Sunday Smiles

Go Preds!

As mentioned earlier, Santa brought our family tickets to see the Nashville Predators play hockey.

{Santa heard of a good deal with buy one, get one free, and he jumped right on it! :)  He's a smart Santa!}

These are in no particular order...

The Pred's Press was a big hit that night, even to this day.  

It is among the bed time books by L's bed. :)

Aunt Julie also joined us as Emmitt didn't "need" a seat at his age, so we passed him around so she could go!

The Zamboni doing its thing while the music and lights danced together...

The boys tried Cotton Candy for the first time... they weren't big fans.

And honestly, I love Cotton Candy and it was very bland; we ended up not finishing it and throwing it away.

One of three fights... I do not like hockey fights!

How about that hockey shirt that Santa brought?

While living in North Dakota, Russ and I became big hockey fans and had the opportunity to attend several games per year... both minor league and college level.  The college hockey we watched was far better than this professional level.  The Preds need a little more practice as Lawson said.  We were sad they didn't win.

Do you see the "Hockey Tonkin'"?  That's good ole' Tennessee for you!

Out of the blue, Lawson put his fist up like this and yelled, "Get mad Predators!"

We have no idea where he heard this. 

=Aunt Julie and Emmitt dancing to the music=

=The final score=

Dallas Stars: 4

Nashville Predators: 1

Santa also brought Lawson a hockey shirt which he loves!

We had a great time!

I hope we will have the opportunity to go again.

My sister has been to several games living outside of Nashville, and we are so happy she got to go with us!

Thanks for reading and go Preds!

New Year's Eve & New Year's Day

New Year's Eve and New Year's Day were both very laid back and enjoyable. 

Russ and his dad spent most of New Year's Eve working at our new house while I hung out with with the boys, Mrs. Jane, and Granny...

Later that night, we joined our friends Ben and Jennifer Moore in Dresden to ring in the new year.

Other than recognizing that we are getting old and struggling to wait for midnight, we had a great time!

We had pizza and bread sticks for supper, along with a few other appetizers.

Ben and Jennifer have three boys... Miller who is six, and twin boys, Tate and Tyler who are three and only six months younger than Lawson.  They all played so well together.

Here are the New Year's Eve police officers... keeping a close watch on all of the fun! :)

           Miller, Tate, and Emmitt

           

Emmitt, Lawson, Tyler, and Tate

And then there was sweet Miles.  His mother is Jennifer's cousin and he hung out with us for the night, and it was so much fun to be around a baby again.

These boys had so much fun!

The Moore boys have a great collection of tools and the such. 

The boys had a great time and played together the entire night!

We are thankful to be able to spend time with our friends and are excited for our children, too.

***

On to New Year's Day...

Church, family, friends, and good food were the components of New Year's Day.

Mr. Richard and Mrs. Jane welcomed our New Year's Day lunch and turned the kitchen over to Russ and me.  It was very good... battered bacon, fried cabbage, black eyed peas, macaroni cheese, and Mrs. Jane's cheesy Mexican cornbread.  It was all so good, and my mom joined us for lunch!

Mrs. Jane, did however, complete lunch with her delicious coconut pie, and Lawson got to help!

Russ went back and worked at the house for a little bit before returning to church for evening services. 

***

After church we headed over to Greenfield to visit some friends.  There is a very funny story that goes with this visit.

Back in May, we were redoing our flower beds in Columbia when a neighbor walked by with his son and introduced himself.  He asked where we were from originally, and when we told him "Martin, TN", he lauged and said that his brother-in-law and sister-in-law were going to be moving to a town near Martin called "Greenfield ???".  He was a little unsure, but the conversation was so neat.  We were able to meet his family the next day and they shared their plans, and we shared all we could about life in Weakley County.

Long story short, we became good friends with our new neighbors in Columbia, and loved having the opportunity to visit with them again (and in the future) while they visited their family in Greenfield.

