Better late than never...

Right? Isn't that the saying? :)

Sorry I've been out of commission for a while.  We've had a lot going on with softball, baseball (in two different counties might I add), birthday parties, vacations, and work.  Hopefully I'll be able to start updating this ole thing again.  I actually kind of miss it...

We just got back from a 5 day trip to the beach that was absolutely fabulous and when I have more time, I will blog about that and add some pictures, but for now, I've got some eye candy to get you through..

We are working on opening the pool and Sammie loves to swim in it even though it's not completely clear.  And Mahlon, well, he just loves the hosepipe...and tormenting Sammie..

 

..I absolutely LOVE the look on his face..

                                      

..this is where he was torturing her..she hated the feeling of the cold water, but wouldn't move..she just stood there screaming..

I promise I'll be back with more!!

I love you more than...

That was the "battle of words" that Sammie and I had out last night. 


I started with: "Sammie, I love you more than all of the trees in the whole world."


Sammie: "is that a lot? because I love you more than Disney."


Me: "oh thank goodness!"


Sammie: "Mommy, I love you more than my tv."


If you know my child, you know that she considers that a big deal.


I am so thankful that my little girl is exactly that...my little girl.  She is absolutely precious and steals my heart all over again every day. 


And even though I'm supposed to be teaching her things, she is actually teaching me a very important lesson...


how to love myself...


I've been working really hard lately to get myself in shape and down to a certain weight that I see as "skinny enough" or "good enough" for a bikini or just to look at myself and be satisfied.  I've been on a fairly strict 1200 calorie diet during the week, have given up caffeine completely, working out everyday for 30-35 minutes on my lunch break and on Saturday mornings, and doing the 30 Day Shred every evening.  I am certainly seeing the results I want...slowly....but certainly.  I am enjoying myself and am very proud of myself for the hardwork I'm putting in to it. 


But more importantly, I am beginning to love myself.  And my body.  Which for a woman, is BIG news. 


You may be asking yourself how Sammie teaching me things has anything to do with this, but bare with me.


Sammie has her daddy's freckles.  Not quite as many as he does, but his nonetheless. They are under her eyes and across her nose.  She has always complained about her freckles.  She's always (since she's understood things) said that she hated them and wished she didn't have them.  I've noticed, however, that as she's getting older, she's beginning to love them....


Me: "I love you more than the amount of freckles on your face." 


*I immediately cringed in fear about what her response would be*


Sammie: "aww, I love my freckles, mommy."

*huge sigh*

I love you Samantha Grace.  You'll understand how much one day.

Randomness

I found a few random pictures on my phone today and thought I would share...

Mrs. Patty did Sammie's hair at school last week.

don't be fooled, this only lasted all of 5 seconds. =)

This is his favorite spot. He has even tried to shut the door on it. (yes, it's the dryer and no, I have never turned it on while he's in there)

Sammie finally got a hair cut that was way overdue...the next day, she took to her bangs on her own

He falls asleep like this every night.

My grandaddy Patton made all of the grandkids these desks when we were little and this one was Uncle Josh's that we are keeping until he can get it.  May be a little hard to take it away from this boy now.  He was on it from the time we got out of the bed until it was time to go to school.

They were both bummed because it was raining and they couldn't go outside. They stood there just like that for at least 10 minutes.

chocolate and growing up

I'm not sure what this boy loves about chocolate..ok, who am I kidding, yes I do! He thinks he is supposed to have it first thing in the morning for breakfast and as soon as he gets home. He has learned which jar is the candy jar and I'm almost tempted to swap things up on him just to keep from hearing about "choksit". Although I must admit that it's pretty darn cute to hear him say it and even cuter to watch him eat it.

Exhibit A:

After I took this picture, he screamed for me to let him see it and as plain as day, he said "ew, dirty face". Yes sir, that is a dirty face, but it's one of the cutest dirty faces I have ever seen!

And how appropriate to follow up a post about chocolate with a post about this...

