Wrapping Up 2011

Lane had to work, but the kids and I have had a good day. We spent the whole day just playing together.

When L left for work this a.m., I went to open the baby gate so that Crosby would come to the living room when he woke up instead of waking A & R like he's been doing. But when I got to the hallway, I saw that the boys' doors were both open. I assumed Crosby was in the bathroom, but when I peeked in Rhett's room, I saw C asleep on the floor there--no pants on, no blanket. He just had his football, and his PJ pants were beside him. I guess he went to the bathroom at some point and ended up there instead of back in his bed. It was so cute, but I felt bad for him because he looked cold and uncomfortable. I covered him up with a blanket and left him sleeping. I have to get a night-light for his room tomorrow so that he can find his way back to his bed if he gets up during the night! R thought it was funny when I told him what had happened. He had no idea he had a visitor.

We played in the playroom for a long time this morning. We read books, built train tracks, played Bug-opoly and Memory and played in the tent that L's parents got C for Christmas. R & A also pretended to work at the zoo and they got out all the stuffed animals and put them in "cages" and fed them.
We had beautiful weather again today (it feels like spring!) so I promised them we'd go to the park after nap time. We had a great time there. They wanted to play on the bridge and go to the creek first, then we played on the playground equipment.

These three have grown so much this year!

Beyond thankful for these blessings.

C took a bat and ball and carried them all over the park. :)

swinging high

on the monkey bars

We picked up pizza for dinner on the way home, and I let them have one of their Christmas Cokes. They were saying, "Cheers to the new year!" in this picture. :) Alexee and Rhett are having a "sleepover" in A's room tonight. R set his alarm for 11:55 p.m. so they could wake up and countdown to the new year. I'm getting sleepy myself...I'm not sure if I will be able to stay awake until midnight! Last night I went to bed at 9:30 and I woke up feeling more rested than I've felt in a LONG time. I decided that would be one of my NY Resolutions: Go to bed earlier every night!

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2o11...

Just a few of the memories that come to mind...

January--Rhett prayed to ask Jesus into his heart! A sweet, sweet time.

February--Alexee had her picture made by the "4 Tree". We got lots of snow and the kids missed lots of school. Alexee and Lane went to the Daddy/Daughter pancake breakfast at church...she still talks about how much fun she had!

March--Rhett turned 7 and had his first birthday sleepover. We took the boys to eat pizza and to the rock climbing center. Crosby turned 2. We spent part of Spring Break in Flippin--Alexee and Mo adopted a cat.

April--Went to Disney World and had a wonderful time.

May--Lane graduated from medical school. We took a fun family trip to Branson with L's parents.

June--Lane and I had dinner at the Governor's Mansion, we met my blog friend Candy and her family at Magic Springs, the kids spent a week in Flippin for vacation Bible school and Lane and I celebrated our 10th anniversary.

July--Lane's parents celebrated their 50th anniversary. It was really hot. We made homemade ice cream for the 4th of July. Lane started residency and things got very busy after that. We spent the night at the cabin with my parents. Rhett was baptized--our families were here for that very special occasion.

August--Lane and Rhett went back to Silver Dollar City in Branson. We found monarch caterpillars in our back yard. It was really really hot. We had a belated anniversary brunch to celebrate Lane's parents' anniversary. Rhett started 2nd grade. Lane's birthday didn't go as planned.

September--It was the 10th anniversary of 9/11, which is hard to believe.

October--my family met at Buffalo Point for our fall picnic--always so fun. We visited the pumpkin patch, carved pumpkins and the kids dressed up as a vampire, Disney's Belle and a Razorback football player. My parents lost their dog, Clay, and it was a sad time for all of us.

November--Lane had a week off and the two of us went to Florida for 4 nights. It was a great get-away! We had Thanksgiving lunch at our house, just the 5 of us. I made my Grandmother's cornbread dressing for the 2nd time ever. Lane and I had lunch on my birthday.

December--We had a busy, fun-filled Christmas season...Cookie the elf spent the month with us, we cut down a huge tree at the tree farm, we spent lots of time with family, enjoyed the Christmas Eve service at church and loved seeing the kids' excitement on Christmas morning.

I'm thankful for health and happiness in 2011, and I pray for the Lord's continued blessings on our family and yours in 2012.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

It's So Cozy To Ride In My Dumptruck

On the 27th, the kids and I went to Mom and Dad's for a few days. We stopped along the way to pick up Jeryn, then my sister and Jaiden came up the following day.

While at PetSmart buying B's dog food last week, Alexee chose a cat toy to take to Princess Louisa. She couldn't wait to give it to her, but Louisa was no where to be found when we first got to Flippin on Tuesday. When the kids finally found her, they had fun showing her the new mouse and ball toys.

Wednesday morning was frosty and cold, but it warmed up later that afternoon. You can see the fog rising off the river off in the distance:

Mo, Crosby, Alexee & Jeryn giving the horses their hay. Rhett had already left to go cut wood with Granddad.

I took this from the kitchen window--they have so many pretty birds in their back yard.
My Dad and Rhett met (Dad's brothers) Jerry and Greg and my cousin, Kristian Wednesday morning to cut wood. Rhett got to ride in the dump truck, which he thought was great. Every time I see a dump truck I think of a little record that my sister had when we were kids. She had a box set of kids' records with books--the kind that rang a bell when it was time to turn the page. One of them was called "It's So Cozy to Ride in My Dump Truck", and it had the cutest tune!

