Happy New Year!!!

Well, it's a rather quiet night here at our house. We didn't have church services tonight and we didn't have any parties or anything. Just the 4 of us hanging out. We've played games, played Go Fish, colored with crayons and colored pencils, watched a VeggieTales video, read books, and played with sewing cards. It's a pretty happening place around here - don't you think? Who needs Times Square when you could hang out here?!?! HaHa!!!

Anyway, the girls are in bed, Robert's watching something on TV, and I'm trying to catch up on getting my pictures from the holidays downloaded and this blog updated. I doubt we'll be awake to ring in the new year, so I thought I'd go ahead and wish everyone a Happy New Year!! I hope 2007 is a wonderful year for all of you!

This morning in Sunday School our lesson was "5 Firsts for the 1st." Here are those 5 firsts:

1. Give God 1st place in your heart.
2. Give God the 1st day of every week.
3. Give God the 1st moment of every day.
4. Give God the 1st fruits of your income.
5. Give God 1st consideration in all of your decisions.

If we could all apply these 5 things in our lives for 2007, I'm sure we'd have the best year ever!

Goodbye 2006
Hello 2007!

Happy Birthday Puddin!

Yesterday was Puddin's birthday so we went down for her party. This is a picture of Rachel & Katelyn helping her blow out the candles. Yes - that's smoke you see; it's not the picture that looks fuzzy!















This is a picture of Puddin & Papa with all the grandkids - Ryan, Brittany, Jessica, Kayla, Rachel, and Katelyn.















Here are Rachel & Katelyn with all of their cousins.

Christmas at Puddin & Papa's House

Here are pictures from our Christmas celebration at Puddin & Papa's house (Robert's parents).

1. Papa reading "Twas the Night Before Christmas" to Rachel & Katelyn

2. Charlie reading one of the girls' new books - "Fancy Nancy"

3. Katelyn posing with her new Ariel puzzle

4. Rachel posing with her new Snow White and Sleeping Beauty Barbie dolls

5. Rachel & Katelyn were sooooo excited to get their croc style shoes from their cousins, Brittany and Kayla. The girls claim that the shoes make them jump higher, run faster, dance more, etc. This picture is them demonstrating just how helpful the crocs are!!!

Christmas Morning

Just a few pictures from Christmas morning.

1. The girls waiting patiently at the top of the stairs for mommy to get the video camera and everything ready!

2. Katelyn got the hula hoop she requested from Santa!

3. Santa was smart and got Rachel a hula hoop too!

4. It's the little things that count - Katelyn loves chocolate, so the M&M's were a hit!

5. Rachel likes fruity things and sour things, so the sour gummy worms gave her a reason to smile!

6. It's "Cousin It" - no wait, it's really Katelyn!!!

Christmas with Mamaw & Papaw

Here are some pictures from our Christmas with Mamaw & Papaw and Lloyd & Wendy. In the bottom picture you can tell that Katelyn is happy to get a jump rope. She has been so funny the past month or so about what she wanted for Christmas. Every time you'd ask her what she wanted for Christmas, she'd always reply "I want a jump rope!" Mamaw took care of that! The other thing that Katelyn wanted for Christmas was a hula hoop, and Santa took care of that for her. She got more than just a jump rope and a hula hoop, but that was the 2 things she asked for! She's not too hard to satisfy!!!

Christmas Eve Morning

Here are some pictures from last Sunday morning before church. As you can see, the girls were all dressed up in their Christmas attire!

Santa's Helpers

Here are my two Santa's helpers! We were needing a last minute gift for a lady at church that spoils the girls! She has two granddaughters, but they're all grown up now, so she's kind of adopted Rachel & Katelyn as her young granddaughters! Rachel & Katelyn call her Mama Cook! She's a really sweet lady. Anyway, I've been trying to decide what we could get her for Christmas. She doesn't get out much as far as eating out and stuff because her husband isn't doing very well, so she mainly stays home with him. Anyway, I finally decided on one of those snow globes that you insert your own pictures into the center. So I put the Santa hats on the girls and sat them in front of the tree for a few pictures. Thank goodness for digital cameras and color photo printers! The snowglobe turned out really cute and the girls think it's funny that it's "snowing" on them!!!! Anyway, we're hoping Mama Cook will like it too! Here are some of the pictures that we had to choose from for the snowglobe.

Merry Christmas!

Hooray for Dollywood!

Monday was a beautiful day to be outdoors, so we took advantage of the wonderful weather and headed to Dollywood with Mamaw & Papaw. We had a great time - talking to Santa, riding rides, watching the parade, and looking at lights. Here are a few of the pictures from our adventure.

All I Want for Christmas is My Two Front Teeth

Well, actually Rachel's first permanent tooth is almost all the way in. But at school on Monday she pulled her own tooth! It had been loose for a while, and had really loosened up a lot over the week-end (probably due to the fact that she kept wiggling it!). But when I picked her up from school on Monday she had a little plastic tooth container on a necklace with her tooth inside it. She was so proud of herself, and I was proud of her too!! She has now lost two teeth!

Decorating the Tree

The girls love decorating the tree! The only problem is we sometimes end up with all the ornaments on the lower half of the tree and it's common to find half a dozen ornaments all on the same branch!!! I usually come along later and try to spread the ornaments out a bit, but it's mainly just how Rachel and Katelyn wanted it!

Thanksgiving Traditions

Well, it has become a tradition with our family for me, Mom, and Wendy to head out bright and early the day after Thanksgiving to fight the crowds for the best deals! In the early years, we were just amateurs and took one car, with all 3 of us ending up sitting in the front seat on the way home because the backseat and trunk were full!! Now we're more experienced and take two cars! That way we have more room for all of our bargains! Plus, when you absolutely have to be two places at once, we can divide and conquer!! We always end up getting back home and checking all of our receipts to see who owes who for what!! It's madness, I know, but we enjoy it! Anyway, after our full day of shopping (this year I left the house around 4:30 am to go get Wendy and we got back to Wendy's house a little after 5:00 pm), we usually head back to one of our houses to hang out and celebrate mine & Lloyd's birthdays since they're the week of Thanksgiving. We always take a family photo of all 8 of us (Mom & Dad, Lloyd & Wendy, and the 4 of us). I've posted a few of the pictures from this year. As you can see, we like to take a crazy picture too! Even Rascal (the kitten) is upside down!! These pictures were taken at Lloyd & Wendy's new house in their rec room. Can you tell what college team they cheer for?

More Pictures

Here are more pictures.

Family Picture Day

Here are some of the pictures we had made the other day.