winter break

We're on Winter Break! No school and lots of snow make for fun days! Days we don't get dressed until after 11:00. Days we watch cartoons or movies all afternoon. Days we're just lazy and play together! Today Austin, Becca and Rachel came over for the day and we had lunch together, played outside, drank cocoa, played games and watched Bolt. I love spending time with them - I wish they'd come over here more often!

merry christmas

Merry Christmas everyone! Hope you all have a magical day full of fun with your family!

Love, The South Family

christmas eve

We spend Christmas Eve at home every year. Charlie cooks for his family. Yep! All I'm in charge of is the mashed potatoes and mmmmm, this year they were so good! Oh, we also started a tradition last year making Buckeye's, these yummy chocolate-y peanut butter "cookie" Charlie loves. His Mom & Dad, Chris, Lynn, Braxton & Brooklyn came over this year.

the tree and all the presents

just before present time

ava's the only one who was willing to pose with her presents

just before bedtime

santa's milk, cookies and a note from carter

"deer santa hav a nice snak. frum carter"

it's a pretty big snack he put out, huh?

let it snow let it snow let it snow

Carter decided he wanted a "winter chore." He went next door to borrow two kid shovels and he and Logan shoveled the driveway today! It's actually snowing again right now so I'm glad it's not just piling up out there. They did a good part of it, but toward the bottom the snow started getting heavy, so they asked me for help. Afterward, I came in to whip up some hot cocoa and they played soccer out back, pushed the play mower around the yard, and threw some snowballs at eachother. I love when it snows but it's nice enough out there to let them play. Now all the snow gear is in the dryer and they're cuddled in blankies watching The Santa Clause. I love Winter Break!

on sunday the boys made a snowman with charlie & their neighboor friends.

he started to melt, but now has been getting snowed on again!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

christmas party

Saturday was our annual Christmas Party here at the house with all the friends Charlie's known since practically middle school and more including neighbors and my sisters! For some of the night lots of kiddos were running around but once presents started, the kids were tucked into beds and the grown-ups got to have some fun!

early in the night

cory, lisa, vin, sean and some little ones on the floor that include lo, ava and evan

shannon not sharing toys with logan and his own son

carter admiring the snacks and snacking and snacking and snacking some more

carter and logan didn't fall asleep real easy at first.

carter marched down the stairs and passed me a message:

a sign that 20 adults opening silly gifts can be a bit loud

It was a great time spent with the greatest friends anyone could ask for full of food, fun, presents, games and drinks of course. Thanks Marco for taking some great pictures that I could steal. Until next year!

and the award goes to...

Me! Check it out! They like me, they really really like me! I love that my blog helps bring happiness to someone's world! Thanks, Jenn!

Here's what I have to do to accept my award:

List 10 things that make you happy.
Try and do at least one of them today.
Tag 10 bloggers that brighten your day.
Link back to the person that tagged you.

This is in no particular order...

1. sisters - shopping, dining out, just being together either on the computer, on the phone or in real life! a few years back we went to lake geneva. we gotta get away more often! this is at jamie's wedding rehersal a few years back.

2. the way ava sticks out her tongue lately. pointed and out to the side. cutest thing ever. gotta capture that.

3. the laugh - carter, logan, charlie, and i think it's come out of ava once or twice. look at this. if you know the laugh, you hear it when you see this picture. the first one of carter is blurry, but you can hear it. oh, logie, that face. do you hear the laugh?

4. games - scrabble, apples to apples, a new fav: blokus. i don't have to win, i like to, but i don't have to win. it makes me happy to see how much carter and logan like games. i have memories of playing games with my sisters and my dad. at the time i didn't have a clue it would be something so special to me. we still play games, my sisters and me, my kids and me, austin-becca-rachel and me, the boys and my dad. it makes me happy to see them play go-fish and chess with my dad.

5. blogging. sharing all these moments and memories with family and friends makes me incredibly happy. even started a blog for my students and their families this year! reading other's blogs. it's amazing how connected i feel to family and friends through the computer. i also love that my kids can have all this to read someday.

6. summer. fourth of july, the pool, the sun, baseball, no school! here is a shot of from this past summer. logan conquered a waterslide.

7. babies. my three babies. anyone's baby really. not gonna happen, but i'd keep having babies! here's a picture of my ava, my baby that's less and less of a baby every day. 8. photographs. i love love love looking through photos my mom took of all of us growing up and am amazed at how many images i have that capture millions of memories of my life especially from the past eight years. wish i would have started sooner! i see some shots pop up on my computer screen saver and it amazes me how that moment is forgotten until that image reappears. sometimes the memory floods back and other times i feel like there's no memory of it at all and i'm glad the photograph's there! photographs of my family (i need to try to be in more of the photographs) that i need need need to save somewhere other than on my computer!

9. chocolate and peanut butter ice cream. yum. i found a old old photo of logan eating an ice cream cone.

10. reading. bedtime stories really. some nights to be honest, i'm just too wiped out to do it, but when i hear logan creep into the hall under the light and read a couple to himself thirty minutes after we've tucked him in or climb up to carter's bunk to get his sheets off and see thirty books spread all over the place without much room for him to even sleep comfortably i'm happy. my kids reading makes me happy.

