33

Happy 33rd Birthday to my man! It's a beautiful day today. 65 degrees and sunny. I doubt there's ever been such a beautiful new year's eve day in the past 33 years! Ready to go out and enjoy it as a family and then REALLY looking forward to a nice dinner and a movie tonight to celebrate, just the two of us! It will be our first date since before Emery was born! Holy smokes! LONG OVERDO! 

I love you, James! Hope it's a great one!

Very Merry

Well, we are back from James' parents house where we had a very merry Christmas...for the most part. Emery battled her first real cold the whole time we were there and Case developed a cough, so that was hard. And now that we're back, we all have the crud! I cannot even taste my food today my head is so congested, which might be the most frustrating symptom so far! Ugh, we are sick of this mess and are ready to all get better so things can get back to normal around here. Emery is also cutting four teeth at the same time, so she really has it rough, poor thing! But regardless of our sickly holiday, we feel more blessed than ever as 2011 comes to a close. 

Case is extra blessed to have cousins close to his age. They had an absolute ball over Christmas!

Greyson, Eli and Case ganging up on PawPaw

Two peas in a pod, these two

Sweet baby girl was really feeling icky on Christmas Eve and just wanted her mommy!

Case giving Great Granny Winnie a thank you kiss for his Gordon train.

Love them!!

Sweet baby girl!

Making cookies for Santa with MawMaw

Poor Eli is so left out

Case must have been good this year. Santa brought him a Thomas play hut, Chuggington Interactive Train Set, Angry Birds and more!

Emery was a good girl this year too!

Eli checking it out good

Ready for church Christmas morning

I love this one of all the grandkids!

Attempt at a family pic. Sorry James, this was the best one!

And a brief video of one of the boys' favorite activities...so much fun!

Happy Holidays

From our home to yours...

Lately

Photo caption time. It's about all I have time for these days. In summary...Emery is pulling up and crawling ALL OVER THE PLACE. We've been gearing up for Christmas and have had fun looking for our elf, Gizmo, every morning and counting down the days on our advent calendar. Looking forward to a few days of relaxation and fun times at the in-laws this weekend.

Case and Emery playing in the "fort" make out of the couch cushions

So proud that she can stand up

She loves playing with her brother's trains. It infuriates Case.

Got his bling and his stunner shades on.

Case enjoying our new-to-us (antique) piano, thanks to Maw Maw and Paw Paw

Gizmo flying Case's plane (clearly I need to dust up there..ewww)

Ho Ho Ho!

We have officially been to see Santa Claus. Case was pumped and ran right up to him and hopped in his lap. This is the first time we've ever been to see the real Santa, so I wasn't sure if Case would freak out or get excited. What was I worried about?? And even Emery kept her composure long enough for me to snap a pic with her on his lap too! Who would have thought? She was mesmerized by his white beard! Looking forward to Santa paying us a visit in just 24 more days!

Giving Thanks

Happy Thanksgiving to all! We sure had a great one this year in Mtn. View with my family. We ate until we couldn't eat anymore, rested, watched a lot of football, ate some more, had Christmas with my family, and ate and ate and ate some more! We were stuffed full of turkey, dressing and pecan pie! It was perfect! We feel so blessed this year and are thankful for more than we could ever list. But most of all we are thankful for the wonderful memories from yet another fantastic holiday with family! Here are some pics from the long holiday weekend...

We attempted to get a family photo for our Christmas cards this year...After our third try I just gave up!

Attempt #1

Attempt #2

Attempt #3

Case got to ride on all sorts of fun vehicles while in Arkansas. That's what living in the country is all about. I think he kept my dad pretty busy!

Feeding the horses behind my Granny's house.

And since James and I take turns every year for Thanksgiving and Christmas, we did Christmas with my family while we were there this week. The boy cousins had such a great time, and of course, Case was more interested in their presents than his own! The most popular being Evan's Angry Birds game.

Emery's first Thanksgiving and Christmas!

It was really late and we were exhausted, but I wanted to document the occasion anyway.

Mom made me promise not to put this one the blog, but it's too cute not to include!

Since our return to Memphis, I've been busy decorating for Christmas at our house. Tree is up and wreaths and stockings are hung. I just love this time of year and my festive house just makes me so happy! Now I'm just ready for the rain to stop so I can put some lights on our bushes outside and then my decorating will be complete!

And our elf, Gizmo, arrived at our house yesterday. Straight from the North Pole. Early this morning I heard a pitter patter on the stairs and went to see what Case was up to. He had snuck downstairs to look for Gizmo. Case always comes in our room first thing in the morning when he wakes up, so I was quite surprised. He was so excited to find Gizmo that he couldn't wait to start his search. He has been telling Gizmo all the things he wants Santa to bring him...trains, more trains and some Angry Birds! Of course, Gizmo promotes good behavior as well, which we are very thankful for! We hope Gizmo is able to give good reports to Santa!

Gizmo

Happy Thanksgiving once again to all of our friends and family. We. Are. So. Thankful.