It's the most wonderful time of the year! Post by Robin

It is the most wonderful time of the year for so many reasons: the birth of our Saviour, seeing family and friends, cold weather, and spending time with this precious child....

I do not like that the following pictures are not organized. I didn't realize you couldn't move them once they were uploaded. Some are from the weekend after Thanksgiving when our Christmas celebration begins at the beach. Basically, a month of memories and pictures. I tried not to post so many, but I'm a doting aunt so it's really hard! Here we go....



This is Samuel playing with Gam



Clapping with Papa

LOVE that smile

Being "gentle" with the ornaments

Samuel was giving lots of kisses to...

Officer Flossie

Puppy dog

and
Gam!

This is Fee in the snow. I had to post this picture because it is so rare to see her looking at the camera and smiling for a picture

Beautiful Girl

We built a snowman at Grandmother's. I didn't get a picture of the group, but maybe Beth will post one. I don't think Finley and Samuel were thrilled to be in the snow.

Laughing with Daddy. You can't really see the outfit, but Colton, Creighton, and Samuel have all worn it (sorry Fee). It's a romper with a reindeer.

"Ho, Ho, Ho"

This was Samuel's gift to Finley, but I think he liked it too;)

Fee with baby Debra

This was Fee's kitchen from Gam and Papa. Samuel LOVED this! Some of his cooking words are "mess" and "hot". Oh, and he blows on hot food.

Getting ready for Christmas Eve dinner. Forget the filet mignon, I think he'd rather have his thumb.

Christmas Eve.

Okay, the next few pictures were taken the weekend Mom, Dad, and I went to Danville. We were locked out of the house (we won't go there) and played outside with Samuel to kill time. The pictures I got are priceless.

Samuel sitting on the tractor


I mean, is that not the most adorable face you have ever seen? The hat's pretty cute too:)


This picture was taken the weekend after Thanksgiving at the N. Myrtle Beach park. We were chasing each other around the gazebo

He was not impressed with the tree


but LOVED the slide

Well, that's it. It was a wonderful month! Samuel, we had so much fun spending time with you over the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays. We miss your little feet running through the house, your sweet smile, beautiful eyes, and funny personality. We miss YOU! My prayer, for you and those reading, this year and always is Numbers 6:24-26
"The Lord bless thee, and keep thee: The Lord make his face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee: The Lord lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace."

I LOVE YOU! -Ra

Wolfpack or Tar Heels?

Everyone knows that I am a Wolfpack girl but I think I might have a cute little Tar Heel on my hands. :)

milk and COOKIES

The theme of Kindermusik this past semester was Milk and Cookies. Samuel loved a song about making cookies so I decided to let him help me today. I learned a lot about making cookies with a 15 month old. #1 wait until they are older :). Although we had fun and Samuel was very entertaining, we had a huge MESS on our hands. As I was wiping up tons of flour on the flour he leaned down beside me and said "messs."

(These pictures are not in order)

He kept looking in the oven after I put the cookies in.

Our finished product was not beautiful but he LOVED them. I gave him two and then he cried (really screamed) for more. :)

We were singing the Kindermusik song as he was stirring the dough.

Of course he had to touch everything.

Notice Samuel's eyes in this picture. Yesterday we went to Wendy's for lunch and Samuel waves at EVERYONE. One person stopped to talk to him and told me that he had beautiful dark eyes. (She was amazed) The she looked at me and said, "Well you don't have brown eyes. Where did he get those eyes from?" I didn't say anything and just smiled. She then said "His daddy must have brown eyes" It reminded me of the scripture "I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are they works;... Psalm 139:14 His eyes melt my heart.

Isn't this manger scene adorable! Frances gave this to Samuel and he likes to carry baby Jesus around. (Thankfully the people won't break)

We had snow and ice today and I am hoping the roads clear up tomorrow so we can get out and at least go to Food Lion. Justin has pushed snow all day and will not be home until 12:00 a.m. Hope you are having a great week.

Sweet Times

My parents and Robin came up this past weekend and we had a lot of fun with them. Samuel got tons of attention of course! Here he is.....

riding the horse with Gam.....

playing on the bed with Ra....

being tired from a lot of pillow fights.......

riding on Daddy's shoulders.....

reading books with Papa......

and throwing rocks in our FROZEN pond.

Justin was trying to throw a rock in the center of the pond to see if the ice would break. No such luck..... On Saturday night we went to the Danville Christmas parade with Dewayne and Lisa. I was worried because of the cold weather but we had a great time and Samuel loved every second. He loved the fire trucks and all the lights. The parade was really good this year.

Us. We ran into a lot of people while we were there.

Someone gave Samuel this star that lights up and he would not let it go. (He also would not wear his gloves which kept me in a panic :) I cannot believe that Christmas is almost here. The month of December goes by too fast!

Gingerbread Donuts

My mother-in-law gave us some Sweet Sixteen Mini Gingerbread Donuts and they are addicting! The other day Samuel opened the pantry door, grabbed the bad of donuts and ran to me smacking his lips. I gave him one and he stood at my feet and said mmmmmm the whole time. I have always loved the Christmas tree cakes but for the past two years I have tried to avoid buying them. The donuts only have 3.5 grams of fat for 3. :) Try them!

our COLD weekend!

We headed out Friday night to see the Christmas carolers at Dan Daniel Park. It was very cold and Samuel refused to wear his gloves so we were not able to stay long.

He was happy about going to eat Mexican before the park. :)

Samuel was watching the first group of carolers in this picture. I don't think he was impressed. :)

Trying a marshmallow.

We could only get him to smile on Justin's shoulders.

We ran into all of our VA nieces and tried to get a quick shot. Kaleigh, Holly, Gracie, Chloe and Lauren.

I think we could just start staying at home and letting Justin carry him around outside on his shoulders. :)

Samuel is now taking the ornaments off the tree. :( So much for "just touch"

He was giving his reindeer a goodnight kiss.

By far my favorite time of day! I rock him every night and we sing "Jesus Loves Me" and say his prayers. He says men after I say amen. I am sure when he is sixteen I will still want to rock him.

On Saturday it started SNOWING!!!

Samuel watching the snow fall.

We took him outside for just a few minutes. I took his hat off for the pictures.

Excited little boy.

Throwing snowballs with Daddy.

Saturday night we had a dinner party with Dewayne and Lisa (our friends that are more like family) I tried to make Olive Garden's Fettuccine Alfredo with chicken. The chicken was great but I just could not bring myself to use two sticks of butter so the sauce was a little thick.

I decided to bring out our china even though we all were dressed in our pajamas.

I think Samuel knew that they were here because he woke up around 10:00 and would NOT go back to sleep.

This was the view from our window bright and early this morning. Beautiful! The snow melted quickly even though it was still very cold here today. Hope you had a great weekend!