Christmas Morning!

OK...this is a little late, but better late than never...

So, Christmas morning was wet and foggy, but my kids had lots of great gifts to brighten the dismal day! Here is the photo journal of our day!

Santa came...he and his reindeer enjoyed some treats.

Here comes the Bright kids Christmas morning stampede!

Kate's Santa stash...Disney Sing It (wii game) and Baby Alive
Clair's Santa stash...doll house and Cooking Mama (wii game)
Bowen's Santa stash...workbench and personalized matchbox car carrier box!
As most of you know...our kids get three gifts from Santa...so where is number three. Well, as most of you know...Santa worked for MANY HOURS, ALL BY HIMSELF, to finish gift number three. We wrapped the back door so the kids couldn't see what was going on. So, Christmas morning, the got to unwrap the back door and see present number 3...A PLAYGROUND...

Bowen, waiting for daddy to get a towel to wipe the slide dry.Kate waiting for a dry swing...And, it's dry so here goes Clair!Bowen's fleece PJ's made the slide really fast and he shot right off the end and landed in the damp grass on his rear! Look at those happy kids...our Santa is the best for making this dream come true! Thanks Santa Baby!

Christmas Sunday

Here are my beautiful kids all fancy for Christmas Sunday!

The Lights at Riverbanks Zoo

We met Grandma and Grandpa Lynes, Uncle Justin and Uncle Jordan at the Riverbanks Zoo in Columbia on Friday night to see the lights. The boys were so intrigued. We had fun walking around and seeing allllllllllll the beautiful lights. We also saw a Llama!!!! Ben's favorite book is Is Your Mama a Llama so we were pretty excited to see one in real life!

A Visit With Santa

I took the boys to visit Santa at Creighton's work. It was so fun to see all the kids...some excited and some petrified of Jolly Ol' Saint Nick. Santa was a good sport and was very sweet to Alex who walked right up to him and reached up for Santa. Ben on the other hand began screaming half way across the room "NO! NO! NO! NO!" There were a couple of good shots. So here they are.

Franklin Family Disco

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Country Elves

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My cool Christmas gifts I made!

Money is tight for everyone this year! So, I found this cute idea for bookmarks in a magazine and decided it was the perfect gift (and in my budget) for my neighborhood friends (who all like to read) and other girlfriends!Emily, wanted me to post pictures! Maybe you will be lucky enough to get one of my fancy bookmarks! :)

Family Photo Shoot

Aunt Rosalind came over on Saturday and we had a family photo shoot. It was fun but REALLY cold! The pics on the steps are on our front porch and the ones on the "bridge" are at one of the common areas in our neighborhood. Great place to take pics!!!

Daddy had fun walking with his boys and talking to them about all the things we saw on our walk to the bridge.

Finally! A family photo!!!

Everything is funny..........

What a cutie!

Ben thinks Alex's ability to "honk" his own nose is impressive.

Nobody Here.....Just Us Elves!

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Gingerbread Houses 2008

Lots of concentration on mommies part.
TJ LOVED eating the candy

TJ meticulously placing his candies.

Thanks to Oma, we (the Bright kids) all have fond memories of making Gingerbread Houses each December. I thought that I would attempt to make memories with my own kids this year and few of the neighbor kids too. We had a blast, although I stressed about the way the houses would turn out. But they turned out great. Can't wait to be home soon. We love you guys.

Love

Maria

Cheese! The final project!

We are ALL done, and the kitchen was cleaned up!
Peyton-4, TJ-3 1/2, Devon-7

Great Granparents are GREAT!!!

The boys had a wonderful visit with Mimi and Papa today. They played with Papa and gave lots of hugs to Mimi.

Mimi, Alex and Ben

Ben and Papa.

Alex and Ben watching Papa be VERY silly.

Ben thought Papa was hilarious!!

Alex was very serious about stacking the silver cups that Papa gave him to play with.

TJ Smiler @ Preschool

TJ's school, "Little Lambs" took Fall school pictures and they were sooooo cute but soooo expensive. Since we just had a butt-load (and yes that is a measurement) of pictures taken at Sears we opted not to buy them, but to scan them, so we could keep them. I hope you enjoy. See you all soon.

Love,
The Franklin's

I know this is crazy....

but the primary president just called to talk about setting a date for Kate's baptism! So, mark your calenders...Kate is getting baptized, Oct 10, 2009 at 10:00 am! Hope you can all attend! :)

Kate's Piano Recital

Bowen the Movie Theater Ham

Tonight I was very brave and took all three kids to the movie theater (by myself) to see High School Musical THREE. The girls loved every second and Bowen...thanks to a large quantity of Halloween candy...was pretty good too! However, several times he felt the need to shout out things that the whole theater could hear! First, any time he heard "getcha head in the game"...he had to repeat "head in the game"! Also, in the movie Troy shouts out "Yo!" to get the cafeteria to quiet down and so Bowen felt like he needed to shout our "Yo!" That got a few chuckles. Finally, (and this takes the cake!) when Troy and Gabriella finally kiss, Bowen said really loud, "Ewwwwww! Gross!" Everyone started to laugh and so then he thought he needed to say it over and over! It was funny...the first time, but then it just got irritating and so I had to open another pack of Smarties! Hurray for sugar!

It's A NICU Reunion

The GHS Bryan NICU had it's 29th Annual NICU Reunion yesterday. It was so great to see all the healthy and happy NICU grads. We were happy to see all of the nurses and doctors that helped us so much when our boys were in the NICU.

Daddy and the boys next to the sign.

Here are the boys with Claudia. She was their nurse a few times in the NICU and then she had Alex several times in the Special Care Nursery.

This is Dr. Ohning, Alex, Ben, Mommy and Daddy. Dr. Ohning treated Alex when he had Sepsis. He remembered Alex and was so glad to see him doing so well.