Ten Bloggers who brighten my day...
1. Becky from The Graske Family Blog

2. Lisa from Bob & Lisa, Addison & Lucas

3. Marina from Marina & Cory
4. Kris from Scherman Family Blog
5. Venessa from the Laskey's
6. Jenn from From My Front Porch Looking In
7. Chrissy from Grinnen Barretts
8. Pam from Thirty Something... and her Knot site
9. Lisa from The Burtons
10. Cory and her babysites

putting up ornaments

We put up the Christmas tree on Friday night. The boys hung all the ornaments one by one - all the motorcycles, cars, superheroes, and this year, thanks to Ava, the holiday Barbies - then I rearranged a bit so that there were some higher than 40 inches from the bottom of the tree. One of the first ornaments Carter put up is this frame with a wedding photo of me and Charlie. He hangs it on a branch and says:

"Awwwwww! Marriage - what a beautiful thing!"




I cracked up laughing! Here's our tree. Next I'll need to take some pictures of the three kids under the tree in their holiday jammies!

thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving! Here are a few things I'm most thankful for...

happy birthday

Happy birthday to my amazing Carter! You are six years old today. It is so hard to believe how big you've gotten. When you came into our bed to say good morning this morning I was blown away by how far down your long legs stretched but adored how you still fit so perfectly cuddled up to me. You're a terrific big brother to Logan and Ava and can be so helpful to me. You are a wonderful kindergartener who can't get enough of learning new things who remembers everything he's heard. And you are incredibly outgoing and such a great friend to all the kids you're around. You are so into cars, sports, coloring, writing, drawing, and you have a terrific imagination. The past six years have been full of adventure and love raising you as our first child and I can't imagine where we'll all be in six years from now. I hope you loved your birthday breakfast - pancakes, candle and all and I hope you enjoy your birthday lunch with Aunt Natalie and your football party with all the people who love you! Carter, I love you and I'm so proud of you and wish for you to have the perfect sixth birthday and many many many more!

carter 2003

newborn

carter 2009

sixth birthday party

make a wish...

opening his jay cutler jersey from grandma

football buddies

dylan, carter, jacob

Cater was eating litttle fudge cookies in the car.
C: Wow, Mom, when you put two in your mouth it's like an ocean of chocolate!

halloween

This year I let the boys pick their costumes. No theme. I gave up control. I hope next year they can be something all together. Peter Pan, Captain Hook, and Tinkerbell. Three Little Pigs. Tin Man, Lion, and Dorthy. Woody, Buzz, and Jessie. We'll see...This year Carter had his heart set on being a Clone Trooper - Captain Rex from Star Wars the Clone Wars. Who knows where that came from. He's never seen the movie. He says it's a cartoon he's seen at Miss Gayle's. Whatever. There was no changing his mind. When I suggested the Peter Pan theme he said, "Maybe next year, Mom." Logan wanted Batman at first but they didn't have his size so he picked a racecar driver. He loved it. They both played in those costumes practically every day the whole week before Halloween. They love dressing up.

We had a little Halloween party on Saturday with all of the cousins at Grandma's house. Natalie and Jamie organized lots of fun things to do: Halloween bingo, bobbing for apples, Halloween pictionary, mummy wrapping, and lots of treats! Grandma even took all the kids through Spooky Town (the haunted familyroom!). Later we went trick-or-treating up and down the street with Austin, Becca, Rachel and Evan in her neighborhood.

We got home around 5:00 and met up with friends to trick-or-treat in our neighborhood. There's a "spooky house" that looks really cool with lots of dead creepy stuff and lights in their yard that all the boys wanted to go to, but "not until it's dark. it's got to be dark when we go there!" The boys made out pretty good needing their treat bags emptied once or twice since they were full and heavy. This is the first year we did a big portion of the neighborhood. The little ones seemed a house behind lots of the time, but Logan kept up with the big boys pretty well grabbing handfulls from the houses with candy and a sign "Please take one." Carter gave a report as he zoomed on to the next house "I got a Butterfinger!" or "This one gave Milk Duds!" Too funny!

My camera died just as I was getting ready to take pictures in our neighborhood so I'll have to steal pictures from the other Moms. Here's a peek at a lot of the fun from the party at Grandma's! Hope everyone had a happy Halloween!

bobbing for apples

ava mummy

doctor, hannah montana, clone trooper, parrot, racecar driver, batman, frankenstein

becca, rachel, carter, ava, logan, austin, evan

no that's not cookie monster, it's frankenstein evan!
ava's party costume!
ava's trick-or-treat costume

pumpkins

PUMPKIN PICKING

This year we took the kids to Sonny Acres. We fed the goats, llamas, and sheep and picked out our pumpkins. The boys were both tired, it had been a busy day and neither of them were that into it. I had more fun on the second grade field trip the week after taking the boys. We got a couple nice pumpkins that we carved a few nights before Halloween.

i love this...pumpkins growing on trees!

PUMPKIN CARVING

Once again, Logan was more into the goopy, wet, and stringy mess involved in scooping out the seeds. Carter didn't like it at first, but eventually scooped away all the insides after Daddy started it. He was cute about planning his jack-o-lantern's face though, drawing out the design onto the paper bag we had spread out to cover the table. Logan just liked poking little holes with the pen! He told me what shapes he wanted and we did his together. After I did the carving they each pushed out the parts and used the tools to finish it off. I didn't plan on carving Ava's little pumpkin, but decided her's would be cute if I carved a little "a" in it.

peek-a-BOO ava!