Happy New Years!

End of year love letters have been written.

Festive cupcakes have been packaged up for friends and family.

Fireworks are on display just waiting to be unwrapped.

Here is hoping you all have a lovely {safe} night.

This year has been amazing. 

 I have a really good feeling about 2011.

Kisses!

See you on the other side.

xoxo ra

Happy Birthday Mom.

This year you have...

Completed and kicked butt by finishing a Tri.

Cheered on the Saints while they won the Super Bowl.

Got to tour the gardens through Atlanta. 

 Celebrated Mardi Gras with family and friends.

 Celebrated 30 years of marriage. 

 Rallied around some amazing girls.

{in roller skates no less}

Walked for a cure for a lady you love.

 Saw hot air balloons!

 Got lots of snuggle time with this guy.

and this girl.

We are blessed to have you as our mom. 

Happy Birthday. 

I can't wait to see what this next year brings.

I am one lucky girl. 

xoxo ra

Happy New Year Newsletter!

So fun! Found on Melancholy Smile.

Make your own {here}

We have my Godmom and family in town this week. We are celebrating birthdays and the New Year. Hope you all have a lovely week. I will recap Christmas in 2011! 

See you on the other side. 

xoxo ra

Merry Christmas

Under our picture it reads:
Be filled with the wonder, Be touched by the peace.
Believe in the miracle. 

Off to bed for us. Santa has a job to do getting that kitchen down the chimney.
;)

Hoping it is as magical for you as it will be for us.
Merry Christmas Lovies.
xoxo ra

Christmas Eve Eve

I have to admit. Surrounded by medicine, kleenex, tylenol, motrin, and thermometers for the past two weeks has not exactly put us in the holiday spirit. I love to be on the go. I love the hustle and bustle of the crowds. I love the noise and smells of being out this time of year.

The whole thing. This year we missed all of that. We had two weeks in the house. 

Playing with toys, watching way to much Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. 

Taking our medicines on time and naps. We did lots of naps. 

We are finally coming out of our fog and I have to say. I liked it more than I thought I would.

 Without trying I think the flu gave us something we would have missed. 

Good ol fashion time at home. I have to admit I am kinda glad. Don't get me wrong. Next time I would like to learn this lesson minus the flu thnkyouverymuch but, 

there is nothing better than time with my guys.

Family and friends have brought care packages and helped clean. We are so blessed to have them. 

Even to the point of catching the flu themselves. :( Sorry mom!

{she is feeling better too thank goodness}

So here we are Christmas Eve Eve and I can say. I feel it. Just today.

It feels like Christmas Eve Eve. I am excited.

I can not wait for the big guy to bring Jackson his kitchen.

He is going to freak out! 

Presents are wrapped. Cookies have been made. 

Birthday presents are in the making.

{mom's is the 29th.}

Oh and the birthday presents are good! Eeeppp.

I am ready and excited. I am thankful and Oh so blessed.

In the midst of the flu and bronchitis. 

We are here. Ready to experience this Christmas through the magical eye's of our baby boy.

Who's half birthday is Christmas day. 

It's going to be grand. 

Hope you all are having a great week. Enjoy the holiday.

Merry Christmas Guys!

From my family to yours.

xoxo ra

It's been a week alright.

Man, this whole sick before Christmas thing is for the birds.

We are still recovering, more some days than others. 

We have felt like we are prisoners  played with everything in the house since we have

 had to stay away from outside germs.

Did I mention I got bronchitis. Acute bronchitis and there is nothing a"cute" about it.

{bada ba ching}

No fun at all I tell you. Coughing and feeling yucky myself. Mom came to help out the other day and now thanks to some new med's and a little time I'm finally feeling a little better.

BUT...

Pray for mom and Marah. It looks like the flu bug has hit them both. Poor things have been in

bed all day. This flu junk is no joke this year. It's knocking us out for sure. 

I can tell you I am getting really excited for Christmas.

I'm praying by then we will all be back to ourselves.

I don't know who is more excited for the big day this year, us as parents or Jackson.

It's a close call for sure. 

3 more sleeps.

