Clay Pigeon

This is a REALLY short video from Brax's phone of Thomas shooting a clay pigeon.

Hunting Weekend

Yesterday Brax and Thomas went down to the Hunting Club to meet PaPa and Uncle Jim. Thomas got to take his prized BB Gun and shoot aluminum cans and clay pigeons to his heart's content. They saw a 9-point buck that someone had gotten earlier in the day and saw Uncle Jim's dog (Sally Jane) point quail. All around a super fun time!

 

 

 

 

Family Tradition

In my family we had a tradition. Every few weeks all three kids would get to have a friend spend the night, and we would always make our own homemade pizza. We had oven safe plates, and so each person would just get their own plate. Well, this year for Christmas my sweet in-laws gave me money to get new dishes which happen to be oven safe. We've made homemade pizza before, but I've never let the kids do their own.

Saturday, Thomas and Brax were supposed to leave to go hunting, but Brax didn't get finished with work quite as soon as he expected, so I was looking for something fun to fill a little time. I let the kids make their own pizzas and they thought that was a pretty fun treat! Yippee for cheap thrills!

 

Homework

It's Thomas's 100th day at school on Tuesday. That's a big deal these days. Thomas had to glue 100 things to a posterboard as homework, so we picked beans. (They're cheap, light and we had them!) He did such a good job putting the dots of glue into lines on the board and then putting the beans on there.

 

Serious concentration

 

Mae's doing a little homework of her own

 

Thomas's third sport to try is basketball. He's been playing since December. Because the kids are so young the Y does it in a way in which there's a lot of standing with your arms up and not a lot of running. Thomas hasn't been thrilled about this, but it's been good for learning about patience and whining.

Thomas and his friend Luke from church

 

Standing with their hands up

 

Thomas, Coach Brax and Caden

 

Caden's sweet sister Sydney who loves playing with Mae and let's me watch the games!

 

Funnies

Kim: Mae, here are your new sparkly shoes. You can put them on.
Mae: It's time to party.

I love that Mae substitutes "anything" for "nothing." Example:
Kim: Mae, what are you doing?
Mae: Anything! (which usually means, "I don't want to tell you.")

Kim: Time to get out.
Mae: What are we going to do Homie?

Thomas: I'll be sad to buy a house one day.
Kim (feeling very mushy): Why?
Thomas: I'll miss the Wii.

Christmas in Alabama

We celebrated Christmas on New Years Day with PaPa, MiMi and Aunt Katey. (Again, horribly no pictures!) Honestly, with all the Christmas celebrations we had been through I think the adults were kind of Christmassed out. But the kids still had a great time opening presents. Thomas was blown away by his new BB Gun, and Mae especially loved her new dress up clothes (no surprise there) And we managed to get these winner pictures during one of our celebrations this December.

We spent the afternoon eating a delicious lunch and RELAXING! It was wonderful.

 

 

Christmas in Arkansas

For Christmas this year we spent a week in Arkansas. It was a fun trip with lots of fun memories. As you can see I did a horrible job taking pictures (actually horrible for the whole Christmas season!!!). The bottom collage is completely from my phone. But, hey, it's documented! As you can see we bowled, spent lots of time outside in the beautiful weather, went to the Acostas for lunch, visted GG Joan and PaPa Louie, spent quality time with Uncle Joel, made a Chinese feast, spent Christmas day with GG Richard and LuLu. We loved it!

 

 

 

Our Christmas

We did Christmas together one Saturday in December since we were going to Arkansas for Christmas. It was a short morning, but still fun and sweet!

 

Graduation

 

On December 17, after much hard work, Aunt Katey graduated with her MBA from UAB! We went down to Birmingham to celebrate with her! After an EXCELLENT lunch at PF Chang's the Kings graciously kept Thomas and Mae while the adults all went to graduation. The kids had a blast (as always!).

Family Christmases

 

We got to spend an afternoon each with the big Watkins family and the Parker family before Christmas. With such busy lives it's always nice to have a time to get together! We loved catching up with Brax's aunts, uncles and cousins.

The Friendly Beasts

Mae was an angel in her school play. It was adorable, of course, to all the parents and grandparents in the audience. She was very cheerful to be on stage, and sang on and off for the whole program. MiMi and PaPa came to watch also.