Miss Mika

She is so expressive, so loud, stubborn, funny, opinionated...
I love these pictures, I thought they really captured her. Above is her determined look. Like she's going to sit right here and her remote will too, so there. Below is the view we get often. Remember my post about her "comfort"? She sticks her hands down her pants all the time and so it pushes her diaper and pants down too.
This is one of my favorite looks. The "I probably shouldn't do this, but I think it's cool, are you going to stop me" look.

The New Year

We went outside to light off sparklers before the kids went to bed. They loved them!



Mika stayed up a little later because of her long nap...Paka giving her loves.
The party animals....
We love playing games with Jonathan. My most memorable gaming experiences have been with him. We got him laughing hard!!!
Here's Brad giving his eldest son a hard time.

We had a great time ringing in the new year with our family....
Hope yours is filled with a lot of love, laughter and happiness!

A Clarke Ambush!

Saturday we went down to St. Simon's Island to Uncle Paul and Aunt Christina's house, where all of Travis' Clarke uncles were. Brad (his dad) Duane, Paul and Lloyd. It was very loud and very fun.

Mika did not like all the attention that was given to her. She has been babysat by Heidi a couple times and so when we were all watching home videos, Mika snuggled up to Heidi and fell asleep. She is Travis' cousin Devon's wife...catch that?
The brothers looking dignified? or just old? :)
Troy (my bro in law) and Dominic (cousin) made a bet with eachother to see who Mika favored more by the end of the weekend. She is deathly afraid of both. Here Dominic was trying to win her over with her favorite thing that weekend, the guinea pig, Jackie. (it didn't last long)
Kaylin and Ethan playing with Emma and Cason.
Mika giving the guinea pig loves...She was so happy.
Cousins giving loves to Bronson...
Devon and Heidi....they were leaving the next day to go to Medical school in the islands for 18 months. So sad to see them go, we've loved having them be near us in GA even if it was only for a month or two...

my favorite game....

Christmas Night the Clarkes have tradition of going to the church to play volleyball. I love this game. Played it in Jr High and Highschool and though I'm not as good as my sisters, I really do love this game. I was the setter because of my height and my sisters were amazing hitters. But I actually spiked a couple, blocked a few and set. It was so much fun, but I had to keep my competitiveness low key and just have fun. Above is the whole group. Mostly just all of Duane's kids and our fam, along with Brock (who we consider a brother) and his girlfriend.

Below is an action shot (hee hee) I'm in the purple shirt. :)

Christmas Day!

After our early morning, we opened presents with Paka, Grandma, Jonathan, Breezy and Troy. Vicki made us all breakfast and then we headed up to my parents house for more gift giving. Again, these pics are all out of order, but I don't have time to fix it....and I can't get this to be on top of the picture. Anyway, we don't have any pics with the Clarkes, again I was too tired to go back downstirs to get the camera....Whoops.

Above is Mika with a present the Smith's gave her. She LOVES it. She was so proud of it. Thanks Smiths! For all our gifts, the kids love the cars and lion cub. They are perfect! And I can't wait to use our gift card to Olive Garden!

We had some time to relax and talk after all the gift giving and Travis took the kids outside to use their remotes, yes Kaylin and Mika got one too!

We bought gifts for the Hayes' this year. We filled a bin with all sorts of fun crafts for Lily and wrote her name on it. Here she is looking at all the fun stuff.
Ethan outside with his remote. See how proud he is?
Grandma and Grandpa gave him so walkie talkies! After him and Kaylin got the hang of it, they had so much fun talking to each other!
Kaylin and Ethan opening Grandpa's present from Germany. These amazing chocolate eggs with tiny toys inside of them! Wierd I know...but oh so yummy!
Kaylin got a glass Belle from G&G Sharp. She loves it!!!
Here is Mika outside with her remote. It's made for tiny kids, like it meows when it goes a few inches, but this is how she used it instead....

Christmas Morning!!

We got to talk to Travis' brother Brandon who in on mission in India at 2am. It was awesome and I loved every minute of it! But....morning DID come very early. I felt tiny cold fingers all over my arms and legs and woke up so confused until i realized it was my 2 oldest children's hands and the clock read 6:25am. Ugh. Travis and I were so tired. He said to me, "We should really take a picture..." and I looked all the way across the room from my comfy spot on the couch and said..."Uh-huh" and didn't move. So we didn't get a lot of pictures of the kids actually opening anything, but it was a very successful Christmas! Above is Ethan with his race track. Ethan got a nice remote control car that so far has been indestructable and a dino matchbox car race track to attach to his other race tracks he already has.
Mika got a kitty piano and a purse from Santa. I think her favorite toy was her kitty piano and foam book.

Kaylin was one happy girl. She asked Santa for a giant stuffed lion that could fold out to a huge pillow or fold up to be the animal. She also got a baking center. The rest she got from mom and dad--Santa can't be the favorite! :) (I learned this from my sister Tami!)
Christmas Morning choas. I had everything spotless clean, and it was destroyed in a matter of minutes. But it's alright we had fun.

Merry Christmas!!!

Christmas Eve

We headed down to Macon to see my sister's family and my parents. It's so good to be with family over the holidays. It's all I wanted.

We went to a Live Nativity! Here is Grandma Wendy and Ethan, read for it to begin.
Afterwards you can go and pet the animals. Here is Mika petting the donkey.
Here is our Christmas Eve group! Andrew, Angie, Lily and Henry is over on Grandma Wendy's lap, Grandpa and Kaylin, Ethan, Me, Travis and Mika. We were just about to drive home so the kids all got into their PJs.
These are all out of order...oh well. We made sugar cookies for Santa and the kids frosted and sprinkled them. They also got to eat a few. :)

The cookie makers! :)

Me and my adorable newphew Henry. He's so big, I love to hold him!

After a fun day down south, we headed back to the Clarkes where we had a cousin gift exchange, a family tradition. It was fun, first time we saw Breezy and Troy and heard of the news they are expecting. We shared fun memories and something we've learned this year, along with gift giving.

Sunday Best

All dressed up in our Christmas attire!Cute kiddos

Mika is such a cutie at church, she loves her class and her teachers all tell us how cute and funny she is. We sure love that cheesy face!

Snuggling. The next picture Travis took, her eyes were closed. So sweet.

Last Day of School for 2 weeks!

It was the kids last day of school for 2 whole weeks! They came home with a ton of stuff and a lot of homemade ornaments! These were their favorites! Ethan had a book exchange and he got 2 pretty cool books. One had punch out super heroes that he's been playing with since he's been home. It was pajama day too, so he got to wear his cool new Pjs!

Mika loved sharing in all the spoils! Here she's laughin at her silly mama behind the camera....

I have no idea what we are going to do with all this free time! Sleep in, take naps, relax....yeah right! Seriously only in my short lasting dreams. Any suggestions would be great!! :)

Baby Bronson

Travis' cousin Devon has been here for a month or so with his awesome wife Heidi and there little babes Bronson. The kids adore him, well at least the older 2 do. (Mika has found someone that doesn't bully her, and therefore bully's him...)
Kaylin always lets him pull her hair. She makes funny faces at him and he smiles and laughs. Ethan always makes sure he has toys and is happy.

He had a messy diaper and needed a new air of PJ's so we put him in our Fox Sleeper. Travis got this for Kaylin and all 3 of our kids have worn it.--and now so has Bronson!