Christmas Hair Cut

I was telling someone just the other day that I was fairly certain, Abby, would never cut her own hair.....I was wrong!!!


Christmas day Santa brought her purple scissors! Abby came in my room and said "look mama" with a big grin on her face. When we asked her why she cut her hair..... her response, "I had a tangle." Ummm, hello, isn't that what a hairbrush is for?

Do you like her new "long" bangs on the left side?

MeRrY ChRiStMaS!!!!

Christmas Eve Dinner

We left Chris & Bill's house and headed over the the Jones' for Christmas Eve dinner for more family time with the Cockariddles! We need to head home....Santa's on his way to Ashburn, VA! Samuel had fun giving us updates on Santa's ETA?

Christmas Eve Day

We spent the afternoon at Bill and Chris' house. The kids had a great time playing together and opening presents. The boys had fun building their new erector sets while the girls played with their pink barbie campers from Memaw & Pepaw!

Cookies for Santa

Abby was very much into rolling the dough and making perfect cutout cookies this year. Samuel helped for a little while. He suddenly lost interest when his friend rang our doorbell asking to play! He did make us promise not to decorate any cookies until he came home! Decorating is always a fun and messy task.

Fun with the Gingerbread Man

Total Lunar Eclipse

Early Tuesday morning we awoke to see the lunar eclipse. It lasted for a total of 72 minutes, beginning at 2:41 to 3:53 a.m. Guess what time Tom got us up? 2:40 a.m.! Samuel and I went back to sleep around 3:00 a.m. Here's a picture of it from our house.

What exactly is a lunar eclipse?

It's when the earth lines up directly between the sun and the moon, so there is no direct sunlight to hit and and reflect off the moon's surface. The only light that reaches it is filtered and bending through our atmosphere. That gives it the color of all of the world's sunrises and sunsets together.

LoVe this BoY!

Another day down, and before you know it we will be in a NeW yEaR...I have to remind myself to slow down....just a bit and enjoy the moment! It seems like just yesterday, Samuel , was the little boy in the tub....just look at him now--my sweet boy! I am so blessed to have him in my life!

Tree Decorating

We got our tree Friday afternoon and I am happy to say, it's decorated and looks lovely! Better late than never, right?

How fun watching Samuel & Abigail help decorate our tree. Their little faces peaking in the ornament boxes to see which one they want to hang next. And then hanging all the ornaments in pairs or clumping a bunch on one branch. I find myself holding back the urge to rearrange their ornaments and so far, I haven't moved a single one.... I wouldn't trade it for the world!

Gumdrop Creations by Samuel

OH CHRISTMAS TREE, OH CHRISTMAS TREE....

HO...HO...HO...

It's finally here....1st Snowfall!

Kids out of school 2 hours early today...2 hour delayed opening tomorrow morning!

Gingerbread Houses

Steph and I decided since the men had a meeting this evening, tonight would be a good night for decorating our gingerbread houses! The kids always look forward to it and so do I, even though my kitchen looks like a bomb exploded afterwards.

Leave it to the red nosed goofballs to get RED icing all over my house.....carpet, door knobs, couch...!

The kids danced to holiday tunes.....

The finished product.....don't they look pretty!!!We are keeping our fingers crossed that Ashley didn't share any of her stomach bug germs with us while she was here....poor thing told us she didn't feel well and right before they left she starting throwing up! :(

December 13th

Look where we found Little Elf Frizzle this morning!!! We think he likes licking the sugar off of our gumdrop tree!!

Visit with Santa...NYC

This morning we were up and at 'em to get to NYC Macy's before the big rush. We were on a mission to beat the crowd. I think everyone else had the same idea! You cannot imagine how long the line was, so far back that we ended up in the customer service department. We estimated hours of waiting, but it ended up only being around 30 minutes.

Samuel, you have a DEFINITE idea of what you want, although when we asked you, you said you didn't know. You knew....and you wanted to keep it top secret this year!

Abby, you had Aunt Chris write your list before we left Memaw & Pepaw's house. I think you both have a pretty good chance of getting what you wish for. XOXO

Dear Santa,

This year I wish for...

1. American Girl Doll (Rebecca or Kit)

2. Jewelry for my American Girl doll

3. Tape

(cousin Kelly is asking for tape so Abby thought it was a great idea & added it to her list)

4. Makeup

Love, Abby

Dear Santa,

This year I am keeping my wish list "top secret" so don't tell my mom & dad!

Love, Samuel

Cousins: Samuel (7), Kelly (4), Abby (4) & Andrew (7)

December 2- Visitor

Look who showed up at our house today?!?!?!?!?!?!?

Little Elf Frizzle......

Samuel suggested we name him Little Elf and Abigail insisted on Frizzle, hence the name Little Elf Frizzle.

Mommy's Wallet

Yesterday, after picking Abby up from school and we headed to the grocery store. Once we parked, I realized my wallet was missing from my purse. We came straight home and spent over an hour looking for it -- no luck.

Fast forward to this morning.....

We drop Samuel off at school and are on our way home. I ask Abby once again if she has any idea where my wallet is. Here's our conversation....

Me: Abby are you sure you don't know where mommy's wallet is?

Abby: No mommy, I don't. (a few seconds pass) Actually, I do know where it is! It's shoved under the TV in the playroom, Samuel did it!

Me: Are you sure Samuel did it?

Abby: Yes, I saw him, he did it, really he did!

When we got home she walked in and went straight into the playroom and pulled it out. Needless to say, we have been talking a lot this week about honesty and how important it is to tell the truth.

__________________________________________________
Samuel came home from school with a very loose tooth and wiggled and wiggled until he finally got it out! He was VERY excited!:) This was his 7th tooth lost.

1st COCKARIDDLE Talent Show

We had our first ever Cockariddle talent show. Jackson did a fantastic job on the mic introducing each act and Aunt Ansleigh announced the scores. I am happy to announce that every act received a perfect 10!

First up-- Lawton, William & Samuel. They told "Yo Mama" jokes...... Here are just a few!

-Yo mama is so fat that her bellybutton gets home 15 minutes before she does.

-Yo mama is so fat that people jog around her for exercise.

-Yo mama is so fat that she had to go to Sea World to get baptized.

Abigail & Olivia cheered.

A-W-E-S-O-M-E, awesome, awesome, awesome are we! Then Wells, Olivia and Jake performed a skit....Jake experienced stage fright and decided to crawl under the couch when it was his turn to speak! Samuel took over Jake's role. Jackson and Abigail performed the Hokey Pokey together.The show ended with all the kids singing Jingle Bells. Wells (15), Lawton (12), Olivia (9), William (9), Jackson (9), Samuel (7) & Abigail (4). What a fun night full of laughter, smiles and family time. Memories we will always cherish!