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!