I hope this holiday finds everyone healthy. 

Pictures and fun posts to follow. Just wanted to check in. 

xoxo ra

A little better {Video}

With the help of prayers and Tamiflu our little man is feeling much better. We are not out of the woods yet but way better than where we were Tuesday night.

Since we are quarantined to inside until Sunday

 {because we don't want Jackson to catch any secondary infections since his immune system is compromised right now}

we are playing with EVERY toy in the house to keep this busy man entertained. 

We have rode on a magic carpet. 

You should have seen the look on my face when he asked me to make him one.

A little mommy imagination and a laundry basket and belt.

I like to do it macgyver style. We had a basket, blanket, belt ride flying carpet.

Due to the 2 year old attention span that entertained him all of five minutes and we were on to the next thing. We have been perfecting Christmas Carols and last night with some help from daddy. The first verse of Jingle Bells was memorized. I caught him on tape a bit ago.

So keep the prayers coming. We have been fever free for 24hrs!
Four more days of the Tamiflu and we are praying he will be way better. 

Jingle Bells and Flying Carpets all before lunch time.

Hope you guys have sick days like this too. 

xoxo ra

The Flu

Jackson has it. We are on getbabybetterfast lock down until further notice.

Blogging may be sparse till we get our little man on the up and up.

{via}

See you on the other side. 

Prayers accepted and greatly appreciated.

Nothing is worse than a sick baby. 

xoxo ra

Merry Christmas in N.Ga

This weekend we headed up to Papa and Nuna's house friday night and Nana and Grandpa's house Saturday night. It was a fun filled weekend of our Christmas with everyone. 

Friday night we got to have dinner with Charley and Leslie. Jackson is always so excited to see Charley and was excited to get to see and spend some time with her. After dinner Papa and Nuna took us to see the dancing lights in town. It is a street of homes that has set up their light show to music through a computer. Pretty cool. Daddy got a video from his phone. A little shaky but, you get the point.
*** {If you are epileptic don't watch. These lights are crazy!} ***

We had a fun night and morning. Nuna made a yummy breakfast and Jackson's great grandma came over too. He got to open presents with everyone. Papa plays guitar at his church and got Jackson a small one to play with. So cute! He also got some new George movies and we watched one tonight before bed.  I only pulled my camera out for a second but, got some cute pictures.

 Papa was pretty excited. Snapping a picture. 

Saturday afternoon we headed up to Nana and Grandpa's. 

Everyone came up and we got to see Sydney, Scott, Robin, Justin, Aunt Amelia, and Hayden. 

It was a party. Aunt Nessa and Uncle Lamar and Harold live super close so we got to visit with them too. We had a pizza party and then did presents. Hayden and Jackson are only 4 months apart so they love to play together. This is also the first year they have really been into Christmas so it was super cute to watch them. Nana and Grandpa had all the kids and grandkids together so they loved it. 

The boys on the blanket and pillows Mimi got them. 

 Hayden being silly

 Jackson helping Hay open his present

 These were matching pj's. So cute. I was so busy "Oooing and Ahhing" 

I have gaps in my pictures. The jams are cute! You'll have to trust me. 

 Daddy helping 

 A fire truck!

Hayden got a guitar from Grandpa today. Having no idea Jackson had gotten one. 

Maybe they will start a band. 

 The boys got a kitchen.
Lots of cooking was done this morning.

 This will be funny to no one but, us. The boys wanted to play with the kitchen so us girls got to work putting it together in our bedroom. We all did a little :/ when we saw all the pieces.

 I should have gotten an after picture. It was a beast to put together. 

We are beyond blessed having family that loves us.
The presents are fun but, a far second to that for sure!

xoxo ra

Gaggle of Chicks. {great deal}

Seriously I just like the word gaggle.

If any of you are suckers for a great deal like me. This is a great site to sign up for. The deal for today is from box creations. Super cute little playhouses, the kids color themselves.
This just sounds like hours of fun.

Plus, right when you sign up for a free account they give you $5 off your first purchase.

'So go check them out. 

{HERE}

I am pretty excited about one of these showing up at my house for Marah and Bubs.

After signing up with shipping this bad boy was only $10!

Have a great weekend.

xoxo ra

Catch up.

I am on the mend and *almost* back to normal. 

Sorry blogging has been so slack. 

This past week/end was full of holiday fun.

Nanny dropped off a Thanksgiving Card Bub's can not get enough of.

It plays the Charlie Brown theme song and he loves it.

It has gotten COLD here in Ga. Here are my guys dressed in our family uniform.

Hoodies and sweats. What can I say we are glamorous. 

Oy Vey, me and these sideways pics. 

I made Jackson some of these yarn covered wood letters for his room.

I adore the way they came out. Got the idea {here}

No weekend would be complete with out Marah

teaching Bub's to dance to holiday songs.

I just love these two. 

Nana and Grandpa came down and Jackson got an early Christmas present.

It was SO COLD outside we put socks on his hands but, he loves this thing.

His first car. lol

It was a long but, fun weekend and by the end. Jackson was worn out.

I think we all were. On the couch watching George Christmas. 

Slumped down and ready to pass out. 

So funny. Hope you guys are having a good week.

We have tons of family visits coming up and are excited.

{yes, phone pictures again. I promise I am making headway in shooting in manual but, most pics that way this month are gift/card related and no peaks till everything is done}

xoxo ra

Sick.

That's me this week in a nut shell.

I have no voice. Well I have one but, I sound like a 60 year old who has smoked a pack a day for well, 60 years. The Dr has given me some strong antibiotics and cough medicine so I am hopeful in a few days I will be back to 100%. Bub's has been awesome. He thinks it is funny to say "What Mommy. Say it out loud Mommy" to me 100 times a day. He also keeps asking me if I am talking in my inside voice!
I swear this kid kills me. He is so funny. I just love him so much I could eat him.

We have had some fun this week. Nanny came over Tuesday and we crafted and rested the day away. 

Mom, Dad and Daddy have all pitched in and Bub's has had a great week of visitors and it's only Wed.
I am blessed with so many great people to step up when I am feeling bleh. 

I am essentially stealing Nanny's post because I think this video is amazing and worth the repost.

Head on over to her blog and see the neat shadow boxes we made for this month.

I LOVE THIS VIDEO! 

Stay warm and healthy you guys.
Laryngitis is the pits.

xoxo ra

Tree video

Silly video of Bub's + Tree = Love 

xoxo ra

Best Weekend Ever! {picture heavy}

We had NOTHING to do and NO WHERE to go.

It was heavenly. 

We did a little of this, a little of that. 

A lot of Christmas decorating, football watching, and eating turkey.

The entire month of December is go, go, go. It's so fun and we fit in lots of visiting and festive events.

Tis the season for running around. Knowing that is just around the corner made this weekend even more

special. It was time for us to snuggle up and spend time. I *think* winter even showed up to stay here in the south east. We have been teased with weather in the 50's then 70's all in the same week and it looks like  it's time to start bundling up for good. Maybe even have a fire or two. 

So here was our {week}end.

Thanksgiving was amazing. The food was outstanding as always!

 Dad out did himself once again.

Bub's spread.

 Getting ready to say grace. Almost everyone in the picture.

We got our "big tree" for the living room.

Brian and I walked around for about 30 minutes looking for the perfect shaped tree.

 It was also about 2 feet shorter than this one... 

Jackson walks up to this tree and says  "this one". We tried to talk him back into

 the one we had chosen but, back he walked to this tree and said "THIS ONE". 

We came home with his tree of course. It is perfect. Absolutely perfect. 

His excitement this year is just contagious. 

The boys getting the tree situated 

 We started to put up some decorations.

 The new mantle chalkboard.

The decorating begins. Check out his p.j's. 

 One of Jackson's favorite since this is what he calls Santa.

Our finished tree!

Last but, not least. The cutest hat in the universe. 

I have loved owl anything for years now. 

I found this hat for Jackson earlier this year and had to order it for him.

He wore it all day today and it just made me smile. I can't tell you how many

people stopped us to say how cute it was. :)

Happy Monday Lovies.

xoxo ra