The 3 Amigos

Up until yesterday, we've been a gun-free house. Granny decided to pick up a 4 pack of guns at Roses.

Unfortunately, they are loving them.

A gun, a bloody nose, and a cute outfit

Ella is loving the guns that Granny got at Roses yesterday. She's acting like one of the guys. Down to her bloody nose.

You'd think we live in Pittsburgh

These are some pictures of the new snow we got last night. There was nothing on the van, and the walkway had been clear for a few days. We got a little over an inch.

Which settled on the old snow that we still have from almost two weeks ago. At this rate, we'll still have snow in March. It's freezing here and it will never melt! I thought my southern family would appreciate the pictures.

ohhh how they make me laugh

The kids and I've had a slow week. Not much to do, and still too much snow on the ground to go out and play safely. So we've sat around, eaten junk food, played some games... I have evidently eaten too many cheese products. This afternoon Noah told me he had to ask me something. He said "Mommy, your last name used to be Scoggins, right? So that's why you fart alot." Just had to share it. I dedicate it to all the gassy Scoggins' out there. All of you.

ZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...........

Ella has had a long but fun day. She's had a cough so I gave her some cold medicine early this morning that should have made her drowsy. However, she kept on strong all day until she sat beside her Papa. He rubbed her back until she fell

asleep sitting up on the couch. Precious!

One goofy Siak + Mario hat = good times

Day after Christmas Lunch with Dad/Papa

Playing at Grannys

Christmas Day at the Cannon/Siaks

We headed to Granny's for the afternoon on Christmas days to exchange gifts, eat some great food, and hang out. It was a lot of fun and just added to the amazing Christmas that we had!

Christmas morning!

We are so blessed to have our children. Christmas morning is so much fun because of them!

Making Cookies For Santa!

Anticipation

They spent several minutes last night looking at and longing for presents.

Snowman

Our snowman made out of snow from the snow plow. A dirty snowman :)

Christmas Eve

This has been the best Christmas Eve. We woke up this morning and headed to breakfast with our lifegroup leaders and their kids at the Cracker Barrel. I LOVE CB breakfast! Then we ran a few errands, picked up our ham and turkey for Saturday and headed home. Matt being the big kid that he is, took the opportunity to play in the snow instead of cleaning like we had planned.

But I don't mind a bit. They are having so much fun! They decided to go sledding and Ella and Noah loved it. We're going to keep trying to make this Christmas Eve the best one ever! We've still got to make cookies for Santa, and French Toast for Matt for dinner. Love it!

He finally got it

All season long Noah has been asking me for a Santa hat. At Food Lion on Wednesday, he got his wish answered. We picked one up, and it's been on his head ever since!

Christmas Pajama Party/Cookie Exchange/Brunch

Wednesday we headed to my friend Jen's house for a Christmas party. We ate like kings. The kids loved playing with each other. And it was so nice to stay in our pajama's until 2. Ella was so glad to see Sylvie, it had been awhile. They love each other so much! Just like I love my Jen and Kim!

The Christmas Spirit

Matt just called me to tell me that he is "eaten up with the Christmas spirit." I thought that was so cute. It's contagious. We've had a lot of things go wrong over the past few days. Yesterday I talked to some of my buddies and told them that I was going to allow myself to be frustrated only yesterday, but today, I would embrace the Christmas season. And I have. So has Matt too. I took the kids to a Christmas party this morning, we all wore our pajamas (which was funny when we stopped by Food Lion to get more supplies - people thought we were dressed that way intentionally since they were Christmas themed). The kids had so much fun. Kim made my favorite fruit dip. And I ate grits! (which I normally never eat - it's a texture thing). Tonight we get to go and refocus on what Christmas is all about. We're headed to Grace for the Christmas service. I can't wait to sing carols, take communion, and have Jerry remind us again of the Savior that came as a baby to save us all.

I am so thankful this time of year to have you all. Everyone who reads this blog is close to us. Thank you for praying for us, especially recently. Thanks for loving us. For laughing with us. And for being our friends and family. That's one of the great perks of Christmas, being with the people you love. I'll be posing pictures from this morning later, but until then, I hope the Christmas spirit is eating you up.

Sledding at Marion City Park

Today I bravely took the kids by myself to Marion City Park where there are some great hills to go sledding. I found out after 30 minutes that sledding with 2 kids requires at least 2 adults. Noah did great. He would sled, smiling and laughing the whole way, and carry the sled back up the hill. Ella - not so much. She is still too small to compete with the snow and can't walk in it, so I had to carry her and the sled back up the hill each time. I was so worn out we curled up on the couch for awhile after we got back. One time Noah and Ella got sent off in the wrong direction, and hit the fence. I thought they would be upset, but they laughed so hard I just knew Noah was going to wet his pants. A few other times they fell off before they got to the bottom. We are headed to a friends house tomorrow to enjoy some more sledding so I know I'll have more pics up soon.

WOW

I don't remember a time in my adult life when we've had this much snow! We got home a little after 3:00 yesterday, and of course the first things the kids wanted to do was get in the snow. I was not prepared. If you will notice, Ella has "redneck snow boots" on - non-waterproof boots with ingles bags over them. :) I couldn't find her snow boots anywhere! And the kids were dying to get outside. Ella didn't fare too well in the snow. It came up past her knees, and that made it too hard for her to walk. So she just scooted around on her stomach in the snow for awhile. Noah had a blast. We tried to make a frosty, but the snow wasn't sticking well enough. We'll be out there again today! And with it being this cold, I bet we will have a few more snow days this week too.

ohhh....sweet snow!