Christmas 2012

We flew solo this Christmas.

Will's parents usually come for Christmas but due to a surgery conflict they could not join us.  We had a great holiday with our little family and enjoyed having friends over for Christmas dinner.

Before Christmas Eve Service

No luck in getting a serious picture.

Love these guys

Self portrait

Lego building

Sprinkling reindeer food

Santa's delivery

Crashed out boys

So excited

Digging into his stocking

Why yes, more Legos

Snuggles

Clean little kidlets on Christmas

Rare moment of love between Lyla and Muppet

Enjoying their climbing wall from Nana & Gramps

This little dude took Mr. and Mrs. Claus several hours to construct

Village

So, my dear friend Anita stole the title of this post right out of my wee little brain.


We are blessed, incredibly blessed, by our "village" that surrounds, supports and loves us no matter how crazy~dysfunctional~nuts we may be.  I don't think we were meant to be on our own in this crazy world and the people that love us prove that theory time and again.

The invite for a girls night...even when I can't warms my heart.

Letting the dogs out for a run when we are away.

Watching the littlest Riggle while big brother spends the evening in the ER.

Guarding our humble abode (and rescuing escaped canines) while alerting us to things that don't seem right.

Meals delivered, shared or made for or with us.

Projects finished...well closer at least.

Recipes shared or tried out on us.

Pulling weeds, sewing, cleaning...some things most friends would not help with our village is right there with a smile on (at least on the outside) ready to help.
 
 People who make my kids feel their love make my heart happy and there are a lot of you so
THANK YOU
THANK YOU
THANK YOU
from my happy little heart!!

Water, lots of water

It's summertime in Alabama which equates to lots of time spent in the water.  

We started the summer with two weeks of swim lessons and

 have been swimming almost daily ever since.

Some snaps from lessons....

and from one of many creek outings.....

We have been to two water parks and the local pools a few times too, 

we have had several 100+ degree days so I anticipate many more 

towel washings this season.

Spoiled

Because I have friends who make me cute things like this.

Because every day, these cute boys let me be their mama.

Because I have boys that love building things for me.

Because every once in a while, the guy in the middle 

puts these little boys to sleep for the night..

or is it the other way around?

Banner Elk

We spent Labor Day weekend with some dear friends in the North Carolina mountain town of Banner Elk.

Despite the fact that we started the 6 hour drive 7 hours after we planned to, the weekend shaped up to be EXACTLY what we needed.  We did some hiking, wading, shopping, apple picking, domino playing and sightseeing but mostly we hung out and relaxed while the kids played in the rain, built lego creations, climbed trees and created varying amounts of mayhem.

The kids loved the jeep and thought it was a jungle gym on wheels..which I guess it kinda was!

Enjoying his apples.

 Sweet sweet boys!

 Hood dwellers

Hiking help