Observations

Some things I have noticed about these four.......

Laurel
She looks like her daddy.  Her eyes are his exact shape, only hers are blue and her daddy's are hazel.
Her personality is more like mine.  She will say whatever comes to her little mind, which sometimes leads to embarrassment.  Speaking of embarrassment, she told me a story recently that I don't want to forget:

I picked her and Savannah up from school.  Savannah started telling me about this boy in carpool line who kept saying something to Savannah about her having diarrhea, who knows what all that meant.  Anyway, Laurel sees that her little sister is being picked on so she decides to tell this little boy a funny story.  She says, "you know when I was in the first grade, I went up to all of my friends and said, "have ya'll read Diarrhea of the Wimpy Kid?"  She said they all started laughing and she said, "what?  I just said Diarrhea of the Wimpy Kid!"  Then they told her it was Diary of the Wimpy Kid. 
Oh my goodness, I was laughing so hard because I could see myself doing the same thing at her age.
She is our comic relief around here. 

Savannah
She looks like me.  She is our only child who has green eyes.  I was the only one in my family with green eyes.  But her personality is more like Seth's.  She has his calm, gentle personality.  She will say things like, "well, mom you don't have to yell!"  "We are just little children."  Statements that stop me in my tracks and make me think that she should probably be the mom and I should be the child.  She lets me know when she needs more attention.  She will say, "I'm not getting enough love."  I think it is so great she can express herself like this.

Landon
He looks like Savannah from the nose up, but as soon as he smiles he is all Seth.  He has the same little dimples as his dad.  He is full force, wide open all day long!  He has no fear.  He is such a charmer.  He pulls Laurel and Savannah's hair.  He hits.  He is happiest when he is outside.  He loves to explore.  He hates taking naps.  I hear he acts just like his dad did at this age.

Sawyer

He looks just like Seth to me.  His eyes especially.  He has the chubbiest cheeks and we can see the same dimple that his daddy his when he smiles.  So far he has been the best baby.  He looks deep into my eyes, like he's flirting with me or thinking about something really hard.  He smiles all the time and just melts my heart.

Miracle

Same Day.

Same Time.

small miracle.

Happy New Year!



We shot some fireworks to celebrate the New Year.

They made a very, very shrill noise.

  Laurel and Savannah made it to 9:00.  I made it to 9:15!

I've gotta tell you, I love a New Year.

 I love making New Year's resolutions.  

And I have a big, whopping one this year.

I'm going to run in a race.  It may only be a 5k, but I'm going to do it.  And I'm eventually going to do a half marathon.  If Sawyer is anything like Landon, I will need to be able to run really fast to keep up with these two.  So there.  I wrote it down.  That's the first step, right?

Pogo Stick and A New Cousin

We got to see granny and papa twice over Christmas break.  We took the pogo stick that santa brought.   Laurel and Savannah had lots of fun in the back yard trying to get more than three jumps in!

And come on, doesn't it just make you want to get on one and hop all over the place!

The girls picked these pretty flowers to take to Aunt Jennifer because she just had a baby boy.

We got to meet Alistair Clayton.  He is the fourth Clayton boy that has been born in the last 3 years.  And Papa was worried the Clayton name would not be carried on.

Alistair with his dad, Roger.

Sawyer got to meet his great Aunt Inez.  This little lady amazes me!  She is 80 something and is still so full of life. 

Christmas Break

I was spoiled, spoiled, spoiled over Christmas break!  Seth took the whole week off and we loved having our daddy home.  We, or I guess I should say, he and the children spent the first part of the week cleaning up from the loggers.

We had our woods thinned and while the loggers were here, Seth got this idea to clear out some of the pines behind our house.  Now we can see our driveway from the house.  We love it but it left behind one big mess.

He would take Laurel, Savannah, Landon and a cooler full of water and snacks.  They would stay for hours picking up sticks and playing in the dirt.  He would even take diapers and wipes so he could change Landon!  Yep, I'm telling you I was SPOILT!  Sawyer and I hung out in the house, um.. sleeping!

So this is how it looks.  I know, not too pretty right now.  Seth promises that by spring it will be pretty and green.  I love how it opened everything up.  I don't feel so closed in now.  It is so stinkin' cute when they see daddy's headlights driving up the road.  I hear squeals of, "daddy's home!" 

Christmas Morning~2011



Laurel, Savannah and Landon came running to our room around 6:30a.m.  Oh my goodness, they were so excited!  "Get Up!"  "Can we go see if Santa came?" 

When I was growing up, all of us would run into mom and dad's room and say the same things and dad would always say, "let me go see if Santa came."  We would all wait in the hallway while he went to "check things out" and then he would tell us when we could come in. 
I guess we like putting our children through the same torture, because we do this in our family.  Seth always goes into the living room, gets the camcorder ready, turns on Christmas music, and turns on the fire. 
Landon just did not get why he was being held captive in the room!

He got over it real quick and started figuring out what all this Santa talk had been about!

He loves Choo-Choo trains!

But I have to tell you, he loves his first dirtbike even more!  He rode that dirtbike all over everyone and everything.
Sawyer, just let him.
He is the best little baby.

Savannah and Laurel just kept saying over and over, "this is the best Christmas ever." 

I was going to start a tradition this year where I let the kids go to the dollar tree and pick out a gift for the others.  But a few weeks before Christmas, Laurel and Savannah started sneaking gift bags and were spending a lot of time behind closed doors making things.  They came out with gift bags of presents they had made for everyone on Christmas morning.

Daddy's gift was a sweet card and some chocolate, left over from their parties at school.

They know just what to get daddy.

I also think this was the best Christmas ever.  I loved that Christmas fell on a Sunday.  It was fun opening gifts but then it was great that we were able to spend part of the day at church learning more about Jesus Christ.

Christmas festivities

It's a tradition to go to granny and papa's house on Christmas Eve.  We eat chicken gumbo and lots of appetizers, play dirty santa, and see family we haven't seen all year!  It's lots and lots of fun!

The train was a hit with the boys, Landon and Luke!  Landon loves a train. 

Sweet picture of Savannah and Luke

Luke will be able to defend himself next Christmas!  Watch out, Landon!

sun visors from Mexico!  How cool are they?  Granny and papa brought these back from one of their cruises.

Aww.... fun times!  I love seeing Christmas through the eyes of children.