Ringing in the New Year!

We spent the New Years holiday with great friends from S'port-Bossier who now live in Arkansas and Missouri! We had a blast spending time at their cabins on the Little Red River in Heber Springs. We ate way TOO much, talked about the "old days," stayed up TOO late, watched football, and did it all again for the next 3 days! The kids (10 total) rang in the New Year in their own special way (see below), and they had a blast entertaining each other - morning, noon & night! :-) Enjoy the pics! Amy (hostess with the mostess) & princess Camille ringing in the New Year!

This is one of my favorite pics -- I wonder what they are pondering!?! (Brady, Graydon & Cooper)

Graydon holding Camille for the first time - love that smile!

Happy New Year, Camille!

Brady is ready to get this party started!

All the boys! - Brady, Graydon, Cooper & Ross

Graydon showing off his gingerbread man!

Allison (the other hostess with the mostess) passing out sparkling grape juice to all the kiddos in celebration of the New Year! She & Amy came up with the creative idea of giving the kids small treats at each hour so they could count down to 2010...this was one of their treats! A toast to 2010!

The kids lining for their hourly party favors!

Happy New Year!

The girls "tooting their horn" by the campfire!

Camille better get her rest in now, because she's got some boys to keep up with!

The boys are patiently waiting for donuts to arrive - thanks Brad!

Brady and Gradyon deep in conversation - probably about Leapster 2, Wall-E, "I-wanna-play," or Lightning McQueen.

Brady - "Pants on the ground, hat turned sideways, lookin' like a fool with your pants on the ground!!" Happy New Year! Hope everyone is having a great 2010! Looking forward to many more great memories -- and pictures!

Christmas in January!

Since today is January 25th, I thought I would post some Christmas pictures and celebrate in January! I've realized that we have Christmas pictures on many different still shot and video cameras, so all the pics have not been uploaded to the computer. Oh well...Here's a few that will make you smile! G discovering the fun of fake snow falling from the sky at a Polar Express exhibit at a local mall! When the first real snow fell at the house in December, G said, "Mommy, is this how Christmas starts?"

G is running off some energy and daddy is playing with the new camera!

Um-Paw (left) and Grandad (right) having a "toddy-for-the-body" as the kids open presents! Santa brought Graydon some marbles, and Um-Paw & Graydon had a match going before the night was over! Thanks for the lesson, Um-Paw!

Santa brought Poppy and Graydon a train with a real engine, caboose, smoke, lights, and a coal car! That Santa is one cool dude!

Graydon at the controls playing conductor/engineer - you can tell by look on his face that this is the real deal!

I hope to gather all of the 2009 Christmas pics soon and file them away...on to New Years! :-)

Tales From Who-ville!

One of this year's Christmas adventures was to visit the Gaylord Hotel during their ICE exhibit. The exhibit is about -2/-3 degrees so everyone wears stylish blue knee-length swiss parkas as you walk around! Everything you see is made of ice....except the blue-parka-people. The ice sculptures were truly amazing & works of art!

G and his cousins entering Who-ville! Look at how they line up for the picture - large, medium & small) - we have so many pictures of them in this same order - funny!

The Nativity

These are two slides made of solid ice - G is coming down this one! For old folks, those slides were fast! The kids must have gone 10-15 times! Mike & I went once...I was sore the next day!

Snow Day #2!!

We had to capture all the great moments of our second snow in the DFW area! Ohhh, to be a kid again and to stay out for hours in the cold, wet stuff - wishing for another snow day and rounding out snowballs! Looks like he's up to something!?! One quick pose with all the boys...my fingers are freezing!!! G-man and his LSU-Frosty. Frosty was the only snow left in the yard that next morning! Ahhh...the taste of fresh snow! Snow dance!

Christmas Top Ten

Wonderful wishes for a Happy New Year, and I hope everyone had a very merry Christmas! I am WAY behind on posting, but thought I would share some of my favorite family moments of the holidays...(in no particular order!) ---LONG POST--

1. Snow, snow & more snow! We had snow pre-Christmas, on Christmas Eve, and then a few days after Christmas...and we live in Texas!?! Graydon (and Tag) have enjoyed every minute of the cold stuff!

2. Garland vs. garlic - The 3 of us were strolling through neighborhoods looking at lights one night and Graydon says "Hey mama, they have garlic (aka garland) with lights on it around their door...that's pretty." Pretty funny, as I laughed to myself.

3. Graydon was NOT interested in going to church this Christmas Eve. He was pre-occupied with setting out reindeer food, making cookies for Santa, and watching Charlie Brown's Christmas for the up-teenth time. But, we changed clothes and talked about the importance of Christmas church in the car on our way. And when the minister asked all the children to come to the front to listen to the story, Graydon went down front all by himself for the VERY first time in his life.

4. Christmas morning - always magical & forever a memory!

5. Graydon asking everyone what will happen to their tree after Christmas is over - will the garbage men pick it up (real trees) or do you get to keep it (artificial)?

6. See's peanut brittle - I will say that I am addicted to this wonderful, nutty, crunchy candy! I bought some as presents, wrapped them all, & then unwrapped one box to eat all by myself. I had to go back to the mall to replace the one I ate ;-)

7. Mike and I were at home together for the entire holiday season - yipee!! Mike's previous years in retail and then our recent crazy years in life have always found us apart for the holidays. This year was different, and we were thankful!

8. Spending time with our parents, grandparents, great-grandparents & family so that Graydon could realize the other true meaning of Christmas.

9. Graydon's pipe cleaner ornaments which he made on a cold, rainy day and so perfectly placed on the Christmas tree. He helped me pack them away in tissue paper for next year's tree trimming.

10. And my most favorite moment was every moment, because I count my blessings each step I take! Happy New Year!

The Mayflower Has Landed!

This year Graydon learned the tradition of Thanksgiving. His school had a feast where the classes dressed as Pilgrims and Indians - the Indians brought the food and Pilgrims set the table. They dined on traditional Thanksgiving dinner, which included deli turkey meat, canned green beans, white bread, applesauce, sliced cheese and rice krispy treats! :-) They had a great time feasting with friends and learning the true meaning of Thanksgiving!

A Few Halloween Pics

G as a Storm Trooper ready to fill his bucket with candy!

Making a Halloween craft in front of a red "slug-bug"...We play the "slug-bug" game everywhere we go!

Digging out the pumpkin goo/guts! G was not a fan of this job because the goo smelled so bad!

Our prized pumpkin! We worked hard on this one and it turned out really cool!