The Great's Couch Picture

We attempted a couch picture of the "great's" again this year . I think Madison is the only one missing in this pic and she was there, just not in this pic. Don't they all look excited to have their play time interrupted for a picture? Cooper was sick this night and you can tell that he wasn't himself. Notice the three new itty bitty Efird's... Grace was 3 months in this pic, Kason was two weeks old, and Campbell was 3 days old!
For those of you who hear us talk about the cousins and "birthday season" all the time, now you know what I'm talking about. And, by the way, birthday season is upon us!

Thanksgiving and Indians (3 months late!)

So I'm just about 3 months late on this but I actually just snagged these pictures from another mom's FB page. In November, a Kiowa Indian named, Philip, visited Mrs. Mae's to visit with the kids. This is yet another reason that I just love Mae's.... the kids were totally fascinated with Philip.
Philip and some of the boys in Kam's class...
As you can see, he was dressed in his Indian duds from head to toe and he talked to the kids and answered their questions.
He played a beautiful song for them....

This was a great experience for the kids, especially since they had been learning all about the pilgrims and Indians in November. I remember one night that Kam was trying to tell me something about what she learned and she kept saying, "sandwiches, sandwiches!" Took me a few minutes to realize she was trying to say, "savages, savages!"

Madison and Miss OHS

Mom, Kamdyn, and I went to see Madison in the Miss OHS pageant (or "passage" as Kam calls it) on Saturday night. She was in the junior miss division, I believe, and got first-runner up and most photogenic. She did an awesome job and I am so proud of her!
I experimented with the settings on my camera during the pageant and obviously I didn't find the right one! I love my camera but I have no idea how to use it!
So the rest of the pictures of the pageant didn't turn out that great and I didn't catch her afterwards in time to get a good pic of her in her dress. But we did this so her Aunt Jodie could get the idea of how she looked... gorgeous!
Kamdyn and Madison afterwards... this was Kam's first pageant and I think she enjoyed it. You should have seen her face when the first little girl in her division came out. She had on a beautiful long blue saphire dress and Kamdyn said, "I wish I could have a dress like that!" as she watched. I have had people ask me to put her in pageants before but I've never thought that Kam would go out on stage... who knows now? Although we would definitely have to work on her grace (or lack of).... Kam can't walk a straight line without falling down. :)
Madison and KK....
Before the pageant started, we spotted Kam's friend Dane from school sitting a several rows in front of us. So Kam hollered at him and he was so excited to see her that he jumped up ran down the aisle and back to give her a hug. It was the cutest thing ever! You can't see Dane in this pic but he is whispering in Kam's ear.... He ran back another time to tell her something and then afterwards they had to hug before they left. He's a little ladies' man, I think, because all the girls in Kam's class talk about him and I can see why!
During the many breaks and intermission, Kam got a little restless and started being silly...
She always loves to play with Mimi's glasses... she never complains that things are blurry when she puts them on which worries me somewhat!
The many faces of Kam...
This is her pose when I tell her to look at the camera and say "cheese."
So then I tell her to look at the camera and this is what I get!We've definitely got to work on that!

The Couch Picture

This year's "couch" picture taken on Christmas Eve at Aunt Gina's house.

Boys Will Be.....

This morning was a "Sybil" morning for Kamdyn. We overslept to begin with so we were all running around like crazy. After asking her to get dressed at least 5 different times, I told Kam that she was about to get a consequence (no Wii tonight) if she didn't mind me pronto, which unleashed the beast. When she gets in trouble she turns into a complete drama queen and cries about EVERYTHING to divert the attention from the real issue--that she doesn't mind!!! She did this last night at church too.
So she starts crying about how boys are so mean and everyone makes fun of her.... she then goes into this rampage about a little boy at school teasing her. "Why do boys do that, Mommy?" So while I'm fixing her hair, I attempt to explain that sometimes boys tease girls because they really like them..... to which she replies in that emphatic tone (and I'm quite sure her hand was on her hip even though she was sitting!)... "well, I don't like boys! I just like my daddy and Cooper!!!!"

