White Christmas

We got a beautiful White Christmas this year. It began to snow as we drove from downtown Atlanta to Alpharetta. As the afternoon continued the snow fell harder and began to stick. We decided to go outside just before it got too dark. Samuel wasn't too sure about it, but he did run around in the grass quite a bit!

Mom got Samuel the cutest hat for Christmas. it's so cozy and is a shark with teeth, fin and eyes on both sides of his head. He was too cute running around in it! I hope we get a lot of use out of it here!

The Pickle

About 5 years ago my aunt started the pickle ornament tradition on Christmas eve. Somehow Ryan finds it every year! It often yields a $20, so he starts looking the moment he walks in the door. Again this year he found it and everyone whined that it was because of his height that he found it, really it's because the rest of us are too busy eating yummy appetizers to bother with searching.

This year my mom got one for her tree. As we were just sitting around talking I noticed a long green ornament on the tree. I simply said, "mom, did you get a pickle ornament too?" She was excited that someone had seen it. Stephen quickly jumped up, looked and grabbed it off the tree! Of course I fought that I had actually found it, though he retrieved it! Mom determined that I was the true winner! Sweet, I am not the proud owner of a beautiful $10...now how quickly can I get to Starbucks to spend it???

Powell Family Christmas

We traveled back to the Powells to spend the afternoon at their house. Samuel was so excited to be there and really LOVED playing with all of his new toys. We feel so blessed to have wonderful families that go out of their way to make sure we have a great visit each time we are in Atlanta!

Clearly very happy about the keys dad was holding!

opening presents together!

playing with his big truck full of cars

Ryan worked for about 2 hours to put this car together, I know it will provide for many years of entertainment!

A little dark, but I had to be in at least one picture

Samuel with his buddies (the Smith and Rodriguez kids). Ephraim refused to stop dancing even for a moment to take the pictures. What a sweet bunch of kids!!!

Cowan Family Christmas

This year we were able to be in Atlanta for Christmas, and it was so wonderful! We spent several days just with family and they of course loved seeing Samuel run around and enjoying life! Here are some pictures from the Cowan Christmas Extravaganza!!!

Dad got a fancy new hat for hiking. It's waterproof and super lightweight!

Samuel playing with his car from Bebe (Bethany)

We got dad a scout centennial book, he seemed to really like it!

Samuel loves to create hats out of everything, he even can make them out of boxes!

Tiffany (my sister-in-law) travels to Dubai a lot for work and Zach got this for her so she could sleep well on the plane. It was even adorned with a sheep so she could count it in case she was having trouble getting to sleep, so very thoughtful!

showing off his trains

at the bottom center of this picture is a drum that came with lots of different instruments. He carried that thing around all night and today has been playing with it nonstop! Thanks Jill!

I never thought my kid would do this...

As long as I can remember Samuel has only slept in a bed/crib in a dark room or in the car. I always would see these parents carrying their kids around the store, at the park, etc. while they were sleeping...and would think to myself, "my kid will NEVER do that." Well, never say never! Today Samuel refused to take a nap, so when dad got home we went out for a "quick" trip to walmart. As we got there Samuel seemed really tired and was nodding his head. Before I knew it I turned around to see this!

Gingerbread Houses

Tonight we held our 2nd Annual Gingerbread House Party. We had so much fun with our friends and the decorating definitely didn't disappoint! (the pictures are really grainey, sorry about that!). The Thomas family was not able to hold on to their title of "decorator extraordinaire" and the Phelps were very happy about that. Congratulations to everyone for a job well done!

Our little house. Ryan is so kindly pointing to the dog on the front lawn who made yellow snow

Ryan in the midst of decorating

Margaret Lee with her story book house

Shelley working ever so hard to hold on to her title!

They look so appetizing...

So I was glueing together gingerbread houses today for our party tomorrow. Samuel has walked by this stack of house pieces about 100 times, but this morning I guess he decided he just couldn't pass them up one more time!!! So to whomever gets this special house, I am sorry for the big bite missing by the door and roof!!! Thanks for understanding!

I love this little boy!

My mom got Samuel a few really cute outfits for the holiday season. Today for church we put this cute one on that has a reindeer on it. It's a little big, but he is cute nonetheless! Here we are in front of the tree. Samuel is mesmerized by the tree, will walk up to it and point at all the ornaments. He won't touch them because he has been STRONGLY advised not to, though I can see he is dying to touch them all! I just love him to death!