Life with my sister

The kids enjoy dyeing Easter Eggs every year. Since I am far from being OCD or a type A personality, the kids get to dye the eggs anyway they want. They can use every color for one egg or just one color. It doesn't matter to me. Their creativity gets to shine! We were at Aunt Janet and Uncle Mike's house this Easter weekend and Aunt Janet was so sweet to let us use her kitchen to dye our 3 dozen eggs. And to let us use her refrigerator to store them in. her frig may never smell the same again! I spent Easter morning with Mom at Aunt Janet's. The kids and Stephen went to church and then joined us for lunch. I missed being at church (It makes 2 years in a row. Last year Daniel was sick.) but enjoyed being with Mom for the last time for a while. We had Whole Hog BBQ for lunch. It was Mom's choice, but it is our favorite BBQ restaurant. I made a cake and the kids had a couple of Easter egg hunts. We spent the rest of the day in front of the tv watching The Masters. I hav...

The Easter bunny came to our house and left Henry all sorts of fun things. He was a happy boy to wake up and see this bucket sitting in the den with his name on it! After a little play time we got dressed and headed to church to worship our risen Saviour. Henry loves going to his class. His teachers are Ms. Linda and Ms.Tracy. He talks about them all the time and asks, "I go Linda and Tracy's room?". This morning he was ready to go and see if they had Goldfish. He is a sucker for some food and learning about Jesus. Our attempt at a self-family portrait this morning before church. Randall and I both look squatty sitting on this couch in jackets. We laughed at how we looked, but Henry looks cute and really he is all that matters anymore. It is not Easter at our house without the rabbit cake. This year Henry was crazy about it. He is so aware now, it is funny. I had to hide it from him Saturday after I made it because he was on a mission to tear into that bunny! Our Easter m...

Our little bunny boy started Good Friday excited about going with mama and daddy to see the Easter Bunny at the mall. He was SO excited and proud to get dressed in his bunny sweater and go. Look at that grin on his sweet little face! And then he saw the bunny. It was terror and horror and huge loud screams. I made him sit there anyway and get his photo taken. I had other mothers in line giving me looks of shame as their kids started to scream and cry in unison with Henry. It was truly a mother moment I will not forget. Randall and I walked away laughing. I am sure the other mothers did not find us amusing. It was like a comic strip moment. Randall insisted we purchase the overpriced photo for a keepsake even though he captured it on his phone. It is so precious, really. Poor little bunny of mine. He got his red sucker and bunny ears and became proud. He told all those we passed in the mall "I saw the Easter Bunny!" with a big proud smile. I am sure they heard him and knew the...

S Family Christmas comes every year and every year it is great fun. We head to Daddy's house in Mississippi for a fun-filled day of family, gifts and food. And almost every year Daddy is supporting and sporting a new team's pullover....just kidding. He went from Arkansas to Ole Miss and now back to Memphis. I love it. He looks good in Tiger blue. S Family matriarchs , Babs and Bob. Meemaw and Peepaw did well. From Babs and Bob you have the beautiful brunette S girls. We are quite the trio. Jules and I love our cousin Hollye to pieces. She is like a sister to us. Coming from a small family, we bonded well growing up even though we lived a state away from one another. From the 3 of us you have this handsome group! Thanks to Jules for doing most of the work :) The S family produces such pretty girls. Meemaw would love pampering these two just like she did us. Claire and Anna are " our pretty girls". Meemaw used to say "my pretty girl" all the time. I love...

We spent our third Christmas at home this year. As I have posted before, we decided we would always try to have Henry in his home for Christmas Eve and Christmas morning. I was always at home growing up and Randall wasn't. He said it was not enjoyable and wanted to ensure that Henry have the experience I had and the one he always wanted. I think Randall loves it more than anyone. He is finally getting to have the Christmases he always wanted. It makes my heart happy. We do love the calmness of it and the fun of getting to make our own traditions. One of those traditions is having my mother-in-love in my kitchen with me on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Randall's parents come to stay with us on Christmas Eve and wake up with us on Christmas Morning. I love having Molly help me prepare our dishes and she always praises what I serve. I love some praise and some help in the kitchen...who doesn't?! I am working on finding the recipes we like a lot and want to serve each year. ...

Santa came and came big. Before he came we had to soak up the real meaning of Christmas. We went to church on Christmas Eve and Nana and Papa came in time to go with us. We got to sing and light glow sticks...Henry loved it! He got to go in the service with us and he did great. Christmas at our new church was such a treat this year. I reflected on things I had never really thought of. I love taking away new little nuggets of truth. I always enjoy a Christmas Eve service. It puts the rest of the night and the next day into perspective. Keeping with our Christmas tradition, we wore matching pajamas for the third year in a row. We wore Sesame Street themed pajamas this year. It was fun times. We love doing Christmas at home now that we have Henry. It is so peaceful and fun. We stayed in our pajamas all of Christmas Day. Nothing like a day in the pajamas. Those are rare for us these days. It was bliss. Christmas with a 2 year old is fun and exhausting. Capturing him on camera is difficul...

Christmas with Mama and Julie is always a huge highlight at Christmas. We do it a little early now that we have Henry and choose to be home on Christmas. Mama and Julie's family still do their exchange to each other on Christmas Day, but the ones to us and from us are ripped opened and enjoyed while we are in town. As you can see in the background of this photo...Randall is almost elbow deep in his Jelly Belly's. He was making all sorts of "recipes" with them and refused to share the good ones with us. My pretty girl with her new red sweater dress. She loved it and wore it to church on Christmas Day with her knee boots. Mama said that Anna is me made over but looks just like her mother. Nothing brings me more pleasure than to know my sister is raising me! Hee Hee . She is a leader and not a follower. She is a wealth of knowledge and shares every bit of it with you! She also has great common sense and sense of style for a 7 year old. She is a lot like me and that is n...

We all headed "home" for Christmas last week. Riding the train at the park during Christmas is always a fun family outing for us. This year we were so glad it was not as cold as it has been in years past. It was cold enough for it to be festive and that was great. We really are a handsome group. Mama always loves having all of us together at Christmas. Henry loves a choo choo. He had been looking forward to the train all week. He was so excited! Riding the train with family and friends makes Christmas in the Fort so much fun. Anna rode with me. I am so blessed to have a beautiful niece who loves me like crazy. Henry soaked up all the lights with his Daddy. He smiled the whole way around the park. Going "home" for Christmas is extra special because of the times spent with my best friend and her family. She has the cutest boys...even Sam looks pretty swank with his Christmas beard. (My man grew a Christmas beard also...not sure what all that is about) We were so glad ...