Its the end...

Its the END of the world as I know it....

This dude in ON THE MOVE!

"Watch out, here I come!"

Here's to keeping my floors clean and all the little toys kept up and all that comes around with a crawler!

Playing in Jasper with Cousins

Here are just a few pics from hanging out in Jasper...

Avery and Griffin helped Nina "undeck the halls" before we left.

doesn't he look so big?

just a swingin'

lovin' it!

Saeran and Graham, sharing the swing

Big Daddy has an old fashioned, hand cranked record player thing - the kids had him play some music for them on it - and Addie and Avery became dancing fools!

Addie and Graham

Peyton and Ann, we are looking forward to moving closer so we can do this way more often!

"Christmas" in Jasper

After spending several days in Birmingham, we made a 3 hour drive over to the McBrayer cabin in Jasper County, GA. As always, there was lots of relaxing, eating, playing cards, and low-key living. With no computers and minimal TV and phone usage, the pace of living is so much slower there. In the mornings at the cabin I can leisurely drink 2 cups of coffee while wearing my pj's and sitting by a warm fire. Can't get much better than that!

Mom and Mike were there the entire time we were and Peyton's and fam came over for 3 days. We celebrated Christmas while they were there.

"can I really tear this?"

"I love my new bag!"

The older kids both got a VTech Mobigo from Nina/Big Daddy and they absolutely love them! Griff calls his a "bideo game." I was amazed at how quickly they picked up on how to work them - touch screen, keyboard, and lots of different games. We've already gotten lots of use out of them...especially on the car ride home!

Addie and Avery, wearing their "game faces"

My biggest munchkins!

cousins! (they always seem to have matching jammies somehow!)

cheese! (and very typical of griffin!)

Hanging out in B'ham

We had several busy days with family in Birmingham. The kids loved being in a new place with new toys. Griffin and Cooper played wonderfully together - it was fun for me to watch Griffin have another boy to play with. Most of our friends have older girls and baby boys so Griff doesn't have many boys his age to play with. He and Cooper played cars and trains and just rough housed as boys do.

On Christmas afternoon, some of Brent's extended family came over to visit. This picture is of Brent and Cara with their cousins - Brian and Katrina.

This was our attempt at getting a picture of Gammy with all 6 grandchildren! Not too successful...

working hard to figure this crawling thing out

Cooper and Griffin, watching a movie

Cohen loved him some Uncle Brent! This little dude is a hoss and Brent's back is paying the price. But he is super lovey and too cute to resist!

Uncle Clay and Baby Cenley

Gammy and Graham

Wild Sleeper

How in the world did Graham manage this??? and he never made a peep in the process!

Santa Claus is Coming to Town!

Christmas morning was sheer chaos with all 6 kids in 1 room...between Santa and Gammy, you couldn't see the floor because of all the gifts! I'm always amazed at the things the kids get most excited about - I think Avery and Griffin's favorite thing was a $3.50 flashlight that was in their stockings!

To: Avery From: Santa

To: Griffin From: Santa

Graham got his first sippy cup in his stocking!

Christmas Eve in Birmingham

We drove down to Birmingham on the 23rd to spend Christmas with Brent's mom, his sister -Cara, her husband - Clay, and their 3 children - Cooper, Cohen, Cenley. We had a 10 1/2 hour drive and the kids did amazingly well. No extra potty breaks, no major breakdowns, nothing.

The next few days were full of fun, memories, and lots of chaos! (6 children, all under 4.5 years old...plus, 3 big dogs!) We had a wonderful time celebrating with family.


We began our festivities on Christmas Eve. Santa came driving through the neighborhood on top of a fire truck! He didn't slow down too much but at least we got a quick peak!


After that, we headed to a "family friendly" church service that wasn't at all family friendly! (they offered no nursery but encouraged you to bring the kids to the service...) By the end of the service, all 6 kids had trickled out into the church lobby. Next time I need to pack each kid a gallon size ziplock of marshmallows, raisins, and goldfish - the sandwich size lasted less than 10 minutes!


After church, the kids made "reindeer food" and sprinkled it all over the yard. Good thing it had gold glitter in it so that the reindeer could see it in the dark. The boys followed Avery around the entire yard.



We fed/bathed/bedded the kids so that the adults could enjoy our dinner - including fresh fried crab claws made by Gammy. Brent read the Christmas story to everyone before the kids hit the sack.


The last event of the night was setting out cookies and milk for Santa. Avery and Griffin had decorated their 2 cookies at a friends house earlier in the week - and had been saving them - good thing Santa likes stale cookies!


More Christmas to follow...