New Years' Eve

New Year's Eve was a big day in Casey's life.  He finally got some deer horns on the wall of our home.  Yep, I let him hang the horns. I grew up with deer horns in my home, so I don't have a problem with them.  Up to this point, however, Casey hasn't ever had any that he liked enough to display.  

We also hung Casey's new display case.  Isn't it pretty?

Our New Years' Eve dinner was pretty atypical. In the spirit of hanging the deer horns and deer season finally being over, I decided to make a deer steak dinner.  Fried deer steak, mashed potatoes, macaroni and cheese, and biscuits.  Nothing even remotely healthy.  At all. 

But, boy was it GOOD!!!

Lindsay, Tom, and Joshua came over to hang out. She brougth the snacks for us.  Yummy sausage balls and brownies. 

Samuel went to bed at his typical 7:30(well, we may have let him stay up til 8:00) so when Joshua started to get sleepy, we pulled out the books and did some bedtime reading. 

My hope for everyone is that 2011 is a good year.  2010 started out pretty rough for us, but got better as it went.  I hope God continues to bless us.  

CBC Roomates

I went to college my first two years in Conway, at Central Baptist College.  A very small Baptist college that I loved.  While I was there, God blessed me so much by leading me to my two BEST friends, Shannah and Kayla.

Shannah still lives in Conway and I get to see her pretty frequently.  Kayla, however, lives in Denver.  Seeing her hardly ever happens. 

She came down for Christmas, so we got together at Cracker Barrel to have brunch Thursday.  It was so good to just sit and visit with them.  Everytime we get together, it's like we never left each other. 

Samuel is finally old enough to play and color with the Kids' menus at restaurants.  It is too cute to watch him. 



 L-R: Shannah, Kayla, me, Samuel(who clearly didn't want to take the picture.)

Aaah, the spoils of Christmas

Samuel and I came back home Tuesday night.  We spent Wednesday at home.  I finished undecorating the house and he spent time exploring his new toys. 

LOVE the Color Wonder.  It won't write on the carpet!  Yay!

He has a new obsession.  Vroom-vrooms!  He loves anything with wheels.  Do you think he has enough? 

Aunt Shannah came over that afternoon to bring Samuel his Christmas present.  How fun is that?

I mentioned earlier that we got him a new recliner so he could watch TV from a safer distance.  He's still trying to love it. We did some rearranging of the living room to make it fit in and encourage him to sit in it. 

This is another new favorite. Aunt Jess got this for him. Yes, it makes LOUD music.  NO, it doesn't really bother us.  (She did text and get approval before she bought it.  Nice, huh?)

I think it's a pretty neat toy.  All of those animals come out.  When you reposition them behind the different instruments, that instrument starts playing and whichever animal is behind the microphone, that's the voice you hear.  I will say, we have tried to discourage the chicken from the microphone.  He's pretty obnoxious.  But it combines some of Samuel's favorite things: farm animals, music, and John Deere. 



Christmas Night

We went over to my parents' house Christmas night to open presents.  

Samuel loves to help Mom and Dad sweep their porch, so they got him a broom that is his size. 

A Caillou video!  DirecTV doesn't have Sprout, so these will be left down south for viewing. 

Mom and Dad got him a four wheeler to ride around at their house. He was a menace!

Christmas Morning

Christmas morning was fun around our house.  Samuel was really aware of presents and had a blast opening everything.   He was a little wary at first, because we had been telling him not to touch the presents.  But once he got started, he had a blast.

Check out my new cool hat! 

Caillou!!  Yep, we fed the addiction. 

Santa brought him a recliner.  He LOVES it! 

Just chillin while Mommy and Daddy get ready to head back to Prescott. 

Christmas Eve

Samuel and I headed to Prescott Christmas Eve morning.  He slept the whole way.  Can you see that book behind his head?   He slept with that behind his head.  

We always do finger foods/appetizers on Christmas Eve at the Hendrix house.  I made three terrible ones.  Well, I liked one of them-no one else did.  Samuel loved Mimi's dip. She did cream cheese with Pampered Chef Raspberry Habanero sauce. 

Cheese!!

After munching and visiting, we commenced with the gift opening. Samuel got lots of good things from the family.  Yep, that's a pillow pet! 

