Christmas part TWO

On Christmas Eve day we headed to our family cabin for the rest of the holiday. We are very lucky that ALL of our family live very close together so although we do lots of traveling, we don't have to go too far....

Two (of the many) things I learned over the holidays:

1. I love my new camera and took WAY too many pictures....
(and as if you have nothing better to do...I have posted LOTS of them!)
2. My baby is no longer a baby. I officially have a BIG boy and he knows it!
He is SO much fun!

Silly Bandz!!!

Check out Smith's boots he got from Grandpa and Tizzie...
and of course the 85 cent slinky was his FAVORITE toy!Cousins...in their matching jammas on Christmas Eve...

Smith must have been on the "NICE" list....

Santa came to see Anne Parks and Nora, too!

Dear Santa, The tent was a BIG hit! WE love it!

Ganne with her Grands...(minus Alli)

Ganne with her Greats...
(check out ALL those Silly Bandz...they are crazy y'all. crazy!)Happy Birthday, Jesus!

Then we took the 8 minute trek to CC and Pop's house for more food and more presents!

That fabulous thingy all wrapped up back there is an awesome slide....I will post the slide videos later...

Reed and Woody.

My Daddy and my little brother, Andrew.

Everyone keeps telling me that AP is a carbon copy of me....
but from these next two pictures I just can't imagine why??? :)Smith's favorite spot.

In Smith's mind..."Paw = outside!"
He LOVES Grandpa!

I was so excited to spend some time with Andrew...he is home from Los Angeles for the holidays and it has been great to have him around. We will all really miss him when he goes back to his new home next week!

If you are not my grandmother or my in-laws and you made it through this entire post, I would like to commend you...post a comment and let me know who you are!!!

my friend, Caroline.

Although we had a wonderful time celebrating Christmas this year, we did so with heavy hearts.

On Tuesday, December 22, my dearest childhood friend, Caroline Fair went HOME for Christmas. Caroline was 28 years old and died at home in Louisville, MS. I never thought I would spend Christmas Eve morning at a funeral for a beautiful young woman, but it was a blessing to celebrate and honor Caroline on such a special day.

I have some great pictures that I need to scan so I will save my
thoughts about "Care Bear" Fair for a future post.

Please lift up Caroline's sweet family as they seek peace and understanding.

silly sisters....

I may get kicked out of the family for posting these pictures,
but this was just too funny not to share...

Reed's mom has two sisters and they are all what I call "something else!"
They are so funny and a blast to be around! I just love them...
Trying to get a picture of them all smiling and looking is almost impossible!
They are worse than the kids!

FINALLY...sorta.***please check out the AWESOME pictures of Reed (right) and Woody on the mantle!!!

christmas part ONE

We had a great Christmas. I love being with our families, playing games, opening presents, eating lots of food and sitting by the roaring fire at the cabin.

Smith and Stella headed to Gannie's house.

Reed's grandfather with his grandchildren/spouses and great-grandchild.

Aunt Jess and "Uncle Awesome " (as he has requested to be called)
brought Smith these Mickey Mouse ears from Disney World!Our time at Gannie's was short, but lots of fun!

a happy yesterday...

I made some YUMMY honey butter to give to teachers/friends as Christmas happies...and if you know me, I can't give a "happy" without telling my FAVORITe story. I think I have honestly told this story a thousand times but it never gets old....I never knew that a "happy" was a Deep South saying until...I called a friend one day (she lived in San Diego at the time but is a Texan at heart) and said, "I bought you a happy yesterday..." and she so kindly replied, "That is sooo sweet...but what the heck is a happy yesterday?" I LOVe IT. just LOVe IT.

the church choir

My mama loves the church choir. She has a beautiful voice and one of her favorite things is singing in the choir! We went to see the Christmas program last Sunday night and it was GREAT! Let me just say....they attend a small church in a small town BUT they have a FABULOUS choir!

...and there's Grandpa!
My mom loves the choir so much that she talked
my daddy into joining the choir, too!

...and guess who else is in their choir...the BIG man himself!
See him? Yep, SANTA is in the choir, too!

Great job, Grandpa and Tizzie!

the city of lights

My husband has the great honor of calling "the city of lights" home :) ......so we took Smith to enjoy the fun!

We visited with Gannie and rode the train AND the carousel!

chuck E cheese

Smith had his first trip to Chuck E Cheese last weekend and we all had a great time. AP and Nora, Laura and Jason and Grandpa and Tizzie all came along!Daddy totally USED Smith to play lots of games...

Gannie sent Smith these cute Christmas jammas and we TRIED to get some pictures for her!

Breakfast with SANTA!

Smith was so ready to get to school this morning for Breakfast with Santa! He was dressed and standing at the door waiting on us! He didn't show the same enthusiasm when we got there... I don't have any pictures of him with Santa (they had a photographer there and I had to order the pics!) but I CANNOT wait to see how they turned out! He screamed and screamed and screamed!
Besides seeing Santa, we ate a great breakfast and Smith's class sang a song in the program!

Ready to go....

Mama is always sad because she is never in the picture...and when daddy actually takes the picture, he doesn't "try" to get a good one! So...here is our attempt at a cute pic with mama!

FINALLY....

Smith was one of the first ones to the stands for the program!
Bells in one hand and french toast stick in the other!

Smith sat next to his friend, Mary Audrey and they did a great job!

This is Smith's teacher, Ms. Emily. He LOVES her!
She is so great with him and he gets so excited to see her!

Mary Audrey's mama brought reindeer antlers for everyone in the class!

Ms. Emily's Class

I was really surprised that Smith didn't take his antlers off! They started falling off and he still left them on! I just hate I didn't have this picture before I ordered my Christmas cards!

I will post the video of the program later today...so check back!