While We Were Moving...

Apparently, life doesn't stop while you are moving, but blogging sure does! The month of January was an absolute blur...a stressful, chaotic blur! Here are some of the high points (that don't include packing, moving or unpacking). In no particular order...

Grandaddy had a birthday! We took him to Purple Cow to celebrate. He wanted a vanilla shake!

The boys went paintballing for the first time. Alex was definitely not a fan. Initially, Carter was highly ticked that he got shot in the face; however, he later recovered and decided he might want to try it again. We'll see...

Geocaching success! I suspect I will have another post on geocaching in the spring, so I'll refrain from going into too much detail at the moment. For the record, this was a great "find"...

...that required one heck of a haul! I suspect Lisa and I would have opted out if we had known just how far we were going and just how much of a hill was involved...

Carter had a biography project. He had to read a book, put together a poster with the required rubric and dress like his "famous person." He made an incredibly cute Babe Ruth!


The Razorbacks won the Cotton Bowl! We went to the Tyrrell's for a watch party, but spent too much time cheering and eating to take pictures! This is the boys in front of the final score. WPS!

Straight A's X 2 for the second semester. So proud of my boys!

Uncle Chris turned 30! We drove to Jonesboro for his surprise party at Upper Crust Pizza!

The boys playing their final football game in the "old neighborhood." We're going to miss Jax and Dylan bunches and bunches.

New Year, New House

After ten glorious months on the market, our house finally sold. The house we built was completed in August. Since 55 Ophelia had not sold at this point, we had to let the builder put the new house on the market...and of course, it sold. We were definitely disappointed, but agreed that all things happen for a reason. We had actually decided to take our house off the market and relist in the spring. We felt very at peace with our decision, so naturally we had a huge wrench thrown in our plan (insert sarcasm). Our house sold ten days before Christmas. I mean, really? Who the heck buys a house during the holidays?

Apparently, a young couple with a baby on the way (we later found out that baby was born on Christmas day). We might have stalked them a bit from the top of the cul-de-sac while they were looking at the house. They reminded me of us fifteen years ago...young, baby on the way, searching for a great little house to start their family. This made me feel even better about our decision to sell...it also made me feel a bit old and sad. It seems like just yesterday, we were that couple. The boys were babies. Life seemed simpler.

Fast forward a few CHAOTIC weeks of house hunting intermingled with holiday cheer. We found a great home about a block from where we built with a wonderful floor plan. Russ even gets an office in this house! And the boys get a tree house just like the one we left behind...we definitely took that as a sign!

Almost a year later...SOLD!

I'm sure going to miss this little house. So many wonderful memories...

On the flip side, I'm awfully excited about the memories we're going to make in the new house!

Christmas Day

For some crazy reason, the boys have always slept in on Christmas morning. We have NEVER had them rise with the sun. This year they ripped the paper off the door around 8:45 a.m.

Reading their note from Santa before ripping into their gifts. Lest you think they are this disciplined, Russ had to point out the note and tell them to read it first!

It's a Kindle Fire! And it's installed with the first season of The Big Bang Theory and The Hunger Games Trilogy! Woo-hoo!

Against Santa's better judgement, it's THE air soft gun.

He was awfully excited!

Madden 12...again!

Getting it on Blu-Ray didn't seem to matter when he opened it!

What happened to the days of the matching Christmas pajamas? They're still pretty cute!

Santa brought him the chest shield (he already had the helmet, not pictured). He spent some quality time in the front yard trying to shoot the alarm sign. Nothing says Christmas like a semi-automatic!

My special Christmas morning treat...Star Wars pancakes! Darth Vader is a bit crusty in this pic, but I got better with practice!

This will be our last Christmas in this little house. It was very bittersweet. We wanted one more pic of the boys sitting together on the hearth. We used to do this every Christmas and their little feet wouldn't even touch the floor. Wish I'd had Carter change out of his "Vote for Pedro" shirt!

We traveled up to Mimi and Papa's around noon. After a late lunch/early dinner, we started the rounds of opening our gifts "one at a time." I can remember doing this at my Grandma and Grandpa Jones'. There were ten grandkids and it seemed to take forever! I'm sure my kids feel the same way! However, allow me to point out: If we were all unwrapping at the same time, everyone would have missed me opening my second fabulous pair of Uggs :-)

We got Mimi the original Kindle. "I love it...I just don't know how I'm going to use it!" We need to make her a cheat sheet!

"Is it my turn yet?"

Wendy and Chris with their gift from Mimi and Papa. They got Russ and I a similar painting of the boys last year. Teri Fowler is such an incredible artist. Priceless gift!

Enough said.

Chris and Russ with a "special" gift from Mimi and Papa.

Ben and Jerry's "Sweddy Balls" ice cream. Russ and Chris love this Saturday Night Live skit...really, they just love Saturday Night Live!

