Cookies and Milk

Last year we left goldfish and water for Santa. This year Levi said we needed to do better.

Rats.

Apparently someone told him Santa LOVES chocolate chip cookies. Well, we improvised by dipping oreos in white almond bark. We also left chocolate milk for the big guy. He didn't leave any complaints, so I think we did good!

Christmas Eve

We traveled to Moo and Pop's to eat and celebrate a day early. All bellies were full and the kids were proud of their new toys.

Shiloh loves to talk to Dora on her new Dora phone.

Although she wasn't convinced by her new Dora doll.

She did enjoy cleaning up everyone's tissue paper. She's a good helper. :)

Levi was super pumped about his Hot Wheels wall tracks...even though he has a strange look on his face...

Addyson loves her Aqua Doodle mat!

Thanksgiving

It's really hard to believe Thanksgiving is this week. The fall season has just flown by. I've been trying to exhibit a thankful heart lately--in big and little things--even though I should EVERY day--and it's been nice to enjoy helping Levi learn about thankfulness. He's really in a fun stage of life and I wish I could freeze him right where he is. :)

His Thanksgiving program at PCP was last week. All the kids got to choose their indian name for the event. Levi's indian name is Rainbow. He LOVES rainbows and coloring everything in rainbow colors. The kids sang several songs at their pow wow, my favorite being a little song with motions that talked about being thankful.

Every day is a happy day...

When we say "thank you, God!"

The kids loved doing the sign language and the message of the song was great. :) I think the kids FAVORITE song was the one about 5 fat turkeys. It's REALLY catchy and mommy has been singing it all week long!

I love my little Rainbow indian boy!

The Men in My Life

These are my two favorites. :) Aren't they sweet?

This little guy just warms my heart most every day.

I love him SO much. He told us the other night he had 100 girlfriends. I told him we needed to ease up on the girlfriends for a while.

Special thanks to Alana Donovan for these wonderful photos of my boys...

The Dynamic Duo

My little people love each other. A lot. I really am thankful that 95% of the time, they adore each other. Being with each other, playing with each other, showing each other the food inside their mouths. Those kinds of things.

I'm also glad they both love the new park. And love to slide together. That makes zone coverage at the new park a possibility. :) Especially when mommy is flying solo at said park.

The bumpy slide is a favorite. :) Can you tell? They like the way their booties jump up and down as they navigate the bumps...I hope they choose to stick together on life's bumpy roads as well. It's always good to have a friend by your side when that happens. :)

5

On this day 5 years ago, Scott and I were getting ready to check in River Oaks to meet this little guy.

He's been with us on many adventures. And through many trials. We're thankful each day we get to see this smiling face. :) Happy 5th birthday, Levi Hill!

But You Love Me Anyway...

How incredible is that truth?

Fall Frenzy

I've fallen off the blogging wagon a bit lately, but I'm so thankful for the reasons why!

First, I had the opportunity to take a trip to the dotmom conference in Birmingham with my mom the last weekend of September. It was such a fabulous time of fellowship with other moms and there was some great bible and life teaching to be had! I came home renewed and refreshed...ready to be a great wife and mom! Not sure if I've applied all I learned very well, but I'm trying. :)

We've also been busy with fall soccer at the YMCA. Levi moved up to U6 soccer and Scott has been coaching his team. I've been too busy keeping up with Shiloh to take many photos of the games, but hopefully I'll get some before the season is over. :)

In addition to all of the above, we've also been busy doing topless reading...or, at least Shiloh has.


...and superhero training.
Care to come join the fun? :)

Distractions and a Trip to Yogi Bear

I'll admit it. I've been a blogging slacker lately. We've suffered through tax deadlines and soccer practices and all kinds of busyness (and I don't say "suffer" lightly). However, one of the main reasons blogging has taken a back burner is I've developed a new romance over the past couple of weeks. With Pinterest.

Now if you're not on Pinterest, then you can't possibly understand the addiction. I didn't either. There are just SO MANY wonderful recipes and crafts and fun holiday activities and sewing projects and...well, you get the picture. Scott is already tired of seeing me spray paint pine cones and cabinet pulls and I only got started over the weekend. :)

Anyway, we made a weekend trip to Pelahatchie last weekend and spent a couple of days at Jellystone Resort. I didn't take my real camera, so a few cell phone photos were all I got!

Here's one of our favorite places at the resort. The waterpark.



