Haha's Present

We had fun this year with my mom's present. The artist who did Sam's 40th birthday picture did a picture for our HaHa. (His link is on the side bar, Organized Doodles, check it out, he is REALLY talented). She LOVES all her animals so she now finally has a picture of her with ALL of them at the same time. We had her open them at my sister's house so we could watch it happen on SKYPE.

These pictures I took from my end of my computer screen. My sister took some live shots so I hope to get those soon.
She squealed.
She laughed.
She cried.

Yet she still didn't speak. I don't think she knew what to say!

I love giving unexpected gifts! Merry Christmas Mom! I hope you love it!
LOVE YOU!

Mommy's Christmas Present !!!

Sam is in charge of filling all the stockings, except his own. I was the last one to get mine this morning. Usually it is filled with little trinkets and fun things. This morning, all it contained was a piece of paper in an envelope. The above clue was what it said! I quickly figured out it was talking about the tree house and sent Kaitlynn out in the morning cold in her jammies and boots and jacket to walk to the back of the property and search the tree house for me.

She came back with this next clue!
I figured out it was the new pair of boots I had just bought (that Sam thinks are ugly, but I am so thrilled to finally be wearing something besides sneakers!!) This next coupon below first lead me to my coupon organizer, which revealed nothing. Then looking at it more closely, I realized it was the chicken COOP. So I sent Kaitlynn back outside again, thankful Sam had tossed the dead chicken out the other day, so Kaitlynn could retrieve my next envelope without dead chicken cooties.
Which revealed the next clue below which lead me to the spaghetti sauce in the cabinet.
Which opened the next clue that lead me to the frozen pizza in the outside freezer. Our neighbor in Idaho made the best home made pizza we had ever had, but she promised her grandmother she would never tell the secret recipe and she WON'T!!!!
I think I missed a picture here, but the next one was easy. CALL MY MOM.

She gave me a verbal clue that lead me to the birdhouse outside.
And that clue was easy, CALL CARRIE!
Then I had to figure out which mirror to look in to see behind me to find ANOTHER clue.
I found this one below and it was the only one to really stump be for a bit. FINALLY figured out it was our MAILBOX! Again, I sent Kaitlynn out to get it. Our driveway is pretty steep and very long!
The next clue was also easy, call JuJu! (Sam's mom)
Then onto a piece of pottery on the dining room wall....
Then to call a great friend in Savannah for another verbal clue....
Now, several of the envelopes had inside them a picture cut into several pieces that I had to assemble. Once assembled, I had to turn it over to see the letter. Once I had all the letters I had to unscramble them for the final clue.
Once I showed Sam I had the letters correctly, I was given the absolute last clue, which was a website address he had created with my present.
This is where I burst into tears. He is taking me on my dream trip for my 40th birthday.
I fly into SWITZERLAND the day after my birthday in March, then we have almost 2 weeks to explore in Switzerland, Venice, Florence and days in Rome among others.

He had already arranged childcare with all the grandparents and aunts for 2 weeks.

I am still in shock. I have always wanted to go to these places and photograph them and explore them and I am going!!

I am so ready for this birthday to be here. COME ON 40!! I think the only other birthday I looked forward to like this was the 16th one.

Thank you Sam! 2 weeks exploring and experiencing new EVERYTHING, with YOU, is absolutely perfect!
This is a Christmas present that will last a lifetime!

Christmas Piano Recital

Kaitlynn has been taking piano lessons this year from our good friend, Stacey Nott. She is enjoying the lessons and learning a lot. I love it that I don't ever have to ask her to practice. Sporadic points throughout the day you can hear piano music as she basically plays a song or two every time she passes by her piano. She had a piano concert of Christmas music and played a lively version on Jingle Bells, then closed the evening with a duet with Stacey of We Wish You A Merry Christmas. We are proud of her progress and thankful she is developing a love for music.

