Hold My Fat Back and GOODBYE to 2011!

As has become our tradition, we are spending our New Year's weekend with the Lawsons. We go back a LONG way... all the way back to the Livestock Poultry Building at UGA. We usually include the Tomlinsons too but sadly this year will be the first time in like a DECADE that we haven't rung in the new year with them. They'll be here tomorrow though.  

The weather has just been beautiful over the last couple of days. The first order of business today was to get the eggs and go see the horses.

These two scaled the farm gate so quickly I couldn't get a good shot of them!

After getting the eggs, they hung on the fence and watched Peaches, Simmone and Treasure graze around the arena.  When I looked back at last year's New Year's Eve pictures, it's amazing how much these kids have grown.

No day on the farm is complete without a little hay bale jumping. Ali Grace gave good instructions to the newest bale jumper.

Nanny came out to see the horses and the children. She brought Ali Grace her very favorite thing ever- FAT BACK.  She wanted to play with Hailey on the hay bales and said "hey- hold my fat back!" 

We made our annual pilgrimage down to Hill's Mill. Molly and Addie held hands all the way down the road.

Here's this year's picture of the Old Mill:

It was a perfect night to sit around a fire barrel with friends!

I love New Year's! Christmas is for families but New Year's is a perfect time to celebrate the gift of  good friends!

HAPPY 2012 from our herd of friends to yours! 

Post Christmas Bliss..

I don't rush the Christmas decorations back into the attic. I don't know why. I just don't. I think stores starting their decorating in September makes us all sick of Christmas by December 25th and I think that's sad. I usually leave my decorations up until the New Year. We almost always have UGA friends here for New Year's and as part of their Bed and Breakfast fee, they usually help me take down my decorations. :)

I've done away with most of the live greenery and taken down a few things here and there, but I am in no particular hurry. I'm all about the 12 days of Christmas and I think we're only on Day 4 or so! 

It's been cool and rainy around here the last couple days. Addie got this adorable Land's End sweater for Christmas. She does not like a bulky coat or jacket and I'm so glad Santa thought of this great idea! This would be an adorable pic of Addie were it not for the fact that she has a HUGE piece of bubble gum in her cheek that she's trying to disguise. Leave it to Addie to look like she has a "chaw" of tobacco in an otherwise adorable picture!

Francisca did Addie's hair this morning and I loved it! Addie will hardly let me touch her head but for some reason she will let Francisca do about anything with it. Whatever works. 

I think the picture below says it all. The Kindle Fires were big hits! The girls have been glued to theirs and when they put it down I play a fierce round or two of Fruit Ninja! They're dressed in red because we had planned to go to the Georgia basketball game tonight. Turns out, the fire in the fireplace and my sofa were just way too comfortable and the Dawgs lost out.  Maybe next game! 

I haven't been into town or even off the farm since Christmas Eve and so far I don't care one bit. 

 Looking forward to spending New Year's with good friends. 

Christmas on the Ponderosa

Although the previous week brought a little stress when I realized Pete's family would be spending Christmas with us, I couldn't have asked for better really. Not that I didn't want them to spend Christmas with us, but since I had absolutely no clue they were coming, I was absolutely unprepared. I am a planner y'all! I am totally unorganized and I forget things and I frequently misplace things. I need a PLAN! I don't like not having the right food to serve, the right gifts purchased, and the right frame of mind! I know it sounds crazy but I is what I is! Anyhow it turned out great despite having no plan and I'm so glad the girls got to spend these last few days with their cousins!

We were blessed with beautiful unseasonably warm weather this week and the girls and Colten spent a lot of time jumping hay bales.

Colten even practiced kung fu as he bounced like a spider monkey from bale to bale.

Addie told me on Christmas Eve she was "doing some shopping on shopjustice.com... okay honey.. whatever you say.

We went with Nanny, Poppy, Uncle Ernie, Aunt Beth, and Colten to Coleman Lake Friday night before Christmas Eve. It was delicious as usual. I had my favorite clam strips and Ali Grace tore into crab legs as usual. The kids played checkers until our reservation time.