It's official....my baby girl is growing up. She has lost her first tooth. Although she's extremely excited and can't believe that the Tooth Fairy brought her the crispest one dollar bill she's ever seen, her mommy is not so excited. Don't get me wrong, I'm excited for her, but things like this make me realize how quickly she is growing up (and it's THAT that I don't like).

I am, however, very proud of me and her both. She was terrified of having her tooth pulled and I had convinced myself that there was no way that I would be able to pull it. After she came in the bedroom complaining of awful pain, I told her that it wouldn't hurt near as bad to pull it as it did at that moment. And her daddy chirped in with the tooth fairy bringing money. At that point, she was all game. Mommy..not so much. I did like any good mother would do and hid my own fear and took to it like a champ. She is now the most precious snaggled tooth little girl. Well, that is next to her mother at that age...haha..I'm only kidding.

Snow!!

All day yesterday the weatherman kept telling me that we were going to get some snow. Of course, we've heard this all year and ended up with ice or too little snow to play in, so I didn't believe them.

About 8 o'clock, the snow started falling and around 9ish, there was enough on the ground to take the kids outside and let them play for a while. I'm sure that most of the kids in our neighborhood were in bed by then, but I knew how bad Sammie wanted to play in snow this year and I wasn't about to let what could be our only chance at it pass by.

We had snowball fights and Sammie made a snow angel. Mahlon loved being able to throw the snowballs this year, but that boy has a problem with his hands...they freeze way too easily. So, after about 30 or 45 minutes of hard core snow playing, we went inside to warm up and drink some hot chocolate daddy made us. I don't usually let the kids stay up until 10 or 10:30 on a "school night", but it was so worth it last night!

SNOW! (or "NO" as Mahlon calls it)

Our neigborhood is so pretty when it snows.

Sammie was definitely a happy camper.

I think Munch was pretty happy himself.

He WAS actually throwing a snowball, but he did stop and pose long enough for the picture. =)

Sammie's snow angel.

I absolutely adore this picture, but it's blurry.

hehe =)

Of course, I had to take my "grandaddy patton" pictures as I call them.

This was this morning around 6:30.

I do love the snow because it calms me, but I just wish it didn't have to be so dang cold for it! =)

Here's to spring, summer, and warmer weather!

Family Photos

I have this new app on my phone called the "fx camera", it's really cool. It lets you take pictures with several different options. You've got the toy camera (colors used below), the Polaroid, fishbowl (hilarious!), symmetrical, and the Warholizer. Needless to say, we've had some fun with this thing and we TRIED to take a good family picture.....

Me and Sunset took a pretty good picture.

He was struggling to hold his eyes open through the flash.

Sissy tried to butt in on our picture..he didn't like that.

We knew we were all making silly faces and I pulled Mahlon's cheek for the effect, but didn't realize Sammie was doing the same thing..ha

soclose!

C'mon Mahlon, really?

This was our best shot..out of...20. And you wonder why we don't take family photos.

It was a lot of fun though.

*Snow pictures coming next!! =)*

hello world

Sorry I've been so absent lately! We've had a lot of things going on in our little world, but all is well and hopefully I will become a regular again! =) (*fingers crossed*)

I'm not even sure of where to begin!

We had Sammie's birthday party that was a success and she got lots of toys, money, and clothes that she loved. The favorite being her red cowgirl boots her Granny PattPatt got her. She wears them everyday, with everything.

We had Christmas with several sides of the family and enjoyed all the gifts we received as well as gave. I think it's safe to say that we started a new family tradition this year for Christmas Eve. We had dinner and gifts with my dad, stepmom, granny, and little brothers. It was so much fun and so nice to be with family. Santa was really good to the kids this year. =) And for the third year (right?) my mom spent the night with us on Christmas Eve. It's always fun to have my mom with us on Christmas morning, it makes it that much more special to all of us.

