My Mom, The Quilter

I get my craftiness from my mom. She's an amazing seamstress and can create just about anything I dream up in my head. She's made FIVE bedding sets for my house (2 for the master, one for the guest, and then each of the kid's bedding). It's so awesome to have one of a kind stuff in my house!

My mom is also quite a quilter. In years past she's typically made throw quilts which aren't all that big. She's made one for both Hunter and Peyton. But in the last couple years she's made some BIG quilts.

This first one is a queen size that she made for my sister, Dixie.

This one is an oversized twin that she made for my sister, Margie.

A Date with Hunter

When we were in Jacksonville over Christmas I took Hunter to the playground and then lunch at Pizza Hut while my mom stayed with Peyton. Hunter and I don't get much one-on-one time these days so it was nice to have all my attention on him for a change. I was able to take some pictures, too, of course!

My goodness, he looks so grown up here!

Fleece pants make for fast sliding!

My Favorite Christmas Present

I received this very special gift in the mail from my dear friend, Lisa. I gasped when I opened it. I have been dreaming of a necklace like this with the kids' names on it. And I LOVE the tiny little foot prints, too. I have two other similar necklaces that I love. This one came from The Vintage Pearl.

Peyton - 4 months & 14 lbs

We got the exersaucer and the jumperoo out this week. Peyton can hold her head up pretty good now so she's enjoying these two contraptions. And they're nice hands free blocks of time for me :o)

I can't keep up with my favorite pictures! She's just so darn cute!

Even if she's a little bald in the back :o)

She's found her tongue and can blow bubbles

Hunter loves her as much as he ever has. And she thinks he's pretty fun, too.

Farewell to Bobby

The legendary Bobby Bowden has retired from coaching FSU football. FSU was invited to the Gator Bowl in Jacksonville on New Year's Day. We're part of a pretty amazing group of FSU alumni. Everyone wanted to see this game and came from all over to be there. The game started at 1pm so to do any tailgating we had to be up early. It rained all morning and it was freezing cold! We had four tents tied together and managed to have a great time before the game.

Heath's cousin Sayer came to tailgate with us. She's finishing her last semester at FSU.

The Marching Chiefs spelling out BOBBY

We had some starter logs burning on a grill

BOBBY! (Get it?)

Christmas in Callahan

The day after Christmas we went up to Uncle Ronnie and Aunt Pat's house so they could shower Hunter and Peyton with gifts. They had a special gift for Hunter that could only be used at their house.

They started with a game of Candyland while we got lunch ready.

Hunter got a box FULL of dress up clothes

He especially loves the cowboy attire

Peyton was there, too.

We took Hunter outside for his final gift. We opened the garage door to find a John Deere Gator truck!

It took him about 5 seconds to figure out how to drive it.

He hauled lots of sticks around the property

That should wrap up Christmas. See the posts below if you haven't already.

If you want to see ALL the pictures I took in December go here.

Christmas Day

We woke up at home on Christmas morning and Hunter opened his presents from us and Santa.

Peyton was there, too.

One of his favorite gifts is the Hungry Hungry Hippos game

Then we went over to my sister-in-laws house for breakfast and more gifts. After all the gifts were opened they told Heath and I to close our eyes. We had no idea what was going on because we weren't supposed to be receiving any gifts. They rolled 2 brand new bikes into the living room and we were so confused. It finally hit me that my mom had something to do with this. She had my brother-in-law and mother-in-law go pick out bikes for us so we didn't have to haul them back home from Jacksonville. Huge surprise! We're so excited to use them.

I must tire of being the camera lady because I have no pictures from the second half of the day at my parents' house. Shame on me. It was a looooong day.

Christmas Eve (starting where I left off)

We spend Christmas Eve at Heath's dad's house. There are a total of 8 grandkids now so it just gets more and more crazy every year.

All the cousins playing Candyland with Heath's mom

3 generations

Peyton's Christmas Eve attire

Ella

The chaos of 8 kids opening gifts all at the same time

I have lots of blogging to do to catch up so stay tuned!

Merry Christmas!

This will be my last post for a couple weeks. We'll be out of town until after New Year's. Hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year!

This year's Christmas card

Here's my mantel since we don't have a fireplace

My big tree

3 months

My baby girl is soon to be 4 months... the day after Christmas. She's holding her head up really well and rolling from tummy to back. She gives pretty smiles and really wants to laugh, but just can't find that belly laugh yet. It's kind of a cough sound when she tries. She has found her hands and chews on them all the time. I catch her with her thumb in her mouth quite often, too. She's starting to drool so it's time to get out the bibs. Overall, she's a pretty good baby. She sleeps well at night, but we have yet to figure out a daytime nap routine. It'll come.

I have this picture of Hunter at 3 months and I've been meaning to get a similar one of Peyton at the same age. I've been dragging my feet all month and today I finally did it... less than a week before she turns 4 months. Phew, at least I got it in there.

(This is a picture of a picture. I couldn't find my digital copy.)