A New Beginning

Christmas was really good.



Hey there my three angels.  Do you know how much joy I get out of taking your picture?   You can't possibly understand right now.



I wish I could capture you perfectly.  Forgive me, but you have to overlook the imperfections.  Well, because the imperfections are what I love.  I can't help myself.

My sweet, best boy.  I love you so much.  Just tonight I told you for the thousandth time you were my best boy and for the first time you said, "You're the best Mom."  Dang.  I didn't want to cry tonight.  I'll never forget that...ever.  You want something right?  Heck, I don't care.



This post is nuts.  Hey Luke!  I just took this, way after Christmas.  We love you boy!



And back to before Christmas.  This was just before our seasonal trip to the city.



Kids, let's go to the city and have a nice dinner.  What you think?



It was my favorite night of the holiday.  Maggiano's is perfect during Christmas.  Who cares about shopping and gifts.  It's just us.  It's just good times.  It's just fun.



We totally snuck upstairs for this moment.  All my pictures were blury because I was sort of nervous they would kick us out.  I didn't let the kids know.  Play on!



I love living near the big city (Atlanta).  I love the experiences.



And I love going home where they have a yard that is familiar to my own youth and a kitchen (that seems to be smaller...I don't know what happened but that seems backwards).



And I do enjoy visiting the hometown we are from so they can see their cousins and grandparents.  And I will always secretly wish I could take them down the Golf Course Road (the home I grew up in), but I am thankful.

It's a new year.  There's a couple of things I want to accomplish.  I want to eat better and stop drinking Diet Cokes.  No, I just want to eat better.  I can't give up Diet Cokes.  I've tried and failed every single time.  It's impossible.

No, it is possible.  I can do it.

No, I can't.

Ok, I'll start next week.  I'm serious.

This post has no order or reason.  I'm so behind editing pictures, so I just quit.  There's no way I can catch up.



Now this is random.  I have no idea.  Don't even ask.  Jesse, I love you this way so very much.  You are so silly and goofy and extremely lovable.

I have to share this series of the kids with their cousin before Christmas.  See...all back and forth and out of order.  Goodness.  What a way to start out a new year.



This is what they came up with all on their own.



My love yelled at me to come see.  I ran like a mad woman to the yard thinking I needed to react to something.  Take charge.  Mend a wound.  But then to my surprise...it was nothing like that at all.



It was cracking us up.  This is what you do in Georgia when there is no snow and a nice hill in the backyard.



I don't know why they didn't make her get out of the wagon before they tried to pull it up the hill.



Must have been a chilly day before Christmas.



I love Kadee's new smile.



Goodness, the laughter was contagious.



And he would hit the fence so hard at the end.  Good parent?  Bad parent?  Uh, I don't know.  Luckily, no one was hurt.



We watched E.T. over the break.  Jonah got it for Christmas.  Jesse now wants to wear her hair in pig tails, and I am not complaining.  Just got to figure out where I can find those old school yarn ties for them...just like Drew Barrymore wore in the movie.  They really embraced E.T.  I'm so excited.



Basketball gym lighting is awful people.  I haven't taken as many pictures as I would like.  I'm working on it.  This one was taken in my garage in my pretend studio, which is basically a black sheet hung on the back wall.  I keep messing that up too.  Basketball has been so fun.  He's learning.  He's having fun.



This is me and my love.  He's awesome.  He puts up with me and takes me to really cool places for beer when we get a chance.



Ha!  A picture of two beers and not two kids.  Shocking.



Awesome place...The Brick Store in Decatur.  Great food....great beer.

And thanks to Ms. Kelly, we went to a concert that I loved.



If you have never heard of The Civil Wars...well, I'm sorry.  You need to look them up.  Thank you to Kelly for your music influence on all of us.

I put a few Civil Wars songs up front for you on the playlist.  Great stuff.

I have no idea how to end this post.

How about like this?



And this?



It's a new beginning.  I'm looking forward to a new year and new experiences with my family.

Happy New Year.  I'm going to try to keep up now.  And I'm going to try to stop drinking Diet Cokes...in a few days.