january 15th

holidays that are observed on january 15th:

1. Armed Forces day in Nigeria

2. Army day in India

3. Korean Alphabet day

4. Marin Luther King, Jr. day (when it falls on a Monday)

5. International Fetish day (i am not making this up...seriously)


events throughout history that occurred on january 15th:

1. Christopher Columbus set sail for Spain from Hispaniola

2. Elizabeth I was crowned the Queen of England

3. Coca-Cola was originally incorporated in Atlanta

4. Martin Luther King, Jr. was born

5. the Pentagon was completed

6. the first Super Bowl was played in Los Angeles between the Green Bay Packers and the Kansas City Chiefs

7. Space Mountain opened at Disneyland

8. Wikipedia went online

9. my husband was born



Happy Birthday to the most wonderful husband and amazing daddy!

I sure do love you!

our christmas...part two

we woke up to a white christmas.




does it get any better?

it was the perfect snow, just enough to make it beautiful without making the roads too bad, so we could all still gather over at my parent's house.

but first, we woke up early and let little man open all of his gifts at home.

correction, i opened little man's gifts and then waved them in front of his face to get his attention. which sometimes worked, and sometimes didn't. this kid is not easily distracted.




husband recorded and took pictures.

baby girl slept.


i guess she was up all night waiting for Santa and was just worn out.

we told her what he brought her when she woke up. she was thrilled.

then we headed over to my folks' house where my mom's cinnamon rolls were waiting for us. she makes these every year.

she knows if she didn't we would stop coming.

i kid.

sort of.

so we ate, and then we opened more presents, and then we ate some more.

and then, per tradition, we played one of our standard games - girls vs. boys. we have our usual go-to games, and we always plays boys against girls, even though the headcount is usually off a little. the girls used to claim this didn't matter, we would beat them even if we were outnumbered, but i have to admit that the boys are improving, and even win occasionally these days.

if you go through the games boxes, you will find old score sheets where my little brother would write things like "stinky girls" and "cool guys". it makes me smile.

anyways, this time we played bible outburst, which can actually be pretty hard. there are some really random topics with even more random answers. the boys won this time, but their final topic was "the ten commandments", so they were basically handed the win.

i'm just saying.

ok, so some of my favorite pics from the day.




the santa hats made the rounds.....







my daddy.....


and my mom, who looks like she's mid-lecture while opening her present, which cracks me up, because more than likely one of us needed one.....


my big-little brother with little man.....


why is it that still, whenever i see any of my guys with my kids, it absolutely melts my heart?

my handsome husband, who is giving me his classic crooked smile because i am in his face once again with the camera.....


my sleeping beauties.....


and my sleeping uncle (whom i suppose is a beauty as well).....


me and my girl.....


who is drying her nails.....


have i ever mentioned that i love christmas?

because i really do.

our christmas...part one

husband and i are fortunate enough to live near both our immediate families. still, we found that if we tried to see everyone on christmas day, there was never enough time to actually visit and be with everyone as much as we wanted. especially once we all started adding kids to the mix and made it that much more busy and hectic.

so we've started a new tradition of having husband's side of the family over a few nights before christmas day to celebrate. this way, we get to enjoy extra time with them without anyone having to rush off, and we get to enjoy another big christmas dinner.

it's a win-win situation.

this year was extra special since it was our first big dinner back in our house post-flood. enjoying our home with people we love is what it's all about.

since i was in the kitchen most of the time, i didn't get to take too many pictures. but here are some of my favorites.....

Caleb dancing.....




and being silly.....



and little Cortland who wasn't feeling well.....


and this little guy who i swear loves posing for me and just melts my heart.....



in case you were wondering, yes, adults were there. i don't know why i only took pictures of the kids. i guess they're just cuter!

and yes, makayla was there too. mostly sleeping. please don't tell her that i didn't take a picture of her either. i've taken 176,398 others so far to make it up to her.

before christmas

well, we had a fantabulous christmas, but can't quite believe that it's already come and gone. every year, it sneaks up on me, and then passes too quickly.

and now it's 2011.

seriously?

but first i wanted to recap christmas. then i realized i needed to recap the week before christmas as well, so here it is.....

we took the kids to see Santa. Caleb has no idea who Santa is, or who he is supposed to be or do or any of that. but this momma wanted a picture anyways, so we braved the traffic and crowds and lines to see him.

now, i was perfectly prepared to stand next to Santa while holding a reluctant Caleb in my arms in hopes of getting at least one decent picture. but just when i think i know what my little man is going to do, he surprises me. not only did he sit in Santa's lap, but he seemed happy and was smiling. you could have knocked me over with a feather i was so surprised.

and for old time's sake, here he is his first christmas, looking cute and chubby as ever.....



same Caleb, different Santa.

go figure.

back to the present...afterwards, he rode on daddy's shoulders, which always makes him happy, and i got to walk through the mall for a little while, which always makes me happy.




next we headed out to Opryland Hotel to see the lights and walk through the gardens.

eight years ago, on christmas night, when husband wasn't husband yet but was still boyfriend, he took me to one of the gardens for what i thought was a simple romantic walk. well, the walk ended with him asking me to marry him, to which i obviously said yes. so needless to say, Opryland at christmas is now very special to us.

the hotel flooded back in May, but it is open again and is just as beautiful as ever.



little man fell asleep in the car on the way there.

little man NEVER falls asleep in the car. we had to wake him up, and this is how he felt about it.....


baby girl, however, was content as could be.....


so we walked around for awhile, and then we found a mini train ride that daddy squeezed into to take him on.



that daddy sure is a trooper.

ok, be back soon with our two christmases.