All the grandkids posing with their "big gifts" from Mimi and Papa.

It's a game chair!

And another game chair!

And a wagon!

Russ retired his Nautica sweatpants to Chris this year. It has been a standing joke for EONS that Russ will never give up "the Nauticas." He has lived in those bad boys for about 15 years.

I wanted a shot with all the grandkids...

... Natalie did not.

I think this is our only family shot of the entire season! Love, love, love these guys!

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve was a wonderfully relaxing day. We didn't even get out of our PJ's until it was time to get ready for church. We spent some quality time eating left over pizza and watching "A Christmas Story." We love that movie! Carter asked Santa for an air soft gun this year and I kept telling him "you'll shoot your eye out!" He found the humor much more to his liking in the actual movie...

All dressed up for Christmas Eve service. This year they brought back the 5:00 KidStuf service. The virtue was "generosity" which was perfect. We've been trying to impart that lesson on the boys the entire holiday season.

All my boys! It's become somewhat of a Christmas Eve tradition to eat dinner at Sashimi Japanese Steakhouse after the church service. Carter wanted to know if he could take his sweater off at the restaurant if he was "so good and didn't complain during church." NO.

It's amazing how nice they are to each other right before gifts are exchanged.

Traditionally, we open our gifts from one another on Christmas Eve.

When did he get so big?

Harry Potter Legos = Big Hit

Ugg Boots...finally! About three years ago, Mom bought me a pair for Christmas. This was when they first came out and I was super excited to be "in style" (being a mom has eliminated the word "trendy" from my vocabulary). When I tried them on, I realized they were two different sizes. When I tried to return them, they were sold out of my size. Since they were the "hot thing" that season, the production didn't keep up with the demand. In other words, it would be March before the next shipment arrived. This would be flip flop season. So, I took the store credit and did something responsible like buying the boys' Easter clothes with it. They may not be quite as "trendy" three years later, but I was still pretty excited!

Russ and his new jeans. He wanted me to note that they are a size smaller (Russ has lost 40 lbs. this year...I have not!).

Posing with their new hats. I don't think they were particularly excited about this gift (and the matching gloves), but they were definitely a necessity. Their old ones were so small that they kept popping off the tops of their heads!

Razorback frame from the boys with a picture from the Mississippi State game.

The boys' got Russ Modern Warfare III for the PS3. Carter has been banned from such games so I suspect he was sulking as Russ and Alex planned their attack.

Alex didn't ask for too much this year and what he did ask for wasn't very specific. More along the lines of "yeah, that would be kind of good" or "maybe I would like that." A watch was the only thing he was specific on..."the kind that has the actual numbers, not the hands."

Feel free to judge us...these were the boys' "gag gifts" of sorts. Alex is not allowed to wear his out of the house! After watching Napoleon Dynamite for the first time in Texas, Carter became slightly obsessed. As for the honey badger, highly inappropriate (again, feel free to judge!), but it was pop culture for 2011...and come on, it's pretty darn funny!

Each year, the boys write their Christmas wishes on these plates (gifts from Mimi several years ago). We went into a slight panic when Carter showed off his list (mind you, this was 2 hours before bedtime!): 1. Air soft gun (This has been a consistent request for months.) 2. The elder wand (This is the first we heard of this...ever! This is a wand from Harry Potter that he discovered on-line before church...on Christmas Eve!) 3. Star Wars the complete saga NOT on Blu-Ray (Santa didn't know it came NOT on Blu-Ray!) 4. Kinect Star Wars game (According to our on-line research, this game will not be released until late 2012!) 5. To move (Done! Our house sold the week before Christmas...more to follow in January!) Alex was consistent (even if Cotton Bowl tickets were a bit of a pipe dream!): 1. Madden 12 for PS3 (This is apparently a universal request by all boys EVERY year. We currently own Madden 2008-Madden 2012. Really?) 2. Cotton Bowl tickets (Alex has been to a bowl game the past two years: Liberty and Sugar Bowls. He is having a hard time accepting that his streak has ended!) 3. Kindle Fire or Nook Tablet (I love that his flexibility did not include an iPad!)

Giving Georgia some Christmas Eve love!

Getting the milk and cookies ready for Santa. Carter decided that it would be nice to leave a chair by the fireplace for Santa. "His feet will probably be very tired."

"Come sit in my lap, little boy."

"Have you been good this year?"

We started this tradition when Alex was 2 years old (Christmas 2002). The boys always sleep together on Christmas Eve, so it's been very easy to continue. We wrap the boys in their room at night so they can sleep "inside a giant present" and rip their way out Christmas morning! They look forward to it every year!

The note Santa left for the boys. Santa always leaves a little note with some type of reflection on the year.

As stated in the above letter, this was the first year that Santa WRAPPED all of his gifts. Now that they are getting older, Santa thought they might appreciate the change...and the Razorback paper!