The guys working with the wood splitter.

I took Jeryn, Alexee and Crosby by later that morning to see the action.

They worked hard and were done by noon! You can see Rhett in the window as they were leaving.

Wednesday night we got together with a lot of Mom's side of the family. We met at the river house and had pizza and dessert/coffee/punch. (The orange sherbet punch is a family favorite because my Great-Grandmother Wood used to always make it for Christmas Eve at her house.)

Crosby has started doing a comedian act to entertain people. He says, "Want to see me do something funny?" and then he'll pretend to hit himself in the head with his hand and fall on the floor and roll around. One of his other "funny things" is to dance around waving his arms in the air and making funny faces. :) He got a big laugh out of everyone. I won't be surprised if he's the class clown--he already likes to make others laugh and he's such a happy little boy. Here's a picture of him being funny:
Even though several of my cousins couldn't come that night, we still had lots of kids with lots of energy! They jumped on the bed, played hide & seek and duck-duck-goose.

Dad & Alexee

Alexee & Jaiden with their dolls

I think Aunt Rhonda was telling them how to play Twister.

Alexee and Adrianne (my cousin's little girl) are just a few days apart in age and they got the same dolls for Christmas.

with my Grandmother Nina

Granddad Forrest, Mo Nina, me & the kids

We got home late and the kids were tired and went to bed easily that night. It had been another fun but busy day.

Thursday morning Grandmother stopped by because she had some gifts for the kids. Of course they were excited about that! They got some new toys, including a Bug-opoly game that Rhett has loved playing.
The weather was really beautiful that day--it didn't feel like the last week of December at all! We played outside until time to leave to come home.

Aunt Kala leading Alexee on Banner

I lifted Crosby up to take a ride, but he didn't want to stay on very long--he went back to the dump truck.

Mo leading Rhett

Alexee, Crosby and I were glad to get home to see Lane and Bogart. Rhett stayed one more night, then we all met for dinner in Conway last night so he could ride home with us.

This Part Is Never As Fun

I'm sure everyone would agree--taking down Christmas decorations is no fun at all and maybe even a little depressing. I usually wait a few days, but this year I took every last piece down on the 26th. I worked on it non-stop from morning until dinner time. We planned to leave for Mom and Dad's on the 27th, and I didn't want to have to dread coming back to the mess. Plus our tree was getting extremely dry and crispy and I worried that it was a fire hazard. Lane took R & A with him to run a few errands and then he treated them to lunch at Purple Cow. Crosby and I stayed at home and got a lot done. He only took an hour nap that day, but he mostly just played with his trucks right around my work area and didn't try to help with the ornaments. Every year when I slide the last storage bin back into the attic I think how fast the time will go by between now and next holiday season. The kids were at fun ages this Christmas. It was busy, but there really was an excitement in the air because of them...I'm sad to see it come to an end. I think there were more needles on the floor than on the tree by the time I finished un-decorating it! I had to wear gloves to protect my cut fingers and because the branches were so dry and sticky.

Lane sent me this from the restaurant.

When they got home, Lane took the tree out to the curb in the rain.

We don't have any New Year's plans, so I guess our holiday season is officially over! Time to get organized for the new year.

Merry Christmas!

Saturday night the kids gave us strict instructions to set our alarm for NO later than 6:30 on Christmas morning. They were all three already awake, but waited upstairs for us to turn on lights and get the camera ready! When we told them it was finally time, they came around the corner all smiles!

Crosby found a box containing three trucks with trailers, Alexee had a fairy costume, and Rhett found the bigger bike that he'd been wishing for. Bogart also had some treats in his stocking, which Alexee helped him open.

We couldn't get this box open fast enough for C--those trucks were really tied in there, and he was so excited to start playing with them. He lost interest in looking at his stocking and other gifts.

:)

Rhett was proud of his new watch.

Alexee had asked for jewelry in her letter to Santa, and was pleased to find a rainbow necklace.

and a poodle backpack!

Rhett trying out his new bike--seems to be just the right size!

Santa and the elf must have liked the cookies...they only left a few crumbs!
The kids' gifts from us were under the tree in the entryway, so we went there after the Santa part of the morning.

They all got new snowboots.

Crosby didn't want to try on his boots at that time. He only wanted to play with his trucks.

Rhett had asked for a memory card for his DS. :)

sweet little braids

(We got her a new set of Disney princess board books and she loved them!)

Alexee put on her fairy costume and red flower bow and started coloring in her new coloring book.
Meanwhile Lane and I started on Christmas breakfast. We were excited to try out our waffle maker from L's parents--it worked great! We love it!

Breakfast was good. Unfortunately I got in a big hurry to finish up the dishes and forgot that there was a very sharp knife in the soapy dishwater. I was scared to look at my hand so I turned away and let L stop the bleeding and decide what to do. The cut in the middle was pretty deep, but L thought it would be okay to just "glue" them back together. He didn't have to work on Christmas day, but had a chance to use his ER skills anyway.

That afternoon we went outside to watch Rhett on his bike. It was a nice, sunny day--warm for December. R did great!

The kids finished the countdown to Christmas poster by placing baby Jesus in the manger.

Before dinner we took a family picture by the tree.

After we'd taken the first picture, we realized we'd forgotten to include Bogart, so we posed for another one.

Merry Christmas 2011!

After dinner we went out for a quick drive to look at Christmas lights before bed. We had a really nice Christmas together as a family. I'm very very grateful.