Twas the night before Christmas...

The Dodd Squad went to the childrens' service at church where we sang Happy Birthday to Jesus and ate birthday cake. How cool is that!?!?
Addie and Mommy made monkey bread for breakfast on Christmas morning...

The kiddos opened up their Christmas Eve presents which happen to be jammies...

And we spent some time getting ready for Santa, leaving cookies, feeding the reindeer, and reading special stories by the tree...

Now two excited parents wait as their sweet kiddos fall fast asleep. There is LOTS of work to be done!!!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL AND TO ALL A GOOD NIGHT!!!!!

A Big Snow

My big sis, Gina, just adopted her son from Ethiopia and it has been an amazing experience. They just got home last Sunday with him! We were able to squeeze a shower in for her just before they left to go get him. It was GREAT. All except the weather decided to turn to SNOW and ICE while we were showering her. It was all worth it but oh what a story I have to tell you!

Smiling with my sisters at the shower...
Not smiling now as this is what it was on the way home...

and I got STUCK in it. People were sliding off the road in front of and behind me and I could not go anywhere. Thankfully, I did not slide off the road. I guess I am just an awesome driver in the snow and ice. (NOT!) My kids were not with me so thankfully I did not have to listen to any whiney (not that mine would ever do that!) kids while I was just sitting in my car. My hubby did come to the rescue. He walked to find me and brought my tennis shoes along with some gloves and coat just in case I wanted to walk home. Well, I decided I would walk home as we were blocked by a tow truck that had slid off the road. However, David had forgot to bring me a hat. I dug around in the back of the car and found one of Addie's as you can see in this next picture...

And I walked a little over a mile home. (I ran once I got in the neighborhood...it was FREEZING!!)

I was so happy when I saw this next picture. I knew my mom, Skip, and kiddos were inside patiently waiting for me to get home. It only took me 3 1/2 hours to make it home when it normally takes 20 minutes. Oh my...I was just thankful. And David made it home 15 minutes after me as he snuck passed the tow truck as another one came to tow them out of the ditch. Yes, I should have waited with him a few more minutes and saved myself the walk in the freezing cold snow and ice. Oh well, we all made it safe and that is what matters!

Plus...we got a SNOW DAY. I believe I would walk in the snow and ice again for a snow day!

We love snow days!!!!

Visit Payne Family Blessings to see pictures of my new nephew and his homecoming! I haven't been able to meet him yet as I was at the Nutcracker with the Dodd girls. All of my boys were at the airport and I am a little jealous. I am so anxious to meet the little guy! However, he is running a fever they can't get to go away. I am praying that goes away very soon! And, I am waiting patiently to see him. I will post pictures of my own when we get to see him.

Tis the Season...

Our weekend has come and gone but we are officially in the Christmas Spirit.

We found our tree...
We had Breakfast With Santa at Church. It was such a great time!
(Sam wasn't so sure about Santa but he hung on for a few minutes until he lost it...as you can see!)

nu=3235>6::>268>WSNRCG=344;965435326nu0mrj.jpg">I would love to know what they are saying in this next picture.

(I do know that Addie asked for Fancy Accessories. She is so into Fancy Nancy these days. Logan asked for a football jersey, Wii game, and a "moken" (remote) control car. And Sam asked for his mommy to please remove him from Santa's lap quickly!!!)

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And after Breakfast with Santa, David and I shopped until we dropped...all in one weekend! Oh how I love, love, love this time of year!

Hope you are enjoying this holiday season too!

**Just ignore the links that are with the pictures. I couldn't get those to go away.**

Thanksgiving

We had a nice Thanksgiving with my family at Grammy and Papa Skip's. Not all of the kids could be there but we had extra family that we don't normally see for Thanksgiving.

David and Logan went hunting. No deer but Logan LOVED it!
Sam was sleepy. I tried to keep him up to eat with everyone. Oh well, I still love this picture of all of us!

Of course, we made our Oreo Turkeys.

This is my cousin, Skip's nephew, and his girlfriend who came all the way from Florida. So good to see them!

My mom and her brother, Uncle Bob. He is one great man who just had a big birthday too! It was fun being able to celebrate!

And this is Uncle Bob's wife, Aunt Janice, who is a super host! I love just her!

Sam and his Uncle Dave

Me and my sis

2 Handsome Brothers

Hangin out, watching TV with the daddies

The Sharp Fam

Skip and Bobby

Sam stayed awake for the first 2 minutes of dinner, then I gave in and he went to dream land so we could all eat in peace. At least I got a picture!

I really wish I could do this...

There you go...we had a great Thanksgiving. It made me thankful for the time off to spend with family and count my blessings. However, we did miss spending the day with David's family but we will look forward to next year!!!

Can you believe it...I posted Thanksgiving nearly a week after. Yay for me!

Logan's Apology

The other night our big boy Logan got into some trouble. He is a boy and he cannot leave a ball alone when it is around. Even though he had lost his football, then been told at least 3 times to not kick a soccer ball in the bonus room and in turn had the soccer ball taken away to be put high on a shelf, he still managed to kick the soccer ball and break some of his daddy's things. Yes, I left the bonus room and minutes later heard an enormous crash. The soccer ball had done as this momma had predicted. It went up high and knocked down a display of pictures and posters that belong to the man of our house. All of the glass shattered in all 3 frames. Oh my goodness...yes I was MAD but I was also so thankful that Sam or Addie was not standing underneath. Logan was in BIG trouble! He hasn't visited the bonus room the last few days and there are no more balls to be found in his possession. Yes, I am still very frustrated with him but not so much because the day after the incident I unexpectedly found a friendly letter, written to both David and me, in perfect friendly letter format (thank you steno) that said this...

Dear Mommy and Daddy,
I am so sorry that I did not listen to you last night. I will not kick the soccer ball. I am sorry daddy I broke your baseball picture. That will never happen again. I hope you can fix it wear it lookes as good as new!
Sincerely,
Logan

He is PRECIOUS! Of course you are forgiven Logan!

**FYI, we did fix everything back as good as new. I made a quick trip to Hobby Lobby and found some frames on sale. I really am just thankful that no one was hurt! If you are ever hanging out in our bonus room, you shall see no balls and if you do, please remove it!

Since it is almost Thanksgiving...

I really should post our Halloween pictures. Sorry these are so late. Life is just full of great things these days...

Our Halloween weekend was a blast. We went to trunk or treat at our church on Saturday night then trick or treated the neighborhood on Halloween! We had a beautiful purple witch, a big skeleton, and a little skeleton. Of course, the holiday was even more fun because we celebrated with our sweet neighbors and friends!!!!

I guess David and I were feeling left out so we took care of that real quick!

This is David as George Bush...

Me as a firefighter...

Our big skeleton...

Big and Little skeleton...

The purple witch and her side-kick...

Our little skeleton...

He LOVED the trick or treating part because he just discovered how much he loves candy!!!!

These are two very brave individuals. We have some very nasty teenagers in our neighborhood who decided they were going to take that whole bucket of candy from these nice looking people on our porch. Oh yes they did but they just didn't know who they were messing with because Pop jumped up and started running after him. After he fell and rolled across the grass, he jumped back up and kept after him. Oh yes he did and those cool (so they think) teenage boys ditched our candy bucket and kept running. That is right...they knew way better than to mess with Pop! Can you believe that? Well...it is true and I'm happy to say that Pop wasn't even sore the next day! And I am happy to report that our yard has not been rolled either!

So glad I finally completed this post. Happy Thanksgiving! I guess I will have our Thanksgiving pictures posted by Christmas...