a mom's view: January 2015

Thursday, January 29, 2015

Donuts with Dad

Today Sam’s school had Donuts with Dad. Sam is always so excited for days like this. He, once again, matched Daddy in clothes that he was wearing. It is so cute!

This year Sam was much more willing to talk to Lance while he was there and even showed him around his classroom. They made their daddies ties and answered questions about their dads. Sam said Lance is 1000 feet tall and weighs four pounds.

Of course, this little guy needed to get in the pictures too. I know he will be so excited to do this next year!

Saturday, January 24, 2015

Family Pictures

Watch out! Two posts in two days. I actually had this post started yesterday and didn’t get a chance to finish it.

I have pictures that I never posted on this blog but wanted them on here for memory sake. These are the pictures I took back in November when shooting for a Christmas card.

These three I loved of each of the kids.

These were close seconds…

And these are a few outtakes…

These are the pictures we ended up using for our Christmas cards. A friend of ours was doing a mini session for a good price to start up her photography business. It was a super cold day but we powered through to get these pictures in this gorgeous location.

This one didn’t make the Christmas card but thought it was cute too.

Friday, January 23, 2015

Grandma Betsy

This has been a busy week! On Tuesday evening Reese’s teacher sent an email out saying that Thursday was the 100th day of school and that the kids could dress up as if they were 100 years old. Because of our busy week I totally ignored and forgot about that email and then got a second email Wednesday night around 5:00 reminding us. Luckily Claire has been staying with us this week and jumped right in to help Reese out.

They found an outfit and came up with a plan. That night after the kids were in bed Claire and I ran to Wal-Mart for some fake glasses and gray hair spray. We couldn’t find gray spray but did find some silver glitter.

Thursday morning Claire was up early to help Reese get ready. It is amazing the things Reese will do for Claire and not me. She got dressed and then it was time to work on her hair. We put it in a low bun, threw some baby powder in, sprayed a little silver glitter spray in it, and she was officially a grandma.

Reese didn’t want to wear a jacket so I gave her a sweater that I have had for at least 15 years. Lance calls it my “Grandma sweater” so it was perfect to keep her warm on the way to school. Reese talked Claire in to taking her out to the bus stop. Claire said that the bus driver laughed and laughed and was calling Reese Betsy.

Reese still looked just as cute when she got off the bus and said she had a fun day. Reese and her teacher, who had a sweater with 15 cats around her neck, got to be on the morning announcements and she was so excited about that. I love that Reese is so confident and willing to go out on a limb even when she is not sure anyone else is going to do the same. She asked me one time (after she was totally dressed and hair done) if every one else was going to be dressed up. I told her I had no idea and she said “oh well”.

Sunday, January 18, 2015

Fun Weekend!

We have had a fun and busy weekend so far. Friday was a most exciting day for Sam. He has been working so hard to earn a bunk bed. He had actually earned it before Christmas but we decided to wait just a bit more before ordering the bed. And I am so glad we did. I would have ordered a different bunk bed before Christmas and I am so glad I saw the one we ended up with because I love it so much. Sam was almost as excited as Christmas morning on the morning his bed was to be delivered. I am glad we were in their morning delivery because I don’t know that he could have waited much longer. The truck pulled up right around 9:00 and the boys sat in Sam’s room the whole time watching the guys put it together. Thankfully they were both well behaved and the men were so sweet to let them be nearby. We spent a lot of time in Sam’s room that day. He would ask if I wanted to go sit on his bed. During Hayes’s nap we both layed on the bottom bunk. He watched a show on the ipad and I played on my phone. He could not wait for Reese to get home so she could see it. When Reese finally got home she was so sweet and so excited for Sam. They planned a sleepover together for the evening. Shortly after that Reese went over to Hallie’s to play for a little while.

Once the bed was complete Sam could not wait to climb up the ladder.

Hayes was not far behind him.

Friday night Hallie’s family came over and brought Reese home with them. The dads stayed behind with the kids while the mom’s went to a Jamberry party. Hallie spent the night with us that night and they all had a slumber party in Sam’s room. The girls slept together on the bottom bunk while Sam slept on the top bunk. In the middle of the night Reese ended up going back in to her room to sleep in her bed.

The next morning the kids played for a while.

Reese had a basketball game in the afternoon and Hallie decided to stay with us and go to Reese’s game. Last week Reese’s game was a little rough. Because there are not that many girls in this league through Upwards Reese’s age group ranges from second to sixth grade. Last week every single girl was a head taller than Reese (and her teammates) and had obviously played before. This week there were only two girls on the team that were more than a head taller than her but they were not that good. The only reason they were scoring so much is because no one on Reese’s team was tall enough to block them. This picture below is of Reese getting a basket. What is funny about this picture is that you can’t even see Reese and you can tell the girl in white is so much taller than all of the girls on Reese’s team (in blue). You can barely see Reese’s head in the middle of that group and she doesn’t even come up to this girls shoulder.

Here is a video of her scoring…watch quickly…it is only three seconds long. Reese ended up scoring eight points during the game. They lost by only six points this week.

Here is what was happening on the sidelines. Hallie had Sam in her lap. They really play so well together too. I am pretty sure Sam has a little crush on her. Over the summer Reese was at a camp, I had a doctors appointment and Sam was supposed to be at tennis lessons. I asked Hallie’s mom to take Sam to the lesson so he went over to their house to play before hand. After the lesson, Sam stayed with Hallie to go to the pool and then he wanted to stay and hang out at her house to play some more. They ended up spending almost the whole day together with out Reese being there. It was too funny but they just love each other as much as the girls love each other.

Last night Sam begged Lance to have a sleep over with him in his bunk beds. Lance obliged and spent the whole night in there. I am not sure how well he fit or slept but he made it all night. I thought for sure he would be back in our bed once Sam went to sleep.

This morning we went to church and now Lance and Reese are off working on her science fair project (so glad it is them and not me…I am so not good at that). There is no school or work tomorrow so hopefully we will have one more fun day together!!

Thursday, January 15, 2015

2014 Recap

We are back in the groove of life again after a busy holiday season. I am finally getting around to recapping 2014. Better late than never.

2014 was a great year for us. We were settling in to our new home nicely and life just flowed. It wasn’t always easy but that is what makes it interesting.

JANUARY

The biggest thing to happen in January was Snowmageddon. It was a crazy few days but we survived. The kids are even hoping it happens again!

FEBRUARY

It snowed again! Who would have thought it could have snowed this much two months in a row in Georgia?!?

And quite possibly the most exciting thing to happen all month was Aunt Becky getting engaged!

MARCH

Reese’s school had their Fun Run. She loved it. Make her compete with other people and she is in heaven!

APRIL

Lance built his first wood working project…a dining table for our patio. That definitely gave him an itch to make more and more great pieces for us! He has really enjoyed this hobby.