quickie christmas recap

i say "recap" because i took 1 million pictures and this is only a few :) i know it's taken me forever to update- but GUESS what i've been doing (you know, other than life)? SCRAPBOOKING. my old love has come back!! i've gotten through 2006 and am almost done with 2007. yeah, i know, i've got some catching up to do- but it's really been fun so i don't mind. 

anyway, back to christmas:

on christmas eve we had a little "happy birthday Jesus" party. we used to bake a cake but i wisened up to the fact that we never ate the cake amidst all the other christmas goodies... sooo, last year i made birthday pancakes/waffles with a candle stuck in them and that does just fine!

later on that day we headed to neenaw and pawpaw's way out in the country.

 that's my baby driving! i can't believe he's this big.

 i'm so thankful my little guys have cousins to grow up with and be close to. they sure do love each other.

 little bit of present opening. john hayes and caleb were sweet to help each other out :)

 both boys fell asleep on the way home,so we stuck them in bed (hence the fact that there's no cute christmas pjs!!), and woke up the next morning to a haul from Santa. (i know this isn't a very exciting picture, but it was the best i could do! they were kind of intent.)

 we opened our presents from each other and ate some yummy breakfast. well, keith and i did- the boys ate about two bites and went back to their presents.

 at about 9:30 the doorbell rang. the boys ran to the door expecting to see meme and pop and the found:

 a TRAMPOLINE in the garage!! how fun is that? caleb wanted to know how they fit that big thing in their car :) sneaky mama and daddy!

 we opened the last of the presents. whew :)

so thankful for another year with my family. i always think about on christmas day where i'll be and what the next christmas will be like- ever since i was little. can't say i've had a bad christmas yet :) 

holiday happenings

this year for thanksgiving we traveled to tuscaloosa and spent 4 glorious days with my parents. i say glorious because keith and i turn into fat slobs from eating and watching tv and ignoring our children :) it's my parents fault, they keep saying, "we'll get that!" "i'll take care of him." "you rest!"

it's funny how when you're a teenager your parents are after you to not sleep late and do chores and be responsible and when you get older and come to visit they're all please sleep late and don't help and don't worry about your children. 

we usually go to my gran's house for t'giving but she's injured her back, so we stayed at my mom's. gran sent mom a ton of food, so we had gran's cooking at my mom's house. 

this is my favorite thing on the planet. (it's fried okra for you yankees.)

the Lord was praised.

how many kids can say they swam on thanksgiving?

c and keith had a big time in the woods this year. they spent every morning and most evenings out there. if you travel far enough back from my parents yard you hit lake harris. i won't show you all of their pictures, but i'll say keith polk was happy happy happy.

they day after thanksgiving we went to my gran and papa's house to visit. 

so thankful for these three. although we aren't blood kin we are kin of the heart and i think that's more important. 

my cousin jodi brought her two little boys who are about the same age as my two. they had big fun.

another reason my boys love my parent's house- the empty lot next door!!

i managed to capture this cute shot for our christmas card photo. usually when i plan to take pictures it turns to crap, but this year they did well. i think they're growing up and that means they respond to bribes a little better than they used too :)

when we got home we went to get a christmas tree. usually we go to the tree farm but neither of us (keith and i) were feeling it so we just trucked it over to da home depot. c's in a phase when we take his picture. can you guess what that phase is??

we usually buy a 6-7 foot tree but they didn't have any of those so we bought a 7-8 foot tree. it's kind of griswold-y size wise but it's the prettiest tree we've ever had.

we watched "charlie brown christmas" and put up the ornaments. the boys loved it!

i said i wasn't going to do big decorations but then i got started on the mantel and i just couldn't stop. my inspiration was a picture from southern living. i'm in lurve with it but keith says it's much. who cares what he says anyway? he's not going to decorate it :)

our elf henry is back. his name used to be "hangry" but a grown up caleb has insisted that his name be "henry". this little guy is BY FAR caleb's favorite thing this holiday. he rushes every morning to find him and giggles with delight at his antics. collin on the other hand is MAD at him every morning and fusses about whatever he does- especially if he's touching any of his toys. the other morning he was riding a jeep through our snow village and collin yelled, "you leave my jeep ALONE!!! you not touch my jeep!!" he snatched the jeep and threw the elf across the room. we think it's funny to watch so we anticipate it every morning :)

i have been sewing like a MAD woman. to the point i'm totally sick to death of it. i've felt a lot of guilt about the amount i've had to do- but oh well, it is what it is. we cut off orders after thanksgiving at dec.1 and i still had 16 pairs to do, plus a few baby gowns and other items.  whew.

the other nights i made the boys "grinch" pancakes before we watched the grinch movie. they're not pinterest worthy, but we thought they were fun. it's the little things :)

alrighty then, i think that catches us up!

happy place

well, i know in my last post i said i would post these pictures later, but they're just so stinkin' fun to look at i decided to go ahead and do it now. i mean, what else do i have to do?? don't answer that.

i love this place. it's been my happy place always. since i was a little girl, i've been heading down to orange beach, AL. it's one of my favorite places- i mean, obviously. keith went on his own adventure to colorado with his dad while we were there, so it was just me and my boys. my parents were down too, so i got to be lazy :) we got to see my grandparents and aunt as well- which was a huge plus.

i was AMAZED at how fearless caleb was this year. he played in the waves for hours- going  under, riding the waves, letting them knock him down.

collin was too- but then again he is about most things.

yep, this was my view most of the time. 

i bet they only spent about 15 minutes in the pool. since we spent almost every day there this summer i think it wasn't all that exciting.

most our time we spent chillin' in the sand. 

photography by C

they also spent a pretty good bit of time playing in the sand.

one night for dinner we drove over to florida to eat at the crab trap. when we crossed the line i showed C the sign and he yelled, "seriously?! i'm in another state? wow. can we go to disney world?"

yeah, not this time buddy. the crab trap was good but a little pricey. not a huge selection either. but they did have an outdoor playground which made it a hit with the kiddos.

we did C's favoritest thing and went to play putt putt at pirate's island. i can remember playing here when i was little too!

thankfully, collin made it through the entire course without one of us having to take him to the car like last time we took him. he did good!

he wasn't sure about these pirates. when we got on the ship part of the course he said, "mama, 'dose piwates is wookin' at me."    "buddy, he's just pretend- he's not real". "but he's frownin' at me".

yep, my happy place.