To Grandmother's House We Go: Putting Up Christmas Lights

Starting about a week before we left for Houston, the girls kept asking if they'd be able to help Nana and Papa put up their outside lights. They LOVE doing this, and my parents are so sweet to let them "help."

First they helped string out the lights along the edge of the yard. Then Papa gave them the task of putting up the stakes by the red Christmas lights. Shelby and Taylor did a good job with this. Payden would just go around placing stakes wherever. Shelby and Taylor would try to correct her, but of course she had no clue. It was funny to watch.


Then came the time to string the lights on the stakes. This is where we get to see how wonderful Papa is with the girls. Now Papa can pound the stake in the ground in just a few hits with the mallet. Of course the girls were excited to help out, so 20+ hits later and they are still working on getting just 1 stake far enough into the ground. Papa sure was patient and kind with them.

Eventually, Taylor and Payden got distracted. Shelby stuck with it and really listened to Papa's instructions, so by the end she was able to get the stakes pound into the ground all by herself in just a handful of hits. Way to go Shelby and thanks to Papa for teaching her.

Payden came up to me and just whinned and whinned to be held. She must have been having a needy moment. She laid on my shoulder like this for awhile.


Then she started being silly and pretended to be pathetic.

Of course, we started laughing at her, so she laughed back.

Fortunately while all this was going on, Declan (and Tom I might add) were taking their morning naps. He slept the entire time, which was nice so that I could be outside with them.

After getting the lights up, it was time to put up the JOY sign. My mom always likes to get pictures of the kids with the sign.

Declan finally woke up, so we got his picture too.

Finally, we got a group shot. Can you tell how much Payden was enjoying the leaves?

Thanks again Nana and Papa for letting the girls help out. They were looking forward to this and had a lot of fun.