The coolest Aunt Ever!

Aunt Audra and Uncle Linn came all the way from Utah to the SEC Championship game in Atlanta.  Alabama was playing and Alabama won!  They came to see us before heading back to Utah.  Audra brought all the children Alabama shakers and red and white necklaces.  Needless to say, I think Seth and I are the only Auburn fans left in the house.

The girls think that Aunt Audra is the coolest aunt ever!  They made her swing off the limb of the tree to be initiated into their tree club house.  This was Jeana's first time meeting Aunt Audra and she told her mom that night, "I never knew Laurel and Savannah had such a pretty, young aunt!"  She did all kinds of flips on the trampoline and stood on her head and she can still do a back hand spring!  Yeah, she was pretty much showing off!!!!  I said, "please, you are making me look bad!"  I really love that they think she is so cool and that she spent so much time with them.  It breaks my heart that we live so far away from each other.

The next day, the girls went to school and we once again hit the woods and went for a walk.  The weather was 75 degrees.  Melanie and her family were still living with us at this time so it was so much fun for Melanie, Audra and I to all be together again.  We laughed and told stories all day.  Melanie can remember everything from our childhood.  It is amazing how she can recall stories and silly songs.  I love listening to her.

Landon is such a man's man!  He still calls Uncle Linn, bubby.  He followed him around all day.

Don't snakes hibernate in the winter?  Oh yeah, I forgot.  We are in Alabama and the weather is 75 degrees in November.  As soon as we came out of the woods, we heard Molly barking.  We knew she had some animal held captive and then we saw this snake.  It gave me the creeps that we had just walked all through those woods.  There is no telling how many snakes we walked past.  YIKES!!!!  So, not only do the girls think Aunt Audra is cool, but so does Landon!  That crazy girl got a long stick and killed the snake, which we found out later was a cotton mouth!  The snake was moving really slow.  I guess it was on its way to hibernation.  Landon stood right there and watched the whole thing.  He still talks about that, "hey mommy, remember when Aunt Audra killed that snake, huh?"  He adds "huh" to the end of everything.

The night before they left they treated us to barbeque ribs!  I mean come on, who comes to the south and doesn't eat some barbeque!  It was a great short visit and I think my sis is pretty cool too!

Decorating for Christmas

These two girls get so excited to decorate for christmas!

Landon's favorite part was once again putting the stockings on his feet and calling them boots.

And oh yeah, we have a baby in the house this year.  So all decorations were hung high.  The tree was only half way decorated.  This makes a woman like me, who lives to decorate, a little crazy, but oh well, it's all for the children, right? 

Ho! Ho! Ho!

Thanksgiving Week

I think this past Thanksgiving was my favorite.  Seth took the whole week off from work and we just hung out at home before and after Thanksgiving.  The weather was so nice so we took lots of walks and played outside.

Trees are always involved.

This huge tree fell and landed across the creek. 

All the kids had fun crossing it with daddy.

Landon testing his limits.  "Let me just see how close I can get to the water without falling in."

This is the best view up here!

I would have loved it if some animal had popped its face out of that hole. 

Nothing better than a man pushing a stroller!

Awww... I love this family of mine!

Thanksgiving 2012

It's all about family and blessings, right?  And oh yeah, some good food!

Well, that's what we did.  We ate.  We played in the huge pile of leaves at Papa and Granny's house.

We found a tree to climb.

I'm very thankful for good sister-in-laws.  You know, that's important in a family.

We are very thankful for Granny and Papa!

Savannah is Seven!

Our sweet Savannah turned Seven in November!  This little girl's personality has blossomed this past year.  She is in the first grade.  She loves to read and write letters to everyone.  She is doing math and is constantly saying, "mommy, I know what blank + blank equals!" 

Her and Laurel are so sweet to each other, most of the time. :)  These two have shared a full size bed for the past 5 years.  They definitely have a bond.  Laurel told me that sometimes she wakes up in the middle of the night and touches Savannah's chest to make sure she is still breathing.

She is such a big help to us.  She loves watching her brothers for me.  She is still so tiny and petite.  She tries to pick up Sawyer, but he's almost too big for her.  She is taking Cheernastics and loves it! 
She says so many funny things.  She has such a quiet confidence about her.  She always makes sure that she has given me tons of hugs and kisses before bed and she tells us she loves us all the time.

We love this Seven year old!

Still Kissing!

 

 

Seth and I celebrated our 12th anniversary in November.  I love this picture! 

Why?  One reason, Seth and I still kiss after 12 years!!! 

Second reason, the kids usually make faces when they see us kissing.  So this was kind of a natural pose for them.

 

The photographer was wrapping things up, the boys were breaking down, bad.  But I'm so glad that I asked her to take a few minutes to take these pictures of us.  You know, before we get really old!

 

 

We celebrated by going out to eat Mexican.  We then went to Publix and bought treats to smuggle into the movie.  We went to see the James Bond movie.  By this time it was already after 9:00.  That was one long movie and I'm a lame date.  I put my head on Seth's shoulder and dozed, until a loud noise jarred me back.

 

I love where we are in life.  Our family is complete.  He still gives me butterflies.  I love how we communicate. I thank God every day for him!

 

 

 

Family Pictures

Family Pictures 2012

We had family pictures made in November.  The photographer came to our house and took the pictures around our property.  This was probably the most stressful event of 2012 for me.  I know, that is pathetic.  Or, if you want to look at it like this, I had a pretty awesome year!  I stressed and stressed for months about our wardrobe. 

It was actually pretty funny.  The photographer kept telling me to relax.  She said that I looked too tense!  I was pretty worried about how they were going to turn out.  But I was pretty pleased.  It is a true miracle that she got what she did of Landon and Sawyer.  Those boys never stand still.

Here are some of my favorites:

My most favorite.  I had it blown up on a canvas and I love it.  Sawyer had just been brought out of the woods seconds before she got this shot.  I couldn't believe it turned out.

And this one..... just because it pretty much sums up the morning.  Landon was so uncooperative!

Then he would pose, as if he had modeled his whole three years of life!

Sweet brothers.

Laurel and Savannah were both a photographer's dream.

Doing exactly as they were told.

He makes my heart melt.

 

I am a blessed mother.