday was pretty much one big birthday party! At our SS party, the kids got to eat pizza, do a couple of crafts, play Christmas bingo, hear a Christmas story, and, of course, eat cake. Peyton keeps asking which day is really Jesus' birthday. When we talk about Christmas events (including which day he will get his presents on!), he will ask "How many days does Jesus have a birthday?"

The Christmas Journey

After living in McKinney for 5 Chrismtases, we finally made it to The Christmas Journey at FB McKinney. It's a drive-through "play" that take you through about ten scenes from Jesus' life - from birth to resurrection. It was really cool and well worth the two hours we had to spend in the car! We packed up the kids in their Christmas jammies and popped a Christmas movie into the DVD player in our car for the hour long wait to get up to the first scene! Peyton was fascinated by it all. It was really a great experience for him to see Bible stories come to life. He kept asking, "Was this in real-life?" He said his favorite scene was the nativity. He also said that he wants to be in one of the scenes next year, "when I'm six".

Latest Additions to Peyton's Own Christmas Tree!

Santa and The Trains at North Park

Peyton telling Santa what he wants for Christmas - traffic cones, a big book, links, and an animal fish.

Today we went to North Park to see Santa and the rest of the North Park sights - including the train exhibit. We got to the mall at 9:10 to get our Santa ticket. Ten minutes after they started handing out tickets, we got #54 - which meant we had about 3/12 to 4 hours to kill at the mall until it was our turn! We spent some time playing at the fountain under the flying Santa and reindeer - made out of pecans. Reagan loved watching the ducks and the turtles. Peyton had fun running up the ramp to the huge planter and then sliding down. At 10, we headed to the train exhibit. Peyton enjoyed them last year, but this year, he was really fascinated by them! He was really intrigued by it all - especially the electricity wires! Reagan found Thomas the Train. At 10:30 we listened to Santa tell a story. After walking around a bit more, we at lunch. Finally, we headed back to Santa's house about 12:30, fingers crossed that our number was coming up quickly! Fortunately, we didn't have to wait in line long. Peyton couldn't wait to crawl up in Santa's lap and talk to him. Reagan, keeping with tradition, screamed "No! No! No" and would not un-cling herself from Mommy. As we were leaving Peyton said, "Mommy, I love that man" and pointed to Santa. We then treated ourselves to a cookie. Mommy tried to get a few pics of the kids with poinsettias in the background. As we were leaving the mall, we walked by a long bench filled with 10 & 11 year old boys. As we passed by, Reagan turned to them, smiled, waved, and said, "Hi! Hi! Hi!" so friendly sweetly! A couple of the boys smiled and said hi back, but most just looked like they were wondering what this little kid was doing!

A Christmas Tree of His Very Own

As we were decorating our house this weekend, Peyton found a 2 foot tree I had bought for a special project. He immediately claimed it as his own, and insisted that he need a tree is his room for his ornaments. So I consented, and helped Peyton get it set up in his room. Then he insisted on having lights for his tree. So we helped him find and put on a set of 100 white lights. Next, he was on the search for ornaments for his tree. Last week at school, he made a cloth gingerbread man, so that one went on first. The next one he had to have was the Mr. Incredible ornament that was his "special" ornament for this year. By that time, Dustin had our box of tree ornaments opened, so Peyton ran back in forth from the living room to his room, each time with a new ornament in hand. He worked so hard to collect the ones he liked and put hooks on them! He has been so proud of his very own tree that he decorated "all by himself"!

Peyton's 1/2 Birthday

Yesterday was Peyton's 1/2 birthday. Since Peyton wants to be 6 "so, so bad", we thought we would celebrate him turning 5 1/2. We let Peyton pick out a special treat to have after dinner on Saturday. At first, he chose "yellow cookies" - thick, chewy sugar cookies with thick yellow icing that we've had at special occasions. On the way to Target to get the cookies, Peyton said, "Actually, I want cookies with blue icing because blue is my favorite color." I've seen those cookies with several colors of icing but never blue, so I just told Peyton we would look for some. We got to the bakery section of Target and starting looking around. All of a sudden, Peyton spotted exactly what he was looking for - "Blue cookies!" He was so genuinely excited about finding his blue cookies, and I was so happy he got his 1/2 birthday wish! When it was time to eat the cookies, Peyton insisted on having his birthday hat from school last year. We sang "Happy 1/2 Birthday" to him as he sang, "Happy 1/2 Birthday to me... Happy 1/2 Birthday to me.... Happy 1/2 Birthday to my-se-elf... Happy 1/2 Birthday to me!"

HPS Holiday Party at Cowboys Stadium

Dustin's company party was held last night at the Cowboys Stadium. HPS handles all of the credit card processing for Texas Stadium, so they had an "in" with getting the opportunity to host a holiday party there. It was a blast! The party started at 7 pm, with h'or dervos and tours of the stadium. Our tour began with an overview of the stadium's short history and unique (and mega-expensive!) features. The world's largest scoreboard alone cost more than was spent build the entire Texas Stadium. We then traveled to the Cowboys locker room. It was awesome to see the lockers of Aggies Martellus Bennett and Stephen McGee! Getting to see the lockers of Romo and Witten and the other big names was cool as well! As expected, the locker room was super-nice! Next we traveled along the same path the Cowboys walk as they go from the locker room to the field. The path cuts through the Miller Light Club, and exclusive field-side lounge for players' families and quests. We got to see the Cowboys press conference room, which is larger than the White House press room. Next it was on to the sidelines at the 50 yardline. Everything was set up for the Big XII Championship game to be held the next evening. Our guide pointed out Jerry Jones' private suite, which contains an elevator up to a private "yelling room" - a retreat apparently designed by Mrs. Jones for the owner to go to yell out his frustrations without anyone having to listen! Our tour then continued to the Cheerleaders locker room, which was lined with too many mirrors to count, lights, and lots of pink! Our tour concluded back at the party, where it was time for the buffet. We had a great time chatting with Dustin's group and other co-workers! The party was also attended by the CIO (chief information officer), who is Dustin's boss's boss and who sat next to us! The CEO also attended and sat at the table next to ours! It was really an exciting night! After a few awards, door prizes, and speeches, the party concluded with an hour of mingling and enjoying the great views of the stadium!

"Christmas Rain!"

It's only December 3, and we've already had a "snow storm" at our house! We open up the blinds Wednesday morning to see huge flakes of snow falling to the ground! Peyton was so excited! We immediately put on coats over our pjs and ran outside. Peyton thought the snow was great! He played out in it for almost 30 minutes, making trails and checking out what the snow was covering. Reagan, however, wasn't so thrilled! She kept shivering and saying "It's too cold!" She stayed out in it for about 3 minutes as was done!

Over Thanksgiving, we were reminiscing to Peyton about his very first Christmas at Grandma and Grandpa's house and how it had snowed on Christmas Eve there. We talked about how special that was. On Wednesday, Peyton kept saying "This is so special!" and talking about how it was really Christmastime now that we had snow! Then he asked, "Is snow Christmas rain?"