Christmas 2011

Christmas 2011 in pictures... Christmas morning:

Christmas afternoon with Grandmamma, Granddaddy, and Uncle Tim:

Christmas with Grammy and Pappy, Uncle Heath and Nana on Facetime:

Isabelle's 6th Birthday

Isabelle celebrated her 6th birthday party with her friends at our house on Friday, December 2. We had all her girlfriends over to make ornaments- a colored sparkly foam shape that they stuck Christmas foam stickers to and decorated with glitter glue. Then we ate pizza and had cake and opened presents. It was a simple and fun party that was easy to do in our house! Isabelle opened up her presents from us on her actual birthday. She was so excited to get more clothes and accessories for her American Girl dolls, as well as Kit's dog, Grace! She also got a bed for her dolls, which Judson is trying out in the picture!

Thanksgiving trip to Florida

This Thanksgiving we drove down to spend the week with Grammy and Pappy. We had a nice time just relaxing and doing some of our favorite Florida activities. One of the fun things we did was go to the new Lego Land theme park. It was pretty packed, but the kids got to go on some fun rides and we saw a waterskiing show, which was neat. They had a section of miniature cities all built with Legos which was fun to look at. We enjoyed getting to spend time with Uncle Heath and Nana, too!

Greenwood

In October we took at trip to Greenwood, MS, for a weekend with Barrett's parents. We stayed in a very rustic cabin that at one time was actually lived in by sharecroppers. It was kind of a neat place, except for a few issues we had. We just decided to rent one cabin because it was supposed to sleep six people and we were trying to all stay together in the same cabin. There was a king size bed, two twin beds, and a pull-out couch. Barrett and I were going to sleep on the pull-out, but when we were pulling it out, rat droppings fell all over the floor from the mattress! That was very late in the evening at that point and the kids were already asleep, so Barrett and I ended up sleeping in the chairs for that night. The next night, the owners apologized and gave us an additional room free of charge that Skipper and Sally Ann moved to for the following night. Other than that and the fact that the places were so dusty that Barrett and Isabelle were sneezing their heads off the entire weekend, it was a quaint little place! We did get to enjoy a campfire late one evening where the kids got to make a smore, so that was fun. We got to see lots of stars since we were out in the country. During the day we drove around and saw where Sally Ann grew up, saw where her parent's grocery store, Carr's Grocery, used to be, and looked at some of the houses of people she knew. We also got to drive by some of the places where they filmed scenes for the movie "The Help". The place where we stayed had a big cotton crop growing in the field for you to pick and see how it grows. That was fun to see the cotton flowers and the different stages of growth. To top off the weekend, Judson and I got the stomach bug. The morning we left, I was feeling so bad as we were driving out of town that we had to pull over for me to throw up-and it happened to be on the really nice street in downtown Greenwood! I just hoped no one noticed me throwing up on their lawn!!

Ole Miss Football Game

We had the opportunity to go to our first Ole Miss football game this fall with our friends, the Watts family. They are season ticket holders and go to every game during the season. They invited us to tail gate with them, and we had a ton of fun. It was a long day- we left early in the morning and got to Oxford by 8:00am. We got all the food and stuff to their spot and then just hung out and snacked and walked around while we waited for the game to start. Judson did surprisingly well, and even took a nap in the stroller as he was being pushed around by Jenny Watts. Caleb especially enjoyed the big stadium football game (even though Ole Miss lost!)

Back to School!!

Today was Caleb and Isabelle's first day of school as a second grader and a kindergartener!! They are both attending Christ Covenant School, and now Isabelle has moved up from the preschool into the elementary building. It's a bitter-sweet time to end the summer days and begin the scheduled days of the school year, but they were both excited about it. Yesterday, they had an ice cream social for the kids to meet their teachers and see who would be in their class. So, it made today a little easier since they already knew where they were going and where their desk would be in their classroom. Isabelle gets to wear a uniform this year, too, so it will make getting dressed a little less stressful in the mornings. Isabelle and Caleb begin the day at the same time, now, but Isabelle only goes half days for kindergarten, so she will be done before lunch. Caleb is finished at 2:45.

When Caleb prayed last night, he thanked God for the opportunity to go to school. Praise the Lord! That is a good start to the year, and we pray that they both really enjoy their teachers this year as well as the children in their class.

Seeing their classrooms the day before school started


Before leaving for school


At school, about to start the day!

Isabelle at her desk

Florida beach vacation

Our family got to take a trip back to our old stomping ground a couple weeks ago, when we stayed at the Sandestin Resort. Barrett attended a medical conference for a few days, and we used that time to make a vacation out of it. It was our first trip to the area to stay for a week as tourists, and it definitely felt different than living there. We got to deal with the nasty traffic on Hwy 98 the whole week, which we usually tried to avoid as permanent residents. However, the resort where we stayed was great and the pool was a lot of fun. On Tuesday evening, Barrett's parents came over and stayed with us for the remainder of the week. It was great to hang out with them, and they were a big help with the kids. We ventured out to the beach to play one morning with Caleb and Isabelle, while grandmamma and granddaddy let Judson sleep up in the room. Judson was more prone to put the sand in his mouth and eyes, so it was easier for all of us if he stayed away from the beach. We spent most of our time at the pool, which included a kiddie pool and a waterfall for the kids to play under.

On Sunday, we enjoyed getting to worship with our friends at our old church. We went out to eat lunch with our pastor and his wife, along with some other friends after the service, and then on Sunday evening got to attend a small group Bible study that our good friends participate in each week. Our kids got to play and catch up with their friends, and so did we. We invited our friends the Wards and the Linns to come out to the resort and swim with us on Monday and Tuesday, and that was a lot of fun. Caleb even got to have a sleepover with his good friend, Johnny, while we were there.

Our friends


One evening we all went out to eat at one of our favorite beachfront restuarants, The Back Porch. We were reminded again that we were there during tourist season when we had to wait and hour and a half to be seated on a Wednesday night!

Eating an appetizer while waiting for a table


During the week we visited some of our favorite spots like The Harborwalk, Destin Commons, and Baytowne Wharf. It was hard to work in everything we wanted to do, and we were somewhat limited by having a toddler and working around nap schedules, etc., but we had a nice time and enjoyed our visit.

Playing in our condo



Playing at Destin Commons

Looking at fish and turtles at Baytowne Wharf

The view from the top floor of our condo


Playing on the beach






Granddaddy and Grandmomma with the kids