our weekend....

in a nutshell:
a first meeting.
lots of snuggles.
checking out tiny little body parts.

becoming smitten.
having lots of questions.

time with cousins who are also friends.

strawberry picking.
chicken's jumping in cars.
projectile spit ups.

building workbenches.
fleas.

reading the "map."
and thanking the lord that stickers weren't removed from parts!

jeep rides.
camp fires.
good food.

staying warm.

not wanting to say goodbye.

let's do it again, real soon.

it happens so fast

i remember snuggling on mary kate when she was tatum's size.
and just look at how she has grown.

already smiling at each other.
i think these two will become fast friends!

yum

not exactly what i needed,
but exactly what i had been craving.

thanks for the family date night, babe!

iphone dump

dumping pics from my iphone.

august with his buddies at the children's museum.
they enjoyed the face paint!

preparing the recycling at hunting camp.

chomping teeth = $.075 well spent

snuggled up in the moby.

a daily walk for the mail.
and my favorite mail carrier.

deep blue eyes.

tailgating at camp.

heading out for a hunt.

fireside celebrating samantha's birthday.
and tatum first girl's night!

per superman's request.

hunting camp

the past few weekends we have spent time down at the hunting camp.
it has some a long way from the beginning.
the guys have really worked hard to make it nice.
and us women especially appreciate it.

when i say we camp, i use the term loosely....
we have campers,
but also power, running water,
and direct tv for football games.

august has taken to quail hunting.
he gets quite upset in the mornings when he finds out he as been left.
but enjoys it so much when they take him out later.

the cook shed needs just a few finishing touches,
but is looking pretty good.

some serious good food has already been cooked here.
(erica, my football is safely at home.
august felt the need to take it to camp to decorate!)

one of the guy's many philosophies i'm sure.

antler chandler.

our big screen tv.
that caught fire a few hours later.
guess we'll be on the hunt for a new one.
'cause you know we can't miss any college football!

hanging rack.

with some clever concrete art.

more concrete art over by the grill.

and finally the bathroom concrete art.

any guesses on what sss stands for?

great outdoors

we are enjoying the outdoors here at the new house.
travis and august were able to see a large covey of quail the other day.
and get a picture of a male and female together.

august enjoys fishing in the pond.

and the sun setting through the pines is just awesome.

country living at it's finest!

christmas

our christmas celebrations began on christmas eve, eve.
we went to mom and dad's for christmas with the smith family.
these two cousins enjoyed their time together!

we munched on yummy treats and opened presents.

tatum enjoyed everyone, though she slept or ate most of the time!

and superman was more than pleased with his new pajamas.

christmas eve we went to a beautiful candle light service.
then visited with the cruise family.
the kids opened their christmas pj's and jumped into bed for blue popcorn and a movie.

next year tatum will be in the thick of it with them.

on christmas morning, we were very pleased that santa came to visit.
he brought all the things august wanted:  a bat cave and a bat man fishing pole.
much to august's surprise, santa even brought some things he wanted, but didn't ask for.
gotta love how much the big guy knows!

santa thought tatum was a pretty good girl too.
so did mama, she gave me 6 hours of uninterrupted sleep!

later in the morning the stivender's came over for breakfast and gift giving.

august was so excited when he found out that the big present was for him.

sweet, sweet girl!

out to the front porch for family pictures.
another sweet little person.

a couple dogs came over to say merry christmas.

later that afternoon we went to visit at the farr's.
zack and hannah are so good with the kids.
i'll have to go back to find pictures of them with august when he was just a wee one.
my how they all have grown.

cruising on up the road to grandmama jahna's.
tatum and avery get their first pictures together.

the flashes are bothering tatum's sleep!

and these two supervised the entire process.

i wanted at least one picture of the four of us on christmas day.

we had a performing monkey on our hands.

finally some cooperation, and everyone is looking with their eyes open!

our holiday season was wonderful.
we have been so very blessed!