Somehow all the Cooper grands ended up in the car with me on the way home from Coleman Lake. They were OUT COLD by the time we got home! Addie really enjoyed sporting her zebra print dress and her black glitter flats. She was stylin' for sure. 

My favorite Christmas guest today was Sarah Rose! She cracked me UP the entire time she was here. You just have to hear her sweet voice to understand. Here she is with Gran joking around like she did the whole time she was here!

Sarah thinks she's one of the "bick gulls" (big girls). She fell on the rock wall outside and was just all to pieces until I told her Uncle Pete would go play with her on the "big jumpaline" (trampoline)/

Emma and Addie stayed in their own little world much of the time, running around and playing with their toy horses, whispering things cousins whisper and giggling about who knows what..

Pete got to spend some time with his brother talking about whatever it is brothers talk about ...

Christmas Eve night, the weather was so warm, we decided a hot dog/s'mores roast would be great! The girls loved it. It was a really clear night outside and the stars were huge. It's hard to imagine the stars over Bethlehem being much more beautiful than these.

Mama said we were acting like people who had no microwave!

Soon after we cooked outside, Ali Grace read my favorite Christmas verse in Isaiah. "For unto us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be upon his shoulders and he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, the Prince of Peace."

Then the Christmas gift craziness began.....

Christmas morning came with a full house around here.. quite interesting to say the least! Addie Belle was quite amazed!

Rubi LOVED her new bike!

and Ali Grace was very happy with her new wardrobe..

After seeing Addie's favorite Christmas gift from last year, a pull string Woody and Jesse, I was kinda sad. This year's favorite Christmas gift was a Kindle Fire. Wow.. what a difference a year makes. I told Ali Grace that she was looking a little too grown. She quickly gulped her kool-aid and with a red upper lip said "does this help with the age issue Mama?".. Yes, honey. Yes indeed.

My favorite Cooper family tradition is Christmas stockings.. REAL NYLON stockings.. My daddy had the same kind of Christmas stockings when he was a kid. The girls look forward to their "Cooper stocking" every year. Santa really outdid himself this year. Both stockings were taller than the children they were left for!

I hope you and yours have had a fabulous Christmas! Oh and one more thing- if you didn't get a card from us this year- I am so sorry. It was an ADD Christmas. I mailed about 12 cards I had addresses written down for, and in the process of finding addresses for the others, I LOST the cards! You all who know me will understand. Merry Christmas anyhow.

Too busy to blog

I've spent this Christmas season just trying to soak it all in... No time to really write it all down! Before school was out for Christmas vacation, I went to Edmund Burke Academy's Christmas program. Children singing Christmas songs or hymns always causes waterworks for me. It was a great program and a perfect way to begin the Holiday season. Doesn't this just look like an angel choir?

Addie has really enjoyed the warm weather recently.

Ali Grace has been in Mama mode looking after all the little ones, including Rubi, who's a whole 'nother blog.

On Tuesday we went to pick up Aunt Beth and Colten.  They kids had a wonderful time caroling with the church and generally bee bopping around the farm.

Nanny brought over a gingerbread house for the herd to work on... what a mess!! Kids absolutely loved it though!

Have I mentioned how wonderful this baby girl is? She has been a lifesaver over the last few days helping out and watching the little ones. She has the patience of Job and I just love her to pieces!

The kids were nasty from the gingerbread house and rolling in the dirt outside.. I should have known better than to tell them to go get in the tub! Here's what Aunt Beth found when she opened the bathroom door:

We have thoroughly enjoyed having Colten here this week. The girls have been running on pure adrenaline..

Aunt Bonnie brought gifts to open before the Vidette Community Party...

Tonight my Daddy made shrimp and grits at my house. Pure tee heaven y'all.  

And lastly... David and Jess just arrived with Emma Ivey and Sarah! Tis the Season!!