It's truly a small world.  As to the head count at their house... The family in Greenfield has four children, our Columbia friends have one, childhood friends whom also live in Greenfield and go to church with the new family have three plus one tag-along-church-friend, and then our two.  A total eleven children and ten adults!  It was a full house, but so much fun!  I hope we get to visit them again, soon!

They all played very well together and we has lots of fun!

The Wii Fit is really cool!

Thanks for reading!



Christmas Day 2011

Following church on Christmas morning, we continued celebrating with Russ' family.

Here is a picture of us which is rare. :)

High-lites of the morning included a junior size basketball goal with junior size basketballs {one for each boy}, a wooden table with chairs for our new playroom, a kitchen and shopping cart, John Deere tractors, play-doh, and more.

The boys were very excited!

Poor Mr. Richard and Mrs. Jane, their house is beginning to look like Toys R Us the day after Thanksgiving... a mess of toys all of the time!  We didn't even open several of their gifts as there is not enough room.  They are so patient with us for which we are thankful.

For lunch, we headed to my Grandmother and Granddaddy's.  It was a house full of family, good food, and fun!  I didn't get as many pictures as I remembered, but here are a few.

Emmitt was totally into unwrapping gifts by this time, and he was so cute!  He received a suitcase of his very own.  It is just like the one that Lawson received from the Easter Bunny last year.

Just as our friend, Carla, mentioned, we are needing TWO of EVERYTHING these days! 

 Emmitt is Lawson's shadow, which we love.

He also received some new clothes.

Lawson got a cool Nerf gun, a new pair of cowboy boots, and some new clothes.

For supper we went to my Dad and Anita's, and enjoyed visiting with them, as well as Mama B and Daddy Denton.  I totally forgot my camera. :(

'Twas a very Merry Christmas, indeed.

So much to be thankful for and so much to love.

Christmas Morning

Christmas morning is so magical with children.

Santa delivered and met their requests according to their Santa letter...

Here we come down the steps...

Taking a first look... lots to take in...

This was SO sweet... After a few quiet minutes, Lawson jumped into Russ' lap and exclaimed, "I really was a good boy, Dad!"  His sincerity and excitement was so sweet.

A big boy Bible...

Opening gifts from Santa... he left a gift for Lawson and Emmitt, along with me and Russ.

We opened them to find Nashville Predator tickets!!!

SO exciting!

We attended the game two weeks ago, and had a blast!

Pred pictures to come sometime soon.

Lawson got two guns. A shotgun and a popgun...

Emmitt got a popgun, too...

And a chair with his name on it... notice the chocolate?  He was far more interested in the chocolate than some of his gifts. :)

We did make it to church.  I'm not sure how, but we did.  Thanks to Aunt Erin, we have a few pictures.  

And if you're wondering about Lawson's attire, let me tell you.  He has begged for a tie for quite sometime now.  They are hard to find for a toddler.  Finally, I found one on clearance at Gymboree for $4.75.  Score! He loves it, but refuses to wear a vest with it meaning he looked just like this for Christmas morning.

I'm not going to lie... I struggled with letting him wear this to church on Christmas morning when he had a vest to wear with these pants and shirt that complimented Emmitt's.  Oh, well.  Obviously, life went on and looking back it wasn't such a big deal.  :)

It was a fun Christmas morning and the boys have thoroughly enjoyed all of their new gifts.  The train table is very nice.  Santa purchased it from Sam's, and it is of high quality and very well constructed.  The only downfall is that we have a 3 year old and a 1 year old.  Currently, the track is in shambles, scattered all over the table and floor.  We will be gluing the tracks down very soon.  It's not realistic for them to play with it and it not be destroyed, so I've done a lot of research and we are not alone in this mess-of-a-train-table-with-toddlers.  I will let you know how it works.

Thanks to Mr. Richard and Mrs. Jane for allowing my mom and sister to join us on Christmas morning... it was a fun morning!