Youth CHRISTmas Party

This is Collin's first year in the youth group. His leader, Elliott, is fantastic and they are doing lots of fun things as well as studying some really solid books.
They had a "tacky" Christmas party and 24 kids showed up as tacky as possible. Collin went as a living Christmas tree and won the boys first place prize. The girls' contest was a lot harder as you can see by the group picture, they were REALLY creative!
Collin basically walked around and plugged himself in all over the place until voting was over. :D

Flooping

The picture was taken with Sam's camera phone and was just to cute not to tell the story.
Weeks ago, Kaebrie was given a robe. She fell in love with it! She said it was just like her JuJu. (Her grandmother wears a robe every morning). She came downstairs one morning with her robe already on and said she had "flooped" it. I asked her to show me, so she did. It is a double looping knot that she made up. The term has stuck and she is so proud of her daily flooping!

She asked if she could take her robe to JuJu's house for Thanksgiving so they could FLOOP together. And FLOOP they did! She even wears some matching pink "flippers" !
Childhood.........so adorable !!!!

Thanksgiving in Alabama

Wednesday morning we were off to Alabama for Thanksgiving with the family! As we were running behind schedule, we went to my sister's house first thing. She wanted some pictures taken and we were running short on sunlight. The pictures got out of order on here and her pics are at the end. :)

Here is my dad, Bumps, above with all his grand kids, and below, with his 2 daughters and all the grand kids.

Jacquie's backyard provided the perfect setting for some fall pictures!
The goofy pictures at HaHa's house!
Sam's parents with all 6 of their grand kids!
The good picture of HaHa with all 5 of her grand kids and all 3 of her beloved pets.
The annual Smith family on the front porch picture. I LOVE this tradition!
Kaebrie and her HaHa.
Journey, the new one-eyes kitty was the softest, sweetest little thing!
Caught Jeffry, the 3 legged dog, in a rather interesting pose. :D
My baby sister, Jacquie, Brian and Blake in their gorgeous backyard.
AAAAWWWWWWWWWwwwwwww !!
Kaitlynn and her Auntie Jax... Kaitlynn has reminded me of my sister since she was just a baby!
Little Blake, getting all grown up...
My favorite picture of Blake, this really captures his crazy personality!!
He absolutely HATES to have his picture taken, even for his Auntie Jo.
My sis and my adorable nephew!
There were other pictures, snapshots of the totally filed 2 day visit, but I guess they didn't get uploaded.
It is really nice being back in the south and close enough to join the family for holidays. We have some fun traditions and the kids are making some sweet memories!

The Bryants came to visit!

Friends are a wonderful and special part of life. And friends that have been around for DECADES are even more special! Ashley and I became great friends in the 10th grade when we were 15 years old. We married 4 weeks apart and now we each have husbands who went through seminary and 4 kids. As we both have moved all over the last 17 years, we are now only 5 hours apart and in the direct line of when they drive home for the holidays. As a result, we got a 2 day visit and had so much fun! They had to let me do a family picture while they were here, but I can't decide if the one above or the one below is my favorite! :)
Here we go...all 8 kids together!! SO MUCH FUN!
The little girls were instant buddies. Kaebrie is five and Sydney is 8, but it didn't matter one bit.

Kaitlynn at 10 and Alice at 12 were inseparable!

(goofy goofy goofy girls)Collin at 12 and Aaron at 14 bonded quickly and had lots of fun playing outside and playing RISK.
They all loved the "goofy" poses!
Tiff and Lindley. At 7 and 9, they had a lot of common interests and got along really well. They liked playing Wii together.
The "cool guy" pose.
FLASHBACK ALERT: Here we are in 1994, before either of us had any kids. WOW. I realize the big hair and the big glasses, so no laughing!
Conan O'Brian, EAT YOUR HEART OUT!
The little girls were escorted down the stairs....
....then we were shown their make overs!! (We preferred them the way they were PRIOR to the makeup). :)
2 days and 2 (late) nights full of fun! Bryants, come back SOON!