It's time for Cookies!

Week 33: Back in the saddle again...The holidays are officially over and the school routine is starting! We are slowly getting used to getting up for school, homework, and extracurricular activities! We tried to play outside and ride bikes as much as the weather would allow. Mary Virginia's 2nd report card came out this week and she did great as always! I am so proud of her for all her hard work! At Girl Scouts, we learned all about COOKIES! That is right, Girl Scout Cookies go on sale next Friday (the 20th)! MV is so excited to tell everyone what they need to order! We had a Cookie Rally on Saturday to get us in the Cookie mood...show me one person that has a hard time getting the Girl Scout Cookie mood!

We started a new activity this week...basketball! MV is on the Bears! There are just 5 kids on the team and she is the only girl. I can't wait to see the first game! Ed was able to take her to practice and one look at him and he was asked to be the assistant coach! So, I have two basketball stars in the house!

(Ready for practice!)

On Saturday morning, we picked up another Girl Scout and headed for the Cookie Rally! This is such a cute group of girls! They were ready to learn how to sell cookies!
While doing lots of fun activities about coolies, the girls were asked to put down their goals for how many boxes of cookies they were going to sell. The other girls had great goals of 40 or 50 boxes but not MV...
She set a goal for herself of 650 boxes...luckily I talked her down to 250 boxes. I guess we are going to be hitting the streets selling some cookies!

The girls posed for a quick picture in their favorite cookies!

After a day full of Girl Scouts, MV had a play date with one of her fellow scouts! The girls had so much fun playing together - I am so glad the she has found a great group of girls!

John Bay was home with a fever, so he didn't get to have a fun weekend with friends! Poor John Bay...he didn't make the pictures this week, so here is his shot of the week! All smiles as usual even if he was sick!

Welcome to 2012!

Happy New Years!
Ed and I started the year in New Orleans at the Saint -vs- Carolina Panthers game! We spent the morning walking around Champion's Square. If you have not been there during a ball game it is a must - a band was playing before the game and once the game started, they showed it on the big screen so that all of the people that couldn't go to the game could watch from right outside the Superdome! After walking around the Superdome and doing some people watching, and walking in with the Imagination Movers (Disney television characters) we headed up to our seats for the game! As it turned out, the Imagination Movers were singing the National Anthem...to my surprise they did a great job (my kids were jealous that I saw them)! Who knew they were New Orleans natives!

Pregame

I had to show you a little of Drew....

and Cam! (It was fun to watch him play again - even if I was pulling against him.)

You have to love a little game time entertainment! "Oh when the Saints...."

It was a great get-a-way in New Orleans! We had a blast and the Saints won! We can't wait to take the kids to a Saints game next year!

Back to the real world...the kids still had another week off. Trying to entertain the kids for the 3rd week of vacation was a little difficult. Thanks to the girls in the neighborhood we made it and we even made a trip to the mall! The girls came up with an itinerary for us to follow which included shopping at Justice, Gap Kids, Aéropostale, Kids Foot Locker, eating lunch, a ride on the carousel, the candy store for a bag of candy, Bath & Body Works, Build a Bear, and then Smoothie King. I have never been more exhausted after a trip to the mall, but we had so much fun! The girls are so much fun to have around and the kids love them!

I didn't get a picture, but on Friday afternoon at horseback lessons, Mary Virginia was able to jump again. (I know, I need to video tape it to put on here.) She is doing so great on her horse - they trotted around the arena and then jumped over 2 different jumps! She did this a few times! It was a great start to the new year! On Saturday, we all headed over to Bass Pro to finish buying our camping gear! We all got new sleeping bags and air mattresses to get ready to camp out in Ed's new tent! I can't wait to camp out with the kids next weekend. We also made some other progress this weekend...Mary Virginia learned to ride her bike. Thanks to some great advice from friends, we took the peddles off the bike so that she could learn to gain her balance and then all of the sudden, MV was riding! She is amazing, we have been taking long bike rides around the neighborhood ever since!After a wonderful holiday, we are ready to get back into the swing of things and get our routine back! Get ready for 2012...we start basketball, selling girl scout cookies, and more horseback riding.

Goodbye 2011!

Oh my...it is the final week of 2011! It is hard to believe that this time last year, Ed was getting ready to move home from Pensacola. It seems like a lifetime ago! 2011 has been such as adventure, can't wait to see what 2012 will bring!

The day after Christmas we loaded up the van and headed to Atlanta to visit with family! It was so much fun to see everyone...I just wish we had more time! As soon as we got into town, we went to visit my precious cousins... Mary Virginia always asks about going to visit Atlanta, Martha, and her "cousin". On this trip we were able to have a quick visit with everyone. We were even able to take the kids to the Dekalb Peachtree Airport and to the Downwind Cafe! The kids LOVED watching the airplanes take off and land and the helicopter that kept flying around! They couldn't believe how small all of the planes were! They were also amazed that the cars could just drive right up to the planes! MV and JB were able to spend time with "cousin Jack" while watching all of the planes!

