Merry Christmas Eve 2012

The reindeer are fed, the cookies and milk are out, the stockings are hung, and the children are in bed!  The question is....are they asleep?  :)  We have three very excited little girls and one little boy who is clueless but happy upstairs snug in their beds (well Jack is in his bed and the girls are all piled in Bec's bed!) anticipating Christmas morning.  We had a great night preparing.  We baked cookies.  Grandmama and Popie stopped by to help us spread reindeer food.  Next, we sat around the Christmas tree and read The Christmas Story.  Then we all had a great talk about the true meaning of Christmas.  Happy Birthday, Jesus!  

Playing dress up in their new Cowgirl suits from GiGi and G'Paul!

Ready to spread reindeer food around the yard!

Calling all the reindeer!

Check out Dan's attire in the background!  :)  I can safely type this since I was taking the pic.  I can promise you....I was not looking much better!  

This was right after we read.  They were SO excited!  

This little snuggle bear turns 6 months tomorrow!  He decided to go ahead and snooze through all of the excitement.  I wanted a picture of his first Christmas Eve.  I have a feeling he will be right in the middle of it next year!  

Piled up!  

Going to See Santa.....sort of

I had a great plan for Saturday, so I thought!  Dan was helping Grandmama and Popie move after work, so I was going to take the kids to Bass Pro to see Santa.  Hahahaha  I guess the entire mid-south had the same exact brilliant idea as me.  We did go in Bass Pro, browsed around, bought a few things, and got out of there as quickly as I could!  I talked the girls into getting the Elf on the Shelf movie instead of waiting in the line to see Santa.  

I did manage to get a picture of them dressed in their Christmas outfits before we left the house.  

Merry Christmas!

Bear picked out some camouflage items!  

Date Night

Date Night!  Dan and I went to see Jersey Boys last night at The Orpheum.  What a great night!  We had such a good time.  After seeing Rock of Ages in New York, we decided that seeing some shows in Memphis would be a must do!  It definitely was a fabulous evening with my wonderful husband!  Blessed!  :) 

Eli the Elf

The Elf is back!  He is been up to some pretty mischievous things around our house!  He did arrive bringing very cute Christmas pajamas.  One night he turned the milk pink!  Eli brings lots of laughs and fun to our house as we count down to Christmas day! 

Our Trees 

The "traditional" tree that I seem to be OCD about!  :) 

The FUN tree --- colored lights and totally "kid" decorated! 

We are so Thankful

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving.  We hope all of you did too.  We enjoyed visiting with family, decorating for Christmas, hanging around the house, and of course eating great food.  Sabrina & I did the Black Friday shopping thing and had a blast. :)  It only took me the next two days to recover from the lack of sleep, but it was worth the good time we had!  

I've had some "blogging" technical issues, so I am a little behind.....  Also, I forgot to take our camera to our gatherings!  What can I say, we were doing good to get there.  :) 

Jack getting his first taste of a Tootsie Pop!!!!  And I said this is how you know he is the baby of four....instead of Mommy freaking out, I grabbed the camera!  :) Bear turned 5 months on the 25th!  


Thanksgiving Day at Grandmama and Popie's House 

Matchy Match

I know that my time is very limited, so I am enjoying every moment that I can dress the girls alike. I still love looking at pictures of my mom and her two sisters when they were little girls.  Ma always had them dressed alike.  I now fully understand why she did it!  

 I LOVE these dresses.  They were very excited to match each other!  Like I said...I know these days will not last too much longer.  I did not buy my scarf at the same time I ordered their dresses nor did I intend for us all to match, but it worked out perfectly!  

Happy Halloween 2012

We had a great Halloween night!  Great times with good friends and lots of candy too!  :)

Baby Bear dressed as a Monkey and Big Sister as a Mermaid 

Katie Beth & Maylee

Bear had to jump in too!

Look at this group - ready to go!  

The Hulk (Conner) and Bear!  

Red Ribbon Week at HSES

This is absolutely one of my favorite week's at school!  I know I am a child at heart because I really do get so excited about the fun themed days and dressing up!  :)  Our theme this year is "The Best Me is Drug Free".  The classes decorated their doors with the theme.  They look amazing!  It has been extra fun this year because now I have a little mini-me now dressing up too!  :) 

Farm Day ~ Cowgirl/Cowboy Day

Cowgirls saddling up to ride to school! 