Mahlon's growing like a weed. He's starting to really repeat everything you say and his little personality is shining through like crazy. He's doing excellent with his sentences and as long as you're paying attention and trying to figure out what he's saying, you'll understand him. He loves to eat and he loves to eat ketchup. That's right. On anything. Last night he was dipping his tortilla chips in it. He's such a delight and so loving. And believe it or not, he'll be two in 10 days and is in desperate need of his first haircut!! ahhhh craziness.

See the little "alfalfa" spike in the back? that's his PONYTAIL!

Sammie is still as sweet as ever, sometimes. She's little miss independent for sure. Her personality is starting to break through more and more here lately, as well. She's very opinionated (the most when it comes to clothes). Just this morning I was trying to get her up and dressed and every shirt that I pulled out of her drawer was "ridiculous" or "oh my goodness awful". Needless to say, I am NOT looking forward to her teenage years. She's my little princess and I love her so much.

She's going to be playing softball this year! We are super excited!

Mason killed his first deer this year! Matt has been working so hard to find him the perfect place to hunt and on the last day of the season that Mason would get the chance to hunt, it paid off. We did have to walk the pine tree lanes for an hour or so, but we finally located her and the excitement on Matt's face and the giddiness that Mason had was priceless. Mason is growing up so fast and he's such a hoot. I love him and I love when it's our weekend and all of the kids get to be together. Granted it is a little hectic and loud and chaotic and messy and...well, I think you get the picture...it's absolutely wonderful to have all the babies together.

The rabbit was Matt's roadkill on the way home. Men...

Matt and I are back on track after a couple of "falling outs". Our love for each other has grown the last couple of weeks in ways that I never thought it could. We've both agreed that it feels like it did when we first got married. Simple, fun, adventurous, loving, peaceful, and there's more teamwork than there ever has been. Thank the Lord for bringing us through!

I think that it's unanimous that we are ready for Spring and Summer. All of this cold weather is getting to us! The kids love to be outside playing ball, riding bikes, and swimming, but Old Man Winter is really dragging this year. And to think we have more "winter precipitation" coming this week. Enough already! =) I'm ready for sunny days, THUNDERstorms (not just the quiet cold rain), crystal clear water, and screams and giggles of kids having fun. Are you with me!?

I do want to thank everybody that's been praying for my family and ask that you will continue to do so. We've been through many obstacles lately and still have some coming within our extended family. Just keep us in your prayers and I promise to do better with the updating! =)

Reading..

No, neither of my kids are able to read yet (although Sammie knows certain words and can identify them!), but they do enjoy pretending and looking at the pictures.

This was our most recent trip to Granny Patt Patt's. While Granny and I were talking, the kids disappeared and got quiet. This is how we found them....

Sammie kept trying to lay her head on Mahlon's shoulder and he just wasn't having it!

I guess that's step one, right?

And they didn't fight!!!!

Halloween

I know that I am waaay behind on these, but at better late than never, right? :)

Mason was Mario, Sammie was BatGirl, and Mahlon was a dinosaur (not Barney..)

Our church had the Fall Festival that night so we spent a couple of hours there letting the kiddos run wild and free (with the exception of Mahlon..he's a little TOO wild and free). All 3 of the kids and myself enjoyed the big slide. Mahlon had me carry him up and slide down at least 4 times. He would squeal each time we slid down! I think we need to invest in one of our own. ;)

We let Mahlon play in the bounce house for a while and he was happy with it...until the big kids started coming in. Bless his heart, he couldn't stand back up. ha

Sammie got to play the game that Poppie and Mr. Scott were working. You shot the bow and arrow at balloons and whether you popped one of not, you got a prize. Sam was amazingly good at this!

After the festival, we took the kids to see Matt's Granny for a little while and then we ended up in Fairmont and "Uncle Corey's" house. We ate some supper there and trick or treated through the neighborhood for a while.

All in all it was a very fun Halloween and we are still recuperating from the mountains of candy we ate!