Christmas #3

Did I mention number 2 was actually on Christmas day?  Yes, it was.  Anyway, now to Christmas #3, which was the day after Christmas.  We headed up to Lafayette, TN to be with Papa Wayne and Mammer for the day.  They weren't expecting any gifts, but we (Josh, Shannon, and the two of us) decided to surprise them with something.  Here's Papa Wayne opening his fruit basket (apparently he's a VERY big fan, since he quickly ate a pear out of it!):
Then you have Mammer opening her picture frames... she was talking so she has a funny look on her face!
Katelyn got a new guitar for Christmas, so she brought it over and Jason was trying to play it... he's learning!
Katelyn decided to teach Jason a few chords... it actually sounded good, and Uncle Robert said he was doing really well for never playing before, so there may be some hope.  Katelyn thought it was weird that she was teaching her older cousin how to play. :)
Then there's Gavin... he decided this orange was his best friend.  I'm sure the orange was VERY juicy by the end of the day, with it being rolled on, dropped, and carried around the entire day.
And as one last laugh, here's Josh asleep in the chair.  Sometimes you just need a nap!!

It was great to be able to surprise Mammer and Papa Wayne with gifts since they were not expecting anything at all. :)  And that concludes our Christmas festivities, although we'd have Christmas #4 if my mom would send our stuff. ;)  Just kidding mom, no pressure, as long as it doesn't take as long as my college graduation present!!

Christmas #2

Sorry for the extremely long post, but I had to get it all into one post!!  Our second Christmas was with Josh, Shannon, Garrett, and Gavin.  Jason got a phone call at about 8 am Christmas morning asking us where we were because no more presents could be opened until we got there... it was Garrett.  He had already opened some of his gifts because he snuck out of his room before anyone noticed!  Once we finally got there, this is what we saw:

Garrett didn't feel like getting dressed that morning, so we opened presents.  I could hardly get a picture of Garrett actually opening presents because he did it so fast!!
And then there's Gavin opening one of his presents too.
Shannon doing the parently duties of undoing all the little ties that keep the toys in the boxes...
Josh opening one of his presents... bullets from his wife!
Garrett had to try out all of his presents as soon as he got them.  He got the road rug (on the left) and a truck full of cars for his birthday and Christmas presents from us.  He was pretty excited about them.
I'm not sure if they did this on purpose, but I happened to look over once and both of these guys had bows on their shoulders, so I had to get a picture. :)
Here's the mess of wrapping... Shannon is behind that somewhere. 
Then Garrett had to try out his bowling pins... those were a hit as well!
We then went over (next door) to Josh's mom's house where they had a GREAT breakfast and more presents for the kids.  Apparently I didn't take a picture of the food, but it was REALLY good.
Gavin's favorite things were his baseball bat from one of his toys, as well as a plastic baseball from Garrett's t-ball set, I think.  He reminds me of Bam-Bam from the Flinstones, and walked around pretty much all day like this.  Yes, he's walking all over the place now.
Now the random segway to the piano.  This piano was in Josh's mom's basement, but it is Josh and Shannon's.  While there were several strong men around, they decided to move it next door, but instead of heaving it across the grass, they rolled it up the driveway, down the road, and down the other driveway... I wish I would have gotten a video of it... it could have been sent to America's Funniest Home Videos as a Redneck Christmas!!
One of Garrett's other toys... a bike that looks like a dirt bike... it's a little big for him and the training wheels are still on it, even though he knows how to ride a bike... he had to show EVERYONE his bike.  Yay for Santa!!
Jason and Garrett playing baseball.
And then soccer.  Jason was trying to wear Garrett out, but I think it ended up the other way around!
Jason got a bit of time with Gavin too... for some reason Gavin was very interested in Jason's tongue.

Finally, here's Josh coloring with Garrett in his giant coloring book... oh the joys of Christmas!
It was a good day, and as soon as we got home and I hit the bed, I was OUT!  It was exhausting, but a pleasant day as well.  As for us, I got a little Acer laptop from Jason that I will be able to use for work while I'm in the car, and a few other smaller things... but that was the big one.  I don't have a picture of it, surprisingly!  Jason got a new digital camera with a lithium ion battery since he was complaining regular batteries just didn't last long enough in his old camera, and not having a camera when hunting is not acceptable!  The post for Christmas #3 is on its way!!