Maylee and Easton 

Jenea and Maylee


Halloween - Costume Day

Luau Day

Charger Spirit Day

 

Week in Review :)

 

Blessed with the Best

We are so blessed to have Lynsey come and stay with Jack each day.  I can list many reasons that this is such a blessing.  One of the things that makes my day is receiving a message from her that contains something like this:  

She said when she went to take this picture Jack was sucking on his thumb.  When she held up the camera to take the picture, he started smiling.  Melt my heart!  

Today we took our fall family pictures with Leslie Stanton.  Leslie takes gorgeous pictures and teaches school at HSES (she is very good at that too).  As you can imagine, getting us all ready and coordinated was not an easy task.  I am sure she captured some frame worthy moments.  :)  After pictures, we went to the Fall Festival at our church.  This is always a fun filled event for the children.  I am sad to say that I did not even take my phone or camera in to capture any pictures.  I was just enjoying the moments!  

Wonderful Weekend

Becca holding Bear
Yes, he is almost as big as his big sister!  

Do you ever want to just freeze time?  I know we all have these moments.  The next pictures are from our outing Saturday.  A friend from work told me about the neat slide set up at Snowden Grove, so once I knew the weather was going to be nice - I knew Saturday had to be a park and slide day.  Well having a four month old little boy and three little ladies means that we do not get ready for anything quickly.  It is really like we do everything in shifts....feed Jack, eat breakfast, get dressed, get hair fixed, pack Jack's bag and a snack bag for park.....some where in there I try to look halfway presentable and brush my hair or in the case...throw on a hat!  After all of the preparing to leave, I took a deep breath and we were on our way.  We needed to make a quick Target run before hitting the park.  As I was driving, I looked in the rearview mirror and it was THAT moment.  I wanted to freeze time.  The girls were being goofy, silly, and serious by DANCING their hearts out while giggling the sweetest laughs.  I pulled over to snap a picture, so I could always remember that moment.  I wish I could have captured their dancing and singing on video!  

Oh yeah....Samples Sisters know how to do it!

Here are some pics from the slide.  It was so neat.  You go down it in a tube or little blown up raft.  The funniest part of the day was pulling up and all of the adults looking at it and asking each other... "What is this....?"  Priceless.  Dan came by on his way home from work.  I probably was not doing the slide justice with my description, so I am glad he came by to see for himself!  Becca did not want to go down the slide, so she hung out with Jack and me.  She was a big help and we had a good time watching.  Emma and Maylee were soaked by the end, but they had a blast!

Sunday morning are always just a MAD DASH to get ready and out the door to be on time for church.  I am not sure what we did differently this Sunday, but we weren't rushing as much as we normally do.  Dan and I were looking at something on the computer.  Jack had been jumping in his jumpy.  We looked over and sweet BEAR was sound asleep!  Who can sleep like this?  Just add this to the list of how our son is just like his Daddy!  

Jack - 16 Weeks

Jack loves to giggle and "talk"!  One night this week Dan and I caught him "chatting" to the fish that is in his crib toy.  He was telling the fish something very important.  He loves to engage in a conversation with you.  It is funny how he also uses his eyebrows to say a lot too!  He is trying so hard to roll over - I think the one time he rolled over earlier was just a fluke!  He gets all the way on his side then rolls back the other way.  We also discovered that when it is time to sleep - he LOVES to cuddle with a blanket.  :) 

Maylee's Kindergarten Trip to the Farm

First stop for Ms. Birge's class - Pony rides!

Kennedy and Maylee 

Say Cheese - Ms. Birge & Ms. Cole's Class 

Maylee & Janea

Petting the calves 

Maylee milking the goat

        On Friday, October 12th, the Kindergarten classes took a trip to Kidz Kountry Farm in Southaven.  The children had a great time riding the ponies, feeding the animals, going on a hayride, picking pumpkins, watching a turtle race, and riding the train.  It was a very eventful day!  I was thrilled to be able to slip away from school and actually attend the trip as Mom!  Maylee actually said, "can you just pretend to be my Mama".  I really did not know I had to pretend.  :)