Life with my sister

Christmas 2012 meant our 4th year of Christmas Eve matching pajamas at our house! We three exchange ornaments on Christmas Eve as part of our little tradition in our pajamas. I loved the excitement this year. Randall was onery with his ornament, I was overly thoughtful and Henry was stoked over his. Santa stopped by to leave Henry his silver truck like daddy's with a bobcat and a trailer and his "quitar". He asked for these specific things for the 2 weeks leading up to Christmas. Santa produced! Henry thought it all so cool. He really didn't even know what to look at first or how to react to all the excitement on our den floor. I love seeing Christmas through his eyes. Nana and Papa joined us again this year and we loved it. Henry was giving Nana her Woody ornament. Those 2 have a Toy Story bond like no other. It is pretty cute stuff. Henry scored some new boots on Christmas Eve because word was out that it was going to Snow, snow, snow! He...

We had a super fun time in the Fort visiting mama. We all gathered together the weekend before Christmas for fun, food and gifts. Mama gave me a surprise gift. The nativity my maternal great-grandmother made for my paternal grandparents. It was super cool and unexpected. I love that she wanted me to have it to display in my home. Henry got way more than he could take in and loved the stick horse from his Marmie a whole bunch. He named it "Todd". Anna is so cute in her new monogram ballcap in this photo and Mama's grandma sized smile is precious. I love this crew. Being at "home" with my sister is one of my highlights of Christmas. We have modified it a lot from what it used to be, but it still works and it produces lots of happiness. Our grandmother sent us gifts to open together. They were painted plates our great-grandmother had painted. We were both so excited to receive them. Riding the train at the park is a fun tradition for our litt...

The "Twas the night before Christmas" recorded book that my Daddy did for Henry a few years ago is a bedtime favorite right now. If you know my Daddy then you can only imagine how animated it is. It is fabulous fun to listen to. Henry loves it when he says our names in it. Henry will look in amazement and say "Granddaddy say my name, mama!"  I was in Henry's room putting clothes and toys away while he listened to it, and glanced over to find him with his Santa hat on. He has a dress up/pretend bucket full of hats and such. He had grabbed it and put it on while I wasn't looking. I snuck into the kitchen to grab my camera and capture this little memory. Such a precious picture of my Christmas baby! We are gearing up for Christmas this weekend with our trip to the Fort and then heading back to do Christmas in J'town. We are excited to celebrate the season with the ones we love! Abby

 We are linking up to Kelly's Korner again today and displaying our Christmas card. Our card is always one of my favorite things about Christmas. Randall and I have always had a photo card since our first one in 2003. We used a wedding photo then. It is fun to go back and see how they have changed and stayed the same. We have a Christmas album that holds our card each year and our Christmas letter....I write a letter also. It is a 15 year book. We have filled 10 of them. Hard to believe sometimes. It is so hard to choose a photo to represent us most years. We have such fun memories and our camera cards are always at capacity! This year I could have done an entire album but a greeting card can only hold so much. Our beach friend, Michelle was gracious to take these photos for us again this year. They are love in action this time, for sure! It is hard to keep a 3 year old boy contained for a photo session on the beach! I hope through our card you can see how thankful we are f...

You know I love a list, so here we go. ** I have felt so un-frazzled this Christmas. I don't know what the reason is for it, but I am loving it. ** Everytime I think about the stockings hanging in those homes in CT that won't be filled and gone through, my eyes fill with tears. Such sadness during this time. ** I've also been very mindful of Danny Elder & Gina Rodger's son Austin. He lost his life after falling off of a cliff. Gina is a few years older than me but we were in the same youth group at church. I have such funny memories of her. And Danny. Well, I have always loved Danny. And to know that they are hurting so badly, also brings tears to my eyes. ** By some strange happening, we have more presents under the tree for the boys than we do for Anna. She is not happy about it at all!! I don't know why she is so hard to buy for this year. **My kids Christmas lists this year were funny. They contained requests for candy, coloring books, model plane ...

We took our little munchkin to the infamous Enchanted Forest in Memphis. It has been in Memphis since the 1960's. My Daddy used to go through it as a youngster. It was originally in the Goldsmith's Department Store in downtown Memphis. Goldsmith's closed downtown and then got swallowed up by Macy's. The Enchanted Forest is now located at the Pink Palace. It is the exact same display as when my Daddy viewed it in the 1960's. It is really amazing to see it in person and know it is the original deal. Randall and I went through the display our first Christmas together, right before we married, and sat on Santa's lap at the end of the tour. I asked him for a new car and he told me his credit was too bad. A funny, precious Christmas memory!  Henry was really taken with the Dr. Seuss tree and the Peanuts tree. The trees are donated by businesses and the money to see the display is given to the children's hospital in Memphis. This picture cracks me up becau...

