Christmas Round 1- JuJu's House

With the exception of a few gifts for Brian and I those are all for Brianna and Jacob!!

This year we are having to change the traditions we have had since Brian and I got married. We are going to spend Christmas in Texas at his parents house. This is a big change for everyone because the last few years we have hosted Christmas. Some days I am sad and other days I am glad that I did not have to fully decorate and worry about having everything perfect.

Jacob was so excited to finally get a John Deere.... I guess he must be a country boy at heart!!

Last Saturday, we celebrated Christmas with my mom and brother. My mom cooked a huge lunch for us and it was good eating. We opened gifts and the kids got to spend the day in the country playing at JuJu's house.

Brianna is really hoping Santa gets her that DS she is wanting!!

I think this is going to work out much better for the kids because they are not going to be so overwhelmed opening all of those gifts in one day. They actually get to enjoy their new toys before getting more.

Round 2 comes on Tuesday night with the Mayfield family and then it is a waiting game for the big day.......

First Day of First Grade

So really we just finished the third day of first grade but I did not get a chance to load the pictures until today.... Not only was this the first day of school it was also Brianna's first day at her new school.. Carver Magnet... which I am hoping will be her last move for many years......

Brianna is enjoying her new teacher but I am pretty sure that no one will fill the shoes of Mrs. Hart in her mind..... She reminds me everyday how much she loves her.......

Goodbye Summer.... Hello Football

This week is the week that I thought seemed so far away when I hugged those little angels in June... but yet the time has come when I must return to my day job.... Don't get me wrong I LOVE teaching.... but I also LOVE summer break or any other time that I get to stay at home and do just what I want to do.

This summer we did a lot of fun things like.........

....attend a dance recital

.....spent time with our favorite little people

.......shot some fireworks

....played in downtown Little Rock

.....and visited with family......

so long summer.... bring on the football season... we are ready!!!

Wordless Wednesday!!!

Our day at the splash pad......

A Day in Downtown Little Rock

Yesterday, Brian had the day off from work and I thought it would be fun to take the kids to the Museum of Discovery (MOD). I enjoy the Museum and it has a lot of fun things for the kids to play with. We got Downtown just in time for lunch so we decided to eat at Iriana's Pizza one of my favorite pizza places then Brian decided that we should walk downtown to the Old State House because it has Sparky I and Sparky II (the electric chairs used in AR) much to my surprise the Old State House has really changed it is very nice. We toured the museum and since the kids were on their best behavior we let them play in the kiddie room. In the kiddie room it has a craft (which of course Brianna had to do) a little bit of dress up but I talked Brianna out of that since I was not sure who else had it on and trains which Jacob LOVED!!

Then it was time to walk to the MOD and play with all of the fun

stuff there. We all had a lot of fun and enjoyed to day.

We also stopped and ate cupcakes from one of the little shops in the River Market. They were very good. Brianna and Jacob ate watermelon flavored but Brian and I were less daring and ate just vanilla flavored.

One more Canoe picture

Well as I have already told the eventful canoe trip we recently took... Here is a picture of Jacob that pretty much sums up how we all felt before that trip was over.

Fourth of July

In celebration of Independence Day we went to Jennifer and Joe's cabin on the Buffalo River.... We thought it would be real fun to go canoeing..... WHY in the world did I think I needed to be in the canoe with anyone I am not real sure because every other time I have been in a canoe it has not had very positive results.... So we load up the canoe and everyone else just paddles off and we flip our canoe. Thankfully Joe and Jennifer paddled upstream to save us and to put Jacob in their canoe... That is most likely to save his life which was probably a very wise decision for him. Off we go and managed to only flip the canoe a few more times... The rest of the weekend was wonderful with lots of fireworks and good times had by all.

I think I will just stay away from canoes for the time being!!!