Casey's sisters got him a new shadow box for his collectibles.  He really liked it. 

Okay, this picture will need you to zoom in. Check out Samuel's face. He had just ridden the new 4 wheeler down the hall and gotten stuck. It made him SO MAD!!!  This is a face of fury! 

Merry Christmas Eve

Merry Christmas to you and your families! 

We hope you are able to rejoice in the blessings of your families and the gift God sent us this CHRISTmas season!

Paw Paw and Uncle Tom

We spent today with two different sides of our families. We started the morning by driving to Greers Ferry to see my Grandpa. He refers to himself as PawPaw for Samuel.

On the way, I didn't put Samuel's big coat on. I didn't want to trap him in that coat for that long drive. I covered him in a blanket. By time we made it to Greenbrier, he pulled the blanket over his head and fell asleep. He's so silly!

He was able to open his gift from his cousin, Kaylynn. She picked out the cutest Little People farm set. He is all about farms and the animals. He spent the rest of the morning saying, "Moo, and talking about PawPaw(his other grandpa that we call PawPaw) and the tractor that came with the set.

This is Samuel running through the blanket my grandpa hangs over his door way in the winter(it helps keep the heat in.) He had so much fun!

This is Samuel being silly in Grandpa's lap. I've said before, but I have the hardest time capturing a picture with his eyes open. He moves too fast.

 

After we got home, we did a little bit of cleaning to get ready for the hustle and bustle of the next two days.  I really want to leave the house tidy in the morning, so we can just come home tomorrow night, put Samuel to bed and enjoy the prettiness. 

We headed over to Aunt Linda's house(Casey's aunt) to celebrate Tom's birthday(Casey's cousin.)  We enjoyed some delicious catfish from Crazy Mike's and then helped Aunt Linda wrap some last minute presents. 

This is the gift we got Tom.  I sure hope it's as handy as it seems to be. 

Samuel's Christmas Clothing

I'm pretty sure I went overboard on the Christmas Clothing this year. But how stinkin' cute! This is the last year I can get away with it, I think.

Though, I'll sure try next year. :-)

My favorite is the one in the tan reindeer shirt.  Look at the expression on his face.  He's clearly irritated with me and my camera! 

Owen and Sarah

When I was pregnant with Samuel, I ran into an old friend of mine from high school.  Sarah Clements, now Smith.  She and I were both pregnant and due within days of each other.  We've been so close since then. We were both able to call each other when the boys were brand new.  We'd cry together, ask each other advice, and just talk.  She is so valuable to me. 

Today, we got together for the boys to exchange Christmas gifts.  They are so fun to watch.  Owen is a couple of weeks older than Samuel, so he does a few tricks that Samuel can't do.  I love watching them play together.  

This picture has nothing to do with our wonderful day, but it was just too funny to not share.  Samuel is dying to be just like his Daddy.  That's Casey's phone hooked to his diaper. 

1st Day of the Break

Today was such a wonderful day!  Samuel and I had so much fun.  We spent the early part of the morning playing and watching Sesame Street.  

While I showered and made myself presentable for the public, Samuel played in his crib with his cars. This is what I found when I checked in on him.  He LOVES his crib.  

I tried all morning to get a picture of his Christmas shirt.  I'm pretty sure I took 40.  Most of them turned out like this.  I'd push the button and he'd move.  There are several of them with his head looking down at his shirt because I'd just said, "Let Mommy see your shirt." So he showed me.

We did a last minute Christmas errand for my mom and ran through Burger King on the way home.  He's still figuring out how to dip chicken into the sauces.  At this point, and keep in mind he's ALL boy, he just sticks his fingers in the sauce. 

After napping, he grabbed his bag of cars and my hand.  He took me BACK to his crib to play cars.

I finished wrapping all of the Christmas gifts and just love the way the tree looks with gifts under it.  I've never been one who wraps all my gifts in matching paper. I love the way it looks with all of the different kinds of papers. 

After supper, we did some more playing.  Samuel got both of these wonderfully, noisy toys.  He won't play with one of them at a time. He insists on both. 

During all of this, I managed to do a load of laundry, the random dishes we used all day, and cleaned out my bathroom cabinets.