 Henry was about as excited about the new ASU hire as his Daddy( note the newspaper headline)...and being at the dentist reading about it made it even more sour. He was not excited about opening his mouth after all he went through with his surgery last month. In hindsight, I should have waited a few more months to take him. We went back and he sat in the chair and was most intrigued by the light above him. He was all excited about it at first but then decided he might not be that crazy about this experience after all.   He reached for me to come sit with him, so I did. I held him while they tried to get him to show them his teeth. I love my dentist. He and the girls there are wonderful. My dentist took great care of me when I was pregnant and having terrible problems with my teeth. He called me on my cell after Henry's appointment to talk to me about it and see how he was doing. Seriously, who does that anymore?! He should let me do a commercial for him, honestly! ...

  I know this is an odd picture but I have a story. For years I've guided the children to give the people we come in contact with, that provide us a service, a gift. It never is anything big. It's been a candy cane, a thank you card, the year Polar Express came out we gave silver bells. This year we decided to give cold bottled Sprite with an ornament to the trash guys and the mailman. It's been warm here, so a cold Sprite is more welcome than a mug of hot chocolate!  Daniel met the trashman at his truck this morning and I could see his smile from where I stood inside the house. This is our mailman. He was so happy to receive a gift from us that he turned off his truck and posed for a picture. It didn't appear that he shared our Christian faith, but he was so sweet and wished us a Merry Christmas. This is one of our favorite things to do at Christmas. It doesn't take anything expensive or even handmade. A candycane tied with a bow can bring a smile to ...

I teach the Puggles class for our Awana program at church. We celebrated Jesus' birthday this past week. It was our last night to meet before Christmas. It was a fun night celebrating the real meaning of Christmas. Henry is of course a Puggle and the teacher's pet. He gets there early each week with me and starts in before the other children arrive. He was playing with our classroom Little Tikes nativity. He loves it. He sometimes puts Jesus on top where the angel should go, but hey....Jesus does reign on high. Here are some of our sweet Puggles enjoying a cupcake and blowing their horns in celebration of the birth of Jesus. They were so confused, bless them. They kept asking where Jesus was and Henry and Aubrie thought it was Henry's birthday party and asked for his presents. It was sort of funny and a wee bit sad thinking it confused them. Our gift to Jesus was 6 grocery sacks of food for our church food pantry. I like teaching them service. We have done...

Henry's imagination is on overdrive right now. It leaves me in awe. Sometimes my jaw literally drops. It is amazing to watch the light bulb go off and how he comes alive. It is almost like he gets in a trance and you can't stop it. Fascinating. This photo was sent to me by his teacher this week. He loves playing dress up at school. He may be the cutest Woody on the planet! "Buzz Like You" is what he calls Buzz. His face cracks me up in this picture. What a doll. His teachers are so good about sending us pictures of him throughout the day. We are blessed to have him in such great care. Here are some things he has done lately to leave us in stitches: * Henry has decided he really likes Polar Express and we watched it about 524 times this past weekend. As you know the sad little boy on the train says "Christmas just dosen't work out for me". Well, Saturday when Henry REFUSED to get near Santa at Breakfast With Santa (which we did not even sta...

We are teaming up with Kelly's Korner today and displaying my home on her Christmas tour of homes. I think I have done this the past two years and little has changed but what the hey! This is my front porch all aglow with Christmas cheer. My pig has on a velvet and jingle bell collar. My windows all have wreaths with red bows and we have plastic cane canes lining our walkway. We also have 2 lighted reindeer in our yard and 2 iron snowman in flowerbeds. I did not get a photo of this at night, but you can imagine it. We have a wonderful Santa Razorback sleigh that was made for us by a coworker in Memphis, but Randall could not handle putting Razorbacks on our fence this year after the year they have had. I think he feared we might get egged over here in Red Wolf country! This is my entry way. My wonderful neighbors from Byhalia sent us the beautiful plant this week. It really spruces up this boring little area. I have no plug ins for a tree or a lamp in this spot but have...