Top 10 Photos for 2010

Tonggu Momma posted a list of her Top 10 Photos for 2010 and challenged the rest of us to do the same. My problem was narrowing it down to just 10 pictures because there were so many more I could have included. But here are 10 of my favorites, even though there are more...maybe I'll do 10 more next week sometime, just because I can. :-)

In no particular order...

M turned one year old in April. He has changed and grown so much in the past year! I can't believe he is now only 4 months away from turning 2. Where does the time go?


This one is of MJ and her friend, A. A's family was in our travel group, and the girls are both from Tonggu (just like the Tongginator.) At the time, we lived 3 hours from each other in Georgia. At about the same time, job situations moved them to Tennessee and us to Florida, so we are no longer close to each other geographically. We were so glad to have a chance to see them while they were down here.


This is a photo of K at our local July 4 parade. The bus behind her had a bubble machine, and she was absolutely captivated by the bubbles all around her.


When we went to Louisiana this summer, we were able to spend some time with my grandparents. This is M with my grandfather, his great-grandfather. The quality of the picture isn't the greatest, but the subject matter is priceless.


Here is this year's "First Day of School" picture. MJ started pre-K, and K started 3 year old preschool. They love school (and are ready to go back after the holidays are over).


We also had a chance to see some of our dear friends from south Georgia. One of the most difficult parts of moving is leaving your close friends. Our families have both grown, but it was like we haven't lived far apart for 3 years. So glad they chose to vacation nearby!


Here are our 3 little Cowpokes, ready to Trick-or-Treat!


When we visited my mother-in-law during Thanksgiving week, the fall leaves on her property were still absolutely gorgeous. It was such a beautiful time in her part of Georgia, and I was glad to be able to make some fall pictures of our three kids.


MJ has started her first venture into organized sports, playing Upward basketball. Her team has started practicing, but their first game isn't until next weekend. Here she is modeling her uniform. Go Lil' Hawks!


And finally, this was a snapshot we took while we were taking pictures for our Christmas cards. The girls wanted to chase the seagulls so badly, and we finally let them. We actually ended up using this one as one of our Christmas card photos.

Counting Our Blessings

As we were driving in the van with our family today, my husband and I were discussing our year in 2010. For us, 2010 has been a good year. There haven’t been tons of huge milestones this year, but just good times.

Milestones for the year…celebrating our 10th wedding anniversary in August, and K started her first year of preschool--nothing out of the ordinary, but wonderful times, nonetheless.

Our children turned 1, 3, and 5, respectively. MJ finished 3-year-old preschool and started pre-K. K started 3-year-old preschool. M learned to walk and is starting to talk.

We are blessed with a wonderful church family, and have met a number new friends in the past year.

As the hymn says, “Count your many blessings…” And many blessings, we truly have.

I just pray that 2011 goes as well as 2010.

Happy New Year, Everyone!

A Day in the Life

Let me preface this post by saying that today was not a normal day. I usually don’t do all of this in one day, but the rest of the week has been pretty full, so all of the necessary stuff kind of landed on the same day.

In the course of today, I have vacuumed and mopped the floors, changed all of the sheets on all of the beds, washed the dirty ones, washed the girls’ comforters, and cleaned the bathrooms.

Somewhere during the course of the morning, K informed me that her ear was hurting. All 3 kids have had a runny nose and a cough for a little while now, but as usual, with the other 2, it ran its course, but with K, it settled in for a while. So, I had to call and schedule her a doctor’s appointment. Thankfully, our pediatrician’s office knows us and made a place to squeeze us in, which was especially nice since they were closing early today. So in the midst of my already busy day, there was a trip to the pediatrician’s office. (She has a sinus infection and an ear infection; although you would never know it by the way she has been playing today.)

On top of that, I made the grocery list, including gathering all of my coupons. Then I took M with me and made a run to the grocery store for the week’s groceries and K’s prescriptions.

Looking at that list, it usually takes me about 3 days to do what I did in one.

I’m tired…

I’m also very glad that the next couple of days will be more fun. :-)

Wordless Wednesday: Chasing Seagulls

Sunday Snapshot: {Christmas Day 2010}

We usually travel at Christmas time, but with the school calendar and church calendar the way they were this year, we celebrated Christmas at home as a family of 5. Here's a summary of our day...

Santa came!


And Mama made pictures of children with bed-head...


Who were very excited to see what Santa brought!






And then a breakfast of yummy beignets...


Complete with powdered sugar.


And some time for a little reading before...


More presents from us and their grandparents...






And then a few cartoons, which are best watched while sitting on top of both of your big sisters...


And then more playing with Christmas goodies...




And then Daddy fried a turkey for our Christmas dinner...


While the playing continued...




With a pause for Christmas dinner...


And then a little more playing...


Before bed time (in new pajamas, of course).


Merry Christmas, Everyone!

"Not Me": My Very Own Christmas Edition

With apologies to MckMama, here is my very own Christmas edition of "Not Me."

*I didn't email my graphic designer sister a picture of the girls and ask her to please Photoshop the boogers out of my child's nose, since it is otherwise a very cute photo. Nope, not me!

*I didn't spend part of my Christmas afternoon hand-washing the good china to use for Christmas dinner, only to forget what I was doing and fix my own plate on one of the regular dishes. Then, I didn't proceed to eat from that regular plate, while the rest of the 3 and up family members were using good china, only to notice this after a photo of the table was taken AND after we had pretty much finished eating.

So, there were only two, but they were too good not to share.

Merry Christmas!

Wordless Wednesday: Santa Picture 2010