Levi spent a large amount of time doing this. He even talked his mommy and daddy into sliding a few times. Shiloh went twice, but she was NOT a fan.


The boys brushed up on their miniature golfing skills.

And even little Shiloh took a break from the fabulous playground to swing a club a few times. Thankfully, she didn't hit herself or anyone else.

You Can't Stage These Things

Really, you can't.

First K4 Field Trip=

Tons of fun!

Especially when you get to go INSIDE a real fire truck!

And pretend to DRIVE a real fire truck!

And post for a class picture. Okay, that was mainly fun for mommy. Still.

Of Mice and Men

Remember that book? And the quote: "The best laid schemes of mice and men go often askew..."

Well.

That happened over the weekend. My best laid plans of taking the kids to a fundraising character breakfast for the American Cancer Society, thinking we could support a great charity and enjoy some fun time with Mickey and Minnie, Donald and Daisy, Buzz and Woody, princesses galore, etc...

...it didn't really work out as planned.

We drove into the parking lot and Levi spied a "giant" Donald Duck. He was worried.

This pic is of him eyeballing some of the princesses who had gathered outside for photo shoots with excited, joyful children. Other people's excited, joyful children.

Not ours.

Shiloh was also unimpressed and distrustful of everyone in dress-up attire. Even the other children!

Needless to say, this was the only picture we got of either of the kids with any of the precious children's characters. I snapped this shot right before Shiloh started screaming and crying.

Levi was under the table about half the time.

So much for best laid plans.

Precious Moments

There have been a lot of them lately.

This one is of Levi starting "big school" on the first day. He doesn't really understand that he's still in preschool. He just knows that it's "school" and not "daycare." There IS a difference, mom. GEEZ. Can you see how proud and excited he is in this picture? :)

This is after we got into Ms. Allison's classroom. Belle was there, so that was exciting and cut the nerves a bit. He's still a little too shy with everyone looking while his crazy mother was snapping pics. He tried to cover himself up with his nametag, but it didn't work.

We've now settled into a daily routine at our new school and things are going well.

Some more precious moments are brother/sister lovefests that occur on a fairly regular basis. Most of the time they're initiated by Levi who LOVES his sister. Here's a picture from last May (2010) at the beach when Levi first decided he could hold "his baby" himself.

This picture was taken this past Sunday morning. The kids were in the playroom having some train table fun and watching a Cedarmont Kids sing-a-long video. I walked back in and caught them in the middle of another cuddlefest. Too cute for words. :)

Shiloh is of the opinion that the best place to watch tv is in a lap. I hate to break it to Levi, but I don't think she really cared if it was my lap or his. I just let him enjoy the moment. :)

The Aftermath

The aftermath of going to work with mommy for two days.

Here's what it looks like after day one.

Here's what it looks like after day two.

It's ugly. :)

Books

Much like Levi at this age, Shiloh loves to "read." Sometimes I'll lose her for about 90 seconds and I'll find her in her room with 40 books strewn on the floor. The Tortoise and the Hare is on of her current favorites. In this video, she's reading it to herself. :)

Camping ***

We went camping for the first time a couple weeks ago. **Camping = pitching a tent down the hill from Nanny and Papaw's house, making smores by the house, waiting till dark then heading down the hill to spend 20 minutes in the hot tent before heading back up the hill to the house to sleep in our cozy beds underneath the lovely air conditioning because it was "scary." :) Ahhhhhhhhhh.

At any event, we made smores for the first time. That was fun. :)

Shiloh preferred to munch on the ingredients. Yummy marshmallows...

...and graham crackers. :)

The crackers were a big stale, but they were still yummy!

Fun times and great memories! Even on a 20 minute camping trip. :)

Dancin' With the Angels

Not surprisingly, there are many days when I really miss Aaron. I often think about how much fun he would have with Levi and Shiloh. I imagine what he would look like (probably just like his brother and sister!) and have a big pity party about not having him here with us.

The other day I was right in the middle of one of these pity parties when I heard this song. I'd never heard it before and the group is no longer together, but somehow it was sent to remind me of how my little guy is "dancin' with the angels" and "walkin' in new life." Definitely a sweet reminder and a great song by Monk and Neagle. :)

How much fun...

can two kids have at the splash pad?

Well...this much. Looks like a lot, doesn't it? :)

Shiloh seems to think it's really fun!

What does Levi think? Well...we'd ask him...if we could catch him.

But we can't. :)