Jump, Launch Pad!!!

We are baby sitting Launch Pad, Uncle Paddy's rescue dog, for the weekend while he and his girl friend are in ATL for New Year's! Luke decided that making Launch Pad jump was the best game ever! Check out the video....

Happy Birthday Mama!

We went to our old stand by Mexican Restaurant, Los Arcos, for Mom's birthday! Almost every week we either have Mexican Monday or Taco Tuesday depending on everyone's schedule and it just so happened that Taco Tuesday was also Mom's 58th Birthday! If you go to this particular restaurant on your Birthday you get a special surprise after the song.... a face full of whipped cream and Doc ended up getting one, too!

After dinner we all headed over to Mimi and Doc's for ice cream and cake. Mom wanted Old Dutch's peppermint ice cream and like a good daughter I went to get some and they were SOLD OUT. I was freaking out, but luckily Mayfield's has almost the exact same kind and I found it at Bruno's!

I LOVE that all of Mom's chickens are home in Mobile. Since Mom's b'day is so close to Christmas, I haven't seen Mom on her actual birthday in years b/c we usually had to leave before the 29th. But, this year we were ALL here!

Much love to the best Mama in the world!

RIP Mac.

On Monday the 28th our family dog of 14 years, Mac, went to doggie heaven. He has been slowly declining and this past weekend Mom and Dad said he had gotten much worse. We all knew his time was coming, but b/c he had gotten to the point that he wasn't able eat or drink or even stand on his own, we knew it was time.

This was in a sense, Paddy's dog and he came over to go take him to the vet with Mom.

Jeremy and Paddy buried him in the back yard along side our other family pets, Angel and Aspen. You loved to ride in the car, but you loved feet the most! You will be missed!

The day after Christmas....

The day after Christmas, when Luke woke up, he ran up to Mamaw and said "Open More Presents???" Not today buddy...Christmas is over :( But guess what?...we get to spend two more days in GA!

We had pizza for dinner that night and can you believe Papaw let us sit on the couch to eat it?

No Payne visit would be complete without playing games! We played a game of Yahtzee and even Luke and Emily could help with that one. The game of sequence didn't go over as well. Next time we will have to play it when the munchkins go to bed. It was really cute watching them count the pieces though!

Literally right before we were walking out the door we decided to get some group shots! So glad we did, but remind me why we didn't do this on Christmas when we were all dolled up?

We had such a great time in GA and are so happy that we got to spend time with everyone! We love you guys!

Christmas Afternoon!

We went to Aunt Alyssa's house for Christmas dinner at around 3pm. Check out how much Emily and I match and it wasn't even planned! I ate at the kids table with Emily and Jared! Aunt Alyssa made the worlds best green beans! I had two big plate fulls!

Emily and I loved watching Jared play on his new Nintendo DS!

More gifts?....does this day get any better???...

The adults had a secret santa gift exchange!

Madison and Aunt Christy got circle scarves from the Private Gallery!

Emily loved her pink car and Luke loved playing with all of Jared's big boy toys. He tried SO hard to shoot his nerf gun!

Luke acted just like a big kid and even played air hockey on Jared's new toy!

Jeremy did his good Uncle duty and spent most of the day putting together things. When it was all said and done he had put together a car and a tricycle for Luke, a car for Emily, a jewelry box for Madison, a shopping cart for Emily, a tent for the Damron kids, and put in a million and a half batteries in all of the various toys!

What a perfect Christmas day spent with family! And what day would be a complete without some lego action?!!! Merry Christmas!

Christmas Morning!

Here I am posing by the tree on Christmas morning! I had put on the stockings that were hanging on mantle. Little did I know, my daddy used to do the same thing when he was little. They were crocheted by my Great Aunt Carolyn. I had to run into Papaw's office to show him! It cracked him up!

Then it was time to open presents!!! Did I mention how much I like to open presents?

I even "helped" Mamaw and Papaw open some of their gifts!

I got so many nice things, but this was my BIG gift from Mamaw and Papaw and would you believe this is the only family shot we got all weekend? Daddy stayed up until the wee hours of the morning (4:30am) putting together this car and Emily's car. He said that all of that hard work was worth it when he saw the reaction on my face this morning! And yes, I brought my green rain boots with me, since I love wearing them so much. Nice fashion statement, don't ya think?

Christmas Eve

Daddy was able to get off Christmas Eve at noon, so we were able to get a head start on the 6 hour drive to GA! It was a little rainy, but the drive couldn't have gone smoother! There seemed to be no one else on the roads, AND we had our NEW DVD player!!! This is an absolute MUST have for traveling with a toddler! Luke was able to watch Caillou, Mickey Mouse, Thomas the Train, and Word World to his hearts content. Plus, Jeremy and I actually got to have some grown up conversation in the front seat :) I don't know why we didn't invest in this sooner. Thanks Mimi and Doc for making our trip SO nice!

We got to Mamaw and Papaw's at 8pm, and Luke got to open one gift before he went to bed! He got a train conductor hat and bandanna, and a Chattanooga Choo Choo train whistle! Thanks, Aunt Christy!

Jeremy decided to do some modeling and we were so happy to be in GA for Christmas, since it had been 7 years since we had spent Christmas with the Payne's!

Santa came early!

Since we were going to GA this year for Christmas, Santa decided that since I was such a good boy this year he came a few days early. When I woke up from my nap on the night of the 23rd, Santa had come! He enjoyed our cookies so much that he even left me a Thank You note!

As soon as I saw my stash, I rushed right over to see it all....

Check it out I got a BIKE and a HELMET, just like I asked for!!! Whooo Hooo! The first thing I went for though were the Zhu Zhu pets. (I really didn't know what they were, but I thought those little hamsters were pretty cool all the same. Apparently, they were one of this year's must have gifts.)

I even got a BRAND NEW Bear Bear just like my old one and CANDIES in my stocking. I'm still not sure if I am going to let my old Bear Bear retire or not.

I haven't really gotten this whole peddling thing down yet, but I LOVE my bike and helmet!

After, we did Santa, it was time for the rest of the Murphy/Payne/Saunders to do their gift exchange. We all go around and only open one gift at a time so that we can see what everyone got and so that it strings it out for a really long time! The kids also decided to do a dirty Santa gift exchange to shake things up!

Some of my other gifts were an anywhere chair with my name on it and a basket ball goal from Aunt Liz and Uncle Kyle! Wow! I also got tons of DVD's this year b/c Mimi and Doc gave us a portable DVD player for our many road trips!

Uncle Paddy's girlfriend gave him some footy pj's, so he decided to try out my bike and helmet. Mom just happened to have her camera ready and got the beauty above. Merry early Christmas!

Christmas Came Early...

***The only way for me to tell the story of our Christmas is to start at the beginning and go from there taking it day by day. It may take me a few "days" to catch up, but I will try to include the highlights from each day. We had a wonderful Christmas full of fun!

Our Christmas Celebration started on the afternoon of the 23rd. First, My Great Grandmother Betty stopped by so we could exchange our gifts. She got me a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse DVD, a cool flash light that was just my size, and a cute little tin full of SUCKERS!

We gave her a photo book from when she and Great Grandaddy Jack came to visit us while we still lived in NY!

Later that Morning, my Great Grandmother Marion stopped by! She brought me a couple of books and my very first GOLF set!!! I was so excited that I ripped open the box and had to take it right outside to start playing with it.

We also gave her a photo book of when SHE came to NY to visit us, too!

Later that afternoon, before my nap, Great Aunt Janet stopped by with a big Santa bag and I pulled out the biggest, softest, roundest little stuffed doggie. I thought it was so cool and loved laying on it! What a great start to Christmas!!!

Winter Wonderland!

Today Mimi, Mommy, and I went to the Winter Wonderland at the Bass Pro Shop across the bay! They had all sorts of cool things and SANTA was there. Have I mentioned before how much I LOVE trains?

Mommy helped me write a letter to Santa while we were there. I asked for three things: 1. a Bike, 2. a helmet (seriously my idea!), and 3. CANDIES!!! Nothing more, nothing less. If you ask me, I will always say these three things.

Then I got to put my letter in Santa's mail box! I even got to put mommy's e-mail address on the back and Santa is supposed to write me an e-mail! Haha! Mommy laughed and said "Since when did Santa get so high tech!?"

I even got to pet one of Santa's reindeer!

"Hey Mom, Do you think Santa will bring me THIS kind of bike???"

Choo Choo!

Whoo Hooo!!!!.....check out what they have at the mall for the holidays!.... a Choo Choo TRAIN! Mom and Dad braved the mall this past Saturday for some last minute things and b/c they knew the train was there. Mom and Dad said it was the best $1.50 they had spent in a long time! As a huge bonus it proved to be a great bribery technique. It was the first thing we did and then Mom and Dad told me that if I was good I could ride it again when we left. I was an angel the whole time....imagine that! :) Mom found out it will be here until January 4th, so I foresee many more trips to the mall....at least I hope so!

I can't believe Christmas is this week! I am counting down the days!