Just a few catchup pics

Not much real excitment going on here. We are officially over the flu so things are getting back to normal.


The youngest 2 thought it would be a great idea to camp out in Lucy's beds. Wonderful, I don't know when I washed those things last...oh well, building immunity right?



I don't really know why I haven't gotten out the paint stuff since Sidney has been born. We used to do this all the time with the other 2. I will be doing it more for sure. They had a BLAST for like 45 minutes. Picture after picture of endless fun.


This is a classic, breathe in real big before you say, "hey mom, i just had the greatest idea!" Conner look.




I am certainly glad I did not get rid of our baby swing a week or so ago. Sidney is obssessed with swinging her babies. This time, she decided to join them. Cute!

I can't believe that my youngest will be 2 on Monday!! I plan to do a my favorites list for her on that day so stay tuned, there are some good ones!

Linlee's 6th Birthday Party

The fact that I am a few weeks behind on blogging should tell you how busy life has been lately. My mom is here this week though, so I have aa few minutes to start catching up.

We had Linlee's birthday party on Jan 8th so that all her friends that she wanted to invite could come. Her friend Molly came home with us from school and they had a blast playing. We then left and picked up Annelise on our way. We had a car full of silliness let me tell you!!



Another friend from school(Ella) met us there. All these girls have birthdays withing a few weeks of each other which I thought was coincidental. Anyway, no one but Ella had been to build a bear so we were in for a treat. It was awesome and the girls (and Conner) had a great time!




We then took the party next door (in the snow) to The Great American Cookie Co. for gifts and cookie cake. Delicious!!


We had red drinks, can you tell?
It was a great day!! Love you Linlee!

THE Big Night

Well the night started out perfect. We got all ready with our football game gear.


Put Sid to bed, got settled in the watch the 1st quarter and wham, Conner's head found the coffee table. He went into panic mode while we scrambled to get him cleaned up. In the midst of the crisis, Conner is hysterical and then says "are my brians coming out?" I lost it. That boy is something else.
Ben graciously took him to get stitches so that I could watch the rest of the game.
And what a game it was!!!! National Champions!!!!

Enjoying the snow with friends

We got to spend some time with the Marlar girls last week and they all had a blast. They happened to be with us when the snow came. The kids were all excited.



We got all bundled up (no easy task!!) and went out to enjoy the little bit of snow that we got.





Then we enjoyed some after snow hot chocolate.

New Year's Day

Ben has kind of started a New Year's Day tradition of pulling out the turkey fryer. This year he invited people to come in shifts and we made a day of it. I think he wound up frying about 4. They turned out delicious!



The kids loved having all the people in and out to talk with. They really jumped on Mr Al.

December

Sidney:

Sidney went home with my parents on Dec 13th. She got to play with Ava at the office and "help" Nana work. I am really glad she got to spend this time with them even though she came back with a few habits that I am still debating on. One is that she will not only roll her eyes like a pro (she had mastered this already) but will cross her arms and say "good grief" along with it. Cute but I predict it will come back to haunt me later.... She also has this fascination with Charlie Brown the great pumpkin. She asks to watch it about 4 times a day. Everyone loves Charlie Brown, however this one in particular uses a few words (aka stupid, fool, block head) many times and I have heard it repeated in the house already by a few members of the family. He may have to disappear until we are older. Her favorite phrase right now is "I not scared." which usually means that she is. Cute.

Linlee and Conner:


We all had a fabulous time in West Virginia once we finally got there. The road conditions got worse and worse the closer we got to Snowshoe.

We saw many a car buried in snow in the ditch. Luckily, we did not wind up joining them. The picture of half the road with a mound of snow is a good representative of the snow buried car. Kind of dangerous. The snow plows just went right around them.

The Inn where we stayed was in a beautiful location. Many mornings we would see deer outside. I think one evening we counted 14 on our 5 minute drive back from the slopes. The first day we signed the kids up for ski lessons. Ben also got to ski a little with his cousin Jimmy. I, however opted not to try it that day due to the fact that you couldn't seed 3 feet in front of you clearly. I would have hit every person on the slopes. It was miserable!!


To make up for the blizzard like conditions the day before, the next day was absolutely perfect!!

Ben and I took Linlee out skiing that morning which was a blast.
She went with Ben down the green slope and loved it.
That afternoon, the whole clan went tubing.

My camera died right before this so I got no pics but will get copies from aunt Sandy. Ben and I went back skiing that night and it was cold but fabulous!!! I hated to be leaving the next day! Uncle Bobby and Aunt Angie arrived that evening and we had presents round 1 with them. I hate that we didn't get to see them more!

All the kids got along so great! The ages were perfect however, Robbie and Linlee seemed inseperable at times.
We also inherited another little 4 year old named Colton whom Conner related well to so that was great to.:)

We drove from 11:00 am until 2:40 am the next day to get back to Aquilla for Christmas Eve. That is a LONG time to be in the car (we put 2100 miles on our rented minivan this trip) but the kids did GREAT! We were sooo glad to be there.

On the 24th, we went to Papa John's for early appetizers and gifts followed by service at First Baptist.
We then finished with dinner at Grandma Giles house with more gifts.
Delicious. The kids had a blast.



On Christmas morning we opened gifts with the kids and then got ready for the whole Smith clan to arrive.
I am not sure how many showed up this year but we are going to have to start renting out a bigger building for this crew. We were even missing about 8 or 9 people this year and it was still crazy! I don't see how Nana keeps her sanity having all those people in her house. She does it like a pro though.



We stayed a few more days with Nana and Papa. My best friend from high school came and brought her girls for a visit. It was good to see them.

We then made our way back to Collierville.
We had a very full van and still didn't make it back with everything. We were very blessed this year. Man it is good to be home!

We celebrated Linlee's 6th birthday at home with birthday doughnuts that morning, and then she helped design her cake for that afternoon. She also requested bbq nachos as her birthday dinner. That is a true memphis girl!


Her actual party will be at build-a-bear this year on Jan 8th so more pics from that to come. I just can't believe that she is now 6!!!
She is pretty proud of her split so here is a pic! I sure can't do that anymore....ouch!

Still Here

Yes, we are still on the planet. Haven't really had much time to post things lately (imagine that!). Sidney went home with my parents last Sunday so we have been a family of 4 this week. I have missed her to death, but it was a busy week so it was for the best. She has definitely had fun. WE have been planning and packing for our trip to Snowshoe West Virginia. Of course the night before we leave, the snowstorm of the century is moving through that area. WE are on the road right now and are just going to see how it goes. As of 1 hr ago, Snowshoe has had 24 inches of snow since last night!!!! If all else fails, we will detour to Gatlinburg for a few days. More to come. (I don't have my cord to transfer pics so that will have to come later.)