A Tidbit of our Christmas

After all the running around we did last week, I'm glad to say Christmas is finally over. We had Christmas at my grandparents house last Saturday, then at my parents house Tuesday, Clay's uncles' house Wednesday, ours Thursday morning, the in-laws also Thursday morning, then Clay's Memaws' house Saturday. Whew! We have had a full week of it! I'm ready to relax for the next week. (and of course the Christmas decorations came down on Christmas day...I couldn't stand to look at them anymore!)

Christmas Morning

Trying to figure out which one to open first

Charlie....looking for his presents

They loved their Star Wars ships from Santa

Hunter got one too!

Christmas morning at Granny & Poppa's house

Screaming Banshee...I think this was his favorite present!

Another Star Wars Light Saber...and this one makes noise! (I'm ready for the batteries to run out on that thing!)

His first kill...

I just had to share this real quick. Hunter got a rifle for Christmas and this morning he went hunting with Clay and my Dad. After only a couple of hours a doe walks up on him and he shot it! Can you believe it? His first time to ever shoot a gun on his own and he kills the first deer he sees! He didn't even have any help. I think we may have another great hunter on our hands!

(Sorry it's not a very good picture, but Clay only had his camera phone.)

Christmas #2

Last night we celebrated Christmas with my parents. The boys were on pins and needles all day yesterday....they were about to drive me crazy asking "when are we going to Nana's house?" If I heard that once, I heard it a thousand times yesterday. The boys said they got everything they wanted, so I guess there's no need for Santa to come now! :) And by the way, thanks Nana for the Guitar Hero...we stayed up all night last night playing! (and I beat everybody!)

Trying to figure out which one is theirs

Don't you just love the smile on his face??

Can you tell he was excited?

Thanks for the rifle, Papa. He's ready to go hunting this weekend now!

A very busy week

Being the week before Christmas break, we have been super busy...at school and at home. Of course we started out the week with two snow days, which was nice, a couple of class Christmas parties, a Christmas musical, pajama day, and finally Christmas dinner with the grandparents. I'm actually happy this week is over. I'm looking forward to sleeping in and not having a schedule for the next two weeks. Here's a few pictures from our hectic week:

Hunter & Ty with Trooper sliding on the ice

Eating the ice....YUCK!

Ty with the cookie HE decorated at his Christmas party

Ty & Cooper

Ty & Braden opening their gifts

Hunter had a small speaking part in his class play...he was an elf. It was absolutely adorable!

Hunter & Ty after the play

Hunter & Ty at Granny & PaPa's house...waiting on Santa

They finally got to sit on Santa's lap

I am not a scrooge...

So everyone has been giving me a hard time because I don't let my kids decorate the Christmas tree the way THEY want to decorate it....so, I let them get their own Christmas tree. They got to pick out a real tree and all the ornaments they wanted to put on it. They even put them all on by themselves. There was some discussion as to where it would go, but we finally decided on the playroom. I think they did a really good job!

Christmas Lights, Hot Chocolate, & Marshmallows

Last night we went with some friends to Hot Springs to Garvan Woodland Gardens to see the Christmas lights. It was absolutely beautiful! We walked through what seemed like miles of lights. Along the way, we stopped to roast some marshmallows and drink some hot chocolate. When we got finished, we were going to take the boys ice skating. They have a huge outside skating rink in downtown Hot Springs, but by the time we got there, they were closing. The boys were so disappointed. We'll have to try to find some time to go back there. I'm sure that will be lots of fun!!!

My Christmas Tree

So I decided to change up my tree a little bit this year. Clay absolutely hates it!!! That's all I've heard about ever since I got it finished. He's calling it my "Peacock Tree". Seeing as he has no taste whatsoever...this really doesn't bother me! I didn't decorate the tree to please him anyway! Let me know what you think!

Happy Thanksgiving

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. If you sit back and think about it, it's really a shame that we only take one day out of the year to reflect on the things we are thankful for. As a whole, we are a very blessed country. We have more than we could ever possibly need. I am so thankful for my wonderful family and friends that are always there for me when I need them! :)
Love you guys!

We spent our day at Nana & Papa's house, then on the Granny & Poppa's. (I am so thankful that all of our family lives in the same city!) We ate entirely too much turkey and dressing and even found some time to watch a little football. In between all of that, I finally finished up my Christmas tree. Now it's on to checking out the sales papers to see what stores I need to hit up first in the morning...ahhhh....4:00 a.m. will come way too early in the morning!!!

Hunter & Ty with Granny & PaPa (I think the sun was in their eyes! Sorry!)

1 Little, 2 Little, 3 Little Indians....

I know I've been a slacker the past couple of weeks and haven't posted to my blog....so I'm going to try to catch up a little now. Last week Ty's class studied the first Thanksgiving. One day they dressed as pilgrims, one day as Indians, and then one day they had a "feast" like the first Thanksgiving. It was the cutest thing! The day they dressed as Indians, they asked me to come help paint their faces. Here's a couple of pics from that:

The kiddos got to pick out what they wanted painted on their faces...at least Ty picked an easy one...some of the other kids weren't as kind!

Little Indian Boys

The Whole Indian Tribe

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This weekend we took a trip to Starkville, Mississippi to watch the UA vs. MSU game with our friends, Dino and Shannon. Shannon graduated from MSU and they are huge State fans. This is the second year in a row we have went to the UA vs. MSU game with them. Even though the Hogs lost 31-28, we still had a good time. Instead of staying in "Stark Vegas", we went on to Tupelo to stay the night. We even had a little time to slip in a visit to Elvis' birth home. Thanks Dino and Shannon for a great trip!!!

The whole way to the game, we were joking about how people from Mississippi can't read. As soon as we get into the state, we see this sign. At least they know they can't read!!!

All decked out in their maroon and white

Clay and I in razorback red...I couldn't get one good pic of the both of us all weekend long..he tries his best to ruin every picture!

Gloating after their victory...

Of course Clay was not happy about the loss!

Elvis Presley's birth home

Shannon and I in Elvis' front porch swing

Happy Veterans Day

Yesterday was Veterans Day, and the third grade classes at VPS decided to have an assembly recognizing some of their family members that were veterans. I think we had 13 veterans in all that showed up, including my Papa, which was the only WWII veteran there. Each of the students got to introduce their family member and tell what branch of service they were in and when they served. All of you that know my Papa know just how much this meant to him. He had a great time! I think we should all take the time to thank those men and women that have fought for our freedom so we can be where we are today. I know I'm proud of my Papa! :)

Hunter, Ty, Papa, & I

Hunter introducing his Papa

Me with my Mom & Granny (yes, I am the only blonde in the family...and you thought it was natural, didn't you!?!?)

Just call me Betty Crocker....

..........Not really! I've never claimed to be a good cook, actually I've never even claimed to be able to cook. I'm not good at it, but I've come to terms with that. For some reason tonight my kids decided they wanted biscuits and gravy and sausage. There are some things I can cook that are half-way edible, but gravy is not one of those things. I let my good judgement go out the window and decided to give making gravy one more try. This is what I ended up with:

Yes, I know it looks gross and it doesn't even resemble gravy. It was about the same consistency as water. Luckily for me, they make these handy little mixes...

Needless to say we poured my "gravy" out and had this instead. It actually tasted really good...a lot better than mine for sure!!! This is what real gravy should look like:

From now on, this is my new motto: