Christmas Day

This was THE YEAR for Christmas at The Little House. I have no doubt that I will never forget the joy Jaydan experienced in waking up (at 2:30 a.m.) to discover Santa had indeed made it to our house. There is NOTHING better than experiencing that magic through your baby's eyes.


He wanted a "train with a track" soooooo bad. It was all he could talk about. And Santa delivered. As I mentioned, he woke us up with screams of "Santa brought me a train with a track" and "I CAN'T BELIEVE IT" SUPER early. We didn't mind ;) Daddy got caught up for a minute and thought maybe we should let him open the rest of his gifts right then but we collected ourselves and got a few more hours sleep! It WAS a huge success though and we had to really work to pry him away from it, even to open more gifts!

He also really wanted a gun this year and while I had reservations about it, WE grew up around guns and turned out ok, right? And besides, how could I resist this?


Kennedy was precious too..... she was so happy and patted all of her presents and tried to help open them. So much more easy going than her big brother was at this age!

In the interest of full disclosure, Santa came to our house a day early and all of those festivities took place on the morning of Christmas Eve. The kids and I picked Jeff up at work Christmas Eve night and we set out for his parents house, where we met up with the rest of the family. We enjoyed seeing everyone sooooo much and even Mother Nature got in the Christmas Spirit and sent us some snow in Tallahassee, Florida on Christmas Day! Naturally, the kids got spoiled rotten.... er.... um, actually we ALL did but our favorite gift of all was the time spent with family!

Playing Catch Up

I know, I know.... I'm behind again. Or still behind, whatever. Anyway, here we go.... These are just a few cute random pics from around the Holidays. Not really pertinent, but too cute not to post.
Jaydan is my big helper in the kitchen. And this is what happen when he has too many of our sugary treats!

Sissy is not much help yet, but she sure is cute!

Santa is watching!

I heart this video. Jaydan's reaction was priceless! And it was excellent bribe material for several weeks.

Christmas Montage 2010

Nothing like a good belly-laugh (and I love how Kennedy's look is saying "What the???")

Aw, they love Daddy!

Pretty Girl!

Jaydan looks "ham-sum"

The girls!

The best Christmas gifts EVER!

Santa Pics 2010

Oh, these are funny to me! Jaydan had been talking soooo much smack about seeing Santa. He was going to tell him all about what he wanted, and sit on his lap, blah, blah, blah. Well, when it came time to perform, he choked! It took me 20 minutes to get THIS good of a pic... and even then he looks like he's ready to bolt!

The whole time I was trying to talk her big brother into talking to Santa, Kennedy was chatting him up. Ok, I can't lie.... she was looking for something to eat.

This Santa is apparently the best our friendly neighborhood Walmart could do. Can't really say I blame Jaydan for having some reservations. But hey, who doesn't already have to go to Walmart this time of year..... and its free!

This reminds me of Jaydan's second Christmas, where we tried SEVERAL times to get a Santa pic and he was terrified EVERY. TIME. I'm going to hunt those pics down to share with you, we have quite a montage of "Screaming Kid with Santa" pics from that year. Maybe, as his Mom, I shouldn't thing they're funny. But I do.

Pumpkin Carving 2010

Ok, so I am three holidays behind! Here are the kiddos carving pumpkins!


"You mean you WANT me to dig in and make a big mess?"



Kennedy got in on the action too.... poor thing was having a horrible eczema flair up.


The finished product! HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Kennedy....

loves, loves, LOVES this baby.
Weird how young they start these gender things huh?

Florida

Jeff was finally able to secure a long weekend, so we packed up and headed south for a trip to visit his Grandparents in Florida. It was our first vacation as a family of four and we were looking forward to it. The ocean is so calming for me and Jeff enjoys fishing and we all enjoy visiting with family so its a great little get away for us.
Cape San Blas is a little beach near where MawMaw and Grandaddy live that is probably our favorite place on the planet. Jeff took me there the very first time I visited him in Florida and we spent many weekends there when we lived in Florida, so it is definitely part of "us".

It is so beautiful.... and totally exposed to the Gulf, so depending on the weather, it often has changed TOTALLY from the last time we were there so its almost like visiting a whole new beach But best of all, there is NEVER anyone else there. Its our own private little piece of heaven.












Grandaddy joined us for fishing this time, and I am so glad to have captured some of that special time "on film". Jeff and his Grandaddy are very close and I think fishing was always kind of a bonding ritual for them.... it filled my heart with joy to see Jaydan brought into that circle. He's growing into such a little man.


Zoe got to go too... don't tell the beach police. She LOVES it there too and her and Jaydan passed several hours running up and down the beach, rolling in the sand.










Kennedy was content to snooze in the sand, until she got hungry then she cried and pitched a fit... exactly like her Mama ;) It was just about 80 degrees and the water was smooth... absolutely perfect for a day at the beach!












We got wrapped up in the Florida vs. Georgia football game and missed "Ghosts on the Gulf" trick-or-treating in Port St. Joe. Fortunately Jaydan was happy to get in his costume and hit a gas station up for some candy :)
Our trip was not all fun and games.... we had a little scare with Jeff's diabetes and spent one day in the hospital. All is well that ends well and I will say that thanks to the staff, even a day at the hospital there is relatively pleasant. We were all spoiled by Jeff's grandparents and the time that our kids gets to spend with them is precious. All in all, it was a great trip and a great little escape for our Little family!

Fall Fun 2010

I had been trying to hold off on the Pumpkin Patch until Jeff could go with us. On Sunday, it finally dawned on me that if were going to go this year it was "now or never". So I loaded up the kids and off we went!





Washington farms has done a lot of work since last year, adding lots of fun activities for kiddos, which is good since Jaydan had little or no interest in the "ghostes" (goats) or any other animals this year. The did put in new fun slides (it will be a few years before we try the big one again), a big air pillow jumper thing, a kiddie corn maze, etc. J really wanted to try the corn maze, but he kept trying to eat the corn right off the stalks and I was afraid the hour-long, full-size one may prove too much for both of us.

It was a fun day with my babies.... they are growing so fast! Jaydan is officially a little boy now and its hard to see the baby he once was anymore when you look at him. Kennedy is our little sunshine.... very smiley and chatty, she makes everyone around smile!

And here it is..... the pic that shows me plainly how much they grown from year to year. This shot always makes my heart ache, just a little!

Resemble each other much?

Jaydan at 2 months:





Kennedy at 2 months:
And.... according to Jaydan they are "best friends". Aww.....

Grampa's Visit

Anybody who is familiar with the world of logging knows that summer is a busy, busy time so we considered ourselves blessed when Grampa was able to sneak away for a few days to come and hang out with Jaydan and meet Kennedy. AND he misses Granny so horribly while she is with us that he was probably MORE excited to see her.
We had planned a fun camping trip for the first night he was scheduled to be here and, as always seems to be the case when Dad flies, there was a snafu with his flight. Rather than getting in at 3 something, he now wouldn't get in until after 9. I almost canceled reservation for their camp site but Grampa wouldn't dream of breaking baby J's heart, so we forged ahead. We got the access code to the park's security gate (MUCH different than the camping we did growing up, huh?) and dropped him off where Jeff and Jaydan had already set up camp. Jaydan was out for the night, but I wish I could have been there to see his little face when he woke up and his beloved Grampa was there!
We also took a quick trip to Helen, which is always fun and other than that we pretty much just hung out at home. We had a long honey-do list for poor ole Grampa...... when stuff breaks down or falls apart around our house, we just put it aside until Grampa comes again to fix it! So, that kept him pretty busy too. He spend lots of QT playing with his babies and in the blink of an eye, his visit was over! Thanks to you, too, Grampa for all you do! An interesting side note.... it was shockingly cool over the 4th of July in Georgia this year and for some reason the weather always seem to be very mild when Grampa is here. He remarked that he doesn't believe it get that hot here at all! For any of you Georgians that beg to differ, go ahead a post a comment ;)

Kennedy's Room

Some of you know that the fact that I didn't get Kennedy's room painted before she came was my first source of mom-guilt this go-round. I had Jaydan's room DONE about 10 minutes after the ultrasound showed that he was a boy. I just couldn't get myself motivated this time and I felt awful about it. So, I took Jaydan to the sitter's, Daddy was on Kennedy duty and Granny and I got to work. I think it turned out pretty cute (please ignore the hide-a-bed.... I'm hoping it will soon have a nice brown cover... just think how cute it will be then!). What do you think?

Granny's Visit

So, we all got in a panic that Miss Kennedy was going to come early and Granny made arrangements to change her ticket and come early. Once she got here, Kennedy decided she was fine where she was and so we waited..... and waited.... and waited. It was not wasted time though, I was pretty miserable by the time she got here and she had Jaydan all to herself for about three weeks and the two of them had fun, fun, fun. And I guess the ultimate goal was accomplished in that she got to see Kennedy be born.

I will NEVER be able to communicate how much I appreciate all of Mom's help over the 7 weeks she was here and there aren't words for the joy I get from seeing her play and bond with my babies. The only bad part was that she had to go home!

We snuck in some fun during her visit, including a day trip to Helen while Grampa was here and then a couple of fun-filled days in Florida with Jeff's family. Granny and Jaydan did swimming lessons and were partners in crime for probably more than I know about. I can't believe how fast that time went and look forward to the next visit! We love you Granny and THANK YOU so much, for all you do!