So then Mark says, "well, what about Pop and Uncle Bubby?" She says they are ok, as is Papaw Sonny. Then Mark asks, "what about Uncle Stephen?" to which she replies, "no! he's mean to me!"

Then Mark tells her that he must not be very mean because he just brought her a present back from Disney World last week. Then she says in her new country drawl, "aaahhh... now he's a good man!!" Trust me when I say you had to hear her say this to get the full effect! Mark and I both busted out laughing!! Uncle Stephen, you would have died!!!!

New Year's

We went to Shane and Deana's for New Year's Eve to hang out and had a really good time. The food and fellowship was fabulous! The kids played so well together and my kids did not want to leave, if you can imagine that!

The kids played some game called "Robo Jam" on Chase's PlayStation and absolutely loved it! That's all my kids wanted to do the entire time we were there. Don't they all look cute playing with their controllers ready?
And I think that Chase's baseball mural wall looks so cool in the background of these pictures.

Katelyn and Kamdyn had to work to keep the boys (at least Cooper!) out of Katelyn's room. It was pretty cute the way the girls would run in the room squealing and slam the door to keep them out while the boys tried to push and shove their way in.
Deana got the kids New Years hats and they looked really cute on them. The girls, of course, got the princess version.
This picture cracks me up b/c Cooper kept his hat on like this most of the night!
I'm embarrassed to say that we didn't make it til midnight and not because my kids were tired! Mark and I were both yawning at 10:00, but we did make it home just in time to see the ball drop!

I am normally not one to make resolutions but I do have a few for 2010:

1. To be more decisive. I know all of you who know me are saying "Amen" right now!

2. To be more organized and to keep a tidier (I didn't say clean!) house.

3. To become a better Christian and have a closer relationship with the Lord.

I've got a few more but they are really not worth mentioning because I think I've already broken them! Happy New Year!!!

Christmas Decorations

So I'm almost a month late with this post but.... better late than never! I wanted to post a few pics of some of our Christmas decorations so I could remember 20 years from now!

Here is our tree (after Christmas with no presents under i!)... I don't have one of those trees that has matching ornaments and is color coordinated. I have too many special ornaments to do that! And I have preschoolers, remember???!!!! Maybe one day when my kids are gone though!! I like whimsical ornaments and am not traditional at all!
Cooper absolutely loves cars so his ornament this year had to be a race car...
Kamdyn picked her own out this year and she chose Snow White....
Mark and I got this Christopher Radco ornament as a gift before we were married. I think it's the "Honeymoon Hotel" or something like that. I collected the Radco's for a while and have several that are very sentimental to me...
My idea was to make ornaments with the kids hand prints on these small canvases that I painted, but I ended up setting them on some floating shelves and they were oh so cute! The kids had fun with it and their names are on the back.... I know I will treasure these forever!
This is Max, our "elf on the shelf." This is his second Christmas with us.
He watches over the kids and flies to the North Pole every night to let Santa know if they have been naughty or nice. He lands in a different spot every morning and the kids love looking for him or finding him in unexpected places! Problem is that Mark and I sometimes forget to move him each day.

Every family needs one of these!!! It's so easy to remind the kids, "you better be nice, Max is watching and letting Santa know if you've been good!" We love Max and he has become one of our favorite Christmas traditions.

Addicted

The kids are totally addicted to the Wii. They literally want to play it all their waking hours! And to think that I debated whether they would like it or not!!

We've been home this week and I've tried to get them to play with other things. I DO NOT want two kids who lay on the couch and play video games all the time. Having said that, I made them wait until afternoon today to turn the Wii on and you would have thought I was torturing them! Needless to say, I broke up several fights and they each ended up in their rooms for a while this morning to "think about the way they were acting." They are playing now which is why I can actually sit and post. Still working on the picture issue... keep checking back!

Trying...

I've been trying to upload pics from my new camera to my blog for two days now with no success. They are on my computer but for some unknown reason they won't upload here. I'll keep trying! Check back soon!!!!