Christmas Number 1

On Sunday we headed over to Carthage to spend the afternoon with Jason's aunt Cindy and her family. It was nice to see them again, and watch the look on the girls' faces when they opened their presents from us. Here is Brooklyn with her different gifts.
A makeup set... she wasn't excited about the picture, but she liked the present!
And a bunch of lip glosses.
This is the only picture Angel would let me get of her.  For some reason, she's decided she's afraid of us... oh well.  She's holding the movie we got her... Homeward Bound Part 1 and 2.
And here is Karsen who just learned how to hold his own bottle.  He is Cindy's husband's daughter's baby... is that confusing enough? :)
Aunt Brooklyn holding Karsen, who was pretty intrigued by the Pepsi can on the table, if I remember correctly.
Here's Jason with Karsen... as long as the kid is happy, Jason will hold him. :)
We had a good time getting to see everyone again... it's just hard to get up there when our schedules mesh!!  Merry Christmas number 1!!

Where's my car?

Ugh... so I can now honestly say I have COMPLETELY lost track of my car in a parking lot! I ran quick to Walmart today (first mistake) to grab a few last minute items, and when I came back outside, I had NO CLUE where I had parked my car. Not only did I look stupid with my cart looking for my car, but it was POURING down rain, so I was absolutely soaked by the time I finally found my car and so were the cereal boxes!! I think I could have walked home faster than it took me to finally find my car... haha. Just had to share that little tidbit of information to make everyone smile. No, we don't have snow, but we have WIND and RAIN... and plenty of both of those!!

What's this white stuff??

I do have to say I'm a big fan of Christmas. I love all the decorations, and I even made my own wreath for the front door this year (but no picture, sorry). A week or so ago i put up our Christmas tree, and Jason and I decorated it together.  Here's our tree... darn flash and you can't see the lights!  
Here's the lights... but it's blurry.
And here's the tree last night after I wrapped A TON of presents for all the nieces and nephews... one present for each adds up!
I've been told several times that it doesn't snow in Tennessee... or at least not much.  Well then, what do you call all this white stuff?  This is the view from our front porch Thursday night.
Here is my car Friday morning.  There's probably between an inch or two of snow, but it's all melted now.  I laughed really hard when they cancelled school EVERYWHERE around here... no one knows how to drive with any bit of snow... it scares them.
And here's our house Friday morning... just had to get a picture with snow on the ground.
Taco was a big fan of the snow this year.  He ran around and around in the front yard, but I managed to get him to stand still long enough to get this picture.
Here's our mantle... mantel?  Neither of those look right.  Anyway, here it is, sans fireplace, but these are our stockings.  And NO, the little one is not an announcement, it's Taco's stocking. :)  Like our nativity scene?
Lastly, here's just a random picture of Taco.  This is where I usually find him if I get out of my chair to go do something... he likes to take my spot and claim it as his own, and then he won't move out of the way.

Some cousins... and a date

Like I said the other day, I'm trying to catch up on my posting... so here's a post that should have been done last weekend.  Jason and I headed up to Lafayette for the day, and Jason's cousins Emily and Katelyn were there.  Their dad is Uncle Robert, who lives right next to Mammer and Papa Wayne.  Jason had met them previously when I wasn't able to go up there, but this was my first time meeting them... SO more people for me to remember the names of!

Katelyn's on the left and Emily's on the right... and I think we know who the handsome man in the middle is. :)

Of course we had them take a picture of us too...
Then the girls decided to take some self-portraits... the last one was Emily's glamour shot, I guess. ;)


After being in Lafayette all day, Jason and I decided to go on a little impromptu date.  Jason's been wanting to take me to the Opryland Hotel to show me the Christmas lights, so we drove to Nashville to see the lights.  There were a lot of lights outside, but it was cold and we were walking around, so we didn't feel like taking the time to freeze while taking pictures outside.  However, inside was this gorgeous tree... GIANT tree.  
There were also several of these very large wreaths.  It's hard to see because it was so far away and obviously my flash doesn't work for things that far away, but you get the idea.  There's a big chandelier behind it.
And there were a bunch of these things... they're hot air balloons, but they were hanging from the ceiling, so obviously they weren't real, but they were cute.
This is Delta Island (I think that's what it was called).  It's an "island" inside the hotel where there are a bunch of little shops and restaurants.  There's a river inside the hotel, so the river goes around this island.  It was dark outside, so although the entire area in this part of the hotel has a glass ceiling, there wasn't much light... hence all the dark photos.
And this last picture is a picture of the station where we got on one of the riverboats and got a little tour of the hotel... learning about the history and quick little facts too.  We have a picture of us on the boat, but that's coming in our Christmas letters, so if you want one and you don't think I have your address, you better post your address so I can send you one!

So that was our impromptu date.  It was nice to spend a little bit of time with each other again without anyone else.  Our jobs don't allow us to have too much time together since I work regular hours Monday through Friday, and he works 130-10pm on random days, usually weekends included.  Luckily though, Bass Pro is going to be trying to give Jason every other weekend off, so we should get some more time together. :)