And the Digging Begins!

Today was an exciting day in the life of our back yard! Orange lines were drawn and the backhoe started digging! It will be swimming time before we know it! 

Boogie Time!

The rec center hosted the first annual Mother/Son Masquerade Ball so my little Princes and I decided to make a date night out of it! We started with dinner with some of our friends and then headed to the Ball ready to bootscoot and boogie! 

The boys got with their buds and started a dance routine with the balloons that were scattered on the floor. 

 I was only able to get a couple pictures before I was quickly reminded that trying to take pictures in a dark gymnasium is near impossible for a photographer of my caliber. I did snag this one of Rhett and Silas and I don't know why it strikes me as so funny but it does:) Maybe it's the seriousness in the eyes...

I cornered Grant and Cavin for a millisecond and grabbed a shot of them. 

Let me just say that all three of my boys and all of their friends were cutting a rug the entire two hours. Rhett won a little prize from the dj for his dancing skillz. He was cracking me up all night! (What's new?? :)) The dj played some song called Wobble Baby which I had never heard but apparently there's a dance that goes along with it. It was a hoot watching Cade "wobble". My phone captured this lone poor image of "wobbling". So hilarious! 

I snagged a sweaty G for one pic with me. 

We really had a great time dancing and making memories. I hope to be lucky enough to get to do this again next year with all three. 

 The boys said they had a great time, too. My favorite quotes from afterwards: Rhett: "Mom, I guarantee you this has been one of the best Saturday nights of my whole life!" and from Cade: "Mom, most of my friends said a mother/son dance would be lame but that was SO fun!" Score: Mom 1 Friends 0. Wonder how long I'll stay on top?? :)

Pearly Whites

One month shy of one year with silvers, Cade's pearly whites got to shine at full effect today! He was super excited to get his braces off! Here's the after shot with Dr. Kemp. His staff took one with their camera and I fully expect to see it in a 16x20 full color and framed right next to Miss Tennessee and Carrie Underwood. He's no less important!!

I'm not sure if he was more excited about the braces or the fact that he was missing the entire first half of school. Both are super rewards at his age! Nice straight teeth Cade! Let's be in full prayer mode for the teeth yet to come in. I would like Cade to be the poster child for early preventative brace intervention:)

Guns a Blazin'!

My girl and I went outside to enjoy the warmer January weather and get in some good swinging/sliding time before her nap. It's good to expend a bit of energy anytime we can make it outside. 

We also became witnesses to the first airsoft gunfight of 2013. As the photojournalist, I was just hoping that I didn't get pegged in the eyeball or the earhole. Neither of which sound pleasant. I did get hit once and promptly blamed it on Brent but something tells me that it was Bobby that nearly shot off my pinkie finger. Anyway, it was fun watching all the boys scatter and take cover. 

I think it was the biggest boys (Brent and Bobby) on a team with the littlest boys and all the middles were teamed up. At one point there was a man down....

 but he wasn't a POW for long.

 I'm still trying to decide who was most excited that Tracie and Jared got the boys airsoft guns....the boys? or Bobby?

Luckily there is a grove of trees that provided a little bit of hiding coverage.

I loved seeing all the serious shooting faces as I downloaded the pictures. This was an intense game!

 Time for a reload (which was usually what was yelled out when someone realized that they were pretty much dead meat).

After getting shot in the cheek a couple times Silas and Rhett figured that it served them best to hang out in the fort and shoot from the cover of 4 walls and a ceiling. 

 Every now and then Silas would venture out on the porch to shoot off a few rounds.

Lanie spent most of her time running for her life:) 

Good times starting the year off with our buds. Nothing better! 

Here Comes Lucky Number 13!

Time just keeps on tickin' and I've found that with each passing year it just ticks more quickly than the one that preceded it. The Morgan crew has overall has had another year with more good happenings than bad and for that we are thankful to God! This year on New Years Eve we kept it simple and brought in 2013 with a game night and just a couple friends (and pretty many kids!). Well, when I say we "brought in 2013" I mean that we party hardied until about 9:45 when everyone packed it up and headed home and then Bobby and I laid in the bed wondering when in the world the fireworks would stop (the answer is 12:45am). Anyway, before all of that I had the kids make a couple goals for themselves for 2013. These are now pinned up in their room and we'll see if any of them even attempt to meet their written goals! I giggled at Cade's because he's sucked his father into a commitment as well....looks like his fanny is going to be working out with Sean T. a few times a week:)

If Grant sticks with his goals my life as a mother would be golden! 

I love that Rhett added the commandment "Do your goals!!" to his sheet. It's always good to have a bit more motivation on your list! I also think he should've added "Get your b's and d's right." since he asks me that all the time and clearly should have asked me once more for this project. 

 The princess cannot write yet and therefore I constructed some goals for her. I feel confident that she would agree that her goal is appropriate:) One additional one we will work on will be keeping our eyes open when a camera flashes. 

 Ahhh, there are those peepers!

As far as big happenings go I think the biggest announcement of 2012 had nothing to do with a fiscal cliff but the fact that Kanye West and Kim Kardashian are having a baby together. Because really, what does a country need that's on the brink of self destruction? Another 4 years of Obama and another Kardashian. As if we haven't had enough of either of those:)  Here's to a happy, healthy New Year! 

Kiddos in a Row

I had several outtakes for my Christmas card this year but these two were my favorites. I ended up using the second one for the card. I love, love, loved seeing all my favorite faces in a row!

A Baker Christmas

This year we spent Christmas Day afternoon at my parent's house. Cade had gotten the metal detector he had been asking for so as soon as we got there he got to work. I think he found a piece of rusty wire. Not quite the Civil War artifact he was hoping for but ziploc baggie worthy in his eyes. 

After the usual ping pong and darts these boys settled in for a bit of football watching.

Other folks got some snuggle time with Lanie and humored her by feeding Baby Lola. 

The highlight of holiday gatherings at mom and dad's is always the scavenger hunt that dad makes up. This year the first clue had the boys using Cade's metal detector. 

The object was to detect 3 hidden keys that would unlock the tool box that contained the rest of the clues. What we found out is that my dad is a really good key burier and our 10 minute search for keys felt more like an hour in that freezing cold! 

With the keys found it was time for the clues and challenges. A few:

dancing...

 a pinecone toss..

tic tac toe with Grandma...

After each challenge the boys would get a clue that would lead them to one of Santa's reindeer. After all the reindeer were found...

The winners get a prize! The boys get such a kick out of this every time!

Finally! Present time! Tracie and Jared took first prize for presents this year getting the boys airsoft guns. I hope everyone still has intact eyeballs this time next year. 

 We got dad a range finder so he'd have one more excuse as to why he needs to spend the day on the golf course:)

 Lanie was super excited about her Dora videos from Tracie and Jared. 

I seriously could have just gotten her a video and a lip balm and she would have been a happy camper.

This is one of my presents:

And Jared opening his shirts and ties ( I know. It sounds like a boring gift but they were really cute ties and Tracie said that's what he needed!!)

I had a couple of the pictures I took for Tracie and Jared made into canvases. I thought they turned out really good! 

Because Bobby would want this moment to go into the blog book I must post this picture. Who in a million years would have thought that Ms. My Blood Runs Blue would EVER be caught in an orange Tennessee fleece??? Not me! Guess that's what happens when you start runnin' with a Volunteer boy:)

 Another fun year of Christmas celebration with my family. There's nothing better! Merry Christmas!