After our quick trip to Atlanta, it was time to celebrate Christmas again with the rest of the Whatley and Pruett family! It was wonderful to see everyone. The kids had so much fun playing with cousin Maggie. I am so glad that they are all getting to know each other! MV loves having someone that she can carry around! I am still waiting to get some of the pictures of everyone...so you will have to use your imagination for now (check back in later)!

(Insert picture of the whole family here)

(Insert picture of the cousins here)

Once we ate lunch and the presents were unwrapped...and things were starting to unwind, it was time to go outside and burn off some energy! Maggie was having fun chasing the dogs and MV and JB were having fun chasing Maggie!
The next day we said our good-bye's to Alabama and headed back to Louisiana! Ed and I were the lucky recipients of 2 tickets to the Saints-Panthers game for New Year's Day, and a fabulous hotel room in New Orleans for New Year's Eve! Mom and dad were able to come back with us - so that we could go to the game and to spend New Year's in New Orleans! It was so much fun, but we are getting way too old to hang out with the craziness of Bourbon Street! We had an amazing dinner at Red Fish Grill (one of our favorites) and then walked around town and people watched!

We had a wonderful view of the Super dome from our hotel. After seeing this view, we couldn't wait to get to the game! What a fun way to end 2011 and to start 2012!

Christmas

It's Christmas!

This was such a fun year to celebrate with the kids. Of course, Mary Virginia understood the whole concept, but John Bay was getting the hang of it too! It was fun to watch MV explain everything to JB even if he did understand! We did things a little differently this year. Instead of the candy in the advent calendar in years past, I put notes with all sorts of activities. Some days it was simply to watch a Christmas movie with popcorn and hot cocoa, other days it was to bake cookies and take them to the Fire Department, or go looking at Christmas lights and even have a marshmallow eating contest. Most importantly, it was a chance for us to spend more time together doing fun activities and making the most of the season! I also realized how many Christmas books we had, and thanks to Pinterest, I used one idea to wrap all of the books. We opened a book a day and sat down together to read - another chance to be together and enjoy our time together. The kids looked forward to choosing a book each day! I had way too many ideas to try this year - I have to make sure to keep a file for next Christmas!

(John Bay didn't want to pose for any pictures with us...just with MV)

We did Christmas a little differently this year - since it fell on a Sunday. When the kids woke up, we did Santa and stockings...(and then it was off to church)

John Bay chose one gift and only wanted to play with it (same as always). This year it was the batman cave!

Mary Virginia was teaching Ed to play Barbies.

Now they are getting the hang of things. Who is going to clean up this mess?

Bandit was nervous with all of the commotion...he found a place to hide!

After a morning of Santa and stockings, we went to church and then home for more gifts and Christmas dinner.

(This is JB opening his Lightning McQueen - that was wrapped in a zip lock box...his response to the box "Oh, that's good." He was not impressed by the wrapping job and was ready for a real toy!) (Ed celebrating with his redneck wine glass.)

(The kids opening their leap pad...the gift that keeps on giving. It was great for all of the driving that we do and the kids love it!)

(John Bay's big gift...now if he will just ride it!)

I can't believe how big they are getting and it is so much fun to watch them this Christmas. We are having such as fun time at home with everyone...hard to believe that we still have more celebrating to do!

Christmas Week....

Warning...another picture heavy post!

This was a fun, but busy week at home. We tried to get in as much as possible without killing ourselves. We many not have gotten to everything or to everyone, but we tried and we had fun!

Monday night we continued our tradition of driving around and looking at Christmas lights with the Youngbloods. Only three of the four kids went this year, Caroline is not quite ready for the craziness! Next year we are going to have to rent something large to haul our crowd...maybe we can talk our parents into tagging along too!

The minivan was packed!
Wednesday we worked on our gingerbread house that Beignet delivered from Santa! Ella came over to help us decorate. I am surprised that Allison could get them to sit still for this picture - I think they ate more candy than they put on the house!

And...this is how it turned out!

Christmas Eve (day)

We had a nice relaxing day...Jimmy and Lynn came over for lunch and then it was off to church.

Mary Virginia is teaching Jaja how to play on the ipad while we were getting ready for lunch!

And John Bay was just being his silly self...

Children's Christmas Eve Service - Come See The Baby

We love to see the kids act out the Christmas story and to hear Dr. Furr play his guitar and sing!

John Bay didn't even make it to the singing...

And finally...getting ready for Santa and the reindeer. We put out the cookies and the kids threw the reindeer food into the yard! I hope the reindeer can spot their treats!

Merry Christmas!


Elfcapades...the final adventures of Beignet the elf (until next year)!

He left us a note with a Christmas countdown!

He stole Gigi's Cheerios to leave us a little message!

Hot Cocoa Love!

Playing Cards with Friends

Panties/Underwear Raid

(There is a guilty elf on the top of the tree - along with the pullup star)

Candy High - Elves Rule

Making Cookies - Mary Virginia and I were going to decorate cookies on Christmas Eve, but Beignet beat us to it...he left a plate full of cookies with messages for everyone!