Happy New Year Y'all!

Here in the south we are just not used to dealing with cold weather. It was COLD last night. Well, cold by our standards anyway. (Not bone chilling cold like they had in Time's Square! -10 wind chill. brrrrrrrrr!)

We had a blast with our friends last night! We only stayed a couple of hours but it was a great time. We were all outside eating chili and chicken bog and all sorts of yummy snacks. The boys were shooting fireworks and there were several large roaring fires to keep us all warm.

We came back home and watched the count down on tv. Well, some of us did.......and one of us fell asleep 8 minutes before midnight. It wasn't me. It wasn't B-Man. The girls were sound asleep in their beds. It was hubby. He didn't seem to mind missing it and the first kiss of the new year at 12:20 am was just fine with me. :)

Lola showing me her cute new shoes.

Cold babies.

I love these 3 sweet girls sooooo much! They make my mama heart so happy!

Close up. REALLY close up.

B-man watching a movie on his PSP with his little sisters.

Lo with her future mother-in-law. They were singing and dancing.

I was cold. Really cold.

Daddy & his girls.

Happy New Year everyone!

Fashion Statement

She picked out her own clothes. Her sister seems mildly amused. She insists that she looks fabulous in this darling ensemble. I think she is just about as cute as can be. Watch out Kimora! There's a new fashion diva on the horizon!

Catching Up!

I totally skipped blogging for the month of December but I took a ton of pictures of the kids, our friends and extended family. We had a joyful Christmas with lots of fun, lots of eating and lots of laughter. We hope that you did too! Photos included here are from church, school program, home, enjoying the lights in town and our local Christmas parade that the kids absolutely LOVE! They are in no particular order. Tonight we will be going to our friends' annual New Year's Eve bonfire. Our daughter has been dating their son for a little more than a year now. They have been very good friends for about 5 years before they started dating. Just wondering if tonight will be the night he pops the question. We all have a feeling it is coming up soon. The kids are so excited about going tonight! We are playing outside this morning and most of the day so that the girls will be tired and take a late nap. Wish us luck! ;) See you next year!


I made matching shirts for all of us to wear Christmas morning. The girl's shirts all said "Official Santa Stamp, North Pole 2008 NICE". All of the boy's shirts said "Naughty". It was so much fun to see everyone in their matching shirts and sweat pants!

My baby boy. Oh my word but I do LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this little boy! :)

Hubby's favorite Christmas movie is "A Christmas Story". I just had to make this shirt for him to wear Christmas Eve. He loved it!

My only nephew. He is a sweetie pie!

Daughter and someday son-in-law. ;)

Our local Christmas parade.

Picking up pine cones to use for crafts before the parade.

She sang "Jesus Loves The Little Children" in her school's Christmas program. Of course, she was asked to wear one of her Chinese outfits.

Notice the white cowboy boots on my little angel.

The Meaning Of The Season

Last year we started a new Christmas tradition. This was our youngest daughter's first Christmas. Even though she was 3 1/2 years old, she'd never received a Christmas gift or heard the story of Jesus. When I saw the Fisher Price Nativity set I knew that this would be so helpful in explaining it all to her and to her sister who was now 4 1/2 and had been with us for two Christmases. I called my hubby and talked to him about it after I returned home. He said he thought it was a great idea. He stopped and purchased the set on his way home from work that day.We wrapped it up and made a BIG, BIG deal about this being their first Christmas gift of the year. They were so excited when they opened it!! Their daddy sat down with them and told them all about Baby Jesus and read the Christmas story from the Bible. We let them know that this was a very special toy and that after Christmas we would put it away and that next Christmas we would bring it out again. They have already asked several times if it is time to get the Baby Jesus toys out yet. I plan on having the whole nativity set out on the coffee table when they wake up the day after Thanksgiving. They will be so excited!

Our older children enjoyed talking to them about the set. When anyone would give them a half a second the little ones would always run and get these toys to play with and talk about. We hope that the special meaning of the season will become something they are very familiar with just by playing with these toys and that our new tradition will continue for many years in our family.

If you would like to read about more family traditions that bring significance to the meaning of this glorious season, just check out The Inspired Room.