Pictures in the Park

I've been begging Grace for the past couple of weeks to please not wiggle those oh-so-loose bottom teeth until I got pictures done. I had trouble deciding on dresses, and then had to find the time to take them to the park. I'm not sure how loose those bottom teeth are by now; I haven't felt them, for fear of bringing more attention to the fact that they need to come out. I was biding my time! Well, friends, I got it done :) It wasn't easy. On top of all of the normal kid photography issues, I have glare from Marion's glasses to contend with. Out of almost 300 shots, these are our best...

Christmas Morning in Henleyfield

With the movers coming to load their truck on the 27th of December, there was no way we could celebrate Christmas at our house. There were 300 boxes stacked to the ceiling, and the decorations were in a couple of those boxes. There wasn't even a Christmas tree up! We headed to Nana and Paw Paw's house in Henleyfield and had a wonderful Christmas away from the stresses at our chaotic boxed up home!

The Delivery! Lots of Lalaloopsy dolls of all sizes, lots of new doll furniture, a couple nice dolls, ponies, purses, and Hello Kitties... oh, and tools for the kids. Yep, real tool sets, hack saws and all. Jeremy picked all of that out!

Marion pushing Baby May May in the stroller.

Have you ever seen anything this precious??

All decked out in Hello Kitty!

Tools and dolls, great combo!

Marion and Nana

Little Christmas Memories

These are some of the little things we did leading up to Christmas...

Our Garden Club Santa Visit

My kids have gotten used to Santa knocking on OUR front door every year! I'm a bit worried that they will be disappointed when he doesn't show in Texas this year. Hmm, maybe a neighbor in a santa suit?

Gingerbread houses- I love them! We did the kit from Sam's this year, but I promise to make them from scratch next year. These holidays were just crazy and hectic because of the upcoming move... next year we'll go all out to make up!

My girls, smiling before Grace's Christmas program at Sacred Heart.

She sang her little heart out!

Marion at her Christmas party at Temple- best preschool ever!

Marion with Mrs.Shannon- we loved her!! It was pajama day ;)

Grace's Christmas party at Sacred Heart, this is where she said her goodbyes to most of her friends.

Grace and Meredith, tears were shed for this farewell :(

My girls with Santa at Sacred Heart's Cookies with Santa.

Christmas Fun in The Woodlands

The pictures are from our "check it out" visit to The Woodlands in November. We flew out the week before Thanksgiving and stayed in a hotel for a week. We toured schools, looked at houses, stalked neighborhoods... you get the picture. We wanted to see what all The Woodlands had to offer, so we could make a final decision. We were lucky to be here for the Lighting of the Doves Festival, which officially kicks off the Christmas season. We saw all kinds of neat things- including a live ice carving competition! We had a great time!

It was 75 degrees and snowing in Texas!! Well, at least it was at The Woodlands' Christmas Party!

Marion and Jeremy sledding! I am going to try to talk Grace into sledding next year!!

Santa rode in down the waterway on his Christmas island!

It was not easy to get this close to Santa!! There were thousands of people there. We stayed by Santa's island while he went on stage to light the doves. Everyone else left and followed him to the stage, and we had front row spots when he was leaving!

Do you see Mrs.Clause? She came up to Grace and told her how excited she was to see her, and how she was just talking to the elves, telling them she hoped Grace would be there. Grace said, "I know, because I live in Mississippi and you didn't know if I would make it here!?!" It was absolutely magical!

We passed by the fountain set to music on our way back to the car. It is Grace's favorite attraction here. One day soon I will do a post with a virtual tour of The Woodlands with pictures of all of the fun spots!

Celebration in the Oaks, New Orleans City Park

I didn't take nearly enough pictures at Celebration in the Oaks this year. It is one of my favorite Christmas traditions and I hope that this past year won't be our last time to see it, even though we are in Texas now. There is something so majestic, yet so beautifully simple about those huge oaks wrapped in lights.

The City Park Railroad was new and super cool!

Can you see that little southern home in the background? There were lots of them- all beautiful!

Christmas Cards 2011

This was the picture we used for our Christmas cards this year...

Marion and Grace

Even though I didn't like this family picture enough to use it on our card, it is pretty good considering I took it with the camera on a tripod (me hitting a button and running to sit down!!). Although, that's probably why I don't like it. To me, it looks like a picture of Jeremy and the kids, with me stuck in!

Mitchell Farms 2011

The pumpkin patch is my favorite Fall activity. When we lived in Auburn, we went to a really fabulous one. It was spectacular! Four years ago, when we first moved to Hattiesburg, we started a new tradition, Mitchell Farms. To be honest, the first year was a bit of a let down for us- it just didn't compare to what we had in Auburn. Well, the folks at Mitchell Farms have been busy since then, adding more and more each year, making it better and better. This year was the best yet!!

I love these sweet girls! I also love taking pictures of them, especially at the pumpkin patch!

Just outside of the corn maze!

Jeremy was our navigator. Seriously, I wouldn't have even gone in with the kids without him. My sense of direction is a bit hazy.

Forks in the path!

Which way?!

What do you do when you get lost in a corn maze? I take pictures!

Marion - 2 years old

Grace - 5 years old

We made it out!

The girls loved the tractor ride through the sunflower fields. They were breathtaking!

Mitchell Farms has plenty of old fashion toys... no iPads here!

The corn pool is a favorite! We ended up here a few times.

The new slide! Grace wouldn't even try it, but Marion must have gone down 15 times!

We took this picture to show Nana these beautiful flowers, and called her on the way home to tell her about them.

Finally, time to pick out our pumpkins! There were plenty to choose from...

Grace found one quickly!

She found one for me too!

And then, there was Marion...

This is Marion showing Jeremy that this pumpkin is dirty, and will not do. Do you think I'm kidding? I'm not. She's my sweet girl who's a little picky, and has lots of opinions. She had a bit of trouble finding the perfect one.

She settled on this one :)

My crew, toting their pumpkins back to the car.

A fun train ride,

one last photo,

and we headed home! Another